We are back in Texas and today John and I walked through the house and marked on the wall studs where we want switches to control certain lights or fans. It’s really all about the user experience. How do you turn on enough lights to get safely to the kitchen in a darkened house, for example? Do you want to be able to turn on hall lights from both ends of the hall? Yes, by the way. I’m hoping our preparations will make the electrical walk through Thursday morning go much faster.
The front porch now has its ceiling done and the cedar posts are in place. The batten is also being installed on our Hardie board and the chimneys have been stuccoed.
We are also beginning to look at exterior house colors. I’ve painted a few swatches on the siding and we are debating looking at more color options.
Tonight we are looking forward to walking to a local restaurant and bar for a fun New Years Eve. Our ability to walk to restaurants, shops, and a local grocery store is one of our favorite things about living in our rental home in Smithville, Texas. We will definitely miss that when we move into our forever home on 43.5 acres, because, yikes, that would be a long walk.
On our drive down to Texas (it takes 16 hours), John and I reflected on 2019 and looked forward to 2020. It was a good exercise in mindfulness and conscious living. I think of it as a way to slow down, reminisce about our favorite moments, make sure we take the time to appreciate all the little and big things that were a part of our lives in the past year, and also to draw some conclusions about which kinds of things make us happy and which don’t. My goal was to start seeing more clearly and confidently what are our goals & intentions for 2020.
Maybe some of these questions will be a fun conversation starter for you and your family too.
Reflecting on 2019
- What 3 words would you use to describe 2019?
- What was your favorite destination in 2019?
- What was your biggest lesson of the year?
- What are you most proud of from 2019?
- What was your favorite compliment from this year?
- What worry turned out to be completely unnecessary?
- What or who had the biggest positive impact on your life this year?
Looking forward to 2020
- What do you want the overarching theme of 2020 to be?
- What are your biggest goals for 2020?
- What skills do you want to learn, improve or master?
- Which personal quality do you want to develop or strengthen?
- What do you want your everyday life to be like?
- What do you want to achieve with your career?
- How do you want to remember the year 2020 when you look back on it 10/20/50 years from now?
I hope that you and your family have a wonderful start to the new year and new decade. Thanks for stopping by and Happy New Year!
Hugs, Libby
Happy New Year!
I plan on sharing your lists of reflection and looking forward. Thank you for the ideas to ponder and discuss.
Best in life to you and yours in 2020………
Thanks Lorri! We found it to be a useful exercise. We also talked a lot about which rooms/spaces in the new house we are most excited about, where we will spend time when we do X, Y, Z, etc. Hope you and Rick have a great New Year!