2024 Game Plan

Closing the books on 2023 and looking ahead to the new year

It’s one of my favorite times of year, this quiet close to a joy-filled (but also hectic and full) season. As I’m writing this, my oldest boys are building legos, my youngest boy is snuggled up on the couch watching Home Alone 3, and baby is (finally) napping atop my linen duvet. I’m snacking on the tinful of homemade Mexican wedding cookies currently on my night stand, laptop over the covers in bed. No midday school pick-ups. No holiday obligations. The perfect lull.

There’s a lot I could say about 2023 but it was, in one word, overwhelming. I felt like I never quite had the bandwidth to manage everything on my plate (even with “everything” being mostly good things). A short list of what didn’t work: 4-6 a.m. and 8-12 p.m. being my primary “office” hours; doing a lion’s share of the household chores; and not keeping our budget up to date on Mint. But in this liminal space between Christmas and New Year’s, what I really want to do is look ahead to the new year. Given what I’ve learned in 2023, I’m putting into practice a few things for 2024:

Time crafting.

I knew from the opening chapter of Happier Hour that this book was for me. UCLA Management professor Cassie Holmes describes being so overwhelmed that she fantasizes about quitting everything and moving away; I told my husband I had never felt so seen. While I’m already familiar with planning an ideal week, I love how Cassie talks about placing the joyful activities immediately after nonnegotiable obligations. It reminded me of the line in Mary Oliver’s poem Don’t Hesitate—joy is not made to be a crumb. One such joyful activity I plan to prioritize in 2024: writing for this Substack.

Back to the basics: sleep/healthy meals/fitness.

I turned 37 earlier this month, and at the top of my wishlist? A solid night’s sleep. Consistently. I’m just a happier person when I don’t have to sacrifice sleep. After sending back a different mattress, I’ve been very happy with my WinkBed and combined with my early bedtime, my sleep has dramatically improved (and so has my mood). We’re still eating way too many sugary treats, but Alex Snodgrass’ new cookbook arrived, and I’m feeling inspired to cook with more dark, leafy greens, farmer’s market vegetables, and avocados, of course 😉. Jenn Eats Goood’s grocery budget series posts—e.g. How to Turn a $55 Grocery Haul into 20 Healthy Meals—are also on my list to try. While my Peloton has been horribly underused this year, I have been regularly going to Pilates classes. I have no particular health “goal” for 2024, but healthy habits are high on my list. 

Side note: for anyone looking to sub in more nonalcoholic beverages, wildwonder makes my favorite sparkling probiotic drinks.

No New Things January.

Anyone else hungover from the Christmas consumption? December is the highest spend month in our family. In January, I did a No New Things challenge where I was free to buy things secondhand or borrow but put a pause on new purchases of things—clothes, shoes, home decor, candles, etc. Basically anything non-essential. Experiences are exempt. The challenge is an exercise in resourcefulness and shopping your own home. In 2024, I want to see if I can keep the challenge going for longer than a month.

An heirloom home.

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about heirloom items and what I realize I want to craft is an heirloom home. I only want things in the house that are greatly functional and useful for our current season or are worth passing down, like my well-loved Le Creuset. I want a curated wardrobe of high quality pieces that will have my daughter digging through my closet for cool “vintage” pieces one day. I want quality furniture with great lines that won’t end up in a landfill in a handful of years. I want more of the sentimental decor items like the vintage brass rocking horse I scored in a Healdsburg antique store on a birthday trip and less of the generic big box items. Not only do I want heirloom things, but I’ve also been thinking a lot about what traditions, rhythms, practices, and values I want to hand down to my kids. In 2024, I want to continue to cultivate a home that feels special and uniquely ours.

Annual family summit/weekly family meetings.

I have a whole post planned about our family summit and another on our family meetings, which we started doing last month. The TL;DR is that I bought The Family Workbook from Cultivate What Matters, and it was one of my best purchases of 2023. One of our household values and expectations is shared responsibility, which means that everyone in the family has a role to play in keeping the wheels turning. Family meetings are an opportunity to share calendars for the week, take any dinner requests, and reassign chores. In 2024, we plan to continue the meetings as a regular connection point and a practice in numbering our days (Psalm 90:12).

2x/month date nights.

We were pretty good about date nights in 2023, and I want to keep it up in 2024. I need them for my sanity, and we need them for our marriage. Twice a month has proved to be doable even with four kids. On the docket for 2024: more lunch dates (while baby naps in the stroller) since there are a variety of good restaurants by my husband’s office. A good meal and quality time are my love languages, so here’s to being filled up in 2024.

Keep pursuing minimalism.

The goal that’s consistently been on my list for the last three years is to completely declutter and organize my house. We still haven’t gotten there. It’s a two steps forward, one step back kind of situation. But I still have this vision of sipping coffee in a serene home lit by custom light fixtures with classical music playing in the early dawn before the kids wake up. It may not stay calm during the day, but I want it to be easy to reset and quick to get back to baseline … and the only way we can do that is with less stuff. In 2024, I’m planning to keep up with donation runs, and consume carefully, knowing that managing fewer things is not only better for the environment, and our bank account, but also better for my sanity. A new mantra: I am happy to let go of the things that no longer work for me.

6-8 p.m. no phone zones.

We haven’t tried this practice yet, but I want to give it a shot in the new year. Like most people, I do everything on my phone—shop, book appointments, manage our family calendar, take photos. I’m almost never without it. Now that our older kids are at the age when they’ll be getting phones soon, I want to model proper detachment from phone use. Also, my husband continues to get work calls during dinner and getting-all-the-kids-ready-for-bed hours, which, frankly, I find annoying. In 2023, we implemented “screen-free Sunday” which basically meant no video games since we still turned on the Sunday football games, but I’d personally love to have even less screen time in 2024.

The Bible Recap.

I was going to save this for a January start date, but after a convicting message at church, I decided to start on my birthday earlier this month. The Bible Recap is as its title states, a one-year guide to reading and understanding the whole Bible. The chunks of time required for more in-depth Bible study (using a study like Jen Wilkin’s) are just not available to me right now, but reading or listening to a few chapters along with the recap has proved doable. If I have an extra few moments, I like to journal insights and prayers. In 2024, my goal is to complete the 365-day reading plan and guide.

Word for 2024: green.

At an Eras Tour viewing party the other night, the topic of Taylor Swift’s color symbolism came up. One Swiftie said blue means sad, and red is intense. Typically I choose a verb (2023’s was invest), but this entire month, I’ve just kept coming back to the color green. When I think of green, I think of precious gems and jewel tones like emerald. I think of vibrancy, health, growth, reinvention, nature and energy. I think of green pastures and fruitfulness (Psalm 23:2; Jeremiah 17:7-8). And yes, I even think of money—I’m taking on some professional development that will allow me to step up my role in the family businesses over the next few years.

Tell Me More…

That’s it from me. What’s on your list for 2024?