Why? Some reasons are:<\/p>\n

1. The school year is almost over.
2. Our oldest is graduating from high school and headed to college in the fall.
3. Our youngest is graduating from elementary school and headed to middle school (and out of children’s ministry and into youth group, etc.)
4. We got our house painted and in fact even as I sit here typing the deck is being stained.
5. My father moved here after living 600 miles away all of my married life (my brother and I both live here).<\/p>\n

So what does a “fresh start” mean to me? Well, several things, but a few of them are:<\/p>\n

1. Decluttering<\/strong>. I am looking at the everything with the eye of “if I were downsizing what would I want to move?” That means clothes, memories, paper, books, etc.
2. Writing<\/strong>. I love to write this blog, and in fact my dream would be to have a column. I will continue to work on my book and write for my critique group – but I am going to pursue getting a column\/blog gig.
3. Health<\/strong>. Several members of my family and I started a couple of weeks ago on taking some weight off and getting more active. The activity part looks a bit different for me right now since I am recovering from a torn ACL – but I am working on it. I’m down 5 pounds and am looking forward to steadily reducing my body mass.
4. Spiritually<\/strong>. Having a been a Christian for most of my life, I find that my passion for Christ tends to ebb and flow. It has taken me years to figure out that “the church” is not in charge of my relationship – that I am the one that controls that. It matters not what kind of music my church plays, or style of service or how hyped up the pastor is. I must make the choices that bring me deeper, not what others say I need to do.
5. Family<\/strong>. Husband, children at home, two parents in town (my husband’s mom and my dad), and siblings. Priorities have to be set as chapters in my life come and go. As my children age I am increasingly aware of the fleeting nature of these chapters. I need to choose how I spend my time wisely.<\/p>\n

As I clean out the bathroom cabinets this morning, get my laundry finished, and work in the office this afternoon – I shall be subconsciously preparing for my “fresh start”. I am grateful that fresh starts happen whenever we choose, and I choose now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Traditionally the New Year signals a “new start” or “fresh start”. Or for some of us it is September when the school year has begun (for us it is August 25). For a myriad of reasons, I feel like I am at a new start now. Why? Some reasons are: 1. The school year is …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7zbKo-NS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3092"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}