Our Holley House: 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

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

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

We're looking forward to a great year!

Our Holley House