the past couple of years have been so pivotal & life changing for me. sometimes i feel like i need to take a timeout & reflect on all the blessings God has placed upon my life. He is really good.

i really want to make this year mindfully purposeful so i spent some time last week thinking of what i wanted my "word of the year" (WOTY) to be. i haven't done this in the past, but for some reason i felt the need to do one this year. i simply wrote down the first word that came to mind:

unconditional. i want the basis of my actions to come from a place with no conditions. when it comes to friends, i want to be a friend that does not have set expectations. i want to do things genuinely without expecting anything in return. if i do have some sort of expectation, then i need to reconsider what i am doing & why i feel that way. i want to be my own influence & not open doors to what others say. i want to be an unconditional friend. as for family, given this is the year i will become a mom, i want to replicate God's unconditional love for my son. even though he will be under a year old, i want to lead by example & show him compassion & humility towards others.

aside from my personal reflections for 2016, clint & i sat down together & came up with some goals for our family -- all of which conveniently start with the letter "f" so im calling it the "four f goals" ;)

faith. we want to take time personally & as a family to read God's Word through daily devotions. we are aiming to read through the whole Bible via the YouVersion Bible app plan. we both agree that this will be a top priority, especially reading with eliott. i can't wait for the three of us to have that downtime  once he is here & we get into the swing of things.

family. this one will definitely evolve as eliott grows however we committed to spending at least one date night a month just the two of us. in addition, we'd like to carve out some weekly "face-to-face" time whether it's over dinner at home while the baby is sleeping (wishful thinking? hehe) or before we head to bed (sleeping...wishful thinking too?), just to talk & catch up on life. sidenote - my sister sent me a link to datebox, a monthly subscription that sends you a date activity you can do with your significant other at home. we get our first one end of this month!

finances. we've both been very blessed with great jobs & never really had a "tight" budget to follow. however with eliott making his appearance very soon, we have a new priority in our life to care for. with that, we want to be more aware of what we spend & start saving for eliott's future -- eeks, we are really really parents!

fitness. luckily we've both been pretty active since my imago days from summer 2014, but now with my pregnancy coming to an end, i'm motivated to get back to my pre-preggo shape. we each set a goal of training for an event in the upcoming year. i would like to get back to running & complete a 5K & 10K -- never ran a whole one before! can't wait to get back into running. my pregnancy has really shown me where my trouble areas are & how weak my back is so would like to focus on strengthening those muscles (hello back & booty!) more than i have in the past. i'm really looking forward to sharing my postpartum journey here!

excited for 2016 & all it will bring. how about you? any goals? what's your WOTY?