Annual Look back/look forward
Dec. 31st, 2025 11:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baronessekatLet's review my 2025 "To-Do" list and set 2026's
2025 To-Do List
My words for 2025 are “Patience and Perseverance”. This comes from a quote by Abigail Adams: “Great difficulties may be surmounted by patience and perseverance.”
I tried, but 2025 made it hard to have either patience or perseverance. Add to it that my beloved companion of 18+ years, my chihuahua Grimmy, passed away on Thanksgiving. But I tried. But I am taking as a win just surviving.
Health: Re-committing (again) to getting healthy with the new year. Going to try to get some more exercise in, not eat out as much and lose weight. On top of that, I commit to continuing to do what I have to do with my medical providers to take care of me.
Well, thanks to officially going into full blown menopause (confirmed by bloodwork) and not being able to safely go on HRT, I have gained weight. *grumble*. And the all year long depression meant any exercise was minimal at best.
Additionally, I got the horrid upper respiratory virus that’s been going around. It hit just before Halloween, lasted 1.5 weeks, went away for 2 weeks, came back hard for 2 weeks, went away for 2 weeks and came back again. Luckily the last time only lasted a week and wasn’t as severe. But it has not been fun.
But I have been working with my various medical providers on some issues. We did finally, after 9+ months, get my insurance to cover the new injection medication to keep my migraines to a bare minimum. Small victories.
Finance: I want to do better about not spending for spending sake. Actually work to build a savings. To that end, I will be putting away any cash that comes my way into a savings envelope system. I also want to stop eating out just because I don’t feel like cooking or “don’t want what I brought for lunch”. I’ve seen a couple influencers on TikTok doing “eat my pantry” challenges and think that I want to do a modified version of it. Rather than go for as long as I can without grocery shopping, I want to commit to at least two weeks a month eating what I have in the house (pantry or freezer). This may mean bringing back “prep for the week Sundays”. But this means shopping for me will be more reduced and mindful.
I did use the cash envelope thing to save up some cash to be able to use at Pennsic and then again for some Christmas shopping. However, I wasn’t as good as I should have been about not eating in the cafeteria at work or stopping for fast food because I didn’t have the spoons to cook. But I did try to be less impulse shopper and more mindful.
Hobbies and Activities (not exercise or SCA related): I am still hoping to stop my tendency to sit in my chair in front of the TV doom-scrolling or playing stupid games on my phone. Therefore, my goal is to do more of the following:
1. Reading: I really like doing reading challenges and have picked 5 to do in 2025 with the plan to complete at least 2. I am keeping my goal to 80 books this year as it’s a realistic goal for me, but I still have dreams of breaking 100 some year.
I did not hit my goal this year. I only finished 66. Yes I know that is a lot, but this is the first time in 10 years that I didn’t exceed the previous year’s total read. I also only finished 1 reading challenge and surprisingly, I am okay with it.
2. Creativity: I have come to realize I NEED to be creative in some way. I also have a LOT of crafting and art supplies that I have bought in past years with grand ideas and no follow-through. So, I am going to focus on doing something creative at least once a month – painting, embroidery, crochet, something. I am running an advent ornament exchange again this year and I have ideas for my contribution.
Painting and embroidery didn’t happen. But in May I learned that my one go-worker was expecting and I crocheted a baby blanket for her. This rekindled my enjoyment of that craft and made gifts for chosen family for Christmas. 8 granny square viking hoods, 2 shawls, 1 fashion scarf, 1 hexagon cardigan, and 10 winter beanies. I also started a project to use up a bunch of my random yarn scraps that I am calling “Chaos Squares”. I have a book of various types of granny squares so I have numbers them and put that number in a jar. I blind pick the number and that’s the square I do. I have also put snippets of all my scrap yarn into a jar so I can then blind pick what yarn will be used to make the square. Some have come out beautifully and some are total WTF (hence “Chaos Squares”). My plan is to eventually make a blanket out of all of them.
SCA:
1. Attend some more events. I miss people, but finances and political things may prevent this from happing. We shall see how 2025 goes.
2. Tackle the backlog scroll list. I have one that I MUST get done by May.
3. Scroll Cases – I have too much cardboard in my garage that needs to be converted into cases. If I can at least get the boxes cut down to size I can always see if there is anyone I can pass them to for making the final case.
4. Do what I can to help my students achieve their SCA goals and dreams.
I think I only attended 4 events (including Pennsic and War Practice). Grimmy’s health was a big factor as I could not be gone overnight as he had to have meds 2x a day. Finances were also a contributing factor.
No scrolls or scroll cases were made this past year. The one I had to get done for May didn’t need to as due to socio-political stuff prevented the recipient from coming to the States and I have put it back on hold.
I wanted to do more for my students, but I did what I could. But the true happy with them is that my longest serving protégé (who happens to also be the youngest) received her writ of summons and will be joining the Order of the Pelican on January 3rd. So proud of her.
House: There are things I want to do to reclaim my space. I am going to try to hold myself to go through the MOUNTAINS of clothes I have and weed out what stays, what gets donated and what just goes away. I’d like to work on maybe painting the upstairs hallway and get the high-boy dresser out of the basement to get the dead console tv out of the family room and away. Additionally, the box hoard in the garage needs to be addressed.
Absolutely none of this happened. The only thing that happened as far as decluttering happened because of Grimmy passing away. The family room is a little more open as far as floor space goes because I have removed his beds, most of the blanket piles and his toy box. Otherwise, nothing else happened as far as doing anything around the house.
Ashley Boxes: They make me and others happy. Hopefully I can be more aware of who needs a boost.
I did two. I so wish I could have done more. I put out a call for nominations as my own 2025 was so hard that I didn’t see as much as I used to for who needed the boost. I got so many nominations that it broke my heart. But two people received boxes. One sent me a photo almost daily on what she opened and thanked me every day for the feeling of being loved, seen and wanted.
Social time: I want to continue to have people over for chosen family time. Game time, food time, asking for help to clean the basement/garage. Maybe grab a friend and wander the zoo or the Falls.
Not as much as I wanted. Didn’t put calls out for help. Didn’t do the zoo or the Falls. I didn’t do many of the family Zoomies and even felt a bit of an obligation for our VTTRPG when we did hold it. ☹)
2026 To-Do List
My words for 2026 are
Health: Same as last year: Re-committing (again) to getting healthy with the new year. Going to try:
1. Get some more exercise in: When I go for walks outside, I almost always feel better afterwards. So I am going to add going OUTSIDE for walks whenever possible. I find it a chore to go for walks indoors when it’s just up and down a hallway, and I don’t own a working treadmill.
2. Not eat out as much: this will help with both health and finances.
3. Lose weight: this is the same every year and I know it’s going to be harder due to the hormone changes I cannot do anything about (can’t do HRT and am allergic to many of the “natural” options)
4. Continue to do what I have to do with my medical providers to take care of me.
5. Practice self-cart: look into reputable massage studies and/or chiropractor. Save money up to get my hair professionally colored into something fun – hell just get back to coloring my hair in fun colors and away from my natural color as I hate it.
Finance: I want to do better about not spending for spending sake and work to build a savings.
1. Try the savings envelope again.
2. I also want to stop eating out just because I don’t feel like cooking or “don’t want what I brought for lunch” and look to bring back “prep for the week Sundays”
3. Try to pay down some of the huge credit card dept I have.
Hobbies and Activities (not exercise or SCA related):
1. Reading: I am dropping my reading goal to 70 from 80. I am using 5 different reading challenges to guid. me BUT I am not going to treat them as obligations like I have in the past. My only goal is to finish one and the others will happen if they happen. I will not feel guilty about not completing them.
2. Creativity: I I NEED to be creative in some way. I continue to collect materials to make things and I need to start using them. I intend to continue to crochet for as long as it brings me joy. I will also be running the Advent Ornament Exchange again this year (may be the last year I do) and I have ideas for a couple options for what I will make.
SCA:
1. Attend some more events. I miss people, but finances are hard. I think just attending will be a big step. Being active like I used to will be a slow return.
2. Tackle the backlog scroll list. I I will not accept new assignments until at least two backlogs are done. But this will be something I need to be gentle with myself as my eyes grow tired easily and the fine motor control tremor is emerging again.
3. Scroll Cases – I have too much cardboard in my garage that needs to be converted into cases. If I can at least get the boxes cut down to size I can always see if there is anyone I can pass them to for making the final case.
4. Do what I can to help my students achieve their SCA goals and dreams.
House: There are things I want to do to reclaim my space. I also recognize that this list is not doable for a single year, but if I put all here, my hopes are that I can maybe get to some.
1. Garage: I am hoping to ask for help to tackle the garage again. I want to get crap out, not just boxes and things that I no longer need, but also reach out to some folks who have stored things in there for years and ask them to either come get OR give me permission to dispose of as I see fit. I cannot moe the highboy out of the basement to referb into a TV stand until I have a space to do said referbbing. I’d also like to park in the garage next winter.
2. Basement: Same as the garage – ask for help to tackle more of the crap and stuff in the main room in the basement and get it out or dealt with. If I can focus on one section a y ear, I can get it taken care of without being overwhelmed.
3. Master Bedroom: No that I no longer have to have piles everywhere to keep the dog from hurting himself, I need to deal with said piles. Clean and sort the laundry (sort as in keep/toss/donate). Address other hotspots around the room.
4. Spare Room: same as the master bedroom in dealing with the fact that I turned the rom into a “throw it in there to deal with later and then forget it’s there.” I’d like to get it cleaned/cleared so I can get the bedroom set out and hopefully sell. My dream is to repaint the room and turn it into a library/crafting space.
5. Family Room: I want to paint the space. But would be smart to get the hi-boy referbbed so I can put it in place as I move the furniture back into place after.
6. Florida/Back Room needs serious organizing, cleaning, culling/de-hoarding.
7. Stay on top of chores: I am going to play “role for chore” to try to make doing chores a game.
Ashley Boxes: They make me and others happy. Hopefully I can be more aware of who needs a boost.
Social time: Same as last year:I want to continue to have people over for chosen family time. Game time, food time, asking for help to clean the basement/garage. Maybe grab a friend and wander the zoo or the Falls.
2025 To-Do List
My words for 2025 are “Patience and Perseverance”. This comes from a quote by Abigail Adams: “Great difficulties may be surmounted by patience and perseverance.”
I tried, but 2025 made it hard to have either patience or perseverance. Add to it that my beloved companion of 18+ years, my chihuahua Grimmy, passed away on Thanksgiving. But I tried. But I am taking as a win just surviving.
Health: Re-committing (again) to getting healthy with the new year. Going to try to get some more exercise in, not eat out as much and lose weight. On top of that, I commit to continuing to do what I have to do with my medical providers to take care of me.
Well, thanks to officially going into full blown menopause (confirmed by bloodwork) and not being able to safely go on HRT, I have gained weight. *grumble*. And the all year long depression meant any exercise was minimal at best.
Additionally, I got the horrid upper respiratory virus that’s been going around. It hit just before Halloween, lasted 1.5 weeks, went away for 2 weeks, came back hard for 2 weeks, went away for 2 weeks and came back again. Luckily the last time only lasted a week and wasn’t as severe. But it has not been fun.
But I have been working with my various medical providers on some issues. We did finally, after 9+ months, get my insurance to cover the new injection medication to keep my migraines to a bare minimum. Small victories.
Finance: I want to do better about not spending for spending sake. Actually work to build a savings. To that end, I will be putting away any cash that comes my way into a savings envelope system. I also want to stop eating out just because I don’t feel like cooking or “don’t want what I brought for lunch”. I’ve seen a couple influencers on TikTok doing “eat my pantry” challenges and think that I want to do a modified version of it. Rather than go for as long as I can without grocery shopping, I want to commit to at least two weeks a month eating what I have in the house (pantry or freezer). This may mean bringing back “prep for the week Sundays”. But this means shopping for me will be more reduced and mindful.
I did use the cash envelope thing to save up some cash to be able to use at Pennsic and then again for some Christmas shopping. However, I wasn’t as good as I should have been about not eating in the cafeteria at work or stopping for fast food because I didn’t have the spoons to cook. But I did try to be less impulse shopper and more mindful.
Hobbies and Activities (not exercise or SCA related): I am still hoping to stop my tendency to sit in my chair in front of the TV doom-scrolling or playing stupid games on my phone. Therefore, my goal is to do more of the following:
1. Reading: I really like doing reading challenges and have picked 5 to do in 2025 with the plan to complete at least 2. I am keeping my goal to 80 books this year as it’s a realistic goal for me, but I still have dreams of breaking 100 some year.
I did not hit my goal this year. I only finished 66. Yes I know that is a lot, but this is the first time in 10 years that I didn’t exceed the previous year’s total read. I also only finished 1 reading challenge and surprisingly, I am okay with it.
2. Creativity: I have come to realize I NEED to be creative in some way. I also have a LOT of crafting and art supplies that I have bought in past years with grand ideas and no follow-through. So, I am going to focus on doing something creative at least once a month – painting, embroidery, crochet, something. I am running an advent ornament exchange again this year and I have ideas for my contribution.
Painting and embroidery didn’t happen. But in May I learned that my one go-worker was expecting and I crocheted a baby blanket for her. This rekindled my enjoyment of that craft and made gifts for chosen family for Christmas. 8 granny square viking hoods, 2 shawls, 1 fashion scarf, 1 hexagon cardigan, and 10 winter beanies. I also started a project to use up a bunch of my random yarn scraps that I am calling “Chaos Squares”. I have a book of various types of granny squares so I have numbers them and put that number in a jar. I blind pick the number and that’s the square I do. I have also put snippets of all my scrap yarn into a jar so I can then blind pick what yarn will be used to make the square. Some have come out beautifully and some are total WTF (hence “Chaos Squares”). My plan is to eventually make a blanket out of all of them.
SCA:
1. Attend some more events. I miss people, but finances and political things may prevent this from happing. We shall see how 2025 goes.
2. Tackle the backlog scroll list. I have one that I MUST get done by May.
3. Scroll Cases – I have too much cardboard in my garage that needs to be converted into cases. If I can at least get the boxes cut down to size I can always see if there is anyone I can pass them to for making the final case.
4. Do what I can to help my students achieve their SCA goals and dreams.
I think I only attended 4 events (including Pennsic and War Practice). Grimmy’s health was a big factor as I could not be gone overnight as he had to have meds 2x a day. Finances were also a contributing factor.
No scrolls or scroll cases were made this past year. The one I had to get done for May didn’t need to as due to socio-political stuff prevented the recipient from coming to the States and I have put it back on hold.
I wanted to do more for my students, but I did what I could. But the true happy with them is that my longest serving protégé (who happens to also be the youngest) received her writ of summons and will be joining the Order of the Pelican on January 3rd. So proud of her.
House: There are things I want to do to reclaim my space. I am going to try to hold myself to go through the MOUNTAINS of clothes I have and weed out what stays, what gets donated and what just goes away. I’d like to work on maybe painting the upstairs hallway and get the high-boy dresser out of the basement to get the dead console tv out of the family room and away. Additionally, the box hoard in the garage needs to be addressed.
Absolutely none of this happened. The only thing that happened as far as decluttering happened because of Grimmy passing away. The family room is a little more open as far as floor space goes because I have removed his beds, most of the blanket piles and his toy box. Otherwise, nothing else happened as far as doing anything around the house.
Ashley Boxes: They make me and others happy. Hopefully I can be more aware of who needs a boost.
I did two. I so wish I could have done more. I put out a call for nominations as my own 2025 was so hard that I didn’t see as much as I used to for who needed the boost. I got so many nominations that it broke my heart. But two people received boxes. One sent me a photo almost daily on what she opened and thanked me every day for the feeling of being loved, seen and wanted.
Social time: I want to continue to have people over for chosen family time. Game time, food time, asking for help to clean the basement/garage. Maybe grab a friend and wander the zoo or the Falls.
Not as much as I wanted. Didn’t put calls out for help. Didn’t do the zoo or the Falls. I didn’t do many of the family Zoomies and even felt a bit of an obligation for our VTTRPG when we did hold it. ☹)
2026 To-Do List
My words for 2026 are
“Joy and Self-Care”.
As such, I am making my vision/mission statement for the year to be:“I will choose joy without apology and practice self-care without guilt”
Health: Same as last year: Re-committing (again) to getting healthy with the new year. Going to try:
1. Get some more exercise in: When I go for walks outside, I almost always feel better afterwards. So I am going to add going OUTSIDE for walks whenever possible. I find it a chore to go for walks indoors when it’s just up and down a hallway, and I don’t own a working treadmill.
2. Not eat out as much: this will help with both health and finances.
3. Lose weight: this is the same every year and I know it’s going to be harder due to the hormone changes I cannot do anything about (can’t do HRT and am allergic to many of the “natural” options)
4. Continue to do what I have to do with my medical providers to take care of me.
5. Practice self-cart: look into reputable massage studies and/or chiropractor. Save money up to get my hair professionally colored into something fun – hell just get back to coloring my hair in fun colors and away from my natural color as I hate it.
Finance: I want to do better about not spending for spending sake and work to build a savings.
1. Try the savings envelope again.
2. I also want to stop eating out just because I don’t feel like cooking or “don’t want what I brought for lunch” and look to bring back “prep for the week Sundays”
3. Try to pay down some of the huge credit card dept I have.
Hobbies and Activities (not exercise or SCA related):
1. Reading: I am dropping my reading goal to 70 from 80. I am using 5 different reading challenges to guid. me BUT I am not going to treat them as obligations like I have in the past. My only goal is to finish one and the others will happen if they happen. I will not feel guilty about not completing them.
2. Creativity: I I NEED to be creative in some way. I continue to collect materials to make things and I need to start using them. I intend to continue to crochet for as long as it brings me joy. I will also be running the Advent Ornament Exchange again this year (may be the last year I do) and I have ideas for a couple options for what I will make.
SCA:
1. Attend some more events. I miss people, but finances are hard. I think just attending will be a big step. Being active like I used to will be a slow return.
2. Tackle the backlog scroll list. I I will not accept new assignments until at least two backlogs are done. But this will be something I need to be gentle with myself as my eyes grow tired easily and the fine motor control tremor is emerging again.
3. Scroll Cases – I have too much cardboard in my garage that needs to be converted into cases. If I can at least get the boxes cut down to size I can always see if there is anyone I can pass them to for making the final case.
4. Do what I can to help my students achieve their SCA goals and dreams.
House: There are things I want to do to reclaim my space. I also recognize that this list is not doable for a single year, but if I put all here, my hopes are that I can maybe get to some.
1. Garage: I am hoping to ask for help to tackle the garage again. I want to get crap out, not just boxes and things that I no longer need, but also reach out to some folks who have stored things in there for years and ask them to either come get OR give me permission to dispose of as I see fit. I cannot moe the highboy out of the basement to referb into a TV stand until I have a space to do said referbbing. I’d also like to park in the garage next winter.
2. Basement: Same as the garage – ask for help to tackle more of the crap and stuff in the main room in the basement and get it out or dealt with. If I can focus on one section a y ear, I can get it taken care of without being overwhelmed.
3. Master Bedroom: No that I no longer have to have piles everywhere to keep the dog from hurting himself, I need to deal with said piles. Clean and sort the laundry (sort as in keep/toss/donate). Address other hotspots around the room.
4. Spare Room: same as the master bedroom in dealing with the fact that I turned the rom into a “throw it in there to deal with later and then forget it’s there.” I’d like to get it cleaned/cleared so I can get the bedroom set out and hopefully sell. My dream is to repaint the room and turn it into a library/crafting space.
5. Family Room: I want to paint the space. But would be smart to get the hi-boy referbbed so I can put it in place as I move the furniture back into place after.
6. Florida/Back Room needs serious organizing, cleaning, culling/de-hoarding.
7. Stay on top of chores: I am going to play “role for chore” to try to make doing chores a game.
Ashley Boxes: They make me and others happy. Hopefully I can be more aware of who needs a boost.
Social time: Same as last year:I want to continue to have people over for chosen family time. Game time, food time, asking for help to clean the basement/garage. Maybe grab a friend and wander the zoo or the Falls.
