one little word 2014

About six weeks ago, I stumbled upon Lara Casey's blog and her posts on goal setting. In the past, I might have dismissed something like this as maybe a little fluffy or somehow not worth my time.

This year, I've been learning to embrace some things that are outside my comfort zone. So I dove into this process of reflection, head first. And I dragged my sister, my husband and my brother-in-law with me.

One of Lara's suggestions is to choose a word for the year. I've done this for the past couple of years as part of Ali Edwards's one little word project, so this was a no-brainer.

At the risk of sounding a little melodramatic and possibly sentimental, I'd have to say my word chose me. In thinking ahead about setting goals for the year, I was heavily focused on things I wanted to do, accomplish, fix.

In reality, I'm facing a year severely limited by circumstances:

1. We don't know where we'll be living in 10 months.

2. We won't know where we'll be living until (hopefully?) about 8 weeks before we have to move.

3. We could be moving to the other side of the country. Literally.

4. In roughly 12 weeks I'm having a baby.

5. Our son struggled with debilitating skin issues for his first 12 months of life, and I've been struggling with anxiety related to health issues the new baby may have to face (and us with him).

6. We're traveling to Wisconsin this summer with a 3-month old and a toddler. Hm...

7. Despite the Navy moving us around and shifting deployment schedules, there's been some relative predictability associated with my husband's career. These next few years feel a lot more unknown.

8. I've been working more and enjoying it, but we have a lot going on this year. The timing feels strange but exciting. I'm feeling the desire to spend more time on work, but wondering if that's even possible given all we have happening.

And so, my word for twenty-fourteen is ADVENTURE.

I love the following quotation:

For me, ADVENTURE represents an attitude, an approach to change and to life in general this year. I'll be up to my elbows in diapers, potty training a toddler, waiting for military orders, packing boxes and hopefully finding time to design in the midst of it all.

It's not super glamorous, but this is my life! And I'm realizing that I can either approach it with a spirit of adventure or anxiety, love or fear, hope or gloom.

There's something really exciting about preparing for what is uncertain: a move to an unknown place, the birth of a child whose name we don't yet know, the push to work during a time of great change. I hope to approach it all with a spirit of adventure.

Happy twenty fourteen! I hope your year is filled with adventures of all sorts.