Pandemic teaching, being overwhelmed, 2020. Before you know it, a quarter of a year has passed and you haven't posted on your blog. It was a weird year, and things didn't go as planned in many different areas. 2020 has not been a great year, but we all know that, but there are also some silver linings over the past year. I got the chance to spend time with my family, get to see my kid in school, though through a tablet, and did some fun projects this year. So, while it's not as expected, and while the goals were a struggle, let's see how the goals went.
Goal Number One - Read 12 books: This year the goal is set at 12 books, but after we hit lockdown I really didn't read anything. It seems like I really should have been hitting the books hard with being stuck at home and nowhere to go then it would be the perfect time to get to do a bunch of reading, but it really didn't seem like something that I could do. The stress I guess? Well, whatever the case may be, I only read four books this year. I enjoyed all of them, but I'm disappointed that I only got four.
Reading List (total so far 4)
- Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas
- Falling Over Sideways by Jordan Sonnenblick
- Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Framers, Their Fights, and the Flaws that Affect Us Today by Cynthia Levinson and Sanford Levinson
- A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green
Goal Number Two - Average a one pound per week weight loss by the end of the year: Big goose egg on this one. I'm basically in the same place that I started the year out in. I think I had the same issue here that I had with the reading, where I just couldn't stay focused on it. I will say that some of my mini goals were ok:
- Subgoal 1: Close my three rings 75% of the time. This I did perfectly, in fact, I've closed all three of my rings every day since February. However, unfortunately, because of a phone that died and had to be rest, my log says that I've only done it since the reset. However, we know the truth, and that is that I hit this one out of the park, so SUCCESS!
- Subgoal 2: Create a schedule that includes two different activities a week. I actually did really well on this one also. Most weeks I did at least two things, and they were usually yoga and then this kind of cross fit, interval training thing. I'm not sure what category it would go in, but it was one of those two.
- Subgoal 3: Log every meal, every day right after the meal. I'm on day like 1,450 of this, so it was another really good success on this mini-goal.
- Subgoal 4: Complete another 5k race. With COVID this was not something that could happen. They had some virtual runs, but it's not the same.
- Subgoal 5: Limit my snacking to under 350 calories a day. I stopped tracking this, so this is the only one that I really didn't succeed at. So while I didn't reach my overall goal in health, I did do well on four out of five of these.
Goal Number Three - Use a social calendar: What a year to pick to start using a calendar. I bought a planner last year to keep track and better plan my social calendar and for the first few months, I was doing a really great job at it. Then COVID hit, and it was basically a waste of cash because there was no real social calendar after that. I mean, we probably should have planned virtual meetings, but we didn't know how long it was going to last or what this all meant. So, I don't know, success for the time that I actually had to use that.
Goal Number Four - Home Repair/Improvements: We certainly had a bunch of home improvement work this year, thanks to the Covid. We repainted just about every wall in the house. We repainted all of the trim, and it looks fantastic we also, of course, redid the second bathroom, and it looks great. We're actually still finishing a bit of that off. Just yesterday I finished up some caulk work that makes the entire thing look a lot more finished. We also recently replaced the exhaust fan for that bathroom, which (SURPRISE) didn't actually vent to the outside because the builders sucked. But, yes, we did really well here, and I really enjoyed doing some of the work. I built some furniture, and it was really good, so success here.
Goal Number Five - Spend at least one hour a week on creative things: I didn't really do this at all. I did some drawing over the year, but I didn't focus on it at all. So, fail.
Goal Number Six - Take three photos a day: So, I started a daily Instagram to do this, and I did a number of posts to it, but then it was tough with the pandemic to find something new to take a photo of. So, with 366 days this year, I should have taken 1,098 photos, but I didn't, and instead ended the year with 867, so I missed it by 231. My goal was to have 3 photos a day, and I averaged 2.36. That's not really that bad.
Goal Number Seven - Have seven new experiences: So, I certainly experienced some new things this year. It really wasn't what I expected. I think I hit seven this year, despite the weirdness of 2020. So, here are the new things I did this year:
- Visited the natural history museum at the University of Michigan
- Living in a pandemic with a stay at home order
- Taught school over the Internet
- Ordered groceries for at-home delivery because we can't go anywhere
- Began emergency planning since it's hard to get food and supplies now
- Ordered from the Peach Truck and made three new recipes, two cobblers, and a bread pudding
- Built furniture, and it turned out really well!
Well, 2020 was certainly not what I expected, and my goals didn't turn out as I had hoped they would. However, tomorrow is the start of 2021, so new goals and hopefully a new focus. Happy new year, and thank goodness 2020 is in our rearview. May 2021 be a better year.
