Less Hustle More Coffee

I sat in the airport Sunday and made many lists. One of them was my goals for 2022. I had them rattling around in my head and it was good to get them on paper. I can’t say for sure that I was able to capture them all, and at some point when you get detailed enough it intertwines with the seasonal “bucket list” as well. Often I put our goals on the bucket list for the season. But these goals below are the ones that are on the forefront of my mind. And as we eased ourselves back from Texas, it felt good to get them on paper. So I’ll list my own goals for you here among these Texas sunset shots. I love the mesquite trees of this part of TX and I love this field where the sun sets behind Katy and Cody’s house. That sunset is amazing every time.

It’s my opinion, that those who do not set goals or resolutions for the new year, are missing out on refreshes of life, reset buttons, making improvements for themselves or their domain. Or perhaps those have just mastered life and are happy with it as is. Good for them. To me it’s important to have something to reach for and to be improving one’s self and surroundings to be the best we can be and to make the most of the life we have. So it hurts me to see when people give up on themselves saying “I always forget them by February”. I get that life gets in the way, but we can’t give up nor can we give in to the forces that try so hard to bring us down and keep us insanely chasing our tails, or telling us to fail, or that we are losers. No sir. No Ma’am. I’m giving myself a pep talk here! 😉 Our lives are important – too important – to simply toss care to the wind. “Embrace life and forge forward”!

My 2022 Goals

These are not necessarily in order of importance but what came to mind as I was making my list. I also am claiming February 1 as my own official personal new year since January is not giving me any spare time other than a few minutes thought to come up with these. I can’t put any more pressure on myself in January or I will buckle forward like an old woman walking on solid ice in a snow storm.

• Make Up and Appearance – Since that dreaded “you know what” illness came into our world in 2020, and all the facial coverings, distancing, and all that came to play, I really let myself go. I quit wearing makeup – and for a good reason – it was nasty under the mask. But I even let the eyes go and I didn’t have to. I became lazy. I became a “plain Jane” as they call it. I see pics of myself and I’m not happy. My hair – I quit coloring it and I will continue to let the grey shine, and I’ve let it grow, and in its transition on many days it just looks bad. I know that to worry about appearance is often vanity, but I do think I can stand some improvement. So I’ll be revamping my makeup, having fun watching some tutorials, learning to style my hair, buying myself some new eye shadow. It’ll be fun.
• Nutrition Changes – This one will always be on my list. But it’s more of a cost or financial decision this time. I’m getting better each year with throwing healthier things into my diet and actually enjoying it. What I don’t like is the cost of that “wellness plan” that I love so much. With the increases it’s just becoming ridiculous. And because it is associated with MLM – multi level marketing, it has inflated prices. If you are not full on the plan it’s not a cost savings. If you are full on the plan it’s about like going to the grocery. But I can’t do shakes all the time. I’m even tired of the occasional shake. So many products I like though but I’ve made the decision to come off the plan and the monthly auto ship, since it’s pricey plus the shipping and tax. So it’ll be a game in a way. I’ve made a list of each of the products I like, that I will miss, and I will find a substitute either on Amazon or health food stores. This means I’ll be allowing myself to stop and get smoothies or make them on my own at home. Again, I’ll make it fun and I’ll share what I do along with you. The other wellness plan became something I refused to share on here anymore as the company did not want their name and any thing about the “dreaded illness” in the same sentence. To me this was not allowing free speech and as a result I didn’t give them any good press either. I deleted the words from my blog. All over it. So I’m cutting the cord officially as soon as I can get 5 minute to call and cancel auto ship! It’s sad but I think I can do better cost wise. But I do believe in their products. I will miss some of them greatly. But I’ll share what I learn and find here. And I’ll be able to talk about it!
• Cable and Streaming – I really want us to look at dropping cable, but we need a bit of time to research how to handle it. And can we stream what we want. I would have cut it a long time ago for just streaming, but it’s George mainly that watches sports. Can he get what he wants to see. The only other thing I can think of is the Weather, when we have a tornado event. We always watch to see exactly where the cell is moving. I mean I can do this on my own but it’s nice to get minute by minute coverage. The local news streaming is not the same when you try to watch on your phone. I’ve not had good luck with it.
• House – Some things need to be moved around furniture wise, with the things Mom gave us from her house. China cabinet, office filing cabinet (wooden), and hope chest, etc. I really just need to see where it will go. I want to move the bed from my office and move the filing cabinet in and get my filing system up to snuff, lol. We also desperately need to clean our windows. We just need to put it on the calendar so it happens. ha.
• Jewelry – I really need to go through it again and get rid of some things and also polish the silver earrings that are turning dark. I may invest in a few more silver pieces here and there. I love my silver. I got gold ones for Christmas and that is great. Sometimes I want to wear gold and don’t have much to choose from so I love those.
• Camera Learning – I love my camera and I want to continue learning. I did a few lessons last year and the year before but the learning is so slow as I put so many things before it. But I’m keeping it on the list. I forget what I have learned too. I’d love to go out and do some photos with it in the community and surrounding areas. But when do I have time for that? I just need to take it with me some time when we are out running errands I guess and do it then? The learning is slow b/c I am able to put it on automatic settings and get done what I need to do with photos and the vlog. So at least there is that.
• Vlog Videos and YouTube – This continues to be a big goal of mine to grow the channel and to improve. It would be awesome one day to be retired and to be able to supplement our income with money from it. But whether it happens or not, it’s first and foremost just a hobby. I like to treat it like a business though or a brand even if it’s not yet. This is just a fun challenge mainly to see if I can do it. lol Either way I’ve decided to have fun with it and not be stressing over it. There is enough stress in today’s world as it is. Fun is the name of the game with this one. When it’s not fun anymore, is when it stops.
• Blog Growth. I do want to grow the blog into more of a community. We are getting there. I love your comments and when you all comment, it makes me feel less alone in doing this – and that there are people actually out there. I try to respond now to each one if I can, or will certainly “like” it, if I agree. I enjoy this blog. I enjoy ya’ll. You have been good to me. There are so many readers but so many don’t reach out. I do want to grow it, again – it’s mainly the challenge of doing so and to have a community that drives me forward to doing this. I really don’t have any plans for any monetary involvement with the blog unless it connects to YouTube in some way or affiliate marketing in some way as a part of branding. But that would be way down the road if and when something like that would ever happen. I don’t want it to become such a thing that it would stress me or cause me to change my blog from what it is now. You all have told me you like it as it is from a post a few days ago. I heard you and I’m so happy you do!

• Decorate my Office at Work. I can see this one is going to take some expense and also I will do it across the year so it won’t impact us financially. I like to work in a place that is appealing. Don’t get me wrong, the office is fine. It is very nice. I’m most impressed with it. But there is so much empty wall space so I’m going to enjoy creating an environment that is nice to work in, feels cozy and comfy as I’m in there all day. So plants (fake), bookshelf, mirror, pictures, blackboard – I have some ideas in mind. Like putting a world map in there that looks old fashioned. I love to learn about other countries and often watch travel shows with the sailing crews so I love to see on a map where they are. I don’t have room for a map on the wall at home but I could put one there. There are some on Amazon less than $20. It will look masculine though but I’ll add enough plants and other things to make it more like me.
• Basement. We need to get rid of crap! Simply said! And better organize what we have down there. It’s been a dumping ground for us and all of family for so long. Time to turn it around and make it what we need it to be. And I don’t want Katy to have to go through what we have been through with Mom. Stuff needs to be gone through and go!
• Travel. I don’t have to go anywhere big. But I do want to go to TX at Thanksgiving, and try to meet family in Hot Springs or somewhere in spring. I’d like for George and I to do a few side trips. I was hoping we could go to Maine this year, but honestly don’t think it’s in the cards, but we’ll see what George thinks.
• Dog(s). Seriously considering the fact that we can now be open to getting a dog. I think we are past most of the hurdles. I’m open. I’m scared. I think spring or later is good. January not good. lol Easier to train in warmer weather. I’m good with a puppy again. I’m ready for a long haul with a dog and not loose them too soon after getting attached.
• Learn Final Cut Pro. I’m so excited but nervous about this video software. But this again, won’t happen until February. It’s part of my Christmas but not going to download it until I have time to work with it. It will only frustrate me to do so. I have to get my house back in order from Christmas and all that jazz too. We still have Christmas trees up and probably will until February when I can get time to put it up. I’ll be excited to have some extra features. I will watch YouTubes to learn it.
• Exercise. Ennnnnnh, it’s on here. Mainly b/c I need to keep trying. ::sigh:: lol lol Poor thing, it is toward the bottom. But weight loss would be awesome.

EMBRACE LIFE AS IT IS AND FORGE FORWARD, FIGURING OUT A WAY TO GET DONE WHAT YOU NEED. That’s my goal also. I’m going to have “Embrace and Forge Forward” on my letter board for this year. Replacing “Everything is going to be all right”. I enjoyed that last year. But I’m always trying to control my world and it still tries to control me. So I am trying to keep the faith (in God) that I will be able to master His Will for me and that I still get to have some fun doing things I want to do too! ;-). Hopefully we’ll realign our goals all together in 2022 as it should be.

Real Life Update.

Yesterday George and I got Mom’s grocery shopping done and she fixed spaghetti for us. Oh my gosh it was soooooooooooooo good. I love Mom’s spaghetti. We got her curtain rods ordered via Amazon.

Also at work I made tremendous progress getting my reconciliation report done. It’s a lot of work pulling data from various reports. So that is the good news. The bad news is that something didn’t balance for two different states. I couldn’t find where it was off. So my boss, who can sniff out, and find things so easily (she’s a lot more experienced) will help. But I still need to do all the withholding returns for several states across the country and also unemployment returns, all the annual reports and then the w-2 reports and all the various tax filings for Oregon. There is so much to do and very few hours left in the month (due to payroll every week) to do it in. But, I’m hoping all will be able to get done.

Ok off the races ya’ll.

Do YOU HAVE any goals for 2022? Let me know if you made it to the end!