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Hi again! I hope 2022 has treated you well. It’s been an interesting year for me, but I’m excited to catch up and share how some of my goals went this year.
I did debate posting this last goals post of the year. I publish these goals for myself, as well as to give a little insight into the human behind the blog.
However, my goals posts aren’t the biggest traffic getters, and they don’t necessary help my blog. Due to this, I polled my IG audience this week to gauge interest in whether I should still write these posts.
Since almost all poll participants said yes, here we are! Let’s dive into what’s been keeping me busy all year, what worked, and what didn’t.
My 11 New Year’s Goals for 2022
1. Visit 8 New Places
The past two years brought so much uncertainty for travel. So rather than specifying new states and countries to visit, I decided any new place, near or far, would suffice. Plus, I think new places in previously visited destinations should count too!
- Ireland
- Northern Ireland
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Cherry Blossom Trees at Wade Lagoon in Cleveland
- Ice cave and glacier lagoon in Iceland
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Cape Cod, Massachusetts
- Plymouth, Massachusetts
- Montmartre, Paris
- Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte in France
- Provins, France
- Milos, Greece
- Paros, Greece
- Bari and surrounding villages of Puglia, Italy
- New Hampshire (near Lincoln)
- Vermont (near NH border)
- Lexington, Massachusetts
After my October Vermont trip, my brain went fuzzy in a haze of celebrating the holidays and going back and forth to Boston. I’ve been home in Ohio for a little under a month now, and plan to more or less stay put a bit longer.
2. Snuggle My Dog
I have had little trouble completing this goal. Bennie loves wearing sweaters and they always seem to have a calming affect on him. A calmer Bennie means more snuggles for me!
3. Paint Our Upstairs Hallway
This one will just have to wait until next year. However, I’m proud to say I at least gave the hallway a deep clean for the holidays!
4. Bake Homemade Bread
This is my husband’s hobby – not mine. However, I still put it on my list because I desire him to bake me homemade bread.
He started out the year strong too, only to fade by summer. I’ve not seen a single loaf since -_-
5. Bake French Pastries
Lately, I am a little French pastry-making machine. It all started when Aaron bought me a French pastry cookbook for Christmas last year. I basically let it sit closed all year, as I was too intimidating by the complicated recipes.
After warming up to the book over several months, I decided to crack it open in December to make a bûche de Noël. That’s when I remembered why I never opened the book.
Making the French pastry master’s bûche de Noël required knowing like three other recipes first. Therefore, I found myself also making caramel, caramelized nuts, ganache, mousse, and a jelly roll cake.
After all that, we had a very rustic bûche de Noël, but I had learned like five skills! This inspired me to try making macarons this week. I’ve made three batches so far, which are obviously quite imperfect.
What mostly makes me happy though is the fact that I’m learning new things and getting over my initial hesitation and overwhelm. The same thing happened with this blog almost five years ago, when I set the entire website up and then waited six months to post anything haha.
6. Continue Studying French
2022 has been my best French learning year ever. First of all, I traveled to Paris this year and spoke French every day. Second of all, I stayed with my good friend Christelle and her husband Aymeric for a few days, where I had an intense French immersion experience when visiting her family.
To prepare for all of this, I did my usual Duolingo, plenty of flash cards, read about grammar in a text book, and spoke with locals over Italki. I also love Youtube for listening to native French speakers.
My latest strategy is watching French shows I’ve already seen with French subtitles. Sometimes, I forget whether I’m watching in French or English!
I wrote a detailed post about all of my favorite DIY French learning resources here.
7. Read 12 Books
I’ve finished four books and am in the middle of two others:
- Reread Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
- Dear Haiti, Love Alaine by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott – still reading
- The Way of Wanderlust by Don George
- How to Be A Travel Writer by Don George
- The Witches – still reading
I normally make a book reading goal every year, but I’ve decided not to make one for 2023. My plan is to focus on this blog, learning French, and baking.
I still want to read books, but 12 has never been realistic for me. I really do envy people who can whip through a book in a week. That’s seriously impressive!
8. Post 52 Blog Posts
This started as my biggest goal for 2022, but sadly unraveled very early in the year due to forces beyond my control. While I did get into a good rhythm by summer, I slowly began to rethink this goal. Sadly, posting once a week for 22 weeks in a row was making no dent in my blog success, and my more established posts were losing traffic.
The last part of this year has been dedicated to updating and refreshing my old posts, many of which had fallen out of date. I feel really happy with where they are now. Plus, I ultimately wrote 34 new posts this year (more than last year) and am happy with that.
That said – keep on the lookout for my crazy new posting experiment coming in January…
9. Take at Least One Solo Trip
In 2022, I traveled solo in Copenhagen, Paris, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Before last year, I had never traveled solo at all, so it’s crazy to have done it so many times in 2022!
Admittedly, I prefer to travel with my husband, but his schedule is not as flexible as mine. Plus, I am with him so much, sometimes I think it’s healthy to rely solely on myself for a bit. It’s one of those muscles that just needs to be flexed from time to time.
10. Buy a New Phone
Done! I now have a ginormous iPhone that doesn’t fit into my pocket as well, but it does have a great camera and tons of storage space. Plus, it’s not frustratingly slow and constantly losing battery power like my old one.
I have also invested in a new desk chair! Finally, I have a real chair with actual support, instead of the cute, flimsy one that was making my back hurt.
Maybe next year I will invest in a new computer!
11. Visit One New State
It took me most of the year, but I can officially say this goal is complete.
In late September/early October I visited New Hampshire and Vermont. Part of the trip was with my husband and part of it was solo.
We did a lot of hiking, leaf peeping, and exploring of charming small towns. We also purchased a lot of cheese and maple syrup, and even found an amazing yarn shop in Vermont that spins their own fibers. You can basically say that I am obsessed with Vermont now, and I definitely would like to do some more hiking in New Hampshire.
• • •
2022 has been full of ups and downs and sometimes I felt like I was doing so much work and getting nowhere. However, I truly do feel happy with how this year has gone at the end of the day.
I’ve learned a ton and become more me. It’s sad, but not that many people can really say that. Knowing yourself really is a gift, and I hope it’s one you’ll allow yourself to have too. See you in 2023!
