I find that the things that matter most to us in our lives often require the most work to achieve. For example, I know a lot of people who would love to have kids and raise a family. But it’s so much more than just the desire. Growing and bearing a child is no joke. Being able to make adequate money to feed, shelter, and do fun things with kids takes diligence, especially if the job isn’t exactly ideal. Chasing them around making sure they don’t get into trouble is exhausting! Thankfully, I’ve already gotten myself into that stage of life, but I still have a lot of dreams that I’m working for!

My husband and I constantly daydream about having our own home. No shared walls, a private backyard… My husband is most excited about having a lawn to mow. And more than just owning our own home, we would love to own it debt-free as soon as possible.

I love my photography business. I love the people I get to meet, I love the creative outlet it gives me, and I love that it shows me that working hard can be so much fun. With that being said though, I want to make my photography business work for me. I want to organize my time in a way that I can choose when I shoot, edit, and work on marketing, and when I get to fully put away my business and be present with my family.

When we’re old and gray (actually, hopefully much sooner than that), I want to see the world with my husband. We would love to see Iceland, parts of Africa, China, Central America, and SO much more!

I want to raise children who love Jesus Christ. He has done so much for us, and I want them to appreciate His sacrifice.

Life is too short to clutter it with things that don’t matter. It’s a never ending process, but I’m working on ridding my life of all those unnecessary things. It includes time wasters just as much as the extra junk we all tend to collect! One of our spring cleaning items this year is to go through our kitchen and donate everything we don’t use. I go through my closet every few months and do the same thing! I think really really hard when buying new things to decide if it’s something I’m really going to treasure or if it’s just going to be another thing that takes up space. It’s been a recent realization that I’ve had that I need to do the same thing with my time! What is MOST important to me, and how can I completely let go of everything else that isn’t? I’m re-reading a book called Essentialism, and it has been an amazing tool with helping me reach my goals with my time!

I have a lot I want to do with my life (and who doesn’t?), but if all else fails, these are the few vital things that when I get to the end of my life, I won’t regret not having done.