2024: week 1.

HELLO 2024. The year the blog is full-on resurrected. But more on that later. In the meantime, you can expect to find these weekly posts here every Monday. GET EXCITED.

My sister does posts like these, and I quite enjoy reading about the details of her days that don’t always make it into a text. And, given that my mom and my sister are basically my primary audience here, I thought it might be a fun way to be consistent in posting.

I’m not exactly sure how it will go, given that I’m a single adult with no children who works a full-time job and often forgets to take photos of basically everything. But I also think a lot about what faith looks like in day-to-day life, so this feels like maybe a glimpse into that. I don’t know. We’ll see what happens.

My goal here isn’t to share what’s in my camera roll or describe my days in detail. Mostly, the goal is to write something about each day, maybe share a photo if I remembered to take one, and hit publish.

Okay, here we go. Week one.

monday, january 1.

It just warms my heart that January started fresh on a Monday the year I decided to do these weekly things. What a nice, clean start. Don’t you think?

Anyway.

I rang in the new year with my best friend SJ. I didn’t take any (shareable) photos from our night this year, so here is one from when we celebrated New Year’s at the beach three years ago.

SJ and I are opposites in almost every way. For example, she shows up at the beach on January 1 in a bathing suit because she wants the full beach experience (even in January). And I come fully clothed and wearing layers because I want my beach experience to be like, a little warmer.

I think that’s kind of the magic of our friendship. We show up in two very different ways, but how we link arms in the middle and go through life together works so well. I need someone like her, and I think she needs someone like me too.

We went back and forth about what we wanted to do for New Year’s this year. Ultimately, we ended up sitting in my living room, literally praying the new year in. I think we both had ideas about what we wished it could’ve been instead, but for 2024, this felt exactly right.

I cannot tell you how expectant I am for this year.

tuesday, january 2.

No photos from this day. No substitute photos for this day. I went back to work after having the week between Christmas and New Year’s off, and that was like, business as usual.

But on Tuesday night, we had our first church service of the year – a worship night. The first Tuesday of the year isn’t always a worship night, but we have always at least ended the night with a praise party. And I think there is no better way to kick off the year than to praise God for what He has already done – that we are about to see – this year.

wednesday, january 3.

Here it is, ladies and gentlemen. Until today (when I knew I would need more visuals in this post), this subpar photo of the cotton candy sky from Wednesday night was the only one I had taken so far in 2024.

(Still, I’m obsessed.)

That night at my church’s prayer night, one of our worship leaders was talking about the year and asked, “What if this was the year that you didn’t just see what God does in you – what if this was the year you saw what God does through you?” Which feels pretty in line with everything else God has been talking to me about for 2024.

thursday, january 4.

I didn’t take any photos on this day, but I did send a Thursday email and that’s the real success.

You might have received that email and didn’t think about it because you’re supposed to get a Thursday email. But what you don’t know is that I wasn’t sure if I was still going to send them. In general. I just didn’t know. I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know how to decide. I’ve been asking God about it.

When I woke up on Thursday morning, I didn’t anticipate sending an email. But then I got an idea and decided to run with it. And the thing I really like about God right now is how He didn’t just say, “Yeah girl, keep sending the emails.” He gave me an idea instead – so I wouldn’t just know to do it but so I had what I needed to do it.

friday, january 5.

I got my hair cut this day. But this photo is from today (Sunday), like an hour ago, when I snapped a quick selfie in my bathroom because what’s more boring than someone telling you they got a hair cut without showing you what it looks like?

Also, I imagine this image will be helpful to my hair girl when I show up next time and she asks what I want to do with it. Normally it’s in exactly that moment that I think, “Oh I should have thought of this sooner. How much did we cut last time?”

saturday, january 6.

No photos. But this is the day all the ingredients went into the pot, I went to bed with them stirring, and I woke up thinking about this blog. I’ll write more about this later, but it was on this day.

sunday, january 7.

This is what serving at church looks like sometimes.

I serve in a few different ways, but today I served on the livestream team – which means I sit in the broadcast room and talk to the people who are watching service online and typing comments in the chat. It’s wild to see where people stream in from, or how you see the same names pop up week after week because they consider this their home church from far away. I love getting to pray for people when they share what they’re needing or believing for. But I think the sweetest part is seeing how other people in the chat respond with prayers and encouragement too.

Aaand that’s a wrap.