My word of the year - 2020 - Homeschool Fanatic

Resolutions, goals, intentions. Whatever you like to call it, it’s not only a new year, it’s a new decade! There’s a lot wrapped up in my little four-letter word for the year!

As the title implies, it may appear that this word is all too common. You could very well group it into the short-lived resolution that many make at the start of a new year. In some ways it is, but TRIM is actually a word that has been on my mind since October. Why October, and why trim? I really have no idea. Maybe I was feeling frumpy that day. It just got stuck in my head, and hasn’t left.

I made a few resolutions last January, four to be exact. Three of them did not stick. I didn’t floss daily. I didn’t come close to completing my NC 100 mile hiking challenge, and I didn’t read my Bible through – although I read quite a bit. What I did do was stick with last year’s phrase, Do The Things. We took a few more fun trips than usual, our son gained valuable skills working with his dad, our daughter got her driver’s permit, and we truly enjoyed our first year with two teenagers.

This year, I have a few big goals set. After all, it is a new decade so I might as well go for it! As I thought about my word of the year, I found that it encompassed many things for me. Why not turn it into an acronym instead of just a word? Acronyms are easy to remember, and just fun!

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T – Train

One of my goals this year is to focus on training our children. That doesn’t mean to make sure they get through geometry, remember several biology terms, or dates in history. I’m talking about training them for adulthood. The main training to focus on is spiritual training. If their dad and I don’t train them, the world will. Don’t think that homeschoolers are immune to the wicked ways of the world either. It will creep in. Get the Word in them. In the decade ahead, it’s much more than doing right and doing wrong. People don’t even know what right is anymore. Have those tough conversations, and point them towards the Bible for answers. I am blessed to have a husband who leads our family, and my goal is to continue to work as a team to get God’s Word deep within them.

Another adulthood training is to work on more homekeeping skills. At 14 and 15, they help much around the house. One skill that needs work is cooking. I’ve not shown them as much as I should have by now. Honestly, when dinner time rolls around, I enjoy being by myself at the day’s end. In order to help them cook real food, I will be using The America’s Test Kitchen Cooking School. I purchased it back this summer to begin back in August, but our kitchen remodel took a little longer that anticipated. I’m looking forward to jumping in this semester with an updated kitchen!

We will also be going through Managing Your Money. It is a new Usborne book, and I plan on writing a unit study as we go. They are currently taking an economics course at co-op, and this will make a great supplement. I wish someone would have taught me about this before I was out on my own. Now that they have summer jobs, they need this important skill.

R – Revitalize

A big focus this year will be the revitalizing of my health and the health of my family. We have slipped from where we used to be with clean eating, exercise, and overall good habits. To revitalize is to restore something to life or give it new life; to restore to a better state. I need to be strong and healthy to keep up with my teens. To do that, I need to take better care of myself as well as my family.

It’s so easy to fall back to old habits, and I need to make a big effort to do better. Much better. This will probably be the most difficult goal for me, as I have been burning the midnight oil (and then some) for several years now. Not to mention my love for caramel M&M’s. It’s catching up, and I can no longer pretend I am in my 20’s (or 30’s). Hopefully with some major changes, I can feel and look like it though!

I – Influence

The entire reason I began blogging was to influence and encourage others in their homeschool adventure. I want to contribute to and help others in anyway I can when it comes to homeschooling. Whether it’s sharing ideas, my opinions, reviewing homeschool products, or lending an ear to the burned out homeschool mama, I want to provide a positive influence in the homeschool community. I am a firm believer, and sometimes frank when I say that homeschooling is the absolute best thing you can do for your family. I hope to be influential and helpful in getting families get started, or to encourage them to keep going in their homeschool journey.

M – Minimize

This is the year to minimize. Not declutter, not reorganize – minimize. I am excited to have stumbled across a book recently, The Minimalist Home. It’s time, yall. And I don’t plan to stop with just my home. Extra things in our homeschool that does not benefit us, outside activities that have no benefit, the food in my pantry that definitely does not benefit me – it all has to go. The benefits this will bring to all areas of my life excites me the most this year!

Train. Revitalize. Influence. Minimize.

Now, how am I going to go about all these things? With no plan of action in place, I’ll just start. Here’s to a year of TRIM! I’d love to have you join me by subscribing, because you know I’ll have a lot to say about these things during year. I’ll gladly take any tips on accomplishing this as well! What are your goals or word for the new year?