2016 The Year of Everything and Nothing -- A retrospective

So you are probably thinking I forgot all about this blog, my promise to my mom and my goals, right? The answer is both yes and no. I never forgot but life got in the way, as life tends to do! It's the beginning of 2017 and it's been four years (!!) since I last blogged but I thought I would dust this account off and start tracking my progress on some different goals.

2016 was one of the most interesting years in recent memory. On a national level it was filled with divisiveness, anger, loss, change, and confusion. For me personally it's hard to really to classify. It was the year I turned 40. Society says I should struggle with this age, but in truth I feel more comfortable in my own skin than I ever have. It was a year of immense changes at work that necessitated a lot of long hours handing multiple jobs. Yet, it was also a year filled with many professional successes such as chairing a national association board, presenting at a national conference and seeing much success locally.

It was also a year that I decided to get out of credit card debt. That debt was an albatross around my neck and I felt deep shame and an overwhelming powerlessness to change it. Then I sat down with a friend who is a financial planner and we put a plan in place to try to tackle it. My original goal was to pay it off in 18 months and truthfully that seemed like wishful thinking at the time. Yet, I'm very blessed to say that if all holds I should be paid off sometime in the next 6 weeks, just about 13 months after I started!!! (No secrets, just doing the cash envelope budget system and putting all available $$ towards my debt.)

In March 2016, buoyed by my success with my debt and after several months of just overwhelming stress and pressure, I felt convicted to try to find something to be thankful for everyday. I started with a goal of 3 things but almost immediately every day had 4-5 different things. Truthfully, there were some very difficult days where I had to think really big picture about thankful things. But most days were filled with individual blessings, normal, humble and mundane (and a few extraordinary ones). I started to notice how this act started to change my attitude and outlook during stressful times. It's a habit I'm keeping in 2017.

2016 had one last gut punch for me -- learning that my beloved dog, Ginger, had terminal lymphoma and our days together were numbered. I had adopted Ginger just a little over a year after losing mom. She has been my faithful companion and best friend through some of the most trying days of my life. To say the diagnosis was devastating is probably an understatement. But after my initial despair I pulled it together to try to make Ginger's last months filled with lots of love, kisses, snuggles, treats, walks, rides in the car with her head out the window and all the things she loves.

I started this blog post to write about 2017 but I guess I needed to write about 2016. So tomorrow I'll fill you in on what I'm planning for this upcoming year! Happy New Year!