It’s a new year and I am so excited to really get started on my word of the year! Usually I’ve got a pretty good idea of what word I want to use for the next year by about Thanksgiving time; but this year I had a rough time deciding what I wanted to do. I went back and forth on a list of 10 or so different words each with varying degrees of concreteness (think “engage 2018 vs read 2021–read is far more concrete than engage). But finally I just followed my gut and went with the first word I had considered.

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So welcome to Date 2022! This is meant in the very concrete way of: I just want to have way more dates with my love this year! In the past handful of months I have realized just how immensely important it is for Josh and me to just spend time together doing fun things without the kids. Literally every single part of my life is better when I have had a real date with Josh! And I know things are better for him, too. So it’s just a good thing!

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At the beginning of our marriage, I felt like every day was a date! We did go out occasionally on “official” dates; but I definitely felt no lack of connection with Josh. But as kids came, it became harder to go out and easier to get too busy/tired to do planned activities together, and so we really slacked off for … years.

But this past autumn, I felt like it was time to change that. So on weekends where we didn’t have a babysitter (most weekends), we committed to doing planned, legit at-home dates. We did great for about a month, and it truly was fabulous! That month was probably the best one of the whole year! But then “fill-in-the-blank” happened and we got out of the habit again. So it’s time to return!

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So this goal is marvelously simple, but actually still a decent amount of work. It takes lots of planning and effort to secure a babysitter for 5 kids and then get them/the house ready for that babysitter. And it also takes a lot of effort to plan novel, engaging at-home dates–which is why we didn’t do it for so many years. But that time with Josh and me together is truly transformative for both of us! So I’m super excited to have this be my challenge for the year! The official goal is to have a real date every single week. I will be shocked and delighted if that really happens; but if we get anywhere close to that I know it will be wonderful!

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So, this year my goal was simply to read! I never liked reading until I was married, and even then I still didn’t read a ton. So this year, I wanted to start reading some of those “high quality” books on my list. I try to be really realistic about my year-resolution-words and what I want to accomplish; so though I had some lofty dreams associated with this word, I find it a success that I read more this year because of my goal than I would have without it. Thank you to all who gave me recommendations and physical books (my favorite way to read) to help me with my goal! Here are the things I read in conjunction with #Read2021:

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In Full, I read

• Atomic Habits by James Clear–I loved it! But I am a nerd and really enjoy good self-help books. I felt like it was extra cool that the principles taught in this book were included in a General Conference talk this past October!
• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen–Fun and witty, as Jane Austen is wont to be. It kind of made me want to read one of the Gothic novels she is satiring.
• A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle–A fun introduction to Sherlock Holmes (I had never known how he and Watson came to be friends); but I was really cranky because of the false ideas about members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints it portrayed. But I don’t think there are themes like that in other Sherlock Holmes books, so I may venture to read them in the future, in spite of my crankiness.
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling–The kids and I read a new Harry Potter book every summer. It is fun to read them again as I have only read them all once: when they were originally published.
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving–It is all thanks to Fay that we actually finished this one! This book has the most magnificent, florid language and it simply demands to be read out loud. But my only audience is my kids and the beautiful, florid language is completely lost on basically everyone except Fay. But she was even more determined to finish the story than I was, so we succeeded! Thanks, Faymous!
• The Book of Mormon–Translated by Joseph Smith Jr.–In my efforts to follow along with Come Follow Me in 2020, I didn’t actually read all of the Book of Mormon. I primarily followed the prompts in the manual and called that good. So this year, I really wanted to read the whole thing. I’m so grateful that I did. It really is such a blessing to read it and come to know the Savior and understand His plan and gospel a little better each time I do. And I also feel like it is a special experience to accept Moroni’s invitation to ponder and pray about its truthfulness each time I conclude my reading. I liked the whole year’s experience so well that I’m doing it again this year!
• Many children’s books, including, but not limited to: Dory Fantasmagory series, Whatever After books, Dog Man books, Bunnicula (an aboslute classic!), Skinny Bones (laugh out loud funny in some parts), and picture books galore! It is really fun to share reading with my cuties!

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In Part

• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens–I would have loved to finish reading this one to the kids, but you know how Christmastime gets. Every time I read this story or even just watch the movies of it, I just want to be a better, more loving person!
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe–I’ve been trying to get the kids as excited about the Chronicles of Narnia as they are about Harry Potter. So far I have been unsuccessful. 🙂
• You Are Not Your Brain by Jeffrey M. Schwartz–If you’ve ever spoken to me about mental health you have heard all about this book. The principles taught in it have truly changed and saved my life! I feel like they have helped me learn better how to access the power of Jesus Christ in my life. I can’t recommend it highly enough. (Although, if you read it and try out the principles and they don’t work for you, you should let me know so maybe I’ll stop recommending it quite so much.)
• John Adams by David McCullough–This. Book. This is the book that began my reading journey this year. It was the book, above all others, that I wanted to complete. Everyone who had already read it reported that it was SO GOOD and also really long. Well, I can confirm that both of those statements are true. I only made it half way through because, while it really is just so so good, and gives you such a wonderful picture of the Revolutionary War time period and John and Abigail Adams and their personalities, it is just so dense. I didn’t think it seemed all that long. It’s only like 650 pages. But it’s not like Atomic Habits pages that you just fly through. Every page is filled with tons of details and 1700s language, and sometimes really heavy subject matter. It really feels long. But I am still determined to finish it. We’ll see how 2022 goes in that regard. But when I do finish it, I can already tell you that I will have LOTS to say about why John Adams is 10 Billion times better than Alexander Hamilton. Get excited!
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy–This was the single most recommended book on my list of recommendations. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to sit down and read this along with John Adams, so I decided to try Daddy’s suggestion and listen to an audio book version of it. Well, it turns out I also can’t really make time for that, because I only made it through a few chapters. But, after those few chapters, I wasn’t sure that I really wanted to read any more anyway. When Daddy told me about his experience reading this book, he said “At the end of the book, I was just filled with a profound sense of sadness.” Even if it is a marvelously real depiction of the human experience (as I have heard), I don’t know if I ever want to be unnecessarily filled with a profound sense of sadness. We’ll see if I try it again in the future.

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Anyway, I’m so grateful for the wonderful literature there is available to read in this world! And my hope is that my efforts to read more this year will carry over into the rest of my life. If nothing else, I really REALLY do want to finish reading John Adams. 🙂

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