Word Of The Year

"A new year is a gift. A small piece of infinity, to do with as we will. Things happen.  We grow (we hope) and we learn willy nilly.  Live moves around us, life moves through us to others, and the year gradually accepts its pattern.  We give, we take, we resist, we flow.  Our reachings, acceptances, rejections, our hesitancies, courage, fears and our loves all of these form the shape of the year for each of us as individuals, as part of a family, as part of a community."

~ JEAN HERSHEY

The Shape of a Year

Good Monday to you, my friends, and a rather belated Happy New Year!

We’re only 12 days in, and I would have to say that 2026 is already shaping uo to be an interesting year, perhaps a year in which I need to keep my expectations low and hold my time loosely because so far nothing has gone according to plan. 

My word for 2026 is STEWARD which I’m discovering early on includes stewarding my time. The Lord has graciously shown me already, that while I am over here making my plans and desperately trying to hold on to some symblance of tradition, He is doing a new thing, “can you not perceive it?”, and the truth is, I’ve been trying to ignore it because well, I liked my life just as it was, thank you, but before I dive too heavily into uthat, I want to take a few minutes to look back on 2025, as it holds much encouragement for the coming year, and I am already feeling the need for that!

For over a decade now, usually around mid-autumn, I have prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to speak a word over my life for the coming year, and in 2025 that word was QUIET.

It’s never what I expect it to be. I commonly have other words in mind, but He is always faithful to confirm, and this year, as with every other, when I reflect back on the passing year it is obvious and evident.

This year it started off rather tangibly. In January when many in our area got just a dusting to an inch of snow, we got about 5-6 inches. Not much by some standards, but on top of that was a thick layer of ice, and because our property is so heavily wooded, we were stranded for several days. A week later we got another round which added about another 3 inches, and extended our adventure….the world literally, grew very quiet. Though we never lost power, being physically cut off from society and unable to leave home strengthened our dependance on Him and each other, which unbeknownst to us at the time, we would desperately need just a few months later.

By now most of you know that in April of this past year our daughter, Katelin Sayles and her now husband, Cooper Sayles were involved in a near fatal car accident. Cooper sustained some physical injuries, though thankfully they were not life threatening, but Katelin’s injuries were significant.

Nothing prepares you for a moment like that. Prior to that day as similar stories would often cross my social media feed, I often thought that if that ever happened to someone I loved, I might die on the spot. I remember standing on the side of that rural country road. The sheriff wouldn’t let us come any closer, but I could see enough to know what the outcomes typically were. In that moment, I cried out, in a voice I didn’t recognize, originating from a place so deep within me I didn’t know it existed. I bonded with the Father heart of God in a way I had never experienced and heaven answered with . . . quiet. 

- A quiet peace that suddenly filled me, not even with the assurance that Kate would live, but knowing that regardless of the outcome, He was a good God and He was and would continue to watch over us.

- A quiet confidence, that He had forseen this moment since the foundations of the earth. I fully related to my Lord as my shepherd, as He faithfully lead us “through the valley of the shadow of death”. I instinctively knew to follow close and keep my eyes on Him, as He led the way. Even when I initially questioned her being taken to Roanoke instead of Charlottesville, it quickly became evident this was the perfect path.

- A quiet strength. Words cannot convey how greatful we were and still are for our community and for the million tangible ways they held us up in that season. Where to sleep, what to eat, how to take care of Kate’s beloved dog, Bandit. If we entertained a question for a second, someone was already there with the answer. Even the simplest thing like when my phone wouldn’t quit going off as we were sitting in the ER, and my beloved Juanita Cook took it and managed, somehow, talking to people she didn’t even know, discerning the sudden uptick in friends requests on FB, to quiet the noise. I will NEVER be able to repay any of them for the ways they ministered to us in that season and continue to do so to this day.

- A quiet season. And this, even now I find it hard to express. I had read in the word about the Holy Spirit interceding for us, but in those days I lived it. From the moment God reached down from heaven and tucked me beneath the shadow of His wing, my soul grew quiet. You don’t know what to think in moments like that, how to pray. You know the outcome you desire, but do you dare to hope? What if that is not God’s plan, what then? My heart and my mind were so jumbled with racing thoughts, I was initially filled with so much fear. . .I couldn’t form the words. And then I felt it, and the only way I can describe it is that it felt like, and I suppose was, a transfer of energy. I couldn’t make sense of anything, all I knew was what was right in front of me, all I heard was whatever the next doctor or nurse was telling me, and if not for the power of the Holy Spirit it would have overwhelmed me. But He took it, all that tangled mess, and He made it make sense, He interceded for me. When I couldn’t pray….He did. What was happening in the spiritual, physically manifested in my body but even now I cannot find the words to convey. All I know is that in those days and weeks and months, and at times, even now. . .in the midst of all that noise, my heart was . . . quiet. You can’t think? You don’t know how to pray? You can’t read? You don’t understand what you are being told? It’s ok, He whispered, I can, and He did.

I was often reminded in that time of Elijah in 1 Kings 19. Our world was shaken, but God was not in the earthquake. The fierce winds of fear and doubt were blowing, but God was not in the wind. We were being tested by a fiery trial, but God was not in the fire. 

And then….a still small voice.

But to hear His voice, when your foundations are rumbling, the roar of the wind is on every side, and life threatens to consume you like fire…..you must find that place, there in the center…..is the quiet, that is where He is waiting.

He always knows my need, long before I do. Before I even know the question, He provides the answer, and this year that answer was….quiet.

As I mentioned earlier, fir 2026 my word is . . .

STEWARD

and I am curious and expectant! 

All praise to Him, and glory, forever!

2015 - Goodness

2016 - Trust

2017 - Joy

2018 - Rest

2019 - Glory

2020- Dwell

2021 - Seek

2022 - Yearn

2023 - Restore

2024 - Trust (Again!)

2025 - Quiet

2026 - Steward

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Savoring The Last Days of Christmastide

Though New Year's day has come and gone, the season of Christmastide lingers, and I'm here for it. With the exception of those tasks which always need attending to, I've set aside any thought of resuming "life as usual", at least for a few more days.

We brought in the New Year quietly, just myself, my daughter and her sweet pup, who was well past ready for bed when I snapped this picture just a little after midnight. I've never known a dog to follow such a routine, but he definitely has his preferences.

My husband retired early, and so we celebrated earlier in the day, continuing our tradition of watching The Hobbit trilogy, which is something I look forward to every year. My daughter requested jalapeno poppers for our celebratory New Year's eve feast, which I paired with queso, guacamole and cowboy caviar for good luck!

On New Year's Day we had our traditional feast of ham, scalloped potatoes, cabbage with bacon and onions and of course, black eyed peas! I think of the three traditional meals I prepare during the holidays, this one is by far my favorite. This year I made the same meal for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We all came down with the flu, and since I still had some of the ingredients on hand, I thought it easier to just repeat it. And while I appreciated the ease, we tired of the leftovers quickly and ended up with a significant amount of waste, a note for the coming year!

On New Year's Day, my husband and I had planned to go on our first hike, but as I am s-l-o-w-l-y moving back into hiking due to sciatic nerve pain, we decided it was too windy to risk it as extreme cold can cause a flair. The low temperature itself would not have posed a problem, since I would have dressed appropriately and once you get your body moving you warm up quickly. But the winds have been fierce in our area for close to a week now, making what has already been a colder than usual winter down right frigid! And so we opted instead for our first country drive. The valley of the Blue Ridge mountains is, to me, one of the most beautiful places on earth, and I feel so blessed to live here. The side roads that meander through the countryside often beckon, and we are prone to follow. This has led to many deleightful discoveries over the years, including a number of small, quaint churches. They are so charming, and this time of year, especially, with their doors adorned with festive wreaths, they are quite picturesque.

On Thursday we had planned to stay at home, but they're predicting some extreme temperatures to move in this weekend along with a bit of snow, freezing rain and ice, so we opted instead to make a quick trip into town to stock up with all the necessities. I'm implementing a little plan beginning this weekend, Souper Sunday, and making up a big pot of soup, which will more likely feed us through the weekend. But my plan is to elevate out Sunday supper by setting a pretty table, lighting candles, and hopefully setting the stage to put away our devices and linger around the table in conversation, a pause, I suppose, before the demands of the week come calling. I have a number of recipes saved on my Pinterest board and I've made note of a few I want to try, but we're going to start off with a recipe we all know and love, Grammy's Cabbage Soup. I've shared it here with you before, but I think it's currently tucked away in the archives, so if you're interested, be looking for it early next week. 

The picture you see at the top of this post and the one here to the right and below are of a group of buildings in our town. They caught my eye while we were out shopping yesterday. We went for breakfast at a cute little coffee shop we'd had plans to visit (more on that in another post), and after, as we were driving on our way to the market, I caught glimpse of them and immediately turned around!  I've seen them before, but the added touch of greenery just made them all the lovelier! The green building is actually another coffee shop that we have plans to visit, but the combination of the green against the red and the white, well, if you've been visiting here for awhile you know they are my favorite colors, as is vintage architecture, so when you combine the two? It's perfection!

And with that my friends, I'll close. I have a busy day ahead, cleaning out holiday leftovers and prepping food for the weekend. We are set with everything we need in the event of a power outage, we'd be good for a week or more. But any time there is a threat of weather, I like to be prepared. Meals made that can easily be re-heated on our propane stove, laundry caught up, candles and matches at the ready. Maybe it's just me, but honestly, the thought of losing power seems almost cozy! It's the perfect excuse to slow the pace of life, and just, perhaps, a lovely start to the New Year!

Until then!

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Happy New Year!

Wishing you and yours the happiest New Year!

Planning Ideas and Resources For The New Year

Around here we're not big on resolutions, but now that the holidays are coming to a close and life is settling into a regular pace, we took a few hours yesterday to look over our l-o-n-g ongoing project list and began making a plan to start chipping away at it.  Rather than thinking big picture and planning out the whole year, we just focused on what seemed do-able for January, then towards the end of the month we'll revisit and see what we were able to accomplish.

Along with that, I  have my own list of ideas and projects that I'm mulling over, books I'd like to read, ideas for posts I want to share here with you, as well as making an earnest effort to get back to writing my book, which is something I barely touched this year. There are also a number of crafting projects I'd like to try my hand at. . . . if I'm honest, there are so-many-things that pique my interest, I have a hard time narrowing it all down. That's why I like to keep lists and plan things out, and while I do utilize my phone, at heart, I still prefer an old fashioned paper planner.

I've been putting together my own planner for awhile now, and it's something I look forward to about this time every year. That along my with my portable office cart is how I keep things organized and running smoothly. My planner has varied over the years, but at this point I've finally settled upon a system that is working well. I'll be sharing more about that in the coming days, but for today I thought I'd direct you to some of the free resources that I've used in the past, and some that I still do. Perhaps if you've shifted to your sights toward the new year and have your own list of to-do's, you might find some of these helpful.

2025 Yearly Calendar

This website offers a number of options for a one year page at a glance calendar. I keep one of these at the front of my planner as well as another on clipped to the front of my weekly files.

2025 Monthly Calendars

And at the same website, you'll find monthly calendars that you can print, as well. 

Weekly Calendars

This website offers a number of styles for weekly, day-to-day planners, and here is another one that looks nice. 

To-Do List

I've found a to-do list to be one of the best tools to help me keep things moving and achieving my goals. Something about writing it down and getting it out of my head and on to the paper. I'm much more likely to get it done if it's somewhere I can see it every day.

Suggested Home File Categories For Organizing Your Filing System

One of the things on my to-do list is go through and clean out and organize my files. These category suggestions might prove helpful.

From here you'll find a number of other ideas you could include to help you break down tasks and stay organized. 

- 12 Lists To Help You Organize Your Life

- Home Project Notebook - I really like some of the ideas I found here!

- Make A Yearly Meal Plan - I don't know about planning meals for an entire year, but she has some good ideas! My friend, Heather, breaks her meal plans down by season and that's something I plan to try to implement this year.

- Password Log in today's age, keeping up with ALL the passwords can be challenging. Having them logged in one place can be a huge timesaver.

- Subscription / Membership Tracker - this is something I'm going to be adding to my planner soon. It's just too easy to lose track of things you're paying for but never use!

- Monthly Re-set - 10 things to do at the beginning of each month. I LOVE this idea!

This should give you plenty of ideas and resources work with, and if you don't find what you need, just Google "Free Planning and Organization Forms" or visit Pinterest and you'll find more resources than you'll ever need. As for me, I like to take an idea and then create my own forms using fonts and colors that I like, so that's what I'll be doing with a few of the resources I linked above.  I also have other forms I've made, and I'll be sharing those here in the days and weeks to come. I'm going to begin the year with a series of posts about my homemaking routines, so if you like that sort of thing, be sure to come back and visit. I'll be sprinkling posts on other topics as well to keep things interesting and I hope you'll join me!

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Those First Few Notes

"And what does January hold? Clean account books, bare diaries. Three hundred and sixty five new days neatly parcled into weeks, months, seasons. A chunk of time, of life. . . those first few notes like an orchestra tuning up before the play begins."

~ Phyllis Nicholson, Country Bouquet

Happy New Year, my friends! I pray that these first few days have been blessed and bright!

My end of the year, new year is not starting out exactly as I had planned. You may recall that back in April and May of last year I pinched my sciactic nerve and it laid me out for about six weeks, three of those on the couch unable to do much of anything.  It had taken months of physical therapy and a few visits to the chiropractor to get me to a better place and it had only been in recent weeks that I was able to get around without pain.

Perhaps because of that I was overly confident, but honestly, all I did was bend down to get a load of laundry out of the dryer when I felt that familiar pull and immediately and hobbled straight to the couch. Of course this was on Friday, the last day before the holiday weekend! But thankfully I was able to get a call into my primary care doctor who sent in a prescription for pain meds to get me through the weekend. With those and my husband generously giving up his recliner as it is the only place I can sit comfortably, I made it through.  Yesterday I actually got to see the doctor, who gave me a steroid shot and a refill on the pain meds.  I can already feel some improvement, but likely will be continue to take it easy for the rest of the week.

My word for the year is T R U S T (if you see that familiar blanket in the background of my pictures in the near future, you'll know I haven't left my reclining post.)

I prayed about my word back in October, and after coming across several verses that spoke of the wonder of God and seeing that same word in a few other random places, I felt certain that wonder was my word and I was excited for it!

Then my daughter sent me a link to Dayspring, where through answering a series of questions they generate a word of the year for you. So just for giggles I decided to play along and the word I received was T R U S T.

As soon as I read it I knew immediately that my greater need for 2024 was trust, and if I'm being honest, I wasn't all that happy about it. T R U S T was my word once before, back in 2016, and boy was that a year I had to learn to trust.  But apprently there is a deeper work the Lord wants to do and my spirit resonantes with this, even though my flesh is still mourning that year of wonder I was so looking forward to!

I had so many plans for celebrating the New Year and for this week, but I'm learning to be content with the process. I bought these cute little head bands at Hobby Lobby right before Christmas and had hoped to take a cute family picture in front of the tree on New Years Eve. I had white balloons I had planned to fill with red, green and silver confetti and red and green streamers tied to the ends. I did manage to feel well enough to sport the green head band and my daughter chose the silver. We wore them New Year's Eve, had some chips and dip (a far cry from the menu I had planned) and watched the ball drop.  My daughter blessed us on New Year's Day by making black eyed peas from scratch. She used my recipe, and they turned out so good! So thankfully we got a serving of good luck for the New Year,  but the pork roast and cabbage are still waiting. In all of this, I am T R U S T I N G that things will improve, and on the bright side, as far as the head bands, balloons, and confetti, lets just say I'm way ahead of the game and already set for New Year's Eve 2025! 

As I've had a lot of time on my hands I've been doing a lot of reading. My first two books for 2024 are Placemaker by Christie Purifoy (AFFILIATE LINK), which I am enjoying so much! And I'm also reading In Search fo Guidance by Dallas Willard, but thankfully I was able to find it on the Interner Archives, because the prices they are asking are outrageous! I think I'll start keeping an eye out at the thrift stores!

So that's the update on my life! How about you? Is your new year off to a good start, are you reading or have you read any good books lately? I've got a longing to read the complete Betsy Tacy series again this year. Have you ever read them, and if you haven't (or even if you have), would you be interested in a read along here at the blog?  Leave a comment and let me know!

And now I'm, well not off, just on the next thing I am able to do from the comfort of this chair!

Have a blessed day, my friends!

- Kim

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