Like many people, I welcome the new year as an opportunity to reflect on the past year and to reset my priorities for the new year. I take time between Christmas and New Year’s Eve to consider who I want to be, how I want to live, and what I hope to accomplish in the coming year. Often times I make resolutions to lose weight, change bad habits, learn a new skill, or do more of something good. I always use the time to review, reorganize, and revise my finances (and this year was no different). I created my financial strategy for the year including a budget. This year’s reflections and revisions are heavily influenced by the fact that I’m about to become a grandmother to two additional grandsons in February and March and the relief that my husband’s 2 1/2 years of treatment for lung cancer have been officially concluded with success. He will start 2023 without any traces of cancer in his body!
I’ve reviewed the charities and political organizations to which I contribute on a monthly automatic basis and I’m not making any changes. My giving reflects my desire to help in areas that touch my heart the most. I have limited resources, so I can’t give to every worthy cause, although I would really like to. I’m thankful that my husband has his own set of charities that he donates to at the end of each year, and they are different from mine. He prefers to write big checks, while I like the monthly approach. So, I’ve made the tough decision to continue to give to St. Jude, Doctors Without Borders, Women for Women International, FINCA, UNICEF USA, the Boys and Girls Club of Southern Michigan, and World Food Programs. On the political organization side, I’ll continue to give to MoveOn and Emily’s List. Throughout the year, I’ll donate to individual campaigns during election season, give one-time donations for disaster relief efforts, and donate to educational institutions and scholarship funds during fundraising campaigns.
On the educational and social justice front (my vocational purpose), I’ll continue with the Fully Present Better Human Project using my social media accounts, website, and promotional products. It’s not a money-making venture, but a passion project with the hope of encouraging better human behavior. Starting in January, my daily posts will be posters promoting the nine better human behaviors to build a safer and more equitable society. I’ll also put forth my social justice poems and promote the products I’ve created to help others spread the message with me.
I drastically changed our eating in 2022 to a plant-based diet (except Fridays) and I practice intermittent fasting where I eat during an 8-hour window and fast for 16 hours. These changes along with exercise have improved my health and even improved my kidney function, which I didn’t think was possible. I firmly believe this new diet also helped with Michael’s recovery. I’ve lost ten pounds so far and all my lab numbers are within the normal range. So, I’ll just continue eating this in 2023 alongside my gardening and other activities that involve working with my hands.
I spent most of the last two years knitting for my grandsons. I made hats, booties, blankets, sweaters, and mittens. That’s all done. I’ve put the yarn and the knitting needles away. However, during a time of stress in early December, I found myself wanting to paint for emotional relief. I also purchased a Cricut Maker that went on sale at Costco. I’d been eyeing it for crafting purposes for a couple of years. I watched YouTube videos to see all the projects I could make and to learn all the tricks. I was fortunate to catch all the Christmas sales and after Christmas clearance to stock up on paints, vinyl, wood, and supplies at greatly reduced prices. My husband purchased a Cricut hot press for me on Amazon as my Christmas gift. I’ve found many premade designs and fonts in the ETSY Store for a nominal cost and easily downloaded them onto my computer for use. This completely eliminated the need for the $10/month Cricut subscription. The Dollar Tree has been my go-to place for multiple surfaces to embellish and for small paint canvases. I even found youth t-shirts to customize at the Dollar Tree. I have so much stuff to work on to keep me crafting in 2023. And it’s been nice watching my husband put his wood working skills to work for some of my projects.
Although I paint like a 5-year-old and my crafting skills aren’t that great, I’ll enjoy crafting when I’m home. But with two new grandsons on the way, I plan to spend a lot of 2023 on the road visiting these precious little ones or filling in with childcare for their busy parents. I sometimes wonder if they waited for me to retire to have their babies. In some ways it is nice that they are older parents with established careers, but pregnancy after 35 isn’t the best way to go. I message to young women seeking a career first is to freeze those eggs. We’ve talked about driving to Texas for Michael’s granddaughter’s college graduation and then taking our time to sightsee in New Mexico. In any case, my crafting projects will likely be focused on the kids and the grandkids as I have very little desire to accumulate more things.
And that leads me to my one resolution for 2023. I’m going to get rid of things in a big way. I plan to send precious items to the kids. I plan to update my will. I plan to throw things away and shred papers. I plan to have a huge garage sale by this summer. And I plan to donate items to charity. My first task though is to reorganize my crafting space to accommodate all my new supplies.
My goal for the new year is to be lean and clutter free moving forward. I did one pass through when I first retired, getting rid of a lot of things. But now that I’m in my second year of retirement, I realize how much less I want or need. So, 2023 will be the year I achieve freedom from extra weight and extra stuff.