It's been so long since I've written a new post that Blogger has changed on me! I spend a lot of my free time sewing (and thus not blogging) and I'm okay with that. That being said, I really enjoy going back and reading my end/beginning of the year posts so I wanted to pop in and do that today.
As it turns out, NO ONE had 2020 vision and this year turned out completely unexpected. But not all bad! I do still try to block out March and April where I spent six weeks making masks. Shockingly, I didn't lose my sewjo. I was just so. sick. of masks. But I've sewed some fun stuff since, and I'll try to do a recap on that. (We'll see. ha!)
I honestly didn't even remember the things I wrote down at the beginning of 2020. It's been a long year and I decided to give myself grace on all the things I didn't do. But let's see how I did.
Marriage
- Make sure to have one six-second kiss every day | I feel terrible saying we don't do this every day! Guess that just means it needs to be on the 2021 goals list...
- Two planned date nights every month | After a few months, we decided to bump this up to a date night every week and I'm so glad we did! We have date night every Tuesday and always look forward to it. Sometimes we go to a local restaurant and sometimes we stay in and do a puzzle or something low-key, but I love having the time to connect with Casey. Sometimes we plan something together and sometimes one of us does the planning. It's always fun to come up with something new and fun, and Casey always plans fun dates!
- Express my expectations | Unfortunately there's no real way to measure this, but I have definitely been trying to communicate better and more, even about tiny things. Opening up a conversation is actually what led to us doing date night every week, so there are definitely benefits to expressing my expectations.
Going Green
- Continue using reusable shopping bags, coffee mugs, water bottle, real china and silverware, limiting paper towel use, and refusing plastic straws. | 2020 has made this one a little more difficult. At the beginning of Covid, we stopped using reusable shopping bags because we weren't sure if it was a good idea to continue using them. Reusable bags aren't the norm here--I've literally never seen a single other person in town use them--so our town doesn't have any rules about them, but we didn't want to make any grocery workers feel uncomfortable. We have since started using them again and haven't had a problem (other than grocery workers being confused, but that's normal). I HATE using grocery pick up (which was our only option when we had to quarantine a few times) because they put every single item in its own plastic bag. I could rant, but I'll refrain. We use these plastic bags as trash bags, so at least they've been getting used.
- Figure out what to do about recycling. I didn't do this and I'm not sure if I just lost vision or if it was a 2020 thing that I didn't feel like bothering with. Either way, I've decided we'll just pay the fee to have recycling pick up this year. The only packaging I've truly tried to be mindful about is egg cartons, and I try to get ones made of paper that I can throw in the compost pile. However, I met a neighbor via Facebook who raises chickens, and she said she'd be happy to take empty egg cartons, so I'm going to try to remember to give them to her instead!
- Shop the farmers market regularly. We've tried our best to support the farmers market this year, especially through Covid. Our favorite booth is a lady who bakes all kinds of delicious pastries. We get some almost every week! I was thrilled that there were extra booths before Christmas, so we did some of our Christmas shopping there. I love to support local entrepreneurs!
Personal
- Be a better friend | That lunch date with myself in March never happened because I was too busy making masks to eat lunch. (Apparently I'm still not over the mask-making trauma, ha!) We did have a friend move in with us a few months ago and she will be here until she gets married in April. It's been so fun having her here. We've also been able to have some friends over for small dinner parties (which sounds far more fancy than it is--usually I make spaghetti or breakfast for dinner then we hang out).
- Read at least one non-fiction book a month | Oops. I just checked my Goodreads and I only read (listened to) two non-fic books this year. I prefer to listen instead of read non-fic, and I discovered podcasts this year, so I've listened to podcasts and forgone the books. That being said, I've been listening to my Bible. (See below)
- Create a cleaning schedule for my home | Oops again. Okay, to give myself some credit, during November I decided to create what I considered to be my ideal daily schedule. Part of this includes cleaning time throughout the day, like doing dishes after breakfast and lunch, and spending time in the afternoon picking up around the house. On the days I follow this schedule, I've rocked it!
- Complete at least one sewing project per month. I just now looked back and made a list of everything I made this year. I'm SHOCKED at how much I accomplished! In addition to about 350 masks (which took me six solid weeks of sewing while Casey did most of the cutting), I also made 6 skirts, 2 dresses, 2 pinafores, 3 purses, a stuffed bunny, 8 (I think) neckties, and a Princess Anna costume for myself! I'm currently working on 2 more purses, another pinafore, and a quilt top.
Spiritual
- Read a new Bible plan | I'm 21 days behind and have 4 days to catch up (I'm going to listen to it while I do some cleaning). I HATED the Bible reading program we chose and was already regretting it in March. I'm going back to my One Year Bible next year and really looking forward to it. I did like that Casey and I did it together though!
- Grand Finale | Our church couldn't have our annual kids camp this year, so we weren't able to do this. But we have some great ideas that maybe we can use next year!
- Play more worship music at home | We have ROCKED THIS. Every morning when I get up I tell Alexa to play worship music and we play it throughout the day. We even got another Echo Dot so I could have it playing in my office, too.
This took far longer than I expected it to, but I'm glad I sat down to do this. It made me realize that, even during a global pandemic, I was able to move forward and make changes that help me become the person I want to become. I believe that every small step contributes to a bigger goal, and I'm glad I kept stepping. Now it's time to work on a list of goals for 2021!
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