Year-End Check-In and 2023 Plans

I'm feeling pressured (by myself and myself alone) to post the traditional year-end review. So here it is, in a nutshell (I spent the last week of December doing this reviewing in my paper planner): 2022 was a weird year for me.

• Great: Kate's club volleyball last spring, and the sweet moms I spent so much time with, watching our girls play. 
• Great: Spring band activities. Spring of Alex's senior year in general. Spending more time with those mom-friends.
• Great: Alex's acceptance to UGA in February, visiting campus, him getting the scholarship he expected, etc.
• Not-so-great: Some heavy stress re: Alex's girlfriend that I don't want to discuss, but was really new and frightening for both him and me.
• Great: Both kids doing so well with academic and other achievements and graduating from their respective schools.
• Not-so-great: The extreme stress of Graduation week, with my added Covid diagnosis. I didn't get to have the celebrations I wanted to have for the kids and that made me SAD.
• Not-so-great: The emotional stress of sending Alex off to college, plus alllll the prep it required. I didn't realize it while it was happening but after it was done I realized how much I'd been holding that stress all year. 
• Great: Kate doing SO well in her first semester of high school, making lots of sweet friends and feeling comfortable from the start. 
• Great: More visits to see my parents in 2022! That was a goal, accomplished, by myself and my sister.
• Great: I got myself to some necessary doctor's appointments, including my first colonoscopy. I survived the prep! No more of those for 10 years, wooo!
• Not-so-great: I'm still in some pain, from plantar fasciitis as well as carpel tunnel, and during Christmas break my neck started feeling stiff and my freaking elbow started hurting for no reason whatsoever.
• Great: I read 29 interesting books!
• Not-so-great: You know, November. And the subsequent holiday season. Not just for that reason -- I also felt like I failed in many aspects regarding the "sparkle" of Christmas -- an annual fret, I suppose, but it felt even heavier somehow this year, sadly. Not that we didn't have a nice 11 days of holiday-time, or at least time off from work. It was quiet and calm at home, which is just what I like. Kate had a few social events with her friends, which was exactly what she wanted. But our super-quiet Christmas is not what the world shows me it's supposed to be like -- also WHY do so many people we know take extravagant vacations to the Bahamas, Disney, skiing, or tropical beaches in December? -- and it activates one of my biggest fears, that my kids will leave home and never want to come back here for the holidays because we're too boring. (Probably unfounded, but fear is never very rational.)

Anyway, it was weird. I was glad to bid it goodbye. 

For 2023, my thoughts are once again to be very careful and gentle about the word "goals," but I do have some.

• To be pain-free. Or closer to that. To that end I'm trying to detox from inflammatory sugar again (the holiday cookies got me!), drink more water, and stretch A LOT, including the 30-day yoga with adriene challenge.
• To enjoy this volleyball season even though it's with new people
• To better organize and prioritize my work tasks - ugh, this is killing me right now in our very busy season
• New clothes for me -- Mom gave me some Christmas money and I'm planning to use it specifically on clothes items I need. I don't buy myself new clothes very often and I think it's starting to show.
• To refresh our guest room with new paint possibly, and at least reworking the art on the walls and the leftover "kids' playroom" furniture.
• To add back "weekly cleaning" items on my WFH days -- just a quick swipe-down here and there, or cleaning ONE shower a week, will help me stay on top of this stupid stuff.
• To make PLANS to DO THINGS. Whether just for myself (lunches with friends, moms' nights), or more important, for the family. We mostly tend to say, "Oh, whatever you want to do...." and then end up NOT doing anything. (I also struggle with spending money and "doing things" is often expensive.) This year I want to be more intentional - I almost wrote "forceful" lol - about deciding on FUN things. "Here's what and when we're doing it! Enjoy!" This is going to require a huge mind-shift for me; it's daunting. 
• Just as an example, New Year's Day was shaping up to be nothing very special IMO, and I was starting to feel sad about it. Instead of asking everyone "what should we doooooo," I made a reservation at an Italian restaurant, told the family we were going at 5:30, and we ended up having a nice dinner out! ...and then Cherries Jubilee afterwards, at home. It worked! I feel like I need to take back some of my Mom-Power in this way, more often. "You'll do it and you'll like it." ;) 

Shawn and I went back to work yesterday, Kate starts school tomorrow, and on Friday Alex drives back to Athens (in advance of his trip with the marching band to the National Championship Game in L.A.!!). So 2023 is in full swing. I hope it's a good one for all of us.