As much as I want to jump right in to blogging about what I hope 2018 will look like, I recognize the importance of looking back on the previous year to determine if I met my goal or did what I hoped to accomplish.
Last January I had planned for the year to be about self-control. It really became The Year Of Ruth. While we all worked on self-control in our four areas (food, emotions, money and time), if we're being genuine, the year really was all about Ruth. I do think we did a better job at talking about self-control in those four categories, and even made some efforts to have more self-control in them. However, I know I especially struggled with "time" this past year. Before Ruthie came home I was so extremely, over-the-top busy between adoption paperwork, my sign painting business, and homeschooling, that I really did not HAVE any time to waste. After Ruth came home and especially since her transition was so smooth, I found myself with a lot of extra time on my hands. I am sorry to say I often did not spend that time well (basically I read a lot of novels). Oops. 2018 goals?
I am particularly proud of how well I did on my "not buy any clothes for myself" goal. I did buy a couple Chinese dresses for myself as I predicted I might. Last January my favorite pair of jeans that were already ripped in the knees, lost their battle when the button broke. I did not replace them, instead wore the many other pairs of jeans that I already owned. Then I wondered why I own all these jeans that I don't really like? I did end up replacing them on Black Friday because they were 50% off from a store that doesn't often have sales that good. I also bought myself a new outfit for our family pictures BUT I didn't buy myself new shoes (even though I really, really wanted to!) because I didn't actually NEED them.
While I don't intend to buy no clothes in 2018, I feel like I learned a lot from this exercise. Mainly, to think carefully about an item before I purchase it. Do I really love these jeans? Will I actually wear them multiple times? Do I really love this shirt and will I wear it over and over again? While I do not have a particular number of clothing items in my closet, I was noticing that it is pretty full. I get a lot of hand-me-downs (which is some of the reason that I have clothes that I don't always love), but I can get rid of them! Just because they were given to me, doesn't mean I need to feel obligated to keep them forever.
Looking forward to what 2018 has in store for the Hess Family!
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