Now you know what we’re looking forward to in 2022- how did we do last year? Did we make some changes or were our resolutions a bust?
Winter Bee
My 2021 word was #miracles. I wasn’t planning on a word for the year, that just happened (as inspiration does). My resolution: to go out of my comfort zone and open the door for miracles to happen.
Well, I really went out of my comfort zone!!!
I think the first thing was deciding to do this blog with Rachel. Neither one of us knew what we were doing, it’s been a year of trial and error; we had a heck of a time choosing the theme. The first one didn’t have some of the features we wanted, so we started all over again. Thank goodness WordPress has good tutorials.
We published our first post February 25, 2021, Favorites in Our Closets. YAYYY for us! We love our blog. We don’t sustain it particularly well, but we have ideas and a renewed commitment this year to be more present.
I decided that I wanted to be a flower farmer. Again, no idea what I was doing! You can read about that adventure in the post Following Your Dream. I am beyond excited for this year! I have a million new seeds to start, a few more raised beds to build, and Santa brought me a GREENHOUSE for Christmas.
Spending so much time in the garden and creating bouquets truly opened my eyes to miracles. From flowers blooming and bees hitch-hiking, the joy inherent in a bouquet, even when the aphids sucked the life out of the sweet peas, I am beyond blessed in the garden.
I suffer from anxiety, and a few other minor ailments (as do we all as we get older), but I was amazed when I had some bloodwork done at the end of summer, and so much improved. The impact being in my garden and experiencing so much joy through the summer on my mental and physical health is yet another miracle.
I went way out of my comfort zone in June, and had bilateral mammoplasty, aka breast reduction surgery. This decision changed my life in ways I never could have imagined. I suffered with constant back and shoulder pain but had no idea how much until it was gone. No pain, my sisters! It’s a miracle. It’s made a difference in my self-esteem and in how I feel about my body, which I was not expecting, and it’s a wonderful feeling.
I also pushed myself out of my comfort zone and began being more active in doing my part to promote social justice. I’ve prayed for opportunity to do something, and God came through. I am finding ways to do meaningful work as an LGBTQIA+ ally. ♥
My last big miracle of 2021, I’m retiring this coming spring. I can be in a full-time Flower Farmer! I’ll be doing a post soon on my Winter Bee Garden goals for 2022. I can’t wait to get started!
Tangerine Tea:
I have only started making a list of goals for the year consistantly in the last couple years. Lucky for all of you, I wrote a list last year in my journal! (Otherwise I would honestly never remembered what my list contained.)
First on the list was to keep working on myself. I struggle with depression and anxiety and started going to therapy for both in the summer of 2020. I did a lot of work in therapy during 2021 working through how to handle my depression and anxiety when they arise, as well as working through past trauma. Of course, working on myself will never be done, but I’d say I was pretty successful in my progress!
Another successful goal was to cook more on the stove. In the past I typically made easy/fast meals, or dump and go recipes in the Instant Pot. This year, I started finding recipes to make on the stove and have gotten a little more confortable in the kitchen. Currently, I typically make the same couple things each week, but that has more to do with the diet I am on right now.
One of the goals on my list was “get married.” I know I did this because 1) I was so excited and 2) even if all else failed, I had something I could check off the list. My wedding was beatiful and wonderful and everything I could have dreamed it to be. I can’t believe I have been married for six months already! I would love to do a look back post on the wedding and give some thoughts on what worked for us and what didn’t.
There are a few other things on the list that I did do (its a lenghty list, lol), but here are a few things that I did not do; get back into YouTube, start an Etsy shop, buy a house, and bake more. Part of the reason some of these didn’t work out is because the details of the goal changed. I still want to start an Etsy shop, but originally I thought I would be selling resin products. Now I have shifted gears into thinking about more cups and t-shirts. I put “starting an Etsy shop” on my 2022 list as a carry over.
I started baking more just this month! I made frutti pebble cookies, snickerdoodle cake cookies, and m&m brownies so far. My hope is to expand my baking horizons over this year with a focus on cookies!
I think last year was a total success for goals. I am looking forward to being successful again this year!
How did your 2021 go? Did you keep up with your goals? Did you create new goals or did your goals change during the year? Let us know in the comments!
