First of all, a very HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you! I’m so happy you’re are stopping by. Please let me know how you have been in the last months. I’d love to get your feedback!
On Wednesday, I finally sat down to write again. I wanted to briefly look back at the past year. Think about what we have done, what we haven’t and what goals I achieved. Did you write about your achievements, your reflection of 2019 and make a list of goals for the new year?
Unfortunately, I had to realize that my blog has technical issues and wasn’t displayed correctly. That’s why I had to spend way too much of my spare time fixing the problems and not writing. Again. That’s kind of the story of my past year: Distraction and Procrastination. But today, I’m finally writing my reflection of 2019 though.
Setting priorities? I guess not.
One problem I have faced last year is that there was always something that had stopped me from taking the time to sit down and write. I always came up with something else that had to be done and was more important. Which it probably was not. The same fact applies to read a book. Often, I felt like I can’t allow myself to take the time for these things. That’s one reason why I have only published nine blog posts, of which two were based on articles I wrote for Heimat abroad.
I’m taking care of my procrastination issues. Just you wait and see.
Goals?
I achieved some goals, some not. Some came up during the year. I hiked 100 miles and I loved hiking with our dog Thula. Walking through Almaden Quicksilver County Park with her makes me happy. I did not ride my bike enough and hardly ever run because my hip and knee are still causing problems. Now it’s my neck and my shoulder! Like my neighbor says “Aging is not for sissies.” But I did a bit more yoga, completed numerous sessions in Headspace and meditated 257 out of 365 days.
House Projects
We achieved our big goal to install a pool and transform our backyard. Even though the process of the installation was nerve-racking at times (our contractor sucked), I’m so happy we did it. There’s still a lot of work to do, but I love our front and back yard and can’t wait for warm weather and to jump in the water. We also installed a vegetable/herb garden in the front and harvested loads of tomatoes, zucchinis, carrots, squash and now arugula, cilantro, swiss chard and so on.
Writing
I interviewed with the German actor Bjarne Mädel during the German film festival Berlin and Beyond in San Francisco. That was an exciting experience and a challenge to actually publish the interview, but all went well and I’d love to do something like this again.
Teaching
I was the substitute homeroom teacher for a third grade for almost three months and I really enjoyed it. It was not really a goal that I set beforehand, but it feels like a big accomplishment to me. I had not been a classroom teacher for twelve years, but it went pretty well and made me happy and proud. It’s certainly more work than being a subject teacher, but it feels more rewarding to me. I realized that this is what I would rather do in the next school year.
Family
The biggest goal we achieved as a family was to send our 15-year old to Germany for four months. It was a huge experience not only for her but for all of us. We learned so much through the whole process and time. My daughter had to speak a lot of German, she made new friends, faced quite some challenges at the Gymnasium in Freiburg and ate lots of “Brezeln” (pretzels). She took the trains all over Freiburg and the rest of Germany to visit family. It was very tough for me to send her off and even though, this whole project was my idea, I missed her very much. We were “home alone” and that was strange and hard for all three of us. There’s so much more to write about this experience, I will have to write a separate post about it.
Our younger daughter suffered a couple of injuries from gymnastics and that changed our vacation plans. Instead of doing a big camping/hiking trip through Utah and Arizona, we went to a hotel at the beach for only a few nights. Again, in December, she hyper extended her other knee and even though it’s not as bad, she could not really ski a lot.
Altogether, even though there are things I should have done more, completed, decluttered, read, built, painted or written, the year was ok. Not amazing, but good. I’m looking forward to the new one and the new decade.
Goals for 2020
After this reflection of 2019, the following goals for 2020 seem to have emerged:
- I want to write more! And I will take the time for it. I want to not only write more blog posts but also start a bigger writing project.
- Spend more time with my family. Go on a family vacation, just the four of us and the dog. I can’t believe that our older daughter will go to college in only two and a half more years!
- I want to work on focusing better and being present.
- No procrastinating anymore. Ok, less.
- I would also love to become a homeroom teacher at my school.
- Do lots of random acts of kindness.
- Spend less time on my phone.
- Hike 250 miles.
- Do at least one triathlon. (Hopefully, my body will cooperate.)
- Read more books.
I think these are good goals. Most of them are pretty realistic to achieve, others, I need to make a bigger effort. But in the end, it’s good to have goals, isn’t it? What are your goals? Feel free to share them in the comments or in my IG stories.
