2014

Time is a strange reality. Somehow it fools you into thinking that it's moving slowly only for you to suddenly wonder where it's gone. 

That happened to me in 2014. It was an amazing year in my life. Yet it's already nearing an end, and it will simply be boxed up in my memory and stacked away somewhere in my mind. 

It's hard to begin, really. I suppose the most satisfying outcome of this blog post if the future me is reading this is to put down some things that come to mind as I reflect over this past year, while also expressing how I feel in this very moment early in the morning of December 13th, 2014. 

So let's start with this- the biggest milestone and life change in this past year is buying a house. Lindsay and I love our house so far. Being a new homeowner is intimidating at times, but also feels like it's what we're supposed to do. After living in an apartment for the past 2 years, and in a trailer at camp that wasn't ours before that, I can truly say that having a place to call our own is simply...refreshing. We moved in back in October, and I'd say that I'm still adjusting to life as a homeowner. Getting into the house was a little more expensive than planned, which is common, but right now we need to pay some bills. I'm hoping that in the coming months we'll be able to get on more solid ground in that regard. 

In 2014 Judah and Olivia grew up more- Olivia especially. We started to see the goofy side of her personality at a very young age, and this year she really started to grow into it. Every day she makes us all laugh. And this week she finally got potty-trained! I was starting to wonder if it would ever happen, since every time I sat her on the toilet she'd whine and cry. I'm just mostly excited to save some money on diapers :)

Both Judah and Olivia are extremely smart. They both know their ABCs, Olivia can count to 20 and Judah can count to at least 50. Judah can also write all of his letters. The other thing that really impresses me about Judah is what he builds with his legos and train tracks. He comes up with track configurations that I don't think I could have ever though of. It's very impressive.

As for me, I work a lot. I love making videos and storytelling through video. Over the past year I've improved a lot. Reliant and Berean had plenty of work for me to do throughout the year, and I did my biggest freelance project ever for Preferred Popcorn this fall. I also filmed around 15 weddings. It was an insanely busy year. I'm guessing I was involved in somewhere around 100 video projects on some level, but who's counting? I'm hoping I find a little more balance in the future because right now I'm pretty worn out. I've always been a person that's very driven to improve constantly, and I still am, but I could be getting a little burnt out. Everyone has their limit...and this year I learned that I've got a pretty high threshold of work I can take on, but I also have a limit. Another challenging aspect that I've faced since doing freelance work is time off. I never have a day off. Sure, I have "days off" where I don't really work, but on those days I usually feel guilty that I'm not getting work done, which in turn discourages me and makes me not want to work, which makes me more guilty. All that to say- I LOVE what I'm doing and I feel so blessed that I get to create through video for a living. It's awesome...but not perfect...and there's a lot I can take away from 2014 and hopefully learn in the future to make sure that I keep loving it and stay motivated.

So there's that. This post is a little dry but it's late and I'm trying to summarize one of the craziest years of my life in less than a million words. It can't be done. 

One other quick thought. I love Lincoln. It's an awesome town and I'm really enjoying the people that I'm getting to know. But there's another aspect, and that's that 4 of my closest friends live here, plus some other good friends I grew up with. I was just thinking about that last night as I came home from a "bro night." How awesome is it that some of my bros that I grew up with in small town Nebraska also ended up in Lincoln? I've been super busy and haven't really taken advantage of it like I should. There's something to improve on for 2015.

Another thing I hope to improve on in 2015 is self discipline. Wow, I'm terrible at food. Just terrible. For the past 3 years I've done a "biggest loser" contest to start the year with my in-laws. The contest runs 3 months and each year I've done well. But each year I've done terrible at keeping the weight off. Lindsay and I switched to being "vegan-ish" 2 years ago and overall I've been healthier, but I want to be better. Way better. I compromise- it's super easy to avoid meat. But what I really need to avoid is dairy and carbs. But for some reason that's way harder to avoid. So here's my results from the past 3 years. Year 1- lost 15 pounds, gained back 20. Year 2 (switched to being vegan), lost 25 pounds, gained back 15. Year 3, lost 15 pounds, gained back 15 pounds. ALL CAPS ANGER! I'm sick of it. I want to lose 25 pounds this year and keep the freaking weight off. I can be disciplined for  3 months when there's a contest on the line...but afterwords...I eat a lot of cookies. I can be better. 

The last thought I have in regards to 2014 is how much I like Lincoln Berean. Lindsay and I love attending, and we are both on staff there now. I'm really happy Lindsay was able to get a job there- it truly was God at work to make that happen. She applied and then once we had the details for the job we didn't think it would work. She even called them to have her name removed from candidates for the job. But they called her back a week later and said they really wanted her. They were willing to be super flexible and it worked perfectly with our scheduling needs. It's been a huge blessing for her to get out of the house a couple of days a week and work with awesome people. God is good! I really enjoy my job on the youth staff. It's pretty challenging at times, but I love the challenge and I love knowing that God is directly using my work there to reach and teach kids. Not only that, but I really look up to the guys I work with there on the staff, and I'm blessed to call them friends!

So there it is, a crazy year summed up in a quick blog post. I always say this when I write- but I need to write more often. This isn't anything fancy but it was great to write. As for 2014- you were good to me, and 2015 is just around the corner with the opportunity to love God more and be better.