Closing out 2020.

                 

     2020- What a year. I have been scrolling through Facebook today, reading a mix of positive and negative aspects of the past year. For my family, it was a very different year, but not altogether bad. Here are some of my thoughts as we end the year.

- We are lucky that none of the people we know have died or been gravely affected by Covid-19. Obviously all of our lives have been affected, and a few people we know were sick, but everybody we know is okay, which I'm grateful for.

- Our blessings could not have been more evident. We moved 10/2019 from a small, run down apartment into a house that doesn't need a lot done and is more than spacious for our family.  Both my husband and I have jobs. We have a happy family and enjoy spending time together.

-Two of my favorite hobbies are penpalling and reading. These are great hobbies to have in 2020.  Penpalling kept me connected to other people across the world and helped to feel not so isolated. Reading could take me to other worlds when I wanted to be alone.

- This doesn't mean 2020 was always easy. I'm pretty conservative so I've felt comfortable staying in while some people were really suffering from the fear of missing out on things. I don't think I was particularly scared that I was going to get the virus from being out in public, but I'm kind of higher risk and I figured it's kind of like wearing your seat belt in the car- if you can do something to help keep you safe (even if you're not in full control of that), why wouldn't you? So, being home when we wanted to do things like travel, see friends/family, drive to another state, etc has been inconvenient and sometimes hard. People across the US were divided about so many issues. It was hard to go online to any social media platform without seeing negativity, disagreements and disrespect. Racial tension, political tension, coronavirus issues, mask issues, education issues- it was all too much for me. I can understand people having differences in opinions, but I struggle with lack of decency amongst people. 

 - I lost a good friend of mine in August. Her name was Mary. We met in  our book club and became fast friends. Very close to the start of quarantine, she found out that she had liver cancer, which then led to the discovery of pancreatic cancer. It was a quick decline and heartbreaking. She tried Chemo but reacted badly. She passed away right before school started. I miss her very much. Although I would've never expected a friendship to blossom between us when we first met, we were sort of kindred spirits.  Secondly, teaching music online- not a fan, though I have grown as an educator and learned new skills. 

-I have made my faith a greater priority. I've been attending a church online and I feel like it's making me think about my life in some new ways, not that the old ways were necessarily bad, but it has been good for me. I have also joined a women's group online, kind of like a Bible study. That has provided me with some new friends and fellowship. I'm very thankful for all of this. 

-I have also learned to sit still- with God, with myself, with an empty schedule. I miss being busy every second of the day, but I have enjoyed slow times with my children, completing my thoughts without feeling totally frantic or rushed and taking joy from observing the world around me. 

      As always, I have lots of goals for the new year. Perhaps I'll come back tomorrow and write about some of them. I have not been blogging much because I'm not 100% sure if anybody is getting anything out of this blog, or even reading it. I thought about starting a new one, on a more secure site, but I'm not sure. I'll see how blogging goes over the next few months. I anticipate writing about various subjects- my goals, reading, penpalling, life in general. I really like connecting with new people, so if you're a person who just stumbles upon the blog by chance, please feel free to say hello. 

     Happy New Year!

Happy New Year 2020!

Happy New Year!

     I was at Christmas this year and one of my sister-in-laws, Sarah, asked where I've been since my blog has been neglected for a long time. I laughed and told her that I haven't been updating because I think only 2 or 3 people actually look at my blog, but then I figured that if someone was asking about it, I should get back into being more disciplined about writing. Also, looking back on the blog, I'm seeing a ton of broken links with my pictures. I need to figure out why that is like that. New year, new start, right?
      So, there's a ton of news since I last wrote.  So, right after my last post, I got a call from my landlord to ask how my summer was going. In reality, he was calling to tell us that he sold the house our apartment was in. After some discussion, it became obvious that he had no idea what the new owner planned with the house and if we'd be able to stay. He didn't seem to care either. The good news is that we'd probably find out when they passed papers, 3 days after his phone call to us. Matt and I decided that we needed to take immediate action about the whole situation. The good news is that anybody who knows me well would know that I've been dreaming of being a home owner forever. Massachusetts is a pretty expensive state to live in so it seemed pretty unachievable to me- and it was until this year. We started looking for a house at the end of August and moved into our new home, in the same town we lived in before, on October 25th. 
      I've gotten dismally behind on my writing and reading (though reading had a huge increase over my Christmas break.) We're in good shape with being moved in and we love it here. It's so nice to live in a neighborhood, rather than surrounded by businesses. We've loved having friends and family come visit and hope to have many more visitors.

2020 Goals

      I was thinking of my goal setting over the past week and then realized I had lost track of my 2019 goals. I thought that I had written a blog post about it but, looking back, I think I was just so grateful to have survived 2018 that I didn't even care. I failed my Goodreads goal by a few books. I read 54 out of 60. I didn't do any reading challenges. I FINALLY BOUGHT A HOUSE! That's been on my goal list for about 20 years.  I also lost 20 pounds. 
      After some thought, these are my goals:

One Word- Some people like to choose a word to focus on for the year. I think I'd like my word to be "CONNECT" this year. I think I'm becoming a little more introverted in my old age (of 42), but I think I'm just sick of shallow. I want to establish better relationships and give myself freedom to walk away from people who seemingly suck the life out of me. Now, I know some of you are laughing and thinking, "Are you serious? You talk to so many people!" I'm okay with that. I like people. I like meeting new people and even sometimes being uncomfortable being surrounded by people that are really different from me. I just want to increase the quality of my relationships. In 2019 I made a few friends at the gym and in my book clubs. I took some risks and become closer to some families at the school where I work and even got to know some colleagues on a deeper level. I want more of this and now that we have a place I feel comfortable hosting, I'd like to connect more.  I have a few ideas on how to connect more. Some of these ideas I'm keeping to myself. One of my ideas is to host a monthly "thing" at my house and just inviting anyone who wants to come. I think January will be a game night. 

Letter writing- Letter writing is one of the nicest ways for me to connect with the world and my friends. I've actually started writing to all of my nieces and nephews last year and really enjoyed just sending them a little love through the mail. They all probably think I'm weird but I know at least 2 or 3 appreciated it. :)  Like the first year I did the blog, my goal is to send at least 1 piece of personal mail per day. That's 366 pieces of mail this year! I'll keep track of a lot of my incoming mail here on the blog so that will help me be disciplined.

Spiritual Goals- I tried to have a devotional with a friend once a week but it was inconsistent so I'm going to try to be more intentional with daily prayer and devotions. I'm keeping a prayer journal where I'm going to write down prayer requests and pray over them daily. I'm not a big "journal" person usual. I think this will help me to remember what friends and family have brought to me and helps me to be less selfish in my prayer life. It will also be great to read back and be reminded of God's faithfulness.  

Reading- I love crazy busy schedules, being surrounded by people and being mentally active. One of my problems is that I can sometimes be too mentally active. I need to unwind if I ever want a chance to sleep. Reading is one of my activities that give me peace. I have a few reading challenges I'd like to do.
       My Goodreads challenge is to read 60 books this year. I'll do it, especially since I failed this year. 
      I'll also be participating in the Keyword Reading Challenge. Every month of this challenge you need to read a book that has one of the keywords (or a variation of that word) in the title. I've done this challenge before when it was hosted by other people, but this year the original host, GirlXOXO is hosting. Thanks! I am looking forward to it! Here are the keywords this year. 
   There's one more challenge I'm kind of considering, but I might be going a little crazy.Ok, there are actually 2.  Maybe I'll update if I decide to do those too.

Physical- I've joined a gym and have been in the process of getting more healthy. Frankly, I have a ton of weight to lose- not literally, but sometimes it feels like it. So, to save you from passing out I'll spare you the amount of weight (just typed "weird" by accident but that fits too) that I'd like to lose, but it's quite a bit. Either way, even if the numbers are not as low as I'd like, I've lowered my blood sugar considerably, I'm stronger and I have more muscle. I'm committed to this gym until at least August so I'm already on the right track.  Feel free to leave me healthy recipes that actually taste like food :)

      Those are the main goals I've had. I was happy that this year made think a lot about what I can do to make myself a better person or to enjoy life a little more rather than feeling like I had to fix a lot of things that were wrong with myself.  

      Ok, I think that's it for tonight. Feel free to say hello or introduce yourself if you're dropping by for the first time. If you're in the Keyword Reading Challenge, feel free to share your blog so I can follow along with you too! Happy 2020!