A fresh start...for the blog that is.

Summer is finally upon me and with it has come a sense to purge everything. My closet was the first victim of this purge. I finally let go of some of those old college tops that I will never wear again. Also on my list of victims is the cheer closet at Estacado. We had uniforms from the late 70s in there! Up next...the closets in the guest rooms of our house and the garage. I figure since I have all this time off I may as well make good use of it. My hubs has been working diligently every night for the past two weeks to finish building our bookshelves for either side of the fireplace so it only makes sense that I contribute by cleaning out the junk so our new home looks good. From all of this, I decided to carry over my purging to the blog. I started out with great ideas about what this blog would accomplish and I wanted very much to have a specific purpose for it. However, life happened and I really did not blog as much as I wanted to and most of the posts are more of updates rather than specific posts. So, I accepted this and decided to make a few changes.

The first change is the removal of my 101 in 1001 list. While well intentioned, a list of 1001 things to do for me was not realistic. I rarely remembered to update the list (even though I could have checked off more things) and it became something I had to do rather than something I enjoyed doing. As I get older, I have really started focusing on only doing things I really want to do so I think a shorter list is in order. It is more realistic and more focused. Here are a few goals I would like to accomplish:

1. Continue to grow in my spiritual life. For me, this means reading my Bible cover to cover and praying more frequently. I already attend church on a fairly regular basis here in Lubbock.

2. Take measures to make us financially secure. I am in the process of reading Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover at the suggestion of a friend who had success with it and I must say I am very excited about it.

3. Continue to nurture my relationships with my family and close friends. Growing up and living apart is much harder than people realize and it's important to continue to make the effort to keep these relationships intact. Family is very important to me and I am very blessed to have a strong group of girlfriends from college who support me and keep my spirits lifted.

4. Stay physically fit. I know I will never have my college body back but that does not mean I cannot be healthy and fit. Gone are the days of being able to eat queso and not pay the price. However, I am learning to enjoy eating better.

5. Seek out learning opportunities, whatever they may be. I love to learn new things, whether they be related to teaching, baking and cooking, gardening, managing money, exercising, etc. I hope that I will always continue to learn and try new things and cultivate new skills to make myself a more well rounded person.

6. Travel. I want to see as much of the world as I can in this lifetime. C and I will take our first big step toward this goal together this summer as we head off to Venice, Florence, Cinque Terre, Munich, Amsterdam, and London. We also still have plans to make it to Japan to see Adam and Shelley but the earthquake/tsunami postponed them a bit. Colton and I did make a bucket list of places to see (which was on my 101 in 1001 list) and we hope to make progress on it each year, be it big or small trips.

7. Cultivate new interests and friendships in my new home of Lubbock, Texas. We have been here for a year and I am finally making new friends. I am excited about the possibilities and want to continue to make a life for myself here.

As for the rest of the blog, I really have not changed much. I added a label tab and rearranged the side bar. The main change I hope to accomplish is to blog more often and to use this blog as a way to update those interested in the happenings of our life here in Lubbock. Sometimes you might see a cooking post or a  travel post (look for those in July with our trip to Europe) or a post with just some daily musings. I hope to use it to share things about my life with others. I have accepted I am not going to have a blog dedicated to one pursuit and therefore I am okay with it being a jumble of thoughts and stories.

May the beginning of June bring you summer fun in the sun!
XOXO,
Devin