Challenges - Growths - Celebrations

My coworker Lori told me today that the older you get, the faster time flies by. It literally feels like yesterday that we were celebrating the start of a new year and making resolutions/goals. January for me was a month of challenges, growth and celebrations.

The challenge started when Branden posted a photo of someone planking on my wall and then asked if Matt and I wanted to participate. By planking, I do not mean the laying down game where you take pictures of yourself literally laying down in the most random places. This is the exercise type of planking where you lay on the floor and then hold yourself up on your toes and arms. When we said yes, it didn't seem like such a difficult task. And then we hit the mark where we had to plank for 180 seconds and the task seemed a lot more daunting then we expected. Who knew holding a plank position for 3 minutes or more could make more than your abs ache. While the idea of doing the challenge has become less appealing, I am still determined to complete the last few days. I'm all for a good fitness challenge.

2014 has been a year of growth for me. Being only 1 month in, I'm interested to see what the next 11 will bring. Now that I am out of college, married and in an administrative role at work, I sometimes find myself overwhelmed by all of my varying roles. I'm still getting my feet wet about how to be a wife, supervisor and teacher of children all in the same day. At the same time, I don't do well with conflict and have an overarching need to always want to solve problems. I am big on the phrase "never go to bed angry" and try to adapt this in every role of my life. One thing I am discovering is that this isn't always possible but I still try...and then I overanalyze everything I said or did. With the support of my husband and prayer, I am really trying to better this part of me. I am trying to teach myself that I don't always have to solve things, I oftentimes just need to keep my mouth shut and let problems work themselves out. I am a stubborn, loud and blunt person which makes bettering this flaw of myself extremely difficult. If it's something you do, please pray for me!

Grant is 1! This was our big celebration for the month of January as he was born on January 26, 2013. What a joy he is to be around. It is both fascinating and precious to watch him explore his surroundings and learn new things. He is going to do great things!

Here's to a new year!

As I think over the past year and all the changes in my life since then, I cannot even fathom what is to come in 2014. Last year, I graduated from college, got a promotion and married my best friend...what could happen this year to top all of that? I suppose we are going to find out!

As Matt and I talked at supper tonight, we brought up the topic of resolutions and whether or not we were going to make any. We decided that "resolution" is a word that ultimately makes us think of things that are made but broken after a few short weeks. So instead...we are calling them goals or a to-do list. In the next year, we hope to buy a house and have our very own puppy! We do not know whether these things will indeed happen this year but are diligently praying about them and know that God will guide us to the right financial decision.

One big goal I personally have for our life and relationship is to get out of as much debt as we possibly can. To do this, I have started to search for a 2nd job and plan to work one night during the week and every other weekend. Matt will more than likely go back to Menard's with these same hours so that way we won't be spending days and hours apart because of our jobs. These entire paychecks and any extra money from our full-time jobs will go toward both paying off debt and saving for things we want but don't want to take out loans to get. For example, living in South Dakota we would like a vehicle that is more "snow friendly" and therefore a truck for Matt is on our savings wish list. Dave Ramsey has become one of my favorite authors because of how inspiring he is and it is because of his book that this next year is going to be dedicated to getting out of debt. Matt and I want to one day have children, travel and live without worry of money but in order to do this...the one negative of our college education needs to disappear first.

I hope and pray that all of you had a safe and exciting New Year celebration full of time with family and friends. Matt and I had the joy of babysitting 2 sweet and well-mannered children from Brandon for New Year's Eve. It was a night where I felt loved because rather than going over to their friends and being babysat there...they decided that they would rather hang out with Matt and Melissa. They are two children that make me look forward to being a mom one day.    :)


Stay tuned for updates on the Christiansen's in 2014!