A time to plan....

Wow where did December go? It feels like yesterday I was taking out the Christmas decorations and putting up the tree, and now its time to put it all away again for another year. In some senses I'm sad to see this month go - I love the holiday cheer, the traditions, Christmas cards, twinkling lights, and the excitement of all the church events.....but when December ends it means we are ringing in a new year. I love a fresh start - a time to reflect on the last year - all the highs and lows. And a time to plan out the new year! What can I say I love lists, planning, organizing and the start of something new!

SIDE NOTE --- WHY I DIDN'T DO DECEMBER DAILY THIS YEAR ....
December was a crazy month of planning and organizing for Operation CL shoeboxes, getting myself ready for Christmas, getting all the church events together and helping Fred. Then when I was ready to sit back and relax and enjoy my time in Constance Lake I got sick. And I still feel like I'm just finally getting over that cold/flu. With getting sick I had to eliminate things that were causing me to be stressed - including December Daily. I hated to not finish it, I knew December would be documented already with doing Project Life (which sits at being done up to October - my first goal of the new year will include printing the rest of my pictures and finishing that project)

So anyways..... like I said I love to plan the new year .........work, scrapbooking, ministry and life in general. I found this great article on LifeWay's website that lists 31 questions to ask prayerfully in the presence of God as you "Consider your ways". It has great questions to get you focused....some include:

1. What's one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
2. What's the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?
3. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?
5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?
6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?
7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?
8. What's the most important way you will, by God's grace, try to make this year different from last year?
9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?
10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in 10 years? In eternity?

I want to ponder over these questions in January and really prayerfully consider what God wants to me to do over this coming year of 2012. I love knowing that my small group will continue to run into March or April with our Beth Moore Study - love studying God's word, memorizing it and meeting with other women to discuss it. This was such a high for me this year and excited it continues!

I loved this video from Steven Furtick where he talks about his ministry over the past year and what to look forward to in the next year. And this article that includes what church leaders over the US plan to do in the coming year. It makes me wonder how will my job change this year as Bethel changes and grows and how will the ministries I am apart of grow and change - will there be challenges, will there be things that will need to end, will there be growth.....

And I'm excited about what I could do in terms of scrapbooking over the coming year. I already have set out to do a scrapbook with my mom on her life, but I'm not sure beyond that what I want to do. I have signed up to The Daily Digi to learn more about digital scrapbooking, but I'm not sure what I want to do with that....There are so many projects to do:

- Capture Your 365 or Project 52 documenting everyday or every week through pictures.
- Project Life - continue on maybe digitally?
- Monthly Roundups started by the Scrapbook Lady
- making a goal to complete so many layouts a month/year
- finish Ali Edwards class I purchased over 2 years ago (yikes!)

No matter what projects I decide to do, I want to make sure that I keep documenting our life - from daily stuff to special events I want to keep the camera out and document it all. Thats what I loved about Project Life - it got me excited about my hobby again and reminded me of why I like to scrapbook - it opens up your daily world to so much more - it makes me reflect more, share more and and be more thoughtful on what we are doing and how we spend our time.

So with all of this planning and excitement around the new year I do want to thank 2011 for all its highs and lows - its been a crazy year and one that I will never forget! Cheers to the New Year....what do you have in store for us?