When we think back to what was happening with Made By Mary a year ago at this time, we were prepping for a taping of a segment about our group to air on WGN news and for the clip the Village of Mount Prospect was putting together for the Rising Stars Gala. It was all such a whirlwind. We were both thankful for the recognition and proud to have made an impact on our community.

In all honesty, at the beginning of 2019 we did not have enough forethought to set goals for Made By Mary.  We didn’t know if our enthusiasm or community nominations would slow down after receiving such great initial support. Here we are a year later….still thriving….still inspired.  We want to do it a little more thoughtfully in 2020 but, I’m not going to lie, it will still be a little bit chaotic and there will likely be a lot of late-night and early morning baking involved…..

I wanted to sit down with our entire family and talk about goals for Made By Mary as we all contribute to its success with our time and resources–my 9-year-old son has tagged along for many deliveries on his way to practices or games and my husband never complains about the pounds and pounds of sugar, butter, flour and chocolate chips being added to our grocery list.

Our eighth grader, Kelly, has been busy at work prepping two Bullet Journals for her personal 2020 goals (I seriously don’t know where this child’s ambition comes from) so the discussion about goal-setting wasn’t new.

Still, when I told Mary my objective for breakfast she replied with, “Why do we need to set goals?” I simply replied with, “So that we have something to say we achieved.” “But what if we don’t achieve them? Won’t it feel like a letdown?” she countered. True words every adult has felt and realized along the way. “Well, then you check in on your goals periodically and see if you need to either try harder or adjust them to something more realistic.” Of course, my husband and I realize that these conversations are lessons about things much bigger than Made By Mary.

Together–as a family–we decided upon these three 2020 goals:

2020 Goal #1: Coordinate at least 225 deliveries. (we are giving ourselves a head start and counting the six deliveries since Christmas towards the new year objective).

2020 Goal #2: Comprise at least eight blog updates. We put a lot of energy into the website/blog to get it off the ground before the WGN segment aired and, admittedly, have done NOTHING to it since then despite kind reminders from our amazing website administrator at Kredo Design that we should be posting some updates. Kelly is going to take the lead in updating the website’s blog and writing the entries. We hope the effort will align to her interest in someday becoming a literature teacher or editor/publisher.

2020 Goal #3: Publish photos of Made By Mary deliveries completed in ten different states or countries. Our hope for Made By Mary was always that ANYONE ANYWHERE could be a part of our efforts to expand kindness and compassion while minimizing loneliness. If you are interested in making a delivery to anyone you know (or maybe just a stranger’s story you’ve heard about) we will gladly share our logo and information for enclosures with you! You can contact us through this website or through a message on our Facebook page.

In addition to the 2020 goals already listed, we have a few really fun things planned in conjunction with some local businesses we can’t wait to share with you! Undoubtedly, our community has continued to inspire us to do bigger and better things each year.

Wish us luck on our 2020 goals and, most importantly, help us by nominating people you know that would appreciate a thank you for something special or need some cheer after going through something hard!