Year End Review: How I Spent 2013

Now that I've thought about my goals for 2014 in this post, let me think about the year that has just passed.

When I think about all the things (mostly writing and creative things) I haven't accomplished this year, let me take a minute to remember what I have accomplished.  There's a reason why I didn't have my memoir revised by Labor Day.

--The biggest event:  we bought a house, moved to it, and sold the old house.  This process lasted from April to October.  It felt like a much bigger ordeal than the last time we moved.  In a way, it was:  we have more stuff now.  It felt like a bigger process in terms of paperwork, and it was.  Changes in the law require much more documentation now.  I understand why, but it's incredibly time consuming.

--I also helped my church get a mortgage/refinance for building repairs, no less an arduous paperwork process.  And then, just as we were almost finalizing the paperwork, an AC unit stopped working, so we did the paperwork over again to have money for AC repairs.  Grueling.

--Once we got moved into the house, it was time to restore the cottage.  While that project fell more heavily on the shoulders of my spouse, it still took a fair amount of time from September to November.

--I led 2 retreats in the Spring:  one at my mom's church and one at Lutheridge.  They're very nourishing events, but no small thing.

--I taught online classes for the first time ever--not one, but two online classes in an 8 week (read compressed) session.  Before I did that, I had 4 weeks of training.  It was a busy autumn.

--Let us not forget my regular administrative job which takes at least 40 hours a week on campus, and almost always more, both in terms of needing to be in a physical space and in terms of mental space.

--And I continued exercising and doing some quilting and some art projects, not to mention activities for church.  Again, all very nourishing, but also a time consumer (better than a time waster).

But I did move forward in my writing, not in leaps and jumps, but at what felt like a tiny, crawling pace.  Tomorrow's post will give details.