2021 Word of the year

This is my second year designating a word of the year, I started out last year with the word "momentum" and you can check out more of why I chose that word for last year here. Well I wanted to keep the momentum going this year with being aware of my relationships, finances, how I spend my free time, how I exert my energy and who I want to give my energy to. I want to be deliberate with my time and money and be cognitive of how I am spending them. I have a family that I am supporting through unprecedented times and I want to focus and hone in on them and our future.

2021 word of the year for me will be

In·ten·tion·al

/inˈten(t)SH(ə)n(ə)l/ Learn to pronounce

adjective adjective: intentional

1. done on purpose; deliberate.

I want to be intentional with my family, especially my daughters. On my days off from work, I don't want to be so immersed with projects and house chores that I neglect my time with them. Yes of course I will still work on projects, that is how I decompress but I will set out blocks of time for that and not allow myself to go past those time blocks. I want to be able to sit down more and have more teaching moments, more adventures and opportunities to show them anything and everything.

I want to be intentional with spending money, more specifically I need to keep my ass off of Amazon and not impulse buy. I have a tendency to think of a project I want to work on or something we "need" for the house and just automatically go to Amazon prime and buy it. No more I say! I will be spending my money wisely and refraining myself from impulse purchases. We are currently in the process of the Dave Ramsey - 7 steps to financial freedom

and I am working hard on paying off all of our debt besides our house. My goal for this year is to pay off all credit card debt and work my way at chipping through school and car loans. This will be HARD. This will be really hard and I have to be very strategic with our money. I am the only income provider in our family of 4 currently as my husband is in school so we are pinching pennies everywhere this year and really focusing on paying off unwanted debt.

What does financial freedom look like for our family? I am not exactly sure yet but we have dreams, we have goals, we have things we see in our future and a generic timeline. Will these things come to fruition? When will they come to fruition? Hopefully, but the details are fluid. We would love to be able to own a farm/ranch at some point with property and animals. Will it be in California? Maybe...... Will it be in the next 5 years? That is the goal anyways.

When it comes to relationships with family and friends, I have learned a lot, especially in 2020. I have learned who will stick by during hard times, who will help me grow as a person, who stays in contact with me on my days off from work. Who communicates with me, who asks about my day or just sends me random messages more than once a year. I like to think of myself as a very loyal person and I know that I can do better as a friend and family member but I have also learned that I put more energy into relationships without reciprocation. I can only help those who want to be helped, I can only say and do so much before my words and actions go ignored. I want to intentionally put my time and energy into those who do the same for me. My circle is small and the older I get the smaller the circle gets and that's ok, but man it is lonely. I read a quote somewhere similar to, people will forget what you said, they will forget what you did, but they will always remember how you made them feel. I want people close to be feel loved and wanted and small acts of kindness and intentional communication is important.

I want to be intentional with giving back to my community, however that looks like. I want to play a bigger role in spreading kindness and bringing people together (as much as you can in a time of a pandemic). For now I want to continue to grow food and the local community garden and donate all the crop to the local food bank. I want to expand my seed bank (which I haven't even posted about yet) into a small food pantry, I want to continue to give back and I want more people in my community to jump on the train and help me help others.

This year is going to be hard for my family, hard but the light at the end of the tunnel is worth the struggle.

Do you have a word of the year and if so what is it and why did you chose it?

XXO,

Cassidy