This is truly one of my very favorite posts to write each year. Actually, come to think of it, many of these year-end reflection and start of year planning posts are my favorite. In this case, I love looking back and seeing what things are a part of my life now that weren't a year ago. It helps the year seem longer, that there was more to it then just my kids growing and the days speeding past. That despite things largely staying the same, a lot of new things happened and we are changing, even when it doesn't feel like it! Also, we had a pretty good year!
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Kohls sweatshirtsYou all. My perfect shade of blue sweatshirt I bought at Kohls in June might be my favorite clothing purchase of my adulthood. It is a perfect shade of blue and I wore that every single time it was chilly enough to need a sweatshirt this past summer. First was Maine and I am wearing it in, I'd say, 75% of our Maine pictures. Then I didn't get many more chances over the summer other than some camping trips but you bet I pulled it out as often as I could justify it. It went on every camping trip, to Maine, Michigan, and Texas and I'm wearing it in 4 pictures on our Christmas card. I love that sweatshirt and finally had to make myself stop wearing it every single day because I would and then it would wear out too quick. So I bought another one (different color and words) from Kohls (which I am wearing right now) because I now live in sweatshirts in the fall/winter/chilly spring. But I still love wearing my beloved sweatshirt.
My favorite shade of blue
After many years of changing it, I have settled on my favorite shade of blue. Blue has always and forever been my favorite color but now I have narrowed it down to a rather specific shade, or at least small range of shades and I want to buy everything in that range. Besides the aforementioned sweatshirt, I also have a t-shirt. And 2 sweaters. And a swimsuit top in an adjacent color. I'd have to look through my recent clothing purchases but most have been in close colors. I even almost let Matt finally buy a coffee maker because it was that color. But then we realized it was the K-Cup kind and we hate those (so wasteful!) so we didn't. But that's how committed I am, almost gave up my 10 year veto on a coffee maker just because it was the right color.
MaineYes. I discovered
Maine this year. I had been there, barely, 27 years previous (I first wrote 17 years earlier and then realized time is moving faster than I thought). Then we went back for 5 nights in June and it. was. wonderful. I felt alive in ways I normally don't feel outside of the Christmas season (which I love deeply). I loved everything about it except the parking situations we encountered in the park at times. The fresh air and the views and the blue skies and blue waters and getting to wear my sweatshirt. We camped in a deluxe cabin and when my parents stayed at the same campground 3 months later and sent a picture of our cabin...I almost cried. It was just a wonderful, wonderful trip. A highlight of the year, for sure.
Buddy reads with my sisters
Early in the year I was texting two of my sisters when it came up that they should each read The Hunger Games trilogy. I don't even remember why the topic came up. Then I had an epiphany. WE SHOULD ALL READ THEM TOGETHER (I texted it in all caps to them too). So we did. We read a book a month for 3 months straight. We didn't even DO anything with this other than text each other about starting or how far behind we were or whatever. Very little discussion happened. I think we even all watched the movies too (again, separately). It was just so nice to be doing something somewhat together. So we repeated it another 4ish times over the year? I honestly couldn't even tell you all what we read (Something Borrowed, Book Lovers, I think there were more?) but it was fun to do regardless. Maybe we'll hit a book a month in 2023!
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That's my sweatshirt, belly bag, and ME in Maine! Three discoveries in one picture!
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Belly BagI had a nylon belly bag when I was around the age of 9. Most of my sisters did too and we all wore them on vacations together and were super cool (this was the 90s). Then around high school I got too cool for those and stopped. But now I am back. We had some adventures this summer (Kings Island, zip lining) where I felt one would be helpful and so bought one. And then realized how incredibly wonderful it was to be hands free on the purse. I ended up taking it on nearly every trip, on the plane to Texas, and wore it all through Maine. It was wonderful and enough space for everything without being huge AND easier on my back than a cross body purse (and easier to maneuver when scrambling all over rocks in Acadia). I am a convert now. They are so useful.
Packing CubesI had heard about these for years and how revolutionary they were but never really saw a big need for them. We were mostly going to the lake and then on camping trips, always road trips for vacation, we had a decent enough packing system down and never were super tight on space. Then our Texas trip in October was looming and we were only checking one bag (since we could have Matt's hospital pay for one but any more than that would be a stretch) and we needed packing help. So I bought packing cubes and they were SO HELPFUL. The sizes worked out that Matt got the largest, then me, and so on for the boys and, besides shoes and toiletries, most of our clothes fit in our respective cube. Matt may have had overflow since he had to dress up for his conference, but the rest of us fit in one each! It made unpacking at the hotel SO EASY, especially because there was no dresser there and we have shelves we could each put our bag on. I don't know that we'll use these much on road trips but if we fly again or need to share a suitcase, they will be very useful.
Buy Nothing Group
Through all my reading on minimalist and zero-waste books, I had heard of these for awhile but never really saw how they could be any different than donating to a non-profit or whatever. I still joined the one for my neighborhood and mostly ignored the posts on Facebook. THEN...I read a book about reducing my wardrobe which lead me to doing a good kitchen cleanout. The problem was, I was left with things that were hard to donate, mostly glass/breakable variety. I didn't want to donate things just for them to end up broken glass. So I took the plunge and posted some things on the Buy Nothing group. And people were happy to take the stuff I wanted out of my kitchen! And I was delighted to pass it on to someone who could use them! It was amazing! I didn't even have to leave my house, just schedule a time, set an alarm, and then set items on the porch! DONE! Since then I've posted many more things, from half-used toiletries that didn't work for me to more breakables to things like fake plants! I've only had two postings that didn't get any bites out of probably 15 that I've done. I've only used sporadically over the fall and into early winter but always been delighted to find people who can use/need my extras! And we haven't completely cut out donating to non-profits, we did a big drop there this fall too. Just depends on what it is!
Farkle is a game my Mom has used with Luke to
practice his math skills. Then over the summer it became our go-to
family game, to the point where Matt made us a custom set of wooden dice
that we keep in a cleaned out yogurt tub with our pad of paper for
scoring and the printed out scoring guide my Mom made. That yogurt tub
went on many camping trips with us and we'd play inside cabins in the
rain or outside on the picnic table when sunny. It's the rare game that
all 4 of us can play and nobody gets bored by. It's the right match of
needing luck (rolling the dice) but also some skill where we all feel
fairly evenly matched playing together. Sam can even do some
strategizing he's played so many times! And can easily add more or few
people! Plus, easy to transport and don't even really need anything
more than dice since we mostly have the scoring memorized. It's been a
huge win for our whole family!
Saints MemoryDue to
various illnesses, my family gathered for Christmas on January 1st at
the start of this year (for celebrating Christmas 2021, we do plan ahead
but we don't gather a YEAR in advance). My sister (who is his
godmother) gave Sam two sets of
Saints Memory.
We played a few times over break, always starting with the saints we
knew (St. Patrick, St. Nicholas, St. Valentine, St. Pope John Paul II,
etc.). Gradually we learned them all. And started playing Memory a
lot. A LOT. All spring, summer, fall, winter. I think Sam & I
peaked at 8 rounds in a single day. Over time we added the two
women sets as
well, to where we now have 104 cards with 52 saints where Sam can name
probably 95% of them on sight (he can't read the names!). As much as
we've played Farkle, I've probably spent even more time on Memory (and
getting beat at least 75% of the time). It is a CONSTANT in our house,
especially with Sam (he's crazy good at it).
Not Needing Special Skills to Get Something Done
In the spring I was recruited to join the committee for our school's dinner/auction. They asked me to run social media because someone thought I was good at writing. I immediately suggested my sister since she has a marketing degree. Hah. We ended up sharing the job and have been working for the February auction for a few months now. I didn't know what I was getting into, really, neither of us did and we're mostly happy to help (besides when we got a "something was miscommunicated!" text when I was on the flight out of Texas and couldn't respond for a few hours). But it has shown me that you don't need to know exactly what you are doing to make a difference. I've been hemming and hawing over a project I want to take on at the school for about 14 months now but been so slow to take action (also, sometime people don't respond to my questions) because I haven't felt qualified. But being on this committee has shown me that that really doesn't matter. Everyone is kinda flying by the seat of their pants and stuff still gets done, there are still results! I don't need to have all the answers before even starting! Which has given me more confidence to get something going myself. Yes, it's a pretty failed item from my 22 in 2022 list but by the time I had this confidence it was too close to Christmas to really start something new. But...we'll see what happens in 2023!
{10} Favorite Discoveries of 2021
{10} Favorite Discoveries of 2020
