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Goals in 2024: a Recap of 2023 and a Look Forward

Writer's picture: Danielle CunninghamDanielle Cunningham
Group out on a hike.
Our Church family on our yearly hike down to Hurrah Creek.

Each year for New Year's Eve we are sure to be home, so that we can camp out with our Church family. We have a New Year's Eve service, and then a time of fellowship together. It just makes sense to us to spend the very last part of the year thanking God for getting us through the year, and starting out the New Year with those that mean the most to us. It's a great time for reflecting and looking forward.


While we were driving around Sunday afternoon getting everything we needed for camping out and then setting up our tent, Gary and I set our goals for 2024. I'm hoping that this year will be a better year. Gary is optimistic (as always), and chose hopeful to be our focus word for the year. Then after finally getting the younger kids in bed in the tent, we sat at the fire and considered the past year.


Reflecting on 2023

I'm not going to lie 2023 gave us a real beating. Gary had three different jobs this year, not a one that paid enough to live on. We have borrowed so much money to keep from losing the house that it is daunting. No telling how many interviews he's done for more permanent positions. We've been trying to sell the house for seven months without any offers. Our finances are a hot mess. And while some folks will tell you money isn't what's important, as George Bailey said in It's a Wonderful Life, "Well, it comes in real handy down here, bud." There have also been struggles with the twins speech, and their lack of good sleep at night. We've also had to fight incessantly with Medicaid to try to get basic dental coverage for the kids. And I've really struggled with depression and anxiety in the extreme over the last year, more than I have in a while.


However 2023, for all it's abuse, also saw some great things. The kids are all healthy and happy. While they remain weird little heathens, we are seeing progress on their school work and that civilization front. In fact, the two oldest in particular are growing into the people God created them to be and are people that we genuinely enjoy being around. Despite all the set-backs, Gary and I still feel like a solid unit, and love each other even more than we did seventeen years ago when he asked me to marry him. We've had family that could help us out financially to keep us afloat. And our Church home remains a place of peace and fellowship and truth.


We even started some new ventures this year. This blog for one, and Adventure Fridays for another. It's been a little stressful at times to figure out if I still had anything to say after months of three post a week, but it's mostly been delightful to be writing again. It's also helped me stay accountable to pursuing our Adventure Fridays knowing that I will need a blog topic for the following week. Last school year, we did 3 field trips over the course of the school year, and a few outings taking friends from out of state around Florida when they visited for a long weekend. I wanted to be more intentional about getting out of the house and we needed ideas to do it on the dirt cheap to free scale. We have had a great time both exploring nature and getting more active together thanks to Adventure Fridays. It's also provided lots of fun conversations and chances to listen to audiobooks on the car rides to and fro. It's been a great thing to help bring our family together.


Looking forward to 2024

Looking ahead we set family goals in four categories: financial, health, adventure, and family. While I won't give you all the details. We are really hopeful going into this new year.


Financially the housing market is starting to turn around and Gary is continue to plug away searching for a stable career path rather than just a job with under employment. We have brainstormed getting back stable and working on our debt when either that job comes in or we sell the house. We have hopes that by the end of the year we'll be back on track toward a debt free life, and we are praying that the van with 230,000 miles holds out for another year or so to help facilitate our plans.


On the health front we aren't focusing on weight loss though Gary and I both need to lose some. Instead we are focusing on increasing healthy habits and hoping in the process that some of the weight comes off. I am sure some of my weight is hormonal and medication related, so I'm trying not to stress, but just make good decisions - like cutting back on the Dr. Pepper (pray for my family, really, I'm not my best off of caffeine).


Most exciting and relating to the blog though, is our adventure goals. We aren't sure when or if this house will sell, and when or if we'll get to go forward with our dream of living in a camper and traveling the country; but we are looking to ways to expand our adventuring this year. To do that we set three specific goals. We want to log at least forty Adventure Fridays as a family this year, and not just hiking trips, though we do love those. We want to do two primitive camping weekends this year, jury is still out on whether those will be Daddy-kid trips, or whether Momma will go too. (Momma is not a camper, and remembers how much she hates it every New Year's Day, when she is too groggy, sore, and cranky to be good company.) Finally, at the kids request and suggestion over the last few months, we plan to do one unique experience gift for each of the older four for their birthday. We really want to embrace more memory making over more stuff.


Finally, we are also setting family goals again this year, these are things that let us spend time together as a family and invest in what's important. We are going to shoot for two family game nights a month, those are always fun, and it's important that not all of the kids' interactions with Daddy are of the do this and then correction variety. Since he isn't home as much it's too easy to fall into a pattern of getting tasks done and dealing out discipline when he is here, and we want to have fun together too. We also plan to make at least 4 non-home Church meetings this year, at least one of them one of the longer distance meetings that we have been repetitively invited to attend. Then if finances permit we want to do some sort of family vacation this year, maybe in conjunction with a Church meeting, maybe not.


Personally, I've even set a few goals just for me. I want to work on building better morning and evening routines that I will stick with. I plan to read at least 60 books this year, and get back into the habit and mindset to do my daily Bible study. Most importantly, I'm going to work hard at battling my depression and anxiety to be more positive. I'm not expecting a personality transplant or plan to start lying about everything being sunshine and roses when it just isn't, but I'm determined not to become someone who can't find anything to be happy about. I know two different women around 90. One can't find anything to be happy about no matter how great the situation may be, and another can always find something to be positive about even in the worst situations. I know who I want to be more like, and who I tend toward, and so I'm going to work at positivity this year.


There are lots of big things just over the horizon. This year our oldest will turn 15 and get his learner's permit. This year our youngest will be attending the local elementary school VPK program for speech therapy. We will undoubtably have many surprises and some set backs, but here's to hope. Hope that 2024 will be a better year, and that there are some much needed breaks coming up in our future.

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