Happy New Year from The Bailey Bunch! How cool was it that this New Year started on a Sunday?! I love that one of the first things I got to do with my New Year was to spend it in the presence of Jesus 🙂 During worship, one of the songs we sang echoed the words “Oh come let us remember…” It was such a great reminder of what the New Year is, a time to reflect on the year past, and celebrate in anticipation, the coming year ahead!
Each year, I put together a Family Newsletter that showcases our top moments, and I try to think of a word that sums up our year as a whole. This years word was “exploration”. Patrick has been exploring job options, while I continue to exploring my calling to write. Beau has been exploring his new vocabulary and Greta has spent the year exploring her mobility and just the world around her in general! Additionally, you know we’ve had such an exciting year of travel exploring the world! We collectively traveled to 7 countries and 16 states! 2016 has been a year that I will forever remember and cherish!
I set some goals last year, and while I didn’t reach them all, I’m really pleased at what I did that I said I would do!
Last years New Years post was about making Realistic Resolutions. My big ones were to instill the “envelope system” into our lives and spending habits, and to grow my blog. While I was successful at the envelope system for a few months, I ultimately fell off track once we traveled to Europe, and never picked back up on it. It is a great system that I would like to revisit in the future! In the few months that I did use it, it seriously kept my spending on track! It wasn’t easy at times to pass up something that I would normally purchase, but I survived without whatever I passed on, proving that I am guilty of unnecessary spending! I don’t look at falling off my envelope system wagon as a feat…for a good 4 months I followed and I saved my family money in that third of the year!
I touched on my other big resolution a few weeks back in the post, #goals. I am so happy with the growth of my blog this past year! Writing brings me joy! Realizing that my writing brings others joy is a whole new type of joy I’ve have the pleasure of experiencing! I love that my voice has been so well received, and am so appreciative for the support I’ve been shown!
But now it’s time to look ahead and plan for this next year! I am so excited to see and experience all that 2017 has in store for me! One thing is for certain, I WILL finish reading the Bible this year! I am 79% finished, and there is no doubt in my mind – I WILL get the last 21% read in the next twelve months! Our Youth Pastor, Craig Goldman, preached on New Years and spoke on the importance of reading the Bible — y’all, please watch this man preach! He brought it home! Pastor Craig got me all kinds of inspired to finish this long standing goal of mine!
5 years ago, I started writing a book. It was a cute chick-lit book that was light and funny, and I was excited to join the ranks of the authors whose books I enjoy reading most. One day in a Women’s Bible Study, I felt the Lord calling me to write about Him. I felt fear, and I felt unworthy. My exact prayer to the Lord was “Who am I Lord? Who am I to write about You? I’m here in this Bible Study because I am trying to figure YOU out…I can’t possibly write about You to try to teach others about You when I still have so much to learn!” I kid you not, each time I sat down to write my little chick-lit book, I couldn’t because I felt so convicted. I knew God wasn’t calling me to write that book! Y’all, I was so disobedient to this calling from the Lord that I stopped writing all together! I stopped writing the chick-lit book, and I stopped blogging. It wasn’t until 2 years ago nearly to the day (NYE – 2014) that I started blogging again! Since I started blogging again, I’ve found that I CAN write about God! I’ve learned that I can because God allows me to! I can promise you, if you’ve ever read anything profound on this page, it was coming from Him, not me! In the past year, I came to the realization that the book God wants me to write is already written…I’ve been writing it over the past two years as I’ve grown to be obedient to Him through my blog! This year is the year that I’m going to work to put all the pieces together! I’m going to organize and elaborate on what He’s already given me 🙂 God is SO good! He is always giving…sometimes we just have to open our eyes to see what is right before us! The entire thing from the start was a God thing, and I know finishing it with all of the craziness that my life can sometime be, will be a God thing, but I have no doubt that it can be done, because it’s always been a God thing 🙂
At the end of 2016, I joined the cosmetics company, SeneGence! Y’all, this is another thing I just have to credit as a God thing! I have no idea how I got added into the group of my Upline, Tera! NO CLUE! After seeing this product, I was instantly amazed and needed to put this lipstick that doesn’t kiss off to the test myself! I reached out to Tera and asked if she would be willing to work with me on a blogger review of the product. Without hesitation, she said yes, and the rest is history! I fell in love with the product and I knew that Tera would absolutely be someone who I would love to work alongside! This company has been a complete and utter blessing for so many reasons! I feel like I have reason to be ME again! I was always the girl who got ready for the day and took pride in her appearance — but I wasn’t being that girl any longer in the craziness of motherhood. I now have reason again to be who I’ve always been, and it feels so good to be back! It’s also brought many relationships back into my life that had kind of faded to the background — I’m talking with friends more than I had been, and y’all I feel like my social media is actually social again!! Making money again is of course a blessing, but what honestly matters most is the little page of positivity I feel I’ve helped to build on Facebook 🙂 It has seriously been so beautiful to see women stepping out of their comfort zone and sharing a photo of themselves in a new lip color — and then to see other women genuinely commenting nice remarks on it — I LOVE IT! This is what matters! As a woman, I think we all want to feel pretty, but so often life gets in the way…we put ourselves last. I love seeing women taking some time to care about themselves! As much as our men would like to understand our excitement over a new lipstick that doesn’t rub or kiss off, they won’t, because they’ve never had to live with the struggle that lipstick can so often bring. I love seeing women who I know don’t even know each other sharing their excitement! It’s been awesome!
Sure, I want to make money. Sure, I want to build a team. But my goal for my little business isn’t to sell X amount of lipsticks this year, or get X amount of women on my team. My goal instead is to make a sale in each state 🙂 I just want to extend my reach and spread the word on this amazing product, that’s all! If you can help me to reach this goal by introducing me to someone in one of the many states I don’t have filled in, I will offer you 10% off your next order 🙂 Just mention this blog post!
I wish you so much love, joy, health, happiness and success in 2017! It’s up to you to make it amazing…how are you going to go about that?! Share your resolutions in the comments below 🙂
Be Blessed + Be A Blessing