2020 Word of the Year

A new year.  A new focus.

This is my 8th year in a row to pick a word of the year to focus on throughout the year.

I've loved this tradition and look forward to selecting my words.  This year is no different.  I enjoyed picking out my word and had no trouble narrowing down my favorite to focus on in 2020.  For me, picking a word of the year is something I do to set the tone for the year in addition to little goals I work on throughout the year.

Here's a quick little recap of all of my words of the year + my reasoning for selecting them.

2013: Change

2014: Thrive

2015: Enjoy

2016: Invite

2017: Care

2018: Grow

2019: Listen

Now on to 2020: Family

Family seemed like the obvious choice for me for the coming year.  We're adding a baby to the family this Spring, my older two are growing up so fast and I've felt really protective of our time together.  

Here's my plan:

Solidify our FAMILY traditions.  Kevin and I sat down sometime last year and wrote out our family norms.  They were things that we wanted to be priorities and a constant in our kid's lives.  We based our schedule, routines and time together around those norms.  For example, we're always reading books together, game night happens regularly, home is our happy place, our house runs on teamwork, we always eat dinner together and we enjoy going on adventures together.

We have also worked hard to establish routines for the holidays.  We are getting into a good rhythm that allows us a good combination of holidays always spent at home and holidays on the go where our family traditions have to be edited.  We always stay home for Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day and Halloween.  We head to the ocean in June or July and sometimes in November.  We usually travel for most of our birthdays to celebrate with extended family and for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We will continue to say our best yes to a mix of travel and staying at home for the holidays.

Family calendar.  We only add things onto our calendar after we've seriously thought them through.  I only sign kids up for activities that they are excited about doing and enthusiastic about learning right now.  We are currently taking a break from tennis because Olive said that's what she wanted.  No one is in swimming lessons right now.  Kevin's taken on some extra work responsibilities, but they all fall within his usual work day.  I had to say no to my women's Bible study because it cut into family time.  Instead of being a day time activity, it moved to a night time activity.  I commit to only 1-2 things a month that require me to be gone in the evenings since that's our best quality family time during the week.  I also really seriously evaluate all offers that come my way - PTO, my mom's group, Bible studies and more.  I do not want an over committed calendar.

I'll be taking what I learned about listening in 2019 and applying it to my family in 2020.  As my kids are getting older, they are asking to stay home more.  They enjoy lazy days at home where they get to play, relax and get outside without having to go go go.  We had a really quiet last week of Christmas break because that is just what they asked for.  I had envisioned meeting up with friends, adding things to our calendar, but when I asked them what they wanted to do they all agreed they just wanted to be together at HOME.

I'll also be focusing on family across my social media platforms.  You can expect to see more family traditions, homemaking, family focus and mom/wife content in the coming year.  I've got lots of little tricks to make life easier, to help establish traditions, to include your kids in your favorite activities and celebrating the highs and lows of family life this year.  My plan is to blog four days a week like I have been doing for a couple years now and taking blog breaks as needed.  Thanks for being here!

I'm hoping that by focusing on my family, it'll mean more conversations, more eye contact, more connection and more time together.  I'd love it if it also means less screen time, less stress and less going through the motions.

We are also anticipating some changes and flexibility with baby brother coming in April.  We will be doing a mix of physical rearranging, mental preparation and lots of family bonding coming up.  The big kids are going to be moving into a big kid bedroom.  There's excitement and nervousness surrounding the change.  I think it'll be awesome, but involve some growing pains.  Our focus will be helping Olive and Fletcher ease into their new roles as big big sister and big brother smoothly.

So all this to say, my family will be my top priority in 2020 (and always).  

They deserve my best and my main focus right now.

I'm excited for our family to grow and change in the coming year.

Happy 2020 from my family to yours!!

Did you pick a word of the year for 2020??  I'd highly encourage you to give yourself some focus this year and pick one word to guide you.  Please share them with me in the comments!