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Saturday, December 30, 2023

I Dodged a Bullet | A Winter Walk

 




This is video is really important to me. It's probably the most important one I've made.

Thursday, December 28, 2023

My 2024 Goals: Reading, Writing, Wellness, Discovery

"The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."

Robert Burns, "To a Mouse"


The start of a new calendar year always has me making plans; yet I know as a follower of Yeshua, my plans may not be His best for me. I try to remember that my ideas are to be penciled in and frequently run by our Father for His approval or refinement.


With that said, there are a few concepts I want to focus on this coming year:


Intentional Peace: Focusing on rooting out causes of stress and anxiety, setting and enforcing boundaries, being ruthless about this.


Alignment: I hope this will be a season of discovering and rediscovering who I am, why I'm here, and how my life is to be used.


Contentment: Prioritizing being sure that my attempts to find peace and rest are pleasing to the Father. I won't get this right every time, but I want my motivations to be pure. I don't want to get lazy about trying to honor and obey Him and I don't want to become apathetic about gaining His favor.


With those three concepts in mind, here are some personal goals I have for education and relaxation in 2024:

Reading


Read 80 books.

    My reading goal for 2023 was 60 books and it looks like I'm going to barely make it. So why would I add more? Audio books. I've discovered audio books are a great alternative to prepping freakout videos.


Read more American history, poetry, short stories.


No obligation reading.

    Sometimes I feel bad for giving up on a book in the middle of it--especially when it was a gift or I spent a lot of money on it. I need to be better about abandoning ship when a book is not meeting my standards or I'm just not enjoying it. Life's too short to read lousy books!



Writing


In some cases, this falls under that category of obligation. I made a couple of writing commitments to myself earlier this year regarding publishing and now I'm not so sure I want to tackle that right now. I've definitely not been in the mood to work on those projects lately.


However, I write for Torah Sisters magazine and just submit articles as I finish them so I'd like to make a commitment to try to write one every two weeks. I think it would help me tremendously to write out a schedule of when I'm going to write what.


I'd like to update my personal journal at least once weekly.


I'd like to write out the Torah.




I'd like to start writing out my reading notes instead of putting them in my phone. My husband is teaching himself bookbinding and made me these beautiful books. They'll be perfect for taking reading notes.


This one might be a little far-fetched, but I'd like to write out a monthly schedule at beginning of each month and stick to it without adding a bunch of non-essential stuff.



YouTube


I don't want to make a lot of specific goals here because my literature channel is new and my ministry channel is (hopefully) God-led. The main thing in this category for 2024 is that I want to form relationships with people who share my interests and be an encouragement.



Wellness


A very big priority this year definitely needs to be a focus on my physical and mental health. Years ago when I was trying to work on overcoming the people-pleasing mentality, I made a goal for the new year that it would be a no-obligation year. I don't remember how well I did with all that but I know it was the catalyst to help me learn to put up boundaries and manage my time commitments better.

I don't have a people-pleasing mentality anymore about people who live outside my home, but I find myself struggling a bit at home now. Most of my kids are older teens or adults and I feel a lot of pressure to mold my life in a way that works for one person in the moment, and another in the next moment, but doesn't actually work well for the family as a whole. It really stresses me out to try to juggle all these things, and much of the problem is that I'm not carrying those lessons of boundaries and time commitments into my own household.

So that's my biggest goal this year: peace in the home and peace in myself. There are some personal health and attitude changes I need to make in myself, but also just in how I manage the responsibilities in my life. I need to think more "big picture" and not continue just putting out small fires every time I turn around.



Discovery


I made a commitment back in October on my birthday to do new things. For a little bit, I've kept track of some of the new things I've done each day and I want to carry that thinking into 2024,


I want to visit 15 new-to-me bookshops.


I want to travel more. I have a couple trips to England planned, two trips to Michigan, one to Oregon, and maybe one or two more.

    My friend bought me a gorgeous travel journal for my birthday so I plan to write in it all about the new places I visit on my travels.


Here's to a new calendar year full of many beautiful things!



Brenna Turned 11! The Homemaking Party

Hey friends! Welcome to The Homemaking Party! Last week we celebrated Brenna's 11th birthday. How can that be?

She and I had a fun day out shopping and visiting bookstores --- but somehow I only got pictures of the food. Haha! Here are four of our daughters on an early morning donut run. Daughter number 5 stayed snug at home in bed!!
 
While we were in Walmart, Brenna saw this and said:
"Mom! Look at this! They've got this Barbie cake and it's BANANA!!! And it's like a old fashioned Barbie!"

Hahaha! Well, it's not a Barbie, but it is a Dolly!

We wrapped up our day out with Mexican dinner with Daddy. Brenna is our youngest so each of these times together are so special. I'm thankful for happy Brenna and a happy day!

Thanks for stopping by The Homemaking Party! I'm excited to see what you've got to share! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Cranberry Orange Scones for The Homemaking Party

 


Lately I've been in this kind of a mood. Warm baked things, atmospheric classic reads, contemplating my existence... Late autumn into winter is my favorite time of year. I like to live life slowly; and this time of year, things tend to slow down with me.

I made these Cranberry Orange Scones a couple days ago for the kids' breakfast. It had been awhile since I'd baked them something. I like making scones for the same reason that I sometimes don't like making scones: they take time.

You can find the recipe for these on one of my older posts here: Cranberry Orange Scones.

Thanks for stopping by The Homemaking Party!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Sunday, December 17, 2023

She's Baaaaack!!!


Hello friends! Last night I had a dream in which someone said, "No one reads blogs anymore. Blogging is dead." I woke up and wondered, could this be true? It's been quite a few years since I've devoted attention to this once very thriving blog. Life has always happened... but life started happening super fast for me and I needed a break. I don't think blogging is "dead" --- but I do see a lot of my old friends' blogs have gone missing.

So let me reintroduce myself. I'm Sarah Coller, a 44 year old mom of 9 and now grandmother of 2 living in NW Arkansas. (When I started this blog, I was a 30 year old mother of 6 children under 10 years old living in Eastern Oregon!) This blog has seen most of the children above go from super little kid status to grown adult. 


Jamie and I have celebrated 14 anniversaries since I began this blog! So why did I quit? Honestly, it's because this blog just got too successful! In 2012, I started working with national brands doing sponsored posts and social media influencing. I did that for quite a few years --- and those were good years. But somewhere in there, this blog began to lose its personality. No longer did I put up pretty pink vintage things for Beverly's Pink Saturday or Vintage Thingie Thursday. I stopped visiting my friends who would link up for The Homemaking Party. I just got busy and a bit overwhelmed and lost the joy.


So I put it away for awhile. I spent a few years adjusting to older teens, graduating teens, moving out teens. I grieved the loss of my father in 2022 and rejoiced in the marriage of my oldest son, Michael. I'm now navigating the ropes of grandmotherhood with Emerson and soon-to-be born Daxton. I started a YouTube ministry. When that got stressful, I started a literature channel, too. Haha!


A lot has changed since I began blogging back in 2009. I'm realizing that many of my blogging friends' blogs are closed because they have passed on. This makes me sad that I missed that time with them --- it's kind of like coming back to your hometown after being gone for years. But I'm hoping to reunite with old friends and rekindle my joy for simple, fun, blogging about homemaking. Maybe I'll even restart the homemaking party?

I'd love to hear from my old friends so please feel free to check in in the comments and let me know what you've been up to lately! Enjoy this cozy season!

Sarah







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