2016 in Review

Looking back over the year is something I'm always wary about doing. I'm one of those people who set overly ambitious goals at the start of each new year, and I'm inevitably disappointed when I look back at those goals.

I did make goals for the year back in January. I managed to grow a full garden, and I've gotten close to a couple of others. But that's about it. I didn't manage to publish TIP as I wanted, and I haven't even started the prewriting process on the second Yekara novel let alone have it roughed. I'm a good thirty pounds away from the weight loss goal I'd set. Still, I have made progress.

I might not have gotten The Icarus Project finished and published, but it is much closer to that point than it was in January. Plus I made the decision to forgo rushing through to try and make an arbitrary publication date that would have sacrificed quality for speed. Considering what happened with the first edition of RoS because I made a different decision when it came to waiting for the galley proofs, I consider that progress.

Taking the time to write a brand new flash fiction and create an audio of it each and every week has taken up time I could have used to finish Icarus. However, I can’t consider it wasted time. Those stories have enriched the worlds I’ve been writing in for years, and I started building others I might have never thought of otherwise. I’ve had a blast creating the Flash Fiction Fridays series, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it too.

Yes, I’m still many pounds shy of where I wanted to be weight wise, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t made progress. I always overestimate how quickly I can lose. Although people continually talk about losing a pound a week, that’s a rate that’s nearly impossible to maintain over the course of an entire year. I might not have lost fifty pounds like I wanted, but I did manage to shed twenty. It’s slow, but it’s still progress.

In 2016, I finally finished a few of the paintings I began working on three years ago and a couple of blankets I started two years ago. I started teaching my girls how to cook and watched them gain confidence and independence from doing so. I created several new soaps and perfumes that have been well received, and I watched as my eldest created her first fictional world. C. L. and I finished an entire year of shooting weekly vlogs, and we began branching out from our local area for conventions.

A lot of unpleasant and downright horrific things happened this year. Such is true, I’m sure, about any year throughout the history of the universe. The high points don’t negate that, but at the same time, the bad doesn’t negate the good.

All in all, looking back, I’d call 2016 an okay year for our family. We’re still here. We’re more or less healthy. We have food, shelter, water, and clothing, and we made progress toward our long term goals. We even managed to meet a few of our short term ones along the way. That’s all we can ask.

I don’t think I’m going to make big yearly goals for 2017. I decided to start with the quarterly goals back at the start of the second quarter this year, and that’s been working much better for me. I’ll be back with how well I met the fourth quarter goals for 2016 and to set the ones for this coming year’s first quarter in a couple of weeks. Until then, I wish you a happy holiday season, good health, and blessings to you and yours.