Happy New Year 2019

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had a great 2018 and is looking forward to an even better 2019!  🙂

 

Before I continue, I want to apologize for my absence from WordPress recently.  The past month has been so hectic that I’ve neither posted nor read as many posts as I would have liked to.  I did half-finish a post that was originally intended for two weeks ago, but because of everything else that was happening, I decided to hold onto that until the next post.  Throughout the next two weeks, I will by trying to catch up on whatever posts I missed from bloggers I follow.
If you stayed with me, and are reading this, I thank you, and I hope that you understand the stress of December that many of us can relate to.

 

For myself and my family, 2018 was, more than any other recent year, a year of a lot of growth.  In addition to now having this blog for an entire year, some of my experiences of the past year include:

• finally getting back into the dormant hobby of creative writing
• reaching a major milestone in my health journey
• having a child who attends preschool for the first time
• learning to code
• joining a CHADD group for the first time
• setting up a Facebook page for the first time
• using Instagram for the first time
• getting back to Twitter after years of inactivity
• learning to open a shop on Etsy
• accidentally denting a stranger’s bumper for the first time (and wiping out a large portion of our savings account as a result)
• succeeding at some of last year’s New Year resolutions
• failing some of last year’s New Year resolutions

 

Before I expand on the status of last year’s resolutions, this seems like a good time for another family update….

Kj:
It’s been another year full of changes for Kj.  At about this time last year, we were so impressed with his coordination, strength, and motor skills, as we were still thinking of him as a “baby”, but by now, he has honed all of those things so well that I almost can’t even remember a time before he was flawlessly mobile.
Kj’s verbal communication skills have improved (most of his speech is in complete sentences!), as have his counting and reading skills.  He now counts fairly accurately, and reads several simple words.
And, as I have mentioned before, Kj began attending preschool for the first time this fall.  He currently goes only two mornings per week, but before we know it, it will be time to enroll him for the next school year, during which he may get a little more class time.
Throughout the past year, Kj’s interests have expanded from trains to firetrucks and garbage trucks.  His current favorite shows are Thomas and Friends and Super Why, and his favorite food is mac and cheese (like a typical toddler, I suppose).

Josh:
When the allotted time for his contract job ended, Josh was hired by the company he was contracted to, so he now no longer works for the contract agency, but does the same job.
In personal work, Josh has spent a large portion of the last year learning how to develop video games, and created his very first game in a Ludem Dare contest.  This was a major milestone for him, and this year, he will continue to learn and apply those skills and his creativity to more, and better, projects.

 

…and back to last year’s resolutions.
I will go through each one, in the order I listed them for last year’s post, and reflect on each:

• Get better at organizing, and keep the bullet journal going.
  …The literal organization of the physical space of my home and office space has certainly improved, which is something I thoroughly enjoy.  As for organizing my time, I do feel like I have a much stronger handle on it now than I did last year, and bullet journaling has had a lot to do with that.  I’ve been consistently keeping bullet journals all year, and I now don’t know how I functioned without them.  Having all my to-dos, appointments, events, and ideas collected in one space has made me much more efficient at using my time, and freed up a lot of my brain space to use in better, more creative ways.  (I may sound like I’m trying to sell bullet journals here.  I’m not, but I do highly recommend it.)
• Keep better record of all the things I’ll want to remember.
  …The combination of journaling, and the Update posts on this blog have helped me keep track of the important events and milestones.  Additionally, I’ve been taking more pictures, and began using Instagram to share some of those pictures with my friends and family.
• Spend more time thinking creatively, as apposed to using my brain solely for constant, boring, repeating tasks.
  …As I said earlier, using a bullet journal has really helped externalize a lot of those recurring tasks, and freed up space for my brain to think creatively.  (This is not an affiliate post for bullet journals, I swear!)  I made an effort this year to spend time exercising that creativity by blogging, journaling, working on a fiction story, and painting.  I feel that all this has contributed immensely to my mental health, and overall happiness and confidence.  (I even ended up writing a post about finally deciding to just do the things I “dream” of doing.)
• Work on my health.
  …In 2018, I learned to eat healthier (but everything in moderation), and to make cardio exercise an important part of my life.  Even though we don’t have the gym membership anymore (because of some changes to our finances making it no longer feasible), I still find time to workout at home.  (Bullet journaling helps with remembering to keep up with the routine!  😉 )
  Throughout 2018, I lost over 50 pounds, and feel so much better in my body than I have in a long time!  However, I still have a lot of room for improvement.
• Mail holiday letters at the end of the year.
  …This is one instance where what I held as important last year has changed this year.  Now that I’ve started blogging consistently, and sharing more pictures with my family, there was not as much reason for the Christmas card.  That, combined with end-of-the-year financial strain, made us decide that the time and money spent on cards, letters, and mailing supplies was not justifiable this time.  We may feel differently for the next holiday season, but I will not make a resolution out of it this time.

 

 

It wouldn’t be a New Year post if I didn’t share some of my resolutions for this year, so here they are:

• I will try to keep up the healthier lifestyle I learned last year, and continue working on my weight loss.  However, I will not go as “gung-ho” as I feel like I did last year, so I doubt I will lose 50 pounds again, but another 25 pounds might be a doable goal.
• I plan to finish the first draft of  my current long-term fiction writing project.
• I plan to post here more consistently.  At least twice per month is my current goal.
• I want to try to focus less on what I worry others will think of me, and focus more on my opinion of myself.  (More on this later.)
• I also want to potty-train Kj this year.  (I don’t know if this counts though, because it’s more of a goal for him.)

 

 

That’s all I have to say right now, so I’ll wrap this up, but if you want to know when I have more to say, consider clicking “like” on my facebook page:
facebook.com/love.logic.lunacy
Thank you for reading!
Good luck on your 2019 goals, and have a great year!  ❤