19 years.....Really?

 Somehow in the hustle and bustle of life I missed a very big milestone.  It wasn't the dogs 'adopted' anniversary on January 6th, although we did celebrate that with her.   No, I am talking about January 5th.  What big milestone am I talking about?  Why I am talking about my 19th anniversary of starting this blog.  My blogiversary.  One one hand it seems like yesterday but on the other hand it seems like 12 lifetimes ago!  But January 5th of 2006 that is exactly what I did....I started a little 'online journal'.

In past years I have gone all out, some years were just funny.  Other years were kinda...well..... they were their own unique creations.  Some years I even did repeat anniversary posts!   But hey, lets go through the anniversary posts together.

2013 I didn't acknowledge my anniversary until I was 6 years into maintaining this blog. There were two really funny things about that post.  The first is that I had the date wrong.  Clearly when I look back, my first post was on January 5th....yet on January 6th of my sixth year I wrote a happy birthday/anniversary post.    The other thing that made me chuckle is that I spoke about how it seemed like such a short time but how in terms of the blogging community 6 years was a long time!   Boy, I had no clue that 19 years later I would still be around! 

2016  I didn't mention my blogiversary/birthday/anniversary again until 2016!   Once again, I got the date totally wrong and celebrated it on January 3rd.  (Seriously, was I mental or something?)   Hadn't been writing a whole lot of posts,  I talked about how 10 years didn't seem possible...and how I had written over 1800 posts.  But I used the anniversary post as a means to walk through my journey from highest to lowest.  From success to failure.  I held nothing back. I lost the weight in pictures and I regained the weight in pictures.  I talked about my failed marriage, my new love, running and just about everything in between.  It was a pretty descriptive post if I do say so myself!

2017  Well what do you know, I actually got the date right in 2017!   It was a post similar to this, just looking back over the years and looking forward to the future.   I was still proud of that 10  year anniversary post and referred back to it!

 2018 Look at that, another year where I celebrated on the correct day! This was actually a really interesting post.  I actually wrote a post about things I learned along the way!   Very good stuff.  I also included some stats about my blog...stuff like how many posts, etc.   

2019  Well, I got it wrong again.   This year I posted my blogiversary on January 4th.  In this post I was honest with my success followed by failure.  But I also blatantly stole the post from the 2017, ten year anniversary post and just updated it a wee little bit.  (I'm so lame!)

2020  Hey hey hey, will you look at that, I actually got the date...WRONG again! Yup, I celebrated on January 6th! Even more lame?  I literally copied the previous years post pretty much word for word!   Shame on me!

2021 I got the date right and it wasn't a blatant copy! (Watch out, it's gonna snow!!)   It was a similar post though where I just catch up on life and all of lifes changes and happenings....and more of my history.  I actually talked about how my blog came into existence!

2023   I missed celebrating in 2022 but I came in strong in 2023 with a post that talked about what this blog means to me. (On the correct day to boot!)  And yes, I still agree.....this blog was my salvation when I needed a place to put my thoughts down.  

2024 I started to laugh when I read the opening paragraph of this post.  I actually talked about my misconceptions about when this anniversary really was!   But, I got it right and posted it on the correct day!  The post was another one that was so heartfelt.  It was my thank you to the readers over the years who have supported me!   

2025 is here and I missed the date and I"m celebrating on the wrong day....AGAIN!   But it doesn't mater because 19 years is an amazing accomplishment.  I remain thankful to each and everyone that reads this.  I appreciate your support. I don't plan on stopping....so 20 here we come!

The Stats

Years that I celebrated my anniversary - 10

Years that I celebrated my anniversary on the correct day - 5

Number of posts  2647

Year with the most posts 2008   (334)

Year with the least posts 2022 (41)

Goals for the New Year!

 Happy New Year!!!!

2024 was a rough one....it started rough with the passing of my mom.  It ended rough with being laid off due to a reduction of workforce.  (no fault of my own).     Admittedly, my health efforts fell to the backburner.    I know that is bad, but that is the way it is.  

I am not accepting this excuse of 'life is crap' any longer.  The new year is here and that means it is time to change.  I want my life to change and that means that I have to change!  With that said, in the last few months I have set some goals!    Here is the thing.....I set my main goals for 2025 about three months ago.  And then as I mentioned, I lost my job (as of December 31).    I knew that my goals may need a bit of a change.  So I pivoted and made some adjustments.   For this post, I will put the 'real goal' and then identify any adjustments.    SO without further ado, here are my 2025 goals.

*  Save money-  Specifically my goal was to save $2,000.  I want my personal savings account to have two thousand more in it at the end of the year.  This was a goal that I decided to adjust.   With the fact that I am unemployed here at the beginning of the year, for an undetermined timeframe, I know that saving may be difficult.  So while I still would LOVE to have the extra money in my account at the end of the year, I have adjusted it!  My adjusted goal is accumulate no debt in the year 2025 through this unemployment stage and to have no less in my personal savings account at the end of the year. 

* Take a real Vacation - Specifically my goal was to be able to go away for a week.  Somewhere, anywayer.  Just a real vacation since our last vacation was in October of 2021.     With the job situation, I adjusted this back to 2 days away.

*Mortgage Paydown -  My original goal was to pay an extra 6 months of of mortgage, in essence knock off 6 months.   I have adjusted this down to 2 months!

*Lose Weight - I set a goal to be under 200 pounds.  This was not changed.  There is absolutely no need to change this one!    

    - exercise 3 times a week

    - Water 64 ounces a day at least 5 times a week

    - Track my food at least 6 times a week

 

*Picture a day

 

 So you can see that my goals are pretty basic and simple.  But quite doable!   But when I got laid off I realized that I was looking at a potential long break from work.  So I have set some small goals for my time off.

 *  Steps   10,000 steps or more a day

*  Finish digitizing all of my family pictures (and my personal collection of pictures)

* get out and move the mulch pile (we had some trees cut at the end of the summer and I had them dump the chipped wood on our lower driveway)

*Exercise daily

*Get out of the house, even if just for a long walk every day!

* Get myself back on a routine for house cleaning (Ie floors on monday, bathrooms on tuesday, dusing on Wednesday, etc)

* Find a job!

So I am set for goals!   The last set of goals are short term...they could end at any moment if/when I get a job.  But it there is a bit of a delay, then they will help keep me sane and active!