It's the penultimate day of December and I'm sharing my annual "survey" that I like to fill out each year!
1) What did you do in 2022 that you’ve never done before? We went on our first kid-free vacation since having children almost 5 years ago! And it was amazing!!
2) Did anyone close to you give birth? A friend I met through run club had a baby boy in September. I met him in November when I brought her lunch!
3) Did anyone close to you die? Not close to me, but 2 of my friends lost a parent this year. Sadly, I have reached the stage of life where it seems like this is going to continue to happen. I hate it.
4) What places did you visit?
- We went to Tucson in February to visit my sister/celebrate my niece's 1st birthday and we went to Mexico in December! And we made several trips up to my parents lake place.
- For work travel, I went to Kentucky, Washington DC, Charlotte, New York, and I was in Chicago twice. My work travel has really amped up!
5) What would you like to have in 2023 that you didn’t have in 2022? I would like to go on a girls trip! Ideally, I would like to meet up with the my best friend (who I met through blogging!) that I used to do running trips with before we all had kids, except I think I'd rather we meet up to go hiking than run a race.
6) What dates from 2022 will be etched in your memory forever? Nothing in particular will be etched in my memory from 2022. It was a good, normalish year after 2 weird pandemic years, but it is all kind of indistinct in a way since parenting young children is a little bit like Ground Hog's Day.
7) What was your biggest achievement this year?
- I was promoted at work in March.
- I ran a really strong 10k race in October!
- I am also proud of the presentation I gave at a conference in July - which I was asked to present at with about a week's notice. I'm guessing another presenter cancelled due to covid? Typically you have months of notice when you present! Nonetheless, I worked my butt off to prepare for it and got really great feedback.
8) What was your biggest failure? I don't like the word failure. So instead I'll say my biggest area of opportunity is figuring out how to fit exercise in better now that I'm back in the office 3 days/week. It's been really challenging and I'm disappointed by the number of workouts I've done. But I also recognize that I have a lot going on and might be expecting too much of myself.
9) Did you suffer from illness or injury? Nothing serious, but I had covid in May and many, many viruses in the fall. I had surgery in December to remove polyps which were all benign!
My RA was pretty well-managed - until December when I had a horrible flare that would not go away. I finally got a steroid injection yesterday, though. My doctor was surprised how bad the flare was despite taking a high dose of prednisone for weeks. My labs showed a high level of inflammation in my body. So I have to change my drug regimen and go back on a stronger drug (methotrexate) so I don’t have to deal with these painful flares. It’s frustrating since I am already on several meds but hopefully we can drop some of the other meds in 2023 when things are under better control.
10) What was the best thing you bought?
- For me, a new coffee bean grinder after the one we got for our wedding died on me! I had to wrack my brain to think of a great purchase. We don't buy much "fun" stuff!
- for the kids, the Nugget has been a great purchase. They have played with it a ton and love making different formations. They race cars up and down it, do summersaults, and log rolls. Paul loved building ‘mountains’ and then jumping off.
11) Where did most of your money go? Daycare - but they earn every single penny! This category will start to go down next year when Paul starts kindergarten! We'll still need to use before/after care but it will be much cheaper than daycare.
12) What did you get really, really excited about? My Mexico vacation with Phil, although I didn't get excited until the day we left because I was sure something would prevent us from going, like getting covid or the kids or my parents getting sick.
13) What authors did you discover in 2022? Catherine Newman (We All Want Impossible Things and Catastrophic Happiness), Catherine Ryan Howard (The Nothing Man), Bonnie Garmus (Lessons in Chemistry), and Sabaa Tahir (All My Rage) are authors that stand out!
14) What do you wish you had done more of? Running/strength training. But see question 8.
15) What do you wish you had done less of? Worrying. And going to doctor appointments.
16) How did your spend Christmas? We spent Christmas Eve with Phil's extended family. Christmas Day was our little family of 4.
17) What was your favorite TV program? Ted Lasso, hands down. That show is such a joy to watch.
18) What did you want and get? For my kids to get vaccinated from covid.
19) What did you want and not get? My answer is the same as last year! We are still trying to buy a Rav-4 Prime (plug-in electic hybrid) as having 4 wheel drive would be so nice in the winter months. But supply is still so low. Hopefully by next fall we will be able to buy one! We are on waiting lists at many dealerships!
20) What was your favorite film of 2022? Ha. A favorite film. I don't know that we watched a single movie in 2022! Instead we prefer to watch tv shows, but rarely watch an entire episode because I go up to bed at 8:30.
21) What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 41 on a Sunday in February. I got some delicious treats from a GF bakery, Phil made a Spanish Tortilla for lunch, and we went sledding with the boys in the afternoon. That night we got Indian take-out. It was low key but just how I wanted it.
22) What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? More sleep, although things have really improved the last 2-3 months!
23) Who kept you sane? Repeat answer from last year: Phil! He is the best partner I could ask for. He has a sense of humor, he keeps me from taking things too seriously, and reminds me to be easier on myself.
24) Who did you miss? My little sister. I wish we lived closer but hopefully we will some day. I saw her a handful of times, though, which was wonderful!
25) Who was the best new person you met?
- I made a connection with a co-worker I've known of for years but had never really gotten to know. She's been very helpful in raising my profile at work since she is very connected with our sales force.
- I also "met" a lot of new bloggers this year, like Elisabeth, Nicole, Life of a Doctor's Wife, Jenny, NGS, Coco, and Sarah. Most of the women I met when I started blogging have stopped writing, so I am thrilled to have met so many wonderful women this past year!
26) Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2022. I am continually being reminded how important it is to set boundaries.
27) Show us one of your favorite photos from the year.
I'm going to cheat and share 2!
#1 - Look! Mom and dad are on vacation and Phil smiled for a selfie!!!
#2 - This is my favorite picture from our family photos in September.
Happy New Year, everyone! We'll be celebrating Christmas with my MIL now that she's feeling better. Here's a fresh start in 2023!
12 comments:
Awww, I'm so glad to have come across your blog! It's been great getting to know you. Yay for the Mexican vacation too. How wonderful, and something I'm sure we couldn't have even dreamed about at this time last year.
Catherine Newman is SUCH a good writer, and I'm so glad you enjoyed her books!
It sounds like a really great year, Lisa! And I'm so happy to have "met" you through blogging! Your posts are always so fun to read.
I am really interested in your comment about how important boundaries are to you. They are SO important and something I often have trouble setting with people who are more flexible with boundaries. If it's a topic you care to elaborate on in a future post, I would find it so interesting to know how you establish and maintain them!
I am so happy to be blog friends!! Like you, my OG mom bloggers don’t write anymore, and this unexpected community has been a real gift.
What a lovely reflection on the year. I'm so glad you were able to get away for some kid-free time and I hope you're able to replicate it again in 2023!
What a great year review! I can’t agree more with about worrying less. I feel like I worried more than usual on 2022 and will seriously work on worrying less next year, the how is not so obvious as with physical goals.
I am so honored to be part of the list of new friends you met this year. Same wise, I love our little community in the blog world. Abe one day we should all get together! Can you imagine?
The Nugget looks fabulous!
Sad that you listed too much worrying, like I have in my version of this post. :-(
Thanks for being one of my blogging friends, I wish you a Happy New Year xx
This is such a great post, Lisa! So fun.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how you say something isn't a failure, it's an opportunity. What a great perspective (and it's 100% true; we so often classify things as failures which they almost never are - sometimes our priorities shift or our schedules change. This is just life! And provides an opportunity to grow).
I've loved getting to know you this year via the blog and the community seems to have flourished so much this year. So many wonderful voices in this space. Love it!
The Nugget looks amazing. And those pictures of you + Phil/the kids are so wonderful.
The best money we spent this year was on travel (especially Broadway tickets in NYC twice).
Thing I did in 2022 for the first time: run a timed race. Very fun.
We went to South Carolina, Toronto, and New York City.
Biggest failure? Not planning my summer and how much I spiraled mentally. SO much was out of my control, but it was a really, really hard few months and I wish I had approached some things differently.
I got COVID in October and had a much-anticipated surgery postponed to May 2023. Sigh.
Best thing I bought? Eufy (a robovac)
Favourite TV Program. All Creatures Great and Small. It was so relaxing and I loved watching this series.
Favourite film. Top Gun: Maverick.
My husband, best friend, and blogging (and all the wonderful blogging friends I've made) all helped keep me (mostly) sane!
Love this list! Such a great recap/ summary. I'm typically really bad at narrowing down "favorites" or naming "one thing that happened" etc... I'm too indecisive! But I may try borrowing your list and do my own year end recap. :)
Also, I didn't realize that so many of the bloggers you listed are new to you! For some reason, I thought you, Jenny, Nicole, Suzanne, NGS, etc had all been reading each other's blogs for years!
Wow -- this is really comprehensive! And that's quite a list! (That fort thing -- that's cool!)
A short comment but I send all good wishes to you, Phil and the boys for a wonderful new year. Onward!
That is a great list of questions to review the year.
I hope your flare is managed and not so painful. I have not had a full flare in a long time but I have to be careful to not over do physical activity. No running for me as I have fused bones in one ankle. But walking helps me to loosen up and keep mobile.
I found the baby/toddler years physically taxing and was often exhausted. I went a couple of times to the rheumatologist thinking I had a flare but it was just overuse and more of a bursitis than a flare. I also had my kids late (one when I was 38 and the other at 40). My kids are 12 and 10 now and it has shifted to attitude more but way less physically taxing. It is so much better for my energy levels.I found it slowly shift as the kids became school age. You are getting there!
A lovely recap of a lovely year for you! So much of my year was spent in anxiety spirals, so I feel you on the "what do you wish you had done less of" question. I hope 2023 is a year of a lot less worrying for both of us!
I can't believe Paul will be in kindergarten in the next school year. Where does the time go?! But hooray for lessening your childcare costs when that happens.
I'm SHOCKED that you guys are STILL waiting for a Rav-4 Prime. They must make, like, 10 of those cars a year or something, lol. I hope you can finally get that car this year!
I love that so many blog friends have done this end of year survey. It's such a nice way to look back at the entire year and it's so fun to read.
I am so excited for you that you got to go on a vacation with Phil last year and I am also glad you were able to fit in more exercise and run a 10k race! Also congrats on your promotion - it always feels good to be valued!
I do hope that you'll have less RA flares in 2023. I know these always knock you down.
I can totally get on board with getting excited about a new coffee grinder. I mean it's such an essential to start your day right ;)
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