This year feels like there is an awful lot to reflect on, both good and bad. Every year has ups and downs and it is important to remember both. I haven't done as well blogging this year which makes me a little nervous about years to come. However, in keeping with tradition (at least in the last several years, here are
2013,
2014 and
2015), I wanted to blog about our year.
- We are most happy to have such a wonderful little girl. We are thankful to still have a loving and healthily stubborn puppy. I spent a lot of time (and a bit of money) getting our house in order, thanks to the KonMari method of decluttering.
- I had some parenting wins like science projects, gardening with insects, reading more books than ever, taking A to work, celebrating holidays, and realizing just how kind and special she is growing. A also got to ride on her very first airplane. Sadly, I never posted about our Kentucky or Michigan trips.
- I also had the most terrible parenting moment that still shakes me to my very core and makes me grow teary every time I think about it. Occasionally when we pass the hospital, A will say "we went there when I bumped my head? Momma, are you still sad? But are you happy?" That basically sums up my every emotion.
- A turned four. We had to make a difficult decision about pre-k and are so very happy that we stayed in her current school. She is flourishing and happy and gets to play all day with her friends. We truly cannot believe that this is our last few months before we have a school aged child. It takes my breath away.
- I was happy that A continued gymnastics but we also started ballet and she took summer swimming lessons. It is fun and interesting to think about what she will enjoy from these activities.
In looking at my unquantified goals and values for this year, I think we did okay. It probably wasn't our best year but we also had some really good moments.
Family
One of my family goals was for us to be "happy in our space, physically and emotionally." I feel really good about our physical space. Our house has so much more room to breathe. Of course there are things that could always change (our carpet should be replaced with hardwood floors and our backyard needs serious landscaping especially after our hilarious attempt at gardening last year). Emotionally it is still difficult to be in Oklahoma, so far from family and lifelong friends. That said, we are so pleased that we were able to make it back home to both Kentucky and Michigan this year. The visits were bittersweet because they were reminders of all that we are missing but it was so good to see everyone. We are already planning a trip back to Kentucky (at least me and Alaina) in the summer because the UK Psychology Department is having a reunion because they are turning
100 years old!
Exercising seems to be a constant theme of failure for me. I'm realizing though that my failures to exercise tend to be related to sleep so this year I am planning to focus on sleep goals (more about that in my next post!). That and I have never truly been an exerciser...
We did an awesome job being adults by opening a college account for A and by finally beginning to contribute to our retirement accounts. We also paid off our credit card debt and one of my student loans. We wrote a free will online but I'm still considering consulting with an attorney about estate planning.
Work
Work is hard. As always, I compare myself more to what I'm not doing or accomplishing. I have colleagues who will always be funded and publish exponentially more than me and I know this intellectually. Overall though, we had good papers come out of the lab, we wrapped up two major projects, and started what I think is a really cool study. I didn't let go of as many of the overload courses as I planned (again, my own doing). I attended a few conferences. I got good teaching evals. I've discovered that I get more done between January through July so I hope to capitalize on this in the future. DCT is moving along. I caught up on signing all of my clinical notes!
{and am now behind again} I also started bullet journaling, as you can see below. ;)
For my specific goals:
Read 4 books/month on average
Close. I read 46 books this year. I think I would have easily hit my goal but got sucked into election coverage in October and November. I also didn't travel to any conferences this fall which meant no airplane reading.
New recipe each month
Easily. The instant pot also helped with this a ton!
Consistently log in MFP
Nope
Treadmill 3x weekly
Nope
Have veggies 4x weekly
Nope
Finish academy application
Yes, this took so much longer than I anticipated but we finally got it done. We may not get approved but I'm glad we took this step.
Submit 6 new manuscripts
Done+
Reduce phone usage
I did not do as well with this as I would have liked but have renewed hope for the future
Make good faith effort on tidying
As I mentioned above, this went really well. I stalled out on the sentimental and digital categories but hope to finish those this year. I might go back through everything again to help with maintenance.
Backyard landscaping
I put in a few bushes and we spent a great deal of time putting in tomatoes, herbs, strawberries, etc. However, the backyard is a total hot mess. Clearly, we need to hire someone.
Start 529 account
Done!
Contribute to 401k
Done!
