Best Year Ever & 17 Goals for 2017

     So I know that I have totally failed at blogging the past year, but honestly so much has happened and time flew by. I didn't even realize how fast time was going and now it's done! 

     I figured it was a good time to start fresh & share with you everything that happened last year & my goals for this year. Figured I'd write and share 17 goals for this year, some of which are "real life" goals in addition to online goals. Please share with me any of your goals or resolutions for this year in the comments! I'm always so intrigued by what goals other people set themselves and it always seems to inspire me more and more.

Recap of 2016:
     I met the love of my life in January (technically NYE) who has opened my eyes to so many things this past year, and is 90% of the reason that I struggled to put content on my YouTube Channel and blog, and the funniest part is he knows it! He constantly jokes about "what would you do without me? Oh probably upload more and actually write things online" so I have to forgive him. I would say the biggest struggle was once I got my teaching job, while he was still doing classes to finish his degree we would toggle between when we could see each other, and we just have a genuinely difficult time NOT seeing each other. Whenever we get the chance, we see each other and that can make it quite difficult to get anything done. But that is one thing that I'm going to work on very hard this year, balance Scott + all my other time. Hopefully he will get his full-time job in the next couple months and that will lead (eventually) to us getting an apartment. I think if we lived together I'd get more done LOL. 
     Other than Scott as a major accomplishment this year (ahaha) I would say another huge change is my full-time teaching job. Back in April I was hired as an assistant in a Junior Prep/Junior Kindergarten classroom at a local private school and was then hired full-time as a grade 4 teacher for this September. It's definitely been a change, that's for sure, due to the fact that technically I'm a grade 7-12 teacher of History and Geography, not a general education teacher of grade 4s! But I love my students and wouldn't change them for the world (minus their non-stop chatter - I could do with less of that aha). But coping with curriculum I never had to deal with before has been a challenge, and just trying to accomplish all the curriculum for these subjects is also challenging. I'm up to it, but I'm also still learning and having to remind myself that they are not grade 9 students and no they aren't going to get perfect on their tests (or "study" for that matter) and they are going to stumble over my instructions no matter how many times I write them or say them. But I am always going to be growing as a teacher and I have an AMAZING staff that are truly there for me, for better or for worse; good days and bad. 
     I think those two things were the biggest from last year, and of course are the most time consuming ones. I also ran the summer camp again this year, but did it mostly by myself with just one other girl. THAT was a challenge, but again I enjoyed it but it kept me busy all week and on the weekends Scott and I would run away to his family cottage, which I never wanted to leave. I had probably the best summer on record due to that cottage, despite buggering up my ankle to the extreme (as it still hasn't healed nearly 6 months later...). I went tubing,  learned to wake board, and got my boating license so that I could drive the seadoo. Took Scott quite some time to finally launch me off the back of that sucker! He and his best friend are cray-cray and spend 90% of the time trying to launch each other from the back of the seadoo. I am not brave enough to try to launch myself or anyone else off them, I'm just happy to go from one spot to another (which Scott doesn't think is fun enough aha). 
     I was alright at hitting the gym this year, started to get into a groove and then when I buggered my ankle (couldn't walk for a while) it took some time to be brave enough to go. I also got quite sick with a mysterious stomach ailment (which still hasn't been diagnosed) which limited my gym visits but the upside of that was I lost about 15lbs. Fifteen pounds that I shouldn't have put back on in the last year, so good riddance! But I'm technically about 5-7lbs away from what I was in university, so I would like to get back to that, but the focus I have is toning up, so if I stay the same weight then I'm okay with that, so long as I'm more toned. 

     I don't think there is much else from 2016 that is noteworthy, so onto the Goals of 2017! I decided it was appropriate to list 17 goals for the year and I have them broken up into a few different categories: Online/Health/Work/Personal. 

1. I want to upload consistently, but more importantly I want to get into the habit of pre-filming videos so when I get busy I have something on deck and am not scrambling.
2. Collaborating! I would LOVE to work more with others both for blogging and for YouTube. I want to do some in person as well as online collaborations.
3. More giveaways! I haven't been able to do a giveaway for quite some time, so now that I'm a bit more financially stable so keep your eyes peeled
4. Get a lighting set up...I'm on the market for some lighting and have been toying with the idea of either a ring light or umbrella lights...so bloggers if you have recommendations hit me up! 
5. Make and stick to a gym schedule - I've decided for the first year probably ever (at least since I was 12/13) I'm NOT going to say that I want to lose weight or tone up. I just want to focus on the commitment to the gym and that is what is going to produce the results. I'm working on building up my home gym as well, so the days I don't make it to the gym I can do something at home.
6. Get more into yoga and meditation (drink more water) - I really want to work on my flexibility and gain back what I've lost over the years. I would love to be able to do the splits again. As for meditation, I usually only do it when I'm having an anxiety attacks, so I want to build it into my routine before the extremes happen. Water is my friend...water is my friend...
7. I would like to cook more. I'm not the biggest fan of my kitchen because I'm someone who gets hungry and wants food immediately and I don't have the patience for cookie. Though I have cooked a lot more with Scott in the last year, but I would like to learn to enjoy it more.
8. Attempt a Tough Mudder - as you may or may not know I was suppose to compete in my first TM this past September with Scott, his sisters and our friend Jeff. But because of my ankle injury I could still barely walk at that point, so running and obstacles were NOT going to happen. This one I'm not 100% committed to - but it is an ideal.
9. Work smarter not harder for work...In case you are new around here, I'm a grade 4 teacher (first year) so I'm learning to be more efficient with my time when I'm working on lessons and marking. It's difficult because I'm always trying to find fun lessons when sometimes I have to stick to the basics. I would like to schedule time specifically for work and then walk away from it
10. Read some professional development books and teacher books. I would also like to find some free PD materials and courses as well.
11. Read more books/finding more ME time - I don't ever make enough time for myself and I think that is something that causes me subtle stress. I want to find time to read all the books that have been sitting on my shelves for years and all the books Scott wants to pass on to me. I got my nose in a series just before the summer and then camp/cottage killed my reading time and I haven't been able to pick it up again. 
12. Work on French - hahahahah aw man....I SUCK at this one....I've been telling myself to work on French since first year of university when I dropped my French course because it was hell on earth. I have all 5 levels of Rosetta Stone and I've probably spent 1.5hrs using it in the 3 years I've owned it. Très pathétique! I think I'm going to bite the bullet and pay for an in person course this Spring/Summer so that I have real interaction with the French. I would also like to get back into using French ("game") apps for vocabulary etc. that I can pull out to kill time so if you have any recommendations please let me know. 
13. Travel with Scott - other than the odd trip to visit my mother in the last couple of years I haven't travelled since high school, and it's killing me. I am itching to go somewhere...anywhere! So Scott and I have decided that we are going to go on a trip this summer. We are currently thinking either a European trip or a Caribbean adventure (cruise or hitting up an island). Either way I'm stoked! 
14. Money Management is something that I want to work on this year, I want to work on paying off some student debt but I want to also work on investing some money etc.
15. See more of my friends. I've found since graduating university, I don't see many of my friends consistently. So I'd like to make all those "lets grab some tea sometime" actual visits. I'm sick of saying it and not finding time for it.
16. Do more around my house - just generally making time to help do any rearranging of things and spend the time reorganizing my closet and basement etc.
17. OVERALL GOAL: TIME MANAGEMENT - This is the key for this year. If I can only work on one thing this would be it. If I can accomplish this, then my whole list can be achieved. This has never been my strong suit, I've never been very good with time management and I've tried so hard over the years but I just fall back into bad habits.

     I tend to get overwhelmed when I write massive lists of things I want to so my advice to you is make a plan. Write out some small manageable tasks to help you achieve the larger goals. That is my task for this month, look at all my goals and see what I can do to make them achievable and manageable. 

     So please let me know what YOUR goals and resolutions are for this year. I'm kind of nosey like that and would love to know. Remember you don't have to wait until the new year to start them but I always find it's a good fresh start. Don't forget to hit me up on my social media! 

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