On Jan.1 I knew I wanted to sit down and talk goals with the family. We had spent the morning before going around the circle talking about our highs and lows. That is always our favourite time of year as we literally review each person...we can hardly touch on everything, but it's always amazing to look back and see what we did, what we learned, what was hard, what was good. After another long tub to soothe his aches, RM came out of his soak with more ideas, more inspiration - a family meeting was called and it was, not coincidentally, to talk about the very things I wanted to talk about - all our goals and how we need to never get complacent.
So, it started off like a board meeting. I loved it. RM handed out a pad of paper to every attendee along with a pen. There was coffee, muffins and nerf guns as well as lots of doodling. RM had an agenda. Now that we have the two tables together it actually looked like a boardroom meeting. I got to share my verses and devotional that talked about how we need to wake up and live our life to the fullest as a Christian. Very inspiring. Then RM shared what he had been reading and the direction he wanted to take our family. Exciting stuff.
Not that we are trying to emulated billionaires, we are not, but if you take a look at some of the most successful people financially in the world, there are a few things they do that set them apart. And, what is very interesting is that they often follow Biblical principles even if they do not believe the Bible, common grace, I guess. Discipline, diligence, no distractions, are a few phrases to describe these guys. Bezos has a very simple morning routine that allows for no sloth at all. He's up early, doesn't press a snooze button, doesn't touch his phone, exercises, eats a healthy breakfast, showers fast, has a coffee, then makes a top 3 goals list and gets his day to a good start. Each child had to make a list of morning routines similar to that in order to have a better start in his day. I've been enforcing early morning wake ups for years, but it's easy to get slack in the winter time when it's dark. The last few mornings have been remarkable to see the younger ones obey their alarm clocks, stumbling down in the dark. So great.
After the meeting was over they were given the task of thinking about more goals and other areas of their lives that they wanted to make some changes, such as financial goals. For me, I was so amazed, looking back over the year at the income I was able to bring in. Because of the trees that I made and sold, as well as the vegetables I grew and sold, as well as the u-pick concord grapes I organized, and the chicken and eggs.....I actually really contributed to our household income! So that decided it for me, I'm determined to keep this up. I joke with RM that I'm going to get a separate bank account, but in a way, I am. I want to try to make enough money on the side that it will seem that I'm not touching our regular income at all or at least make it seem that I'm not. If I can make enough to buy clothes for kids or whatever it is we need, then literally everything else can go to any outstanding debt. Over the course of December, my daughter sold hot chocolate bombs and she made a LOT of money that she was able to put away. I could easily make those. I'm also going to attempt the microgreen business again. I avoided social media all this time, but no longer. As long as I can use it for good, I'm ok with it. I'm going to go "into business" with my 14 year old son. He's desperate for money. He wants to buy bigger and better trampolines as well as a camera so he needs a job, but is too young to get one and we don't want him working just anywhere. So I approached him on the microgreen idea and he's all in. We'll split the money. So these are just a few of the ways I'm thinking of making the money. I'm also going to restart the vine trees, vine balls, etc.
Another way I'm going to make money is by not feeding the family - well, in a way! We are huge meat eaters. Every single day, almost every meal we eat meat. Meat is so expensive! Last year before our anniversary, I did a 40 day vegan diet and was amazed how much I loved it. I have talked with the family about trying a fake vegan diet, at least for a while. Fake vegan is just a funny way of saying "not entirely". By this I mean I will attempt to replace all the dairy and meat with cheaper and healthier alternatives at least half the time or more. Grains are all acceptable so they've been enjoying bagels for breakfast and then I have fresh fruit. I still cook eggs because we have the layers laying so I'm not cutting eggs out. For lunch, I've been making soups. Yesterday we had the most amazing tomato/basil/coconut soup. Again, bread on the side. Dinner was with chicken because we still have the frozen chicken, but I won't do that every single meal. I'm trying to get a lot more veggies in them. I'm going to do as many protein alternatives as I can. By cutting out a lot of meat and dairy and any other juice and just drinking water and tea or coffee, it is way cheaper. Again that'll leave money in the bank that can be used to eliminate debt fast. I expect those who have certain health issues, like sore joints, not the best skin, headaches....they'll see improvements in those areas.
So we met as family and listened for the 3rd meeting in a row to each one's goals. It wasn't a regimented meeting in any way, but just more of a conversation. Some had written things down, others just talked out their ideas. But it was really good to know people were thinking about their upcoming year.
I am so excited for 2021! I can't wait to see what God is going to do with our kids, with our winery, with our goals, with our dreams. RM was quick to finish off our meeting on Jan. 1 with "Lord willing"....no one expected 2020 and a pandemic, so we cautiously, by faith, commit our dreams to Him and say, "Lord willing", as for all we know 2021 could end up being even stranger!
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