New Years 2023

Happy New Year! We're here for what has become our once-a-year blog post to report on our 2022 goals:

Joel

• Learn the drums piano. Joel still wants to learn to play drums, but we made a deal mid-year: if he will dedicate himself to piano lessons for a year, then we'll talk about drums. So he started piano lessons in August and has taken to the piano with gusto!
• Bake cookies solo. Joel was nervous, but he successfully baked his first solo batch this fall. His brothers were the taste-testers and they approved.
• Compete in Weapons at a tournament. Joel started Weapons class last January and has been very dedicated. He choreographed a bo staff form and performed it at the Grand Valley Games in October.
• Memorize the Articles of Faith. He memorized five or so ahead of his baptism in April, then this goal fell by the wayside.
• Beat Junimo Cart. Despite his best efforts, Joel has not yet conquered this game.
• Monthly date with Mom or Dad. We missed a couple of months due to crazy schedules, but Joel thoroughly enjoyed this quality time!

Xander

• Make a Lego movie. Xander learned how to make stop-motion movies this year, and while his creations remain simplistic, the stories are bursting with creativity! 
• Monthly date with Mom or Dad. Xander says his favorite was scary movie nights with Daddy (they had several!)

James

• Start and run weapons: Did that, and it was a roaring success! Now just need to keep on going!
  
• Get to 175: Failed this one pretty miserably, I'm afraid. I'm not promising I'll make it this year, but I'll keep working on it!
  
• Daily scripture study: Hit or miss. Didn't quite make it to where I wanted, but I did okay all things considered.
  
• 6 complex new bakes: Only two, but that's okay. I need to stop making hobby-centered goals, honestly. Kind of sucks the fun out of them.
  
• Earn 4th Dan: Did this one, yay! I've been Master Holley for almost a year now :)
  

Valerie

• Release The Seventh Guardian. My third book was published in July! It is available on our website. It was such a relief to finally get it out!
• Project 52. I did work on my weekly photo project for the first few months of the year, but it fell by the wayside, and I let it go.
• 1 Pull up. At the beginning of the year, I could not do a pullup at all, so I set my goal at one pull up. I focused on developing my arm strength over the summer, and on my birthday I succeeded in my first pullup ever!
• 100 Poomsae Challenge. I have not completed my challenge to do 100 reps of each of my poomsae, but I am still working on it.
• Memorize a new piano solo. I did work on this, but neglected to complete this goal. 
• Take a team to State. I took my competition team to two state championships as well as Nationals!
• Journal weekly. I did not complete this goal.
• IR. Given the opportunity, I set a new and auspicious goal: to earn my International Referee certifications in Poomsae and Kyorugi. At the Paris seminar in November, I did it!

 Family Goals

• Visit Yellowstone Great Sand Dunes National Park. Because of flooding in Yellowstone, we revamped our plans and in September we visited Great Sand Dunes National Park. It was awesome!
• Go on 6 new field trips. The kids and I enjoyed our various field trips this year! 

Couple Goals

• Attend the Temple. We attended in June.
• Weekly Date Night. Check!

And now, presenting our goals for 2023!

Joel

• Earn blue/red belt at taekwondo. If he tests twice this year, Joel will achieve this goal.
• Compete at District Championship in New Mexico. This tournament is on his birthday!
• Play in a Piano Recital. Joel has been working hard at his piano lessons and hopes to play at a recital this spring.
• Learn to roller skate. This one should be fun!
• Go on a monthly date with Mom or Dad.

Xander

• Create a video game. We don't know yet what sandbox he'll be using, but Xander's excited to create his own game!
• Start piano lessons. Xander has expressed interest in taking lessons like Joel, so we'll see how it goes!
• Go on a monthly date with Mom or Dad.  

Kieran

• Start taekwondo. He's so excited!
• Learn to read. Candidly, Mama set this goal. Shh, don't tell.

Valerie

• Referee internationally. I'm ready to put my new IR cert to use!
• Learn to knit. It sounds relaxing.
• Improve flexibility. I know this sounds like an unusually vague goal for me, but rest assured, I have laid out more stringent guidelines elsewhere that I need to meet to check this one off, but for sake of poster succinctness, we have this. I'm working on improving my side kick height particularly for poomsae.
• Walk Shadow weekly. This is embarrassing to admit, but our poor dog gets walked so irregularly that this needed to be a goal this year.

James

• Fully prep elder's quorum lessons. This one is hopefully self-explanatory.
• Clean inbox every week. My work inbox is a constant source of stress for me, and I'm hoping that staying on top of it every week will make it a lot more manageable. 
• Eliminate gaming addiction. This is not to say stop playing video games, but instead avoiding addictive/predatory games and gaming practices. Case of good/better/best, kind of.
• Formulate and carry through on exercise plan. I'm not really sure what this looks like yet (obviously), but I'm tired of being out of shape (at least for where I would like to be as a 4th degree black belt).
  

Family Goals

• Cabin trip. We dream  of staying in a mountain cabin while fall colors are bright.
• Have friends over for dinner. We have formalized our desire to be more social. :D
• Visit a new (at least to the majority of us) National Park. This may end up being Yellowstone, as that didn't happen last year, or possibly something closer by. TBD.

Couple Goals

• Celebrate our 10th anniversary in Hawaii.
• Date weekly.  

We're looking forward to a great year!

Happy New Year!

It has been a crazy busy year! We knew that it would be, and it's fun to look back at everything that's gone down. So, time for one of our favorite traditions.

First, 2021 in review:

Family Goals

• Visit Canyonlands National Park. We went in April. We camped and hiked for a couple of days. We enjoyed our visit, but candidly, we prefer Arches!
• Go on 10 new hikes. Super close - we went on 9. I was encouraged to cram one in this week so we could check off the last, but hiking in the snow is not my favorite, and a hard no from my kids, haha. But the nine we went on were awesome!
• Camping Trip. We went camping a few times this year, and our favorite was camping at Taylor River over the 4th of July with family.
• Monthly Family Home Evening. We enjoyed our monthly family nights very much. 

Couple Goals

• Attend the Temple. We made it! Just a few weeks ago, we attended a session while visiting family.
• Make-up anniversary trip. We didn't have the ability to celebrate our anniversary last January like we wanted because of covid, so we postponed. We ended up taking an amazing kid-free trip in October to Glenwood Springs. We went horseback riding, enjoyed incredible restaurants, went hiking, and soaked in the hot springs. It was glorious.
• Weekly Date Night. We had to do a make-up here and there when one of us was out of town or things got too crazy, but we have been on 52 dates this year and we're feeling great about it.

Xander

• Earn yellow stripe. Xander worked very hard to earn his first belt at Taekwondo. In the process, we learned that Xander genuinely does not enjoy Taekwondo, and he has since quit. While that was hard for Mom, it became clear that it was in Xander's best interest. But we were all very proud of his accomplishment!
• Take a painting class. Xander took a couple of different painting classes this year; some were enjoyed more than others. We continue to pursue art at home.
• Monthly date with Mom or Dad. We have come to treasure these dates. Xander says his favorite date this year was "building Legos with Mom."

Joel

• Ride a bike without training wheels. No check. Still in progress.
• Read two BIG books. At the beginning of the year, this seemed ambitious. Now, it seems laughable. Joel reads a couple 300 page+ novels each week, haha. He devoured the Wings of Fire series this fall, and he's currently churning through the Spirit Animals series.
• Cook a meal solo. Joel has mastered grilled cheese sandwiches! 
• Monthly date with Mom or Dad. Joel says his favorite date this year was going to Get Air! with Daddy.

James

• Come Follow Me complete study: Finished this one up nicely! A bit more cramming towards the end than I would've liked, but I finished it. I'm changing this one up a bit this year, though.
• Brick break with punch: Unfortunately, didn't manage to finish this one. I did plenty of conditioning (by punching a brick hundreds, if not thousands, of times), but my technique just wasn't quite there yet. I'm not giving up, though! I'll get it soon, ideally by the end of the month.
• 18 new books: Didn't quite pull this one off, but I don't feel too badly about it. I never want to make reading a chore, and that's essentially what I was doing by forcing myself to read a certain number of books.
• Knit a blanket: This was the easiest one, and it turned out great! It's really nice and soft, and Xander especially loves the feel of it. 
• Ace boot camp: As a reminder, this is the training/demonstration piece that finishes off my basic training for the public defender's office here in Colorado. I won't say that I did everything perfectly, but I did more than well enough to pass, and I did especially well in a couple of areas. Of course, I have a lot more to learn and a lot more room to grow, but I can confidently say I managed this goal quite nicely.

Valerie

• Release "The Seventh Guardian" No check. My work on the book was done last fall, and the book was scheduled for release February 2021. The delay was out of my control. However, I am confidently moving this goal to my 2022 board, and will soon have news on that front.
• Open Grand Valley Taekwondo. This was my biggest, most ambitious, most overwhelming, most far-reaching, most dear-to-my-heart goal that I've ever set, and I nailed it. This year I became a legit small business owner, and while the business side of things is not my favorite (I really just want to teach Taekwondo!) I have to confess to you that I am really proud of what I have built so far. My mission is to help people become their best selves, and opening the school has expanded the reach of that goal. My hope for 2022 is that GVT will continue to grow and that I will be able to make a positive impact on the lives of my students.
• Read 10 New Books. I finished these 13 books, and partially read a few more:
• The Duke and I by Julia Quinn
• The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn
• An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn
• Romancing Mr. Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
• To Sir Phillip With Love by Julia Quinn
• When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn
• The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
• Becoming by Michelle Obama
• The Sword of Kaigen by M. L. Wang
• The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida
• The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis
• Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
• Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell by Brandon Sanderson
  
  I obviously went through a bit of a Bridgerton craze at the beginning of the year. I've never read romance before, and while I can't really recommend them, I enjoyed the read. I LOVED The Sword of Kaigen. It's Asian-themed fantasy, which I dig, but even more, one of the main characters is a sword-wielding MOM whose story really spoke to me. But the all star this year was Before We Were Yours. Read it.
• 50 Pushups. My goal was to do 50 pushups all in one go. I have worked hard at this goal through much of this year. And while my pushups are not as deep as they should be (my goal for next year) I did it! 
• Weekly Come Follow Me Study. Candidly, this one was a struggle for me this fall. I got out of the habit and then it was hard to get back into it. I hope to do better.

Now, presenting our goals for 2022:

Our purpose with this poster each year is to find things that we want to learn, improve, and do that are measurable and achievable within the year. While we may have other goals, the ones that appear on the poster must meet these qualifications. We seek a balance of intellectual, physical, and spiritual in our personal goals. We want to push ourselves, but we try to choose goals that are realistic within the coming year.

Joel

Joel came up with all of his own goals this year, with only a little refinement help from Mom. He is very excited to work on them!

• Learn the drums. Joel's Activity Days group did a month of music classes, and he fell in love with the drums. We got him a practice pad for Christmas and he gets to start with that and we'll see how it goes!
• Bake cookies solo. The next step in his cooking journey!
• Compete in Weapons at a tournament. James, as you'll see in his goals, is starting up Weapons class at our dojang next month, and Joel is very excited. Competing is a way to push himself and make his efforts in that class measurable.
• Memorize all the Articles of Faith. He's got the first two down already, but he wants to get them all.
• Beat Junimo Cart. This one makes me (Valerie) laugh. Junimo Cart is a video game inside of a video game (Stardew Valley) that Joel has been working to beat for months. He is determined! So much so that it's here on our poster for the next year, haha.
• Monthly date with Mom or Dad. We've loved our dates and they're here to stay!

Xander

• Make a Lego movie. If you know our Xander, you know that he is completely obsessed with Legos. He loves watching Lego videos on YouTube. His big goal this year is to learn how to make a stop-motion Lego movie of his own.
• Monthly date with Mom or Dad.

James

• Start and run weapons: This is the part of the new studio I've been the most excited for! I haven't been able to make the time for it quite yet, what with gearing up for my Master's Test, but I'll be starting it come February. Of course, starting it will be easy; the more challenging part will be keeping the class running smoothly.
• Get to 175: I've been okay with my physical shape the last year or two, but I have a bit more room to go as far as weight is concerned. I'm currently at about 190, but some rigorous calorie counting ought to do the trick nicely.
• Daily scripture study: To be clear, this isn't just about cramming a few verses in before I pass out at night. I feel like my worship has become somewhat rote of late, and I feel that more regular and deliberate study will help my worship become more deliberate and foster a more personal relationship with Heavenly Father.
• 6 complex new bakes: I haven't been baking quite as much this past year, especially the first half, but I've been getting back into it the last few months. Instead of just pushing out a bunch of easy bakes, though, I've decided to up my game and focus on really challenging recipes. I have a few ideas in mind, but I'm not going to spill the beans quite yet!
• Earn 4th Dan: I've been working up to this for a long time now. This will officially make me Master Holley, and it will give me a chance to show off a lot of what I've been working on.

Valerie

• Release The Seventh Guardian. My third book is done, and we should have an announcement very soon. Can't wait!
• Project 52. This goal is to take a deliberate, artistic photograph each week this year. I took a step back from photography after opening my taekwondo school, and I've missed it, desperately. I don't have as much time as I did before, but I think a photo a week is doable, and I think stirring those creative juices will be beneficial for me.
• ?? Pull ups. I have never done pull ups before. Ever. I've ordered a pull up bar but it's not here yet, so I don't yet have a gauge on this. I have left a blank spot to insert a number. I will set a number by the end of January for how many pullups I want to do in one go. it might be 1! Haha. I'm excited to work on this new skill.
• 100 Poomsae Challenge. This is a taekwondo goal: to practice every poomsae I know 100 times this year, with an evaluation after each set of 25. 
• Memorize a new piano solo. Talk about hobbies that have been neglected: I've barely touched my piano this past year. I have not yet picked my music, but this year I want to learn a new song from scratch and commit it to memory. 
• Take a team to State. This goal is dependent on the State Championships actually happening this year, but presuming it does, I want to take a team from my school to compete. Goals like this are tricky, because I can't control the decision or ability of other people to attend an event that is demanding physically, financially, and of their time. However, I feel hopeful that some of my students will go, and at the very least, Joel and I can go. =)
• Journal weekly. I used to be really good about this and I've slacked off. When I try to journal months at once, I only get highlights, and lose a lot of the spiritual value that journaling provides for me. I'm determined to be more consistent. 

Family Goals

• Visit Yellowstone National Park. James has never been, Valerie hasn't been since childhood, and the kids have never been. And apparently it's going to explode soon?? So we're going to make this happen this year.
• Go on 6 new field trips. This is more of a Valerie+kids goal, but we want to go on adventures to new places as part of homeschool.

Couple Goals

• Attend the Temple. We managed once last year, so we're keeping that number. Can't wait 'til our temple is built here in Grand Junction!!
• Weekly Date Night. This will be on our poster every year that we make one. Our weekly dates are a big part of our connection as a couple, to keep our marriage strong. Keeping it on our poster keeps us on track.

We are excited about the year to come!

Our vision for 2021

Happy New Year!

Basically no one is sad to say goodbye to 2020. As we look back and assess the past year, my hope is that we can all give ourselves a lot of grace. 2020 definitely did not look like I imagined it would, one year ago. There were many things I wanted to do, hoped to do, planned to do, which simply could not happen. My hope is that we can celebrate the good things, let go of the things we could not control, and move forward with optimism.

So, 2020 in review:

Family Goals

• Attend the temple twice. When everything shut down in the spring, we were afraid we wouldn't get to go at all this year. But we did get to the temple once this year, for the sealing of Valerie's sister Cydney. <3
• Visit Canyonlands National Park. Just didn't happen. We've moved this to our 2021 goals.
• Invite new friends to our home x4. Two of these were accomplished before Covid struck, and we decided to count the visit of our newest sister-in-law as a third. =) All things considered, we feel okay with where this one ended up.
• Take Grandma and Grandpa to Black Canyon of the Gunnison. We went in June and had a great camping trip!
• Visit Tennessee. We visited James's family in September.
• Visit Twin Lakes. The most beautiful spot we've found in Colorado. Incredible!!
• Weekly Date Night. Lots of at-home dates this year forced us to get creative.
• Monthly FHE. This was new for us, we've never really done Family Home Evening. But we've loved it! Monthly works well for us.

Xander

• Read and write the alphabet. We're checking off the "read" part, as Xander is officially reading! But the writing part is still a work in progress

Joel

• Ride a bike without training wheels. We worked on this quite a bit over the summer, and it just wasn't clicking, so we took a break for awhile. But without prompting, Joel said he wanted to put it on his list for next year.
• Read a chapter book solo. He sailed through this goal early in the year. His favorites have been the Magic Tree House series and Roald Dahl's books.
• Run faster. In the spring, we set up a course in our cul-de-sac and timed him. We repeated it twice more, including a couple weeks ago, and his time significantly improved!

James

I've really been looking forward to this! It's been quite a year, and some of my goals didn't pan out, but I definitely feel pretty happy about my general growth and progress!

• Daily Spanish study: This went really well. I missed a day here and there, but they were few and far between. This has become as much of an ingrained habit as any I have, so I'm not going to make this an official goal going forward. At some point, however, I'd really like to take some more formal lessons and become semi-fluent one of these days.
• Read 12 new books: This might be a bit more weighted towards the end of the year, but I did it and then some!
• Emperor of Thorns: This is the 3rd in a fantasy trilogy. A pretty fun read, although a bit shallow and overly edgy at times. Be aware that this trilogy is chock full of extremely graphic violence, both standard and sexual.
• 11/22/63: This was such a powerful book, one of Stephen King's best. Imagine being able to travel back in time and save JFK from being assassinated; that's what's explored here. I loved the characters and the general storyline, and it even ended strong (which King often struggles with).
• The Crucible of Doubt: This is nonfiction that deals with faith struggles as a Latter-day Saint. It was valuable to me, and I highly recommend it to members of the Church that are struggling with their faith.
• The Lord of the Rings (counted as 3 books): I technically read this back when I was a kid, but I was much too young to appreciate it, so I'm counting it as new here. And wow, this book is deserving of every bit of praise it's received to date. The prose is some of the most beautiful I've ever read, and Tolkein is an incredible storyteller.
• The Licanius Trilogy (3 books): I suppose these should get their own separate reviews, but I don't feel they differed too much in quality. I picked these up because I kept seeing it recommended to Sanderson fans. It was fun, and I fell in love with Caeden especially, but I was disappointed by the high expectations I had going in. The story was only mildly interesting, and several of the main characters were pretty forgettable. 
• Chasing Gideon: This book follows various public defender systems in the United States since the Supreme Court ruled in Gideon v. Wainwright, back in 1963, that criminal defendants must be provided an attorney if they can't afford one. Chasing Gideon is informative and pretty depressing, but only because the state of public defense in the US is so horrible even today. Very much worth reading to get an idea on how inadequate public defender systems deprive defendants of basic and fundamental rights on a regular basis.
• Dawnshard: This is a short novel between books 3 and 4 of the Stormlight Archive. It was a pretty fun little book, and I enjoyed what happened with the story beats and character developments.
• The Traitor Baru Cormorant: This was my sleeper hit of the year. I went into this not really knowing what to expect, and what I discovered was a powerful fantasy story dealing with very real personal, social, and governmental issues. I can't really describe more without giving the story away, and it's very much worth going in blind.
• Rhythm of War: Book 4 of the Stormlight Archive, this was (unsurprisingly) my favorite of the year. I'll say right off the bat that it wasn't perfect; there were definitely story aspects and characters that fell a little flat. However, this is competing for my favorite of the series thus far. I deeply value what Sanderson did with Kaladin here, and generally speaking, I've never cried as much reading a book as I did here. An incredible continuation of arguably the best ongoing fantasy series today.
• The Green Mile: This is a rare instance of my having seen the movie before reading the book, and the movie was very faithful, so nothing was surprising going into this. It's still an emotional story with an important message concerning the death penalty, criminal justice, and race. Can absolutely recommend, but it's not for the squeamish. There's one execution scene in particular that's one of the most horrifying scenes I've ever read in a book, and I've read some pretty horrifying stuff.
• The Library at Mount Char: A low-fantasy/horror, I enjoyed this a great deal, but I doubt it would appeal to many. There's little exposition, the characters are generally unlikeable, and the violence is incredibly graphic (for real; for all my warnings in a couple of other books here, this is easily top-three most violent books I've ever read). For all that, it was a fascinating story with some really unique ideas and good execution to boot. 
• Starsight: The sequel to Sanderson's Skyward, this was a really fun read. I don't really go for YA, but I enjoyed this a lot, honestly a good bit more than Skyward. It's not especially complex or deep, and I felt it tried a bit too much to tug at the heartstrings, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it.
• Ace boot camp: COVID-19 cancelled this; will do this year.
• Come follow me: I did this every week (or made it up in adjacent weeks). I'm going to keep working on this in 2021.
• Get to 190: I made it! I'm at 188 today, but my lowest this year was 182. Holiday feasting has been bad for this, but I've done a lot better about controlling my eating.
• Bake 24 new recipes: I'm baking recipe number 24 today, so I'm counting this as complete!
• Pretzel rolls
• Pizza dough
• Scones
• Baguettes
• Tortillas
• Forest fruit cake
• Churros
• Bagels
• Cornbread
• Triple chocolate cheesecake
• Lemon chocolate mirror glaze cake
• Chocolate chip sourdough
• Oatmeal cream pies
• Steak and ale pie
• Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies
• Turtle cheesecake
• Peach cobbler
• Pumpkin cheesecakes
• Challah buns
• Mincemeat pie
• Gingerbread cookies
• Carrot cake
• Cranberry tart
• Eggnog cranberry starbread
• Weekly video journals: I've got to be honest, I gave up on this. It's just not my thing; perhaps I'll pick it back up in future.

Valerie

So much of what I hoped to accomplish this year got ruined by Covid. =( I can't deny that looking at my personal goals is a bit discouraging. But I remind myself that it was a weird year, and I can feel good about what I did accomplish.

• Write Allspeaker. I started writing this novel in the spring, then took a break over the summer with the intent to return to it in the fall. However, when we got the green light from our editor in September, all my writing time this fall was dedicated to The Seventh Guardian instead.
• Complete Project 365. My goal was to take a photo every day this year. I did miss a day here and there, but deliberately made up for it each time the following day. I'm calling this one a success!
• Plant a garden. Our first ever garden was a rousing success! It was awesome to eat our own produce all summer.
• Attend Insta-Inspire. Nixed by Covid. =(
• Referee at the Colorado State Championships. Nixed by Covid. =(
• Read 10 new books. I finished 8, and am most of the way through a 9th.
• The Toll
• Where the Crawdads Sing
• Hold On To Your Kids
• The Handmaid's Tale
• Midnight Sun
• Dawnshard
• Rhythm of War
• I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness
• (almost done!) In Spite of Lions
• Weekly Come Follow Me study. My scripture study was inconsistent this year. I'm resetting this goal for next year.
• Apply to Click Pro. This one I added after Insta-Inspire was canceled. I needed a new photography goal to keep me motivated. I made Click Pro in September.

Our purpose with this poster each year is to find things that we want to learn, improve, and do that are measurable and achievable within the year. We seek a balance of intellectual, physical, and spiritual in our personal goals. We want to push ourselves, without overdoing it.

Family Goals

• Visit Canyonlands National Park
• Go on 10 new hikes. We really want to spend more time outside this year!
• Camping Trip. Location TBD!
• Monthly FHE

Couple Goals

• Attend the Temple. We're feeling like one attendance this year may be ambitious.
• Make-up anniversary trip. We're planning to celebrate our 8th anniversary later this year, hoping that the Covid situation will be improved.
• Weekly date night.

Xander

• Earn yellow stripe. Xander has struggled a bit with taekwondo, so when he declared of his own volition that he wants to earn his yellow stripe belt, we were delighted!
• Take a painting class. This was another fun surprise. Xander specifically wants to learn how to paint "a real snake."
• Monthly date night with Mom or Dad. We have recently instituted parent-child dates, and we've all been loving them.

Joel

• Ride a bike without training wheels.
• Read two BIG books. We haven't picked them yet, but Joel definitely wants to step it up.
• Cook a meal solo. Joel really wants to learn how to cook all by himself. We're excited to see how it goes!
• Monthly date night with Mom or Dad.

James

Here's what I'm going for this year:

• Come Follow Me complete study: This year, I'm not only going to read the scriptures, I'm also going to follow the study guide a lot more. We'll see how it goes.
• Break brick with a punch: I'm testing for my 4th degree black belt next year, and I really want to punch a brick for it. I need to start on this now, and I absolutely need to break with it this year to make sure I'm ready.
• 18 new books: pretty self-explanatory!
• Knit a blanket: I got back into knitting recently, and this will be my first major project. I've already started, and I'm very excited to try it out!
• Ace boot camp: Same thing as last year. It will all be digital this year, but I want to excel and learn all that I need to to keep growing as a public defender.

Valerie

This year, I have exercised restraint with my list of goals. I take these very seriously, and over the years, I have proven very committed to them. Because of the nature of my goals this year (one in particular) and knowing how time-intensive they will be, I have kept my list much more limited than in years past.

• Release The Seventh Guardian. My third book is scheduled for publication in February. I'm delighted, but I also have a lot of work to do, both before and after it comes out.
• Open Grand Valley Taekwondo. This is the big one! I have been teaching in my garage for the last year, and I am so, so excited to open 'officially' in a commercial facility. Starting my own business is a big step. It's going to pretty significantly change life around here. But this has been my dream for many years, and I am so excited to finally be in a position to go for it.
• Read 10 new books.
• 50 Pushups. I've got pretty buff legs, and want to work on my arms this year. My goal is to do 50 good pushups in one go. If that proves too easy, I'll increase the number.
• Weekly Come Follow Me study. I have recommitted to my personal scripture study.

We are looking forward to an eventful year to come! 

Click Pro

Click Pro: An association of professional photographers pursuing advanced artistic and business development while amplifying the voice of women worldwide. Membership to Click Pro is application-based. An invitation to join is extended on the basis of a 150 image portfolio review.

Click Pro has been on my radar for a couple of years now. For a long time it felt like an unattainable goal. Yet as I have grown as a photographer it started to feel like something I could achieve - someday. In April I made the decision: I would build my portfolio and apply sometime this year. I added it to my 2020 poster of goals for the year and set to work.

The application process is rigorous. 150 images is a lot. The portfolio needs to flow one image to the next and feel cohesive as a whole. It is graded on a rubric that includes seven categories, each with a possible score of 6 points. The minimum score for admittance is 32.  These are the categories:

Exposure

Use of Light

Color & White Balance

Composition

Processing & Cohesion

Technical Basics

Creativity & Intention

I joined a prep group with women who were also in the process of curating portfolios to apply. Over the summer we have given feedback to help each other get closer to the goal. Closely examining the work of others - measured against the Click Pro standards - really helped me fine-tune my own portfolio. Four women in my group applied before me: two were accepted and two were rejected. I was both intimated and encouraged by the feedback they received. 

I have worked so hard this summer. It has definitely been frustrating at times, as I have striven to conform to the strict standards of this organization. But I have learned a great deal and I am a better photographer for having gone through the process. I don't think I have ever been more delighted to receive an email than receiving my Click Pro acceptance letter.

Here is a link to my accepted portfolio:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/188189745@N08/albums/72157714054071586/with/49822519508/

Here are the scores I received:

• Exposure Triangle: 5

• Use of Light: 5

• Color & White Balance: 5

• Composition: 5

• Processing & Cohesion: 3

• Technical Basics: 4

• Creativity & Intention: 5

I am scraping in with the minimum acceptable score but I'll take it! I am thrilled. I honestly expected to be lower in the color & white balance category as that is something I have really struggled with - but also what I have worked hardest to improve this summer. I was bummed to be docked so much on my processing score as I generally feel like editing is one of my strengths but they cited specific photos and I could definitely see the weak spots they were talking about. They were very complimentary about my composition and creativity, and cited my use of color as my greatest strength. That made me happy! I've been asked what benefits I receive as a member of Click Pro. Because I am not in business there are some I'll miss out on - listing in their directory and business opportunities. I do gain access to members-only learning resources, and I'm excited about the continuing education there, as well as feature and mentoring opportunities. But honestly for me the biggest benefit at the moment is being recognized. I have friends and family who admire my photography but it's incredibly validating to have an unbiased, professional voice say "yes, you are a great photographer." And I have a badge to prove it. =)

Looking back on 2019, and looking forward to 2020.

Happy New Year!

It is time for one of our favorite traditions: our new year's poster. Each year we create a poster board with our goals for the coming year. The goals must be quantifiable, so that we can check them off as they are completed, and they must be achievable within the calendar year. At this time we like to assess how we did in the previous year, and look forward to the new goals that we have set for ourselves. 

Family Goals

This past year we did very well on our family/couple goals:

• Successfully move to Colorado: Knocked this one out of the park.
• Family camping trip: We went to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in September, and it was amaaaaaazing.
• Go stargazing: We planned our trip to Black Canyon specifically to accomplish this goal. It's a "certified dark sky" area because of the lack of light pollution. The star gazing there is breathtaking.
• Find a new martial arts school: The week after we moved in we joined Academy of Self Defense here in Grand Junction, and we've been enjoying learning Shorin-ryu.
• Trip to Tennessee: We ended up visiting twice this year, in March and December.
• Create a family budget: We did this over the summer and it's been going pretty well.
• Attend the temple twice: We made it three times this year.
• Weekly "Come Follow Me" family study: This goal evolved over the year. We'd been doing something different for our family scripture study at the beginning of the year, so we set the goal to study from CFM once a week. But at some point we dropped our other schedule and moved to CFM daily with the children. All in all we feel we've been doing well with our family scripture study.
• Weekly date night: Sometimes it's with kids in tow, sometimes it's at home after they're in bed, and sometimes it's kid-free. But each and every week this year we have planned and gone on a date. This is a goal we will probably set each year forever!

And our family goals for 2020:

• Attend the temple twice: Two times a year seems the most practical right now, though we wish we could go more. We are assigned to the Monticello Temple, which is about 3 hours from home. 
• Visit Canyonlands National Park: Never been, but this year is the time!
• Invite new friends to our home: We decided we need to be more social. 
• Take Grandma and Grandpa to Black Canyon of the Gunnison: We loved it so much, we want to share!
• Visit Tennessee: We're going in the summer this time, because we want to see all those trees green! And go swimming. =)
• Visit Twin Lakes: This summer we were driving home from Denver when there was a mudslide near Glenwood Springs. We ended up on this horribly long detour (our 4 hour trip ended up being 9 hours!) But there was a bright side, because we ended up going through this incredibly beautiful area up in the mountains. We decided then and there that we had to come back.
• Weekly date night
• Monthly Family Home Evening: We've never really done FHE, but decided we wanted to set aside time for a formal family home evening each month: lesson, activity, treats and all.

James

It's been a long and busy year for both me and our whole family. I got a new job, we moved to Grand Junction, Colorado, and we've all grown a bit older and (hopefully) wiser. However, let's see how that translated into completing my New Year's goals for 2019.

• Daily Spanish study: I count this one as achieved. I didn't quite do it every single day, but I was really aiming for consistency, and I achieved that. I'd guess I only missed a handful of days across the entire year, and it shows. I can now at least mostly understand written Spanish and I can engage in basic communication.
• Daily reading/audiobook: I didn't achieve this one, but I'm chalking this up to a bad goal (for me). It turns out I don't really do well in forcing myself to read everyday. Instead, I do much better when I can find a good book and tear through it over the course of a few days/weeks. This is reflected in my goal for 2020. 
• Settle finances: This was too vague a goal, but I feel that we mostly accomplished it. We set out a rough budget, have mostly kept to it, and have ideas for how to improve it in this coming year.
• Create and follow a personal exercise plan: This was a resounding success. I've been doing Karate pretty consistently since we started shortly after moving here, and I've also started calorie counting with Valerie (turns out it's a lot easier doing it with someone than by myself). I've lost over 15 pounds this year, and I still have a ways to go for my ultimate weight goal.
• Weekly video journal: This, on the other hand, didn't go too well at all. Out of the possible 52, I only got maybe a quarter of those. I'm reemphasizing this for 2020 and will set myself up to do better. I really feel that this is important for me.
• Bake 12 new recipes: I blew past this one only halfway through the year. The ones I have listed on the board that I made are the following: Bloomer loaf, glazed doughnuts, filled doughnuts, maneesh, banoffee pie, sourdough, eclairs, cast-iron pizza, pesto star bread, lemon cheesecake, sourdough focaccia, and cinnamon star bread.

That done, let's look at my goals for the coming year.

• Daily Spanish study: This one just follows on my previous goal. I'm going to continue in Duolingo for this year, but I'll probably have to shift to something else by the time 2021 rolls around
• Read 12 new books: As noted above, I think this suits my reading style a lot more. It will also give me a bit of a challenge and encourage me to find books I like as opposed to books that I can read every day. I'm most excited for Rhythm of War (hopefully it comes out this year)!
• Ace boot camp: Every new attorney in the Colorado Public Defender must do what's called a boot camp after they've completed basic training. What I need to do is find a complex, real felony case and prep it for trial. I then spend a week at this boot camp being grilled on and testing out each aspect of my trial prep. I'm a bit nervous to be honest, but I feel confident that I can do well so long as I'm prepared, and that's really the point of this goal.
• Weekly Come Follow Me: This past year we did Come Follow Me with the family, and it went fairly well. However, I was never really prepared enough, and I want to change that this year. Every Sunday, I'm going to read through all of the material and the thoughts included in each section so I can more readily discuss it with my family.
• Get to 190: I started the year at 215, and I'm down to 200 (even lower than that before Christmas and its attendant feasts). I believe another 10 pounds is realistic and challenging, so we'll see how it goes!
• Bake 24 new recipes: This will be significantly more challenging than last year's. I've run out of the easy recipes that I want to make, and 24 recipes is a lot (especially considering I also want to lose weight...). I'll just have to get more creative!
• Weekly video journal: I'm determined to do better this time around. I'll set a timer in my phone for each Sunday and make sure it gets done.

Those are my goals. I hope to be a better, healthier, wiser, and more experienced man by the time next New Year's rolls around. Wish me luck!

Valerie

I feel generally quite pleased with how my goals went in 2019. Let's examine:

• Earn 5th Dan: In January I completed my Master's Test and earned my 5th degree black belt in taekwondo. It was a ton of work, especially considering that I had a baby in December. It was an achievement I'm very proud of.
• Finish "The Seventh Guardian" revisions: Finishing Book 3 has been on my posters for several years now, so it was a HUGE relief to complete this goal. We'll know how to move forward when we receive feedback on this draft from our editor.
• Project 52 with Clickin Moms: The goal was to take at least one photo each week following specific prompts. This was a fun goal that has set me up for this year's photography goal, see below.
• Journal weekly: I'm counting this one as complete, though I did miss a few weeks here and there. Like James, I was aiming for consistency and I feel I achieved that.
• Learn Photoshop: This was a scary goal for me, but in May I took a class that basically changed my world. I have come to absolutely love Photoshop and editing in general, and view it almost as a separate awesome hobby from photography.
• Read 5 new books: I ended up reading 8 new books this year. I read Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Assassin's Quest, Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians, Just Mercy, The Orphan Keeper, and Muddy. 
• Finish the Duolingo Spanish tree: I'm suuuuuper close. It doesn't help that Duolingo added a bunch of new content this year! I feel good about this goal even though I didn't quite complete it.
• Take a yoga class: This one just didn't happen. =P

Now for my 2020 goals:

• Write "Allspeaker": This is a novel I've had on the back burner for awhile. I've taken a break from writing for a few months after finishing Book 3. But this coming year I'm determined to complete a draft of Allspeaker.
• Complete Project 365: This is a goal that I'm nervous about. The goal is to take (and hopefully share) a photograph every day this year. I am pretty close to shooting daily as it is, but I want to be more deliberate about it. My hope is to discover more creative perspectives in shooting my daily life, and  to become more consistent in style.
• Plant a garden (and hopefully keep it alive): I have never grown a garden before. I have, at most, planted pots of cherry tomatoes. So this is a pretty big undertaking for me! We redid our landscaping this year, and included a garden space. I have a lot to learn but I hope to find at least some success!
• Attend Insta-Inspire: In April I will be going to a photography retreat in Phoenix. I am super nervous about it. I am purely a hobbyist photographer so I have a bit of impostor syndrome! But I hope that it will be fun and that I will learn a ton.
• Referee at the Colorado State Championships: What with our moves and having babies, I've been out of the referee circuit for a few years. I want to start getting back into refereeing taekwondo, so I've set a modest goal of working this one event in 2020.
• Read 10 new books: Five was easy last year, so I'm pushing myself a bit more by setting my goal at 10. I've found it hard to make time for reading since having children, but I'm a lot happier when I do.
• Weekly Come Follow Me study: My plan is to dedicate time each Sunday to actually study the scriptures for the coming week. We do pretty well at reading scriptures with our children every day, but my own personal study has been lacking, and my goal this year is to take the time for myself.

Joel

When James and I started talking about our goals for this year, Joel jumped in and said that he wanted to set some goals too. So we talked about it with him, and these are the goals he decided to set.

• Ride a bike without training wheels: He's pretty close, I don't think this will take him long.
• Read a chapter book solo: He's become such a good reader, so this will push him to the next level.
• Run faster: Joel was adamant about this goal. I don't like vague goals, but we haven't figured out how to measure it yet, so we're putting it up as is.

Xander

• Read and write the alphabet: Xander surprises me with the things he picks up all the time, but the alphabet has been slow in coming. So we're determined to master it this year!

Summer Bucket List

At the beginning of summer the boys and I created our "Summer Bucket List." Joel, Xander and I came up with a bunch of things that we wanted to do over the course of our summer. We have enjoyed having adventures and checking things off! I thought it would be fun to recap all in one place. I didn't get photos of *everything* but I got most!

Make a cardboard rocketship

Run in the sprinklers

Visit 2 new parks

Visit 2 new parks

Swim lessons

Visit the Colorado National Monument

Eat otterpops

Make a sidewalk chalk mural

Camping

Go down a waterslide (I didn't get any shots of the slide but it happened!)

Find a cool new picture spot
This was obviously one of my additions to the list. We had fun exploring this local lavender farm!

Lake day / Build a sandcastle

Roast s'mores

Eat snowcones

Go to a museum - Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Gelato on Main Street

Bowling selfie!

Explore a local orchard

The last thing we have to check off is our upcoming trip to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison where we will be camping and stargazing. We were planning on going in June but ended up having to reschedule for September. We'll still count it. =) But as Joel starts school this week our summer as such has come to a close. It's been a good one!

Home Sweet Home

Our new home brings us so much joy! So naturally we wanted to show it off. =) We moved in on March 30th and have been settling in nicely (sans an unfortunate adventure in our crawl space--ugh!). Today I finally felt like everything was looking good enough to take some photos and do a video tour. Happily I present, as Xander likes to say, "my Colorado house!"

And because I'm me, I also took photos. Joel insisted on being in every single one, because he's silly and awesome like that. 

View from the front entry

"Family room"

"Sitting room"

Dining room

Glorious kitchen

It's so silly, but I just love the pantry door

Kitchen

Kids bathroom

Playroom

Playroom

Office

Master bedroom

Taekwondo shrine in the master bedroom =)

Master bath <3

Holley dojang in the garage

Backyard

We have major plans for the backyard. I will probably end up posting progress updates, but we'll see how it goes!

Backyard

We are seriously in love with our new home. The interior is everything that we really wanted, and we are excited to invest time, money, and effort into the backyard to make it equally nice. It is so wonderful to finally feel like we can put down roots. It's time to make our house into our forever home!