**Finding Connection and Growth through Community**

Our group has been meeting up each week to discuss our book, "Nothing to Prove While We Can Stop Trying So Hard" by Janine Allen. This book is essentially about acknowledging that we're not enough and it's okay to accept that. As a woman, I think many of us can relate to feeling like we need to measure up and constantly strive for more. The book's message is one of liberation from the pressure to be perfect and instead embracing our imperfections.

**Embracing Vulnerability and Openness**

One of my goals for this year is to focus on building deeper connections with other women in my life. I've been invited to join a group that values openness, transparency, and vulnerability. Our weekly discussions have been a game-changer for me, as I feel seen and heard in a way I haven't experienced before. Sharing our struggles and achievements with one another has created a safe space where we can support each other without judgment.

**Personal Growth and Development**

As for my personal goals, I've been focusing on nurturing my relationship with God. This includes deepening my faith and finding ways to live out my values in everyday life. I've also been trying to be more intentional about being there for the women in my life who need me. Whether it's praying for them or simply being a listening ear, I want to use my gifts and talents to make a positive impact on those around me.

**Debt, Home, and Family**

At home, we're working towards paying off our debt and settling into our new house. It's not an easy task, but we're committed to making progress one step at a time. We've also been focusing on being a great family unit, with a focus on supporting my son Noah as he navigates his therapies and treatments. The fact that he's now approved for waiver coverage has taken a huge weight off our shoulders, allowing us to focus on his growth and well-being without the added stress of financial burdens.

**A Year of Goals and Expectations**

As I look ahead to this year, I want to set realistic goals for myself. While it's tempting to aim high and try to accomplish everything at once, I've learned that this often leads to burnout and disappointment. Instead, I'm focusing on just two or three things that truly matter to me, and working hard to achieve those. This approach allows me to maintain a sense of purpose and fulfillment without getting overwhelmed.

**Realistic Expectations**

I think it's easy to get caught up in the idea that we need to have long lists of goals and achievements to measure our success. But the truth is, life is about being present and enjoying the journey, not just checking off boxes on a to-do list. If you have two or three things you want to accomplish this year, rock those goals! Don't be afraid to scale back if they become too overwhelming.

**Conclusion**

That's my take on what I hope to achieve in 2020. I'm excited to see where the year takes me and how I grow as a person. Whether it's through deepening my faith, building connections with others, or simply enjoying life's everyday moments, I want to make sure that this year is one of growth, love, and fulfillment.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso I realized that we're already a month and like over a month into the new year and I stopped talking about my goals for this year but I'd say it's never too late to talk about goals you won't accomplish but that's just me so today I'm going to share with you all my 2020 goals which isn't a ton I am a very goal-oriented person that is what I thrive on I thrive on lists and routine and checking things off all of my list makers out there will know that there's just nothing more satisfying than writing something like your to-do list and then like checking it off and running through it I always start off with something I've already done just that can like cross it out I know I know I'm not the only one so yeah I'm a goal-oriented person but I try to be realistic and not set a ton of goals for myself without the year because it's just time energy I am a mom of a special-needs child that requires a lot of my time and energy I also you know work from home I have this I have photography a very involved in two churches and it's just hard team a up with like everything it's constantly like I'm juggling and I'm always waiting for one ball to drop and there is always going to be a ball that drops let me just tell you that right now so dolls are good yes but setting too many is unrealistic just be honest but the goals you want to accomplish is here and that is exactly what I'm doing with this year in particular I don't have barely any reading goals because I feel like I'm very strong my reading game and I have been for a while and I want to work on other things so yeah oh my gosh long a century over let's talk him on the goal don't talk about reading personal all that stuff so first goal we always have to talk about how many books do you want to read this year I always kind of set it to 50 but I really aim for a hundred and last year was the first year I didn't reach that goal I read like 91 and I was thought I was gonna be really upset about it but I wasn't so yeah I'm gonna set it for 50 this year I think last year I really focused on quantity over quality which I always say I don't want to do so this year I'm gonna reverse that thing and I'm really focus on quality over quantity so far we only 50 books this year that's fine but maybe there's like maybe there's 40 others 50 that are just really quality amazing here's to hope it's 50 books yeah another reading going I want to talk about it's kind of expanding my bubbles so if you guys know I started off this channel many moons ago and I really read why predominantly and over the past few years that is shifted quite dramatically I would say that I think last year I read like um I think why a scraped out by I think why I won by like five books but mostly I read kind of on the same parallel this year I really want to focus on reading more adult books because I feel like that is what I really love will I ever leave why a probably not I love a good wide contemporary we all know this I love a good Y fantasy we all know this but I do tend to enjoy adult books more knows next year could be like I want to read all why a there's no rhyme or reason or rules to reading if you own real mental grade do it like there's no rules to it but anyway hey I want to read in particular this year more adult books like I said I want to make it the most sean revive read this year but I also want to read more thriller books I've said how much I enjoy them but every year I only read like five or six and every year I'm like I should probably read more because I do enjoy it so that's what I want to focus on this year is reading adult thrillers and finding some that I love because I just want to do a video of really sharing my favorite favorite thrillers and I don't feel like I have a full set of throw books that I've read that I just love and adore so that's what I want to work on I also want to read one horror book just one because I don't do horror I don't like scary thing cousin I think one would be enough to fill me for five years honestly because I they scare me so I want to read one horror book in particular I would not mind reading one Stephen King book I think I just want to try it and just see how it is so leave your recommendation I'm not gonna read it there's no way I'm gonna do that because number one that is a very long book number two that's a little bit too scary for me so just leave a horror book down below that is scary but like you think I can handle I just want to read one to say I've read it to expand my genre speaking of which I want to read one classic this year I know I feel like every year I'm like oh he's what I read in five classics one classic and I never read a classic because I am nautical secretor and I'm okay with that I have accepted that about myself but there is one classic I want to read in particular and that is little woman by Louisa May Alcott the new adaptation got released everyone says how much they loved it and people loved the book and say it's a pretty easy book to read is both of them this is like over 800 pages I believe so fun stuff but it's very small book but this is the one classic this is the classic I'm gonna focus on this year and I really want to read it so I can watch both adaptations and just do a video all about honestly so yeah that's my reading goals of the year is I would say read predominantly adult books read more thrillers read a and read a classic if I do love that I will be very very happy with the year I don't know so moving on to personal goals I don't have too many of these because I don't know my big thing that I want to do this year that I really really want to focus on and it's probably my number one goal of the whole year is to develop a closer relationship with God if you guys don't know yes I am religious yes I'm Christian I don't talk about a lot my channel because I know that it's very controversial everyone has different opinions on religions and politics and things like that I never want this and I just you know it's it's personal and I understand that but I also feel like I should share with you about myself and yes I am very religious and I want to work on that I feel like my relationship has not been the best with God over the last few years and I really this year want to focus on that I really had a bad really hard time with anxiety the last part of 2018 which I might do a whole video about it was it was very bad and I turned to God and it was really amazing for me and it really opened up the doors a lot to my relationship with him and this year I want to focus on that like I really want to I just really want to get deeper in my relationship with the Lord and just focus in on that because that is just everything to me so this year that is my number one goal is to just get a deeper connection a deeper relationship with the Lord and with that I have some tools that I think are going to be amazing for me to do that the goal the really want to do this year is read the Bible completely I have never read the Bible from front to back that is a feat the Bible is big and it is daunting at times we have such books if you are familiar the bylaws like Leviticus and Deuteronomy those are Old Testaments not fun I'm just gonna put it up there so that's kind of where I get scared about it but my church is actually doing a whole year of reading the Bible with them we have like a schedule for each week and we're actually reading every night or sister read a chapter from the Old Testament and a chapter for the New Testament because like I said the Old Testament is very dry leviticus numbers it's just it's tough I haven't even gotten there yet and I'm already dressed and so that's why reading the New Testament as well it's much easier to read so right now I think we're on week four so right now we're up to UM Genesis like 26 and Matthew 26 which I'm really enjoying Matthew Genesis is also a great one yeah that's my goal and I just I don't want to do this every year I would like my husband I have both made it our goal this year it's to read the Bible from start to finish and attire we both just want to say we've read it once in our lives and we have you know read the Bible front to back so that's what we're both working on this is both this is the thing that we're both doing and I think it's really helping our relationship and like I said it's helping our relationship get closer to God with that as well I have some devotionals I thrive on devotional so every morning when I wake up the first thing I do is a devotional and it's just a quick one it's not long because like I said I'm a mom I have to get my kid up for school I have to do 50 things you know so a quick devotional is great for me so the one I picked up for right now is called hashtag mom live devotional study an invitation to catch your breath so with the way this is designed is every week it begins and starts on a topic so this first week we talked about being I just got it this year so I just got it this sister past weeks that's why it's called overwhelmed so they focus on a version they focus on feeling overwhelmed and everyday you're just supposed to do a daily reflection in that week of sharing a verse and talking and asking questions things like that and then at the next week after that you go in another subject which is called health for next week so I love this already I think it's great I always recommend a good devotional because that's just amazing um also that last religious thing I promise I have joined a woman's Bible study group and I've never joined that before because I love my church yes but I haven't found my niche of where I fit in I have two groups that I volunteer and that I love and adore I'm part of the photography team and the photographer name is tight I love it I love taking pictures and doing that I'm also part of the AVT more like do the slides for the songs and the sermons and I love that as well but I haven't found a group of woman that I truly connect with and then I was invited to this woman's Bible group and it has been really amazing for me and what I love about this group is that there's not one set age for this group there are some women in here that are in their 50s or 60s and then I'm the s-1 and there and I'm the youngest one there's like woman from the 30s from their 40s from their 50s and there's about 11 or 12 of us and we meet up each we meet up each week and we talk about this book right here this is our book right now it's called nothing to prove while we can stop trying so hard by Janine Allen and this is basically are you trying your best to measure up yet you still feel as if you're losing ground you are not alone and it's just the religious book talking about how we're not enough and it's okay not to be enough which is something that I need to hear a lot which is something I think every woman every person every mom needs to hear that you know you're never gonna measure up and it's okay and that's okay so basically you re to talk through this every week and we meet up and we talk about it and if we learn more about each other we learn about each other's lives and we share about our struggles and our achievements and we just really be and we're just really open and transparent with each other and I love that I have been waiting so long to be a part of a group where I could just find a woman where I could just be me and they accept me for me and I think this is great and I just love it I love these women so dearly we've only made many for like three or four weeks they this group has been there for a while but I was just invited so I'm so honored to be a part so yeah those are my big goals for this year is the reading goals yes but to really focus in on my relationship with God whether that be my relationship directly with him my relationship with women like finding woman that I can just connect with that I can call and be like pray for me I I need you to help things like that you know to be more to be more involved in my church I love my church so much and we also help out on another church it's very very small and that's part of our family um so that's just my main thing I'm sorry if you're not religious and I've really overdone it on that I just you know I don't talk about a lot so I thought it'd be okay to talk about in this video but I just want to be open and transparent with you and I hope that is okay as far as other personal goals I mean I think a whole goal for us in this house it's just to fix it up my husband is like itching his hands desperately to fix up the house but you know we're also really trying to get all of our debt paid this year so getting your debt paid fixing up a house it's you know it's tough last year we freaking sold our house moved into this house so you know each year's gonna be slow slow but steady that's just something we want to do as always I want to focus on being a really amazing mom to my son Noah and doing everything I can for him we are so lucky that last year that he was approved for this waiver that covers all of his therapies and he's now in behavioral therapy speech therapy and occupational therapy like every week and it's just amazing and we're so I'm uh I can't tell you how thankful I am to be approved for that because I did not think I we were gonna because it's a very hard thing to get on the weight it's a very hard thing to get the waiver so the fact that we have that the fact that he has his therapies that he can get all of his therapies covered and we don't have to worry talked about money because that's that's so expensive I just I'm so happy and I just know he's growing and thriving and I want to see that continue in 2020 and I want to do bigger and better things for him for whatever he needs I want to make sure that he gets any therapies things like that I want to make sure because he deserves it so yeah that's all my goals that was a long and lofty video but I hope that's okay that I shared all that I hope that's okay but I would love to hear what goals you have for this year are you setting out a ton for yourself or you try to be more realistic and be more honest and open about the things you really can't accomplish and things that you can't accomplish and remember it's ok time to accomplish a long list that's not what life is about it's about being realistic and making sure you're happy with yourself and you're happy with what you want to do in your life if you have two things you want to accomplish this year that's great Rock those two things and be happy with it you have 50 things that's a lot but if you want to do that you go for it but I would love to hear what you have goals for this year and what you're doing to achieve them thank you guys so much for watching and I will see you next video byeso I realized that we're already a month and like over a month into the new year and I stopped talking about my goals for this year but I'd say it's never too late to talk about goals you won't accomplish but that's just me so today I'm going to share with you all my 2020 goals which isn't a ton I am a very goal-oriented person that is what I thrive on I thrive on lists and routine and checking things off all of my list makers out there will know that there's just nothing more satisfying than writing something like your to-do list and then like checking it off and running through it I always start off with something I've already done just that can like cross it out I know I know I'm not the only one so yeah I'm a goal-oriented person but I try to be realistic and not set a ton of goals for myself without the year because it's just time energy I am a mom of a special-needs child that requires a lot of my time and energy I also you know work from home I have this I have photography a very involved in two churches and it's just hard team a up with like everything it's constantly like I'm juggling and I'm always waiting for one ball to drop and there is always going to be a ball that drops let me just tell you that right now so dolls are good yes but setting too many is unrealistic just be honest but the goals you want to accomplish is here and that is exactly what I'm doing with this year in particular I don't have barely any reading goals because I feel like I'm very strong my reading game and I have been for a while and I want to work on other things so yeah oh my gosh long a century over let's talk him on the goal don't talk about reading personal all that stuff so first goal we always have to talk about how many books do you want to read this year I always kind of set it to 50 but I really aim for a hundred and last year was the first year I didn't reach that goal I read like 91 and I was thought I was gonna be really upset about it but I wasn't so yeah I'm gonna set it for 50 this year I think last year I really focused on quantity over quality which I always say I don't want to do so this year I'm gonna reverse that thing and I'm really focus on quality over quantity so far we only 50 books this year that's fine but maybe there's like maybe there's 40 others 50 that are just really quality amazing here's to hope it's 50 books yeah another reading going I want to talk about it's kind of expanding my bubbles so if you guys know I started off this channel many moons ago and I really read why predominantly and over the past few years that is shifted quite dramatically I would say that I think last year I read like um I think why a scraped out by I think why I won by like five books but mostly I read kind of on the same parallel this year I really want to focus on reading more adult books because I feel like that is what I really love will I ever leave why a probably not I love a good wide contemporary we all know this I love a good Y fantasy we all know this but I do tend to enjoy adult books more knows next year could be like I want to read all why a there's no rhyme or reason or rules to reading if you own real mental grade do it like there's no rules to it but anyway hey I want to read in particular this year more adult books like I said I want to make it the most sean revive read this year but I also want to read more thriller books I've said how much I enjoy them but every year I only read like five or six and every year I'm like I should probably read more because I do enjoy it so that's what I want to focus on this year is reading adult thrillers and finding some that I love because I just want to do a video of really sharing my favorite favorite thrillers and I don't feel like I have a full set of throw books that I've read that I just love and adore so that's what I want to work on I also want to read one horror book just one because I don't do horror I don't like scary thing cousin I think one would be enough to fill me for five years honestly because I they scare me so I want to read one horror book in particular I would not mind reading one Stephen King book I think I just want to try it and just see how it is so leave your recommendation I'm not gonna read it there's no way I'm gonna do that because number one that is a very long book number two that's a little bit too scary for me so just leave a horror book down below that is scary but like you think I can handle I just want to read one to say I've read it to expand my genre speaking of which I want to read one classic this year I know I feel like every year I'm like oh he's what I read in five classics one classic and I never read a classic because I am nautical secretor and I'm okay with that I have accepted that about myself but there is one classic I want to read in particular and that is little woman by Louisa May Alcott the new adaptation got released everyone says how much they loved it and people loved the book and say it's a pretty easy book to read is both of them this is like over 800 pages I believe so fun stuff but it's very small book but this is the one classic this is the classic I'm gonna focus on this year and I really want to read it so I can watch both adaptations and just do a video all about honestly so yeah that's my reading goals of the year is I would say read predominantly adult books read more thrillers read a and read a classic if I do love that I will be very very happy with the year I don't know so moving on to personal goals I don't have too many of these because I don't know my big thing that I want to do this year that I really really want to focus on and it's probably my number one goal of the whole year is to develop a closer relationship with God if you guys don't know yes I am religious yes I'm Christian I don't talk about a lot my channel because I know that it's very controversial everyone has different opinions on religions and politics and things like that I never want this and I just you know it's it's personal and I understand that but I also feel like I should share with you about myself and yes I am very religious and I want to work on that I feel like my relationship has not been the best with God over the last few years and I really this year want to focus on that I really had a bad really hard time with anxiety the last part of 2018 which I might do a whole video about it was it was very bad and I turned to God and it was really amazing for me and it really opened up the doors a lot to my relationship with him and this year I want to focus on that like I really want to I just really want to get deeper in my relationship with the Lord and just focus in on that because that is just everything to me so this year that is my number one goal is to just get a deeper connection a deeper relationship with the Lord and with that I have some tools that I think are going to be amazing for me to do that the goal the really want to do this year is read the Bible completely I have never read the Bible from front to back that is a feat the Bible is big and it is daunting at times we have such books if you are familiar the bylaws like Leviticus and Deuteronomy those are Old Testaments not fun I'm just gonna put it up there so that's kind of where I get scared about it but my church is actually doing a whole year of reading the Bible with them we have like a schedule for each week and we're actually reading every night or sister read a chapter from the Old Testament and a chapter for the New Testament because like I said the Old Testament is very dry leviticus numbers it's just it's tough I haven't even gotten there yet and I'm already dressed and so that's why reading the New Testament as well it's much easier to read so right now I think we're on week four so right now we're up to UM Genesis like 26 and Matthew 26 which I'm really enjoying Matthew Genesis is also a great one yeah that's my goal and I just I don't want to do this every year I would like my husband I have both made it our goal this year it's to read the Bible from start to finish and attire we both just want to say we've read it once in our lives and we have you know read the Bible front to back so that's what we're both working on this is both this is the thing that we're both doing and I think it's really helping our relationship and like I said it's helping our relationship get closer to God with that as well I have some devotionals I thrive on devotional so every morning when I wake up the first thing I do is a devotional and it's just a quick one it's not long because like I said I'm a mom I have to get my kid up for school I have to do 50 things you know so a quick devotional is great for me so the one I picked up for right now is called hashtag mom live devotional study an invitation to catch your breath so with the way this is designed is every week it begins and starts on a topic so this first week we talked about being I just got it this year so I just got it this sister past weeks that's why it's called overwhelmed so they focus on a version they focus on feeling overwhelmed and everyday you're just supposed to do a daily reflection in that week of sharing a verse and talking and asking questions things like that and then at the next week after that you go in another subject which is called health for next week so I love this already I think it's great I always recommend a good devotional because that's just amazing um also that last religious thing I promise I have joined a woman's Bible study group and I've never joined that before because I love my church yes but I haven't found my niche of where I fit in I have two groups that I volunteer and that I love and adore I'm part of the photography team and the photographer name is tight I love it I love taking pictures and doing that I'm also part of the AVT more like do the slides for the songs and the sermons and I love that as well but I haven't found a group of woman that I truly connect with and then I was invited to this woman's Bible group and it has been really amazing for me and what I love about this group is that there's not one set age for this group there are some women in here that are in their 50s or 60s and then I'm the s-1 and there and I'm the youngest one there's like woman from the 30s from their 40s from their 50s and there's about 11 or 12 of us and we meet up each we meet up each week and we talk about this book right here this is our book right now it's called nothing to prove while we can stop trying so hard by Janine Allen and this is basically are you trying your best to measure up yet you still feel as if you're losing ground you are not alone and it's just the religious book talking about how we're not enough and it's okay not to be enough which is something that I need to hear a lot which is something I think every woman every person every mom needs to hear that you know you're never gonna measure up and it's okay and that's okay so basically you re to talk through this every week and we meet up and we talk about it and if we learn more about each other we learn about each other's lives and we share about our struggles and our achievements and we just really be and we're just really open and transparent with each other and I love that I have been waiting so long to be a part of a group where I could just find a woman where I could just be me and they accept me for me and I think this is great and I just love it I love these women so dearly we've only made many for like three or four weeks they this group has been there for a while but I was just invited so I'm so honored to be a part so yeah those are my big goals for this year is the reading goals yes but to really focus in on my relationship with God whether that be my relationship directly with him my relationship with women like finding woman that I can just connect with that I can call and be like pray for me I I need you to help things like that you know to be more to be more involved in my church I love my church so much and we also help out on another church it's very very small and that's part of our family um so that's just my main thing I'm sorry if you're not religious and I've really overdone it on that I just you know I don't talk about a lot so I thought it'd be okay to talk about in this video but I just want to be open and transparent with you and I hope that is okay as far as other personal goals I mean I think a whole goal for us in this house it's just to fix it up my husband is like itching his hands desperately to fix up the house but you know we're also really trying to get all of our debt paid this year so getting your debt paid fixing up a house it's you know it's tough last year we freaking sold our house moved into this house so you know each year's gonna be slow slow but steady that's just something we want to do as always I want to focus on being a really amazing mom to my son Noah and doing everything I can for him we are so lucky that last year that he was approved for this waiver that covers all of his therapies and he's now in behavioral therapy speech therapy and occupational therapy like every week and it's just amazing and we're so I'm uh I can't tell you how thankful I am to be approved for that because I did not think I we were gonna because it's a very hard thing to get on the weight it's a very hard thing to get the waiver so the fact that we have that the fact that he has his therapies that he can get all of his therapies covered and we don't have to worry talked about money because that's that's so expensive I just I'm so happy and I just know he's growing and thriving and I want to see that continue in 2020 and I want to do bigger and better things for him for whatever he needs I want to make sure that he gets any therapies things like that I want to make sure because he deserves it so yeah that's all my goals that was a long and lofty video but I hope that's okay that I shared all that I hope that's okay but I would love to hear what goals you have for this year are you setting out a ton for yourself or you try to be more realistic and be more honest and open about the things you really can't accomplish and things that you can't accomplish and remember it's ok time to accomplish a long list that's not what life is about it's about being realistic and making sure you're happy with yourself and you're happy with what you want to do in your life if you have two things you want to accomplish this year that's great Rock those two things and be happy with it you have 50 things that's a lot but if you want to do that you go for it but I would love to hear what you have goals for this year and what you're doing to achieve them thank you guys so much for watching and I will see you next video bye\n"