I have put a lot of thought into what I want my 2017 to look like. Our house is on the market and due to my husbands work responsibilities we are being relocated to Nanaimo, a city located on Canada’s beautiful Vancouver Island on the Pacific Ocean. This move feels surreal and is difficult for me to actually belief it will happen!!

With all this uncertainty of when we will move it has made planning my year tricky. I love to renovate homes and so with a new home will that entail a month or two of full on renovations? How far will we be from the kids schools? Will I be a daily taxi service every morning and afternoon? What will my business look like? How will I attract clients? Will I be quilting less customer quilts and spend more time developing curriculum?

What I want my year to look like can be summarized by the word that kept coming to my mind.

PLAY

At first I thought this rather odd. Over the 2 week break I spent a lot of time playing with my kids. We did a lot of swimming, skating, hanging out drawing/watching movies/learning how to cook, we spent time reviewing old goals and setting new ones. I really enjoyed putting off my own projects and focusing on them, however at the end of the two weeks I was ready to get back into my routine with my quilts, my blog and social media.

I decided to ponder on the concept of play. I feel that kids are losing this in their lives, screens screens and more screens are taking a greater part of their lives and imagination, conversation and relationships that are formed during play are being lost. I know for myself if I am all business and timelines I lose a bit of me if I don’t take time to play with fabric. To rip apart an old sheet make a quilt sandwich and just let my hands and mind just go for it.

I thought of an acronym that goes along with PLAY. This will help me keep the balance I need amongst the changes our family will experience and the needs I have as a mom and as a creative person.

P- be Present. Wherever I am and what ever I am doing, I need to be present. Turn the phone off when I am with my kids. Keep my mind on the task at hand and not get distracted by other things.

L- always Learning. I love how much I have learned about quilting and free motion quilting and I love to share it with others. I actually need to always be learning, always pushing myself in all different ways to learn. Contributing to the quilting community is so fulfilling.

A- be Active. Running was a really big part of my life physically and emotionally. I have an injury that has prevented me from running like I used to. Adapt, I can cycle and walk cautiously. So I need to seek out more help from doctors, physio therapy and massage to get back. 

Y- always ask myself with every activity I do, ‘Is this helping me meet my why?’ Time is the great equalizer. Everyone has the same amount of time every day. I am very aware of how I use my time and am very reflective about my use of time and how that time used is meeting my purpose, my Why.

Some of my professional goals are to help people realize their goals by free motion quilting their own quilts, putting their own mark on their quilts. I love to teach. I really enjoyed my 8.5 years as a full-time elementary school teacher. I love to teach at church. Being able to teach at my beloved local quilt shop, Nuts For Bolts Etc over the past 4 years has been a huge blessing for me. I am a very social person and truly value the relationships I make with others.  Although I am leaving my clients/friends I have made here in Red Deer, I am looking forward to new opportunities to teach, not just in Nanaimo and Vancouver Island, but elsewhere. 

I am working towards having my course outlines available on my website where Quilt Guilds, Quilt Shops and groups of interested quilters can contact me to come and teach. 

As I conclude this post I want to encourage you all to think about your ‘why’. Do you have any goals you want to achieve this year and want to share them? Please do.