Time to introduce my “I” theme for the year which once again happens to be my word of the year (just want to stress that just because this has been the case the last 2 years this is not always the case or how I pick my word of the year!). I bet you can guess it from the title of this post…

I is for Instrument. I am really excited about this theme because it is, in one sense, quite literally about learning instruments- I am picking back up the banjo, something I tried for all of two months before getting pregnant with my firstborn and then never touched again. I always struggle with being a beginner so I’m sure I’ll have plenty to document about this experience. I’m not the only one working on instruments though… it was a very musical Christmas for my family.

My youngest is at the age where anything rhythmic or loud is a favorite toy so she got a rhythm black and shaker eggs for Christmas. My middle kid is obsessed with Taylor Swift and ever since seeing Tay Tay perform with a red guitar after the re-release of the album Red, my little has been begging for a red guitar and saying it was all she wanted for Christmas so we are working on getting her started on that.

My husband’s Christmas gift was a piano. He has wanted one since we met in grad school and he’d sneak in and use the school’s piano. He is self taught and doesn’t even read music, but he plays beautiful melodies on the fly and finds it very relaxing so I was super excited to find a great deal on a used piano. This also works out because we told my oldest he could pick one extra curricular activity once he was vaccinated and while I was sure h’ed pick soccer, since he’s being talking about soccer nonstop for the past year, he chose piano lessons instead. We were originally going to get him a little keyboard (and I may wish we had since those come with headphones and let’s be honest, those early days of piano practice are ROUGH…) but when I saw the option to make my hubby’s Christmas wish come true to we went for it. We have had to delay starting those lessons for just a bit longer, but can’t wait for them to start soon.

This is one of my favorite prayers and we have it hanging in a prayer corner in our house

Aside from all the literal instruments and the various music (or at least attempts at music!) in our house, I also picked the word instrument as my word for the year because I love the deeper meaning of the word in the sense that instruments are tools. One of my favorite prayers is the St. Francis of Assisi “Lord make me an instrument of your peace” which I think needs to be a focus in my spiritual life this year. When I was down to two possible words of the year, my World Vision team leader sent out an email asking us to pray the St. Francis prayer over Christmas as a unifying action and I took that as a sign for which word of the year I was supposed to pick. I want to be an instrument of peace and hope and restoration. Another thing that felt like a bit of a sign was that my first book I finished in this new year had the subtitle “Your body is an instrument not an ornament” and I will DEFINITELY have more to say about that. Finally, I may also share some of the things that are instrumental in my work and life throughout the year.

Did anyone else have a musical Christmas? Any tips for a parent of kids who want to learn/make music? Or for someone who used to be musical and hasn’t really practiced any type of instrument in decades?

Do you also pick a word of the year? So much I’d love to hear about!