For the past couple years, I haven’t created new years resolutions. Instead, I’ve come up with lists of things I want to learn throughout the next year. I wanted to share this year’s list with you, so here’s everything I want to learn about in 2024.
I can’t believe another year has come and gone. It’s crazy how much quicker each year goes. For the past couple years, I haven’t created new year’s resolutions. Instead, I’ve come up with a list of things I want to learn throughout the next year. I love learning and it seems as though my “to learn” list is never-ending. Making these lists for each upcoming year has helped me a lot. Especially to narrow my list down to things that will actually be valuable to the season of life I’m in.
This past year, my focus was on marriage, wifehood, and homemaking since I was getting married. Now that I’m a pro on all things marriage (haha just kidding), I’m moving on to new things. Let’s get into to the list of everything I want to learn about in 2024.
everything i want to learn about in 2024
theology
Theology is one of my most favorite things to learn about. A couple years ago, I got really into studying theology. I have never felt as close to God as I was during that time. It saddens me that theology is rarely studied by Christians nowadays. Especially by Christian women. Most books written for women don’t go super deep. And quite honestly, a lot of them are very unbiblical. There isn’t much Christian literature specifically for women that’s Biblically sound and theologically rich.
The books that are out there are light and fluffy. Many of them are even focused on you instead of on God. They don’t really do much for you if you are truly interested in learning about Him. I used to read those types of books all the time. Mainly because that’s what I thought I was supposed to be reading. But once I switched and started reading meaty and rich theology books, my faith and awe of God grew tenfold.
I want to read those things again. Not only because I want to grow my relationship with God. But also simply because there are so many theological subjects that I want to learn about and feel like are important for all Christians to have a good understanding of. Things like salvation, baptism, eschatology, etc. Those are the things that nobody wants to learn about. But I think that as followers of Christ, we are called to learn about them so that we understand Him and His word better.
My post this Friday is going to be about my reading goals for 2024. My biggest reading goal is specifically related to this goal of learning more about theology. You’ll have to wait to find out what it is until you read that new post later this week. (And no, it’s not reading through the whole Bible 😉 ).
But I wanted to quickly touch on three books that are some of my favorites for starting out in this department. The first is Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. This book is probably my all time favorite book of all time. I read it a few years ago, and it greatly shaped my view of God. I honestly think it might’ve been the book that kick-started my desire to learn more about theology. It’s basically a book on the basics of the Christian faith. Since its been so long since I read it, I want to read it again next year.
Another one is The Confessions of St. Augustine. I actually had to read this for a philosophy class in college. We didn’t have to read the whole thing, but what I did read of it was amazing. It’s essentially an autobiography, but within it, he talks about a lot of essential Christian doctrine. Since I didn’t read all of it, I also want to read it next year.
The last book is Every Woman a Theologian by Phylicia Masonheimer. This book is great at explaining all of the basic theological categories that every Christian should know in simple terms. I read it last year, but I want to read it again next year I think because it was so good. I was super busy whenever I read it so I feel like I didn’t comprehend as much of it as I would like to have.
history
History is so important to learn about, but I feel as though it’s getting more and more important as time goes on. Nobody knows about history anymore, and because of that, people believe things and support things that they don’t truly understand. If we don’t want history to repeat itself, then we need to understand what actually happened in history. This means not taking other people’s words for it. Instead, it means going to primary sources and reading firsthand accounts.
I read Christopher Columbus’ journal last year, and was shocked to learn that so much of the history that we’re told about him is so far from the truth. Because of that I want to read more things like it and get a better understanding of history. Not only so I have a better understanding of the world. But also so I have a good foundation for when I homeschool our children.
sourdough
I’ve been baking sourdough for almost exactly two years now. I’m very confident in several recipes, but I want to expand my recipe repertoire. I want to make more than just the basics. Things like artisan loafs with add-ins such as chocolate, jalapenos and cheddar, herbs, etc. And crackers, baked goods, and more.
herbalism
I’ve been using essential oils since 2020. I also use herbs here and there, but I really want to start to learning more details about herbalism. I’m planning on growing some herbs this year. You can see which ones in this post. And I want to learn how to use each of them for medicinal purposes, and also how to make things with them as well. Things like tinctures, salves, etc.
I also want to learn about individual herbs themselves and what herbs are good for what ailments. I’ve been looking into this course, and planning on taking it sometime in the next year. We’re planning on selling at our local farmers market and I’d love to sell some of the herbal remedies that I make. But, I want to have a good understanding of herbalism before I do that. So that’s why learning herbalism is a huge priority for me this upcoming year.
no-dig gardening
Another thing we’re planning on doing this year is a no-dig garden. Essentially what this means is that you plant on top of the soil into compost instead of tilling up the soil and planting directly into that. I plan to make a detailed post on this soon, so I won’t say much about it now. But since this is our first year, I expect that it’ll take some trial and error. I read this book by Charles Dowding who is one of the original no-dig gardeners. I also love his youtube channel for learning about this type of gardening.
While no-dig gardening is more work up front the first year, it is less work once you get your garden established. That’s because it results in less weeds and also healthier soil. So, you don’t have to spend so much time weeding and taking care of the garden. And since it keeps the soil healthier, it means you don’t have to amend it as much throughout the growing season.
goats
We also want to get dairy goats sometime this year as well. I’ve never had to take care of any animal myself besides chickens, so this will take a lot of learning and preparation. I had a dog when I was younger, but let’s be honest, my parents took more care of her than I did. I need to learn about food, shelters, health care, goat birth, milking, taking care of kids, etc. We’ll hopefully be getting some sometime soon, so I need to get learning!
keeping honey bees
Chris really wants to start keeping honey bees this year also. I think I’m going to leave that job mostly up to him, but I still want to learn about it myself as well.
pregnancy, birth, & all things baby
I also want to start learning about pregnancy and birth for when that times comes. Lord-willing, it’ll happen in the somewhat near future. But even if it doesn’t, I don’t think it’s ever too early to start learning about these things. Of course you have the whole nine months to prepare before the baby comes, but I don’t think that’s enough time to learn about something so big and important. We spend four or more years learning about our careers, but then barely take any time to learn about the most important job we’ll have in our lifetime.
Plus I don’t want to feel rushed during that time. I want to enjoy my pregnancy and not feel like it’s flying by because I’m not ready for baby yet.
So, some of the things I especially want to learn about are tests during pregnancy, homebirths, natural labor, birth interventions, vaccines, baby sleep, breast feeding, and so much more.
Odds are, if you follow along on my blog, you’re also interested in some, if not all, of these topics. So, I’ll definitely be sharing about the things I’m learning on here, as well as on my instagram, so make sure you’re following me over there! Leave a comment and let me know what you want to learn in the upcoming year. If you liked this post, make sure you share it with someone else who would like it as well and who would want to follow along to learn more about these things next year! Thanks for reading 🙂
