Looking Back on 2017

Wow did I have big plans for 2017! I'll admit, I went into the year just hoping to put 2016 behind me. Little did I know how much pain and sadness was going to touch friends and family. Despite my hopes to live large in 2017, I unfortunately let myself down in many ways.

Last year about this time I wrote a list of resolutions of sorts to myself. Rather than list all the things I would change, I worded  my post Looking Forward to Looking Back on 2017, in a way that might push me to do things so that once I got to the end of the year, I wouldn't be feeling regretful of things I did not do, things I did not accomplish. Life has a way of throwing best laid ambitions aside. Still, a fresh year is upon all of us on Monday. While doing my tidying up, I had some good thoughts on how the year went, and what I want for the coming 12 months. Mostly, it comes down to regrets. I do not want any regrets in in 2018. When I do something, I want to fully commit. When I'm with people I want them to be the only ones in the room that matter at that moment. When I say I want to live healthier, it means physically and mentally-not getting sucked into drama when nothing positive will come of it. For posterity, I feel a need to put closure on my list from last year. Did I achieve any of it?

 1. Restored my home to a place of calm and pride, particularly my bedroom and family room. Well, the family room has been put to mostly rights. We need a good paint job and the bathroom needs some repairs, but it once again is a room to enjoy a movie with my family and football games with friends. The bedroom is still a deep dark hole that purchasing a new bed quilt could not cover. This is my number one focus for 2018, but hopeful other rooms will follow suit.

2. I'll have gone to at least two music performances that my kid was not performing in. This was a major success! We enjoyed Kansas and Journey. We went to hear local musicians at a river town festival. DH and I went to hear music at a winery and at a brew pub. These were all in addition to the school concerts, show choir, vocal jazz and the haphazard stumbled upon  performances.

3. I'll have hosted no less than six (combination) of women and wine nights, coffee mornings, and get together lunches. Fail-let's move on.

4. I'll have done no less than twelve exploration days. Once a month, sometimes more, sometimes none. I'll call this a partial accomplishment. We found new parks, new coffee shops, and a couple new to us communities to explore.

5. Last, but certainly not least, I received formal  recognition of my existence as a writer.  Well, let's see. Twice I had people ask me to include a link to their web page in a blog post. I also had my first offer of a freebie in exchange for a product review. While I did link to the two web pages, just FYI kind of stuff, I passed on the freebie for a review post. If it had been something I actually would have liked to try and maybe purchase, I would have said yes, but knowing I would never spend my own money on said Item, I felt I should pass on the "opportunity." Seriously though, how do people get the  good stuff, free coffee or tea, a great hand cream or restaurant voucher for product inclusion in a post? I'm curious. These were not quite recognition, but the fact that enough of you stick around that others want my nod to them on my blog means something to me. 

What about you? Did you create the life you wanted in 2017? Despite trying circumstances, were you able to push forward any of your goals? I'll be back on January 1 with a new Looking Forward to Looking Back-2018 Edition.