Refresh

I love refreshing things. Pulling newly dried sheets out of the dryer, cleaning off surfaces of the junk that have been piled in order to have open space to work, clearing out the Christmas decorations and cleaning up the needles, clicking that little "refresh" button in the browser to check to see whether there are any new emails (which I recently read is one sign that you might be unhealthily addicted to screens...), and just plain old making things new.

A new year, even in the middle of the school year, the busy year that happens between summers, feels exciting, titillating, infused with potential.

As 2014 passes away and 2015 dawns, I find myself reflecting on our values, where we've come from, and how far we have to go. We have a long journey yet.

In 2014, and even before, we spent hours upon hours, over months and months, thinking and discussing and working through what we truly value in life. We carved out a list of values from these conversations. Then we considered it a kind of road map to life. We said, "How is our current life reflecting these values? How is it not?" Through this process, we swept through our home three times over and gave away, sold, discarded a TON of stuff. We purged. We opened up more to people around us. We simplified so many aspects of our lives. We re-budgeted, we put our house on the market, we talked to our girls about the journey we were embarking on, and we witnessed them jumping on board and being both excited and sometimes really nervous about the changes.

We moved into a co-housing community, opening our lives to a whole host of diverse people we didn't know. We worked to open ourselves to them and all that we come into contact with. We "put ourselves out there" in crazy videos and funny songs sung onto our YouTube channel. All these things were deliberate decisions made. Following our values.

We even added to and honed our values through this time. We revisited the wording, relevance, and appropriateness of the placement of these values. We found values that each of us had that were separate from the others' and we found that we had values that weren't even included in our original list.

And now here we are. We are proud of how far we've come. And we're painfully aware of all the work that is yet to come. Even the "simple" value of "Simplicity" means that purging is an ongoing work that is to be done. There are always more things being brought in, and it's not possible to completely stop the flow, particularly with three children.

And here we stand at the beginning of a brand new, shiny and perfect year. It looks so beautiful right now. So much potential. So much that can go right.

Tomorrow is the first day back to school/work and life as we know it during "normal time". There is a bit of sadness, but a lot of excitement around our house. Feelings of not wanting Dad to go back to work, and not wanting to go to school, and not wanting to do homeschool, and not wanting Christmas to be over, all hang in the air. But along with it is this ringing excitement about what 2015 will hold.

What will your year hold? What are you excited about? Isn't it wonderful to look at the beautiful, shiny year that lies ahead and ask "What wonderful things are in store?" I hope that your year is as wonderful as you imagine it in your head, and that your glistening, gleaming plans go far better than you ever anticipated.