I miss this blog. I've had it for 12 years and for the first several, I wrote in this space almost every day. I know the appetite for personal blogs has gone down quite a bit but sometimes, I have a lot more that I'd like to share than I can feasibly do on an Instagram post so I'm going to turn a bit more attention to this space this year.
Considering I only wrote one post in the entirety of 2021, that shouldn't be too difficult.
I love the New Year and I love making a set of goals for the year and checking in on them frequently. I didn't have any goals for 2021 because well, #pandemic, and I had a really, really hard year. There was the pandemic, trying to and not getting pregnant, finally getting pregnant and having a third miscarriage, and just the state of the world. But aside from all of that, I felt like I was drowning with no purpose last year. I didn't have any travel plans, race goals, or any real hopes for what the year would bring me. So when the end of the year came with Omicron, the delay of the under-5 vaccine, multiple family hospitalizations (not Covid related and everyone is OK now), all three of us getting the stomach flu, and then daycare closing for the first two weeks of the year, it just hit really hard.
Now that daycare is finally open again and I'm coming up for air from a tough December, I've finally started to consider what I want this year to look like and I'm doing a lot of work to manifest these things into reality (writing, talking to friends about my goals, and meditating). So, because I like lists, here's a list of what I want to be able to say I did in 2022.
Running
- I have two marathons on my calendar this year - Ottawa (or Vermont City, pending The Pilot's schedule) and Berlin (which I was pumped to get into the lottery for. Whether I manage a PR (I still want to go sub-4!) or not, I want these races to be the strongest races I've ever run. That means:
- I'm warming up and properly stretching after every run. If I don't have time to do those things, I don't have time to run. That's my philosophy this year. I'm incorporating strength training, cross-training on my Peloton, and of course, my regular yoga practice with Yoga with Adriene.
- My pandemic baking hobby has really blown up and I love how many friends and Instagram friends reach out to ask me for baking advice. I'm not an expert but I'm learning a lot! Next week, I'll be announcing a monthly baking challenge for anyone who wants to bake along with me this year.
- I want to perfect macarons. I'm considering taking a class because try as I might, I can't get the color right when I make them. I've made perfect macarons but the colors never come through without me overmixing.
- I also want to keep creating recipes. I've developed a few of my own over the last year but I really want to develop more, especially with some Cuban and Dominican flavors for my own cultural twist on some basics.
- I've read every article under the book on why you should start investing and this year, I'm going to figure out a game plan and start.
- I'm also really close to paying off the credit card debt I have and plan to get that paid off before I start investing.
- In 2020, I started a side hustle called Wit Philanthropy, focused on helping businesses develop more impactful charitable giving plans. I had the chance to present at a conference last year and I have a solid plan for this year that I'm really excited about. If you work in the non-profit or philanthropic sector, or work for a company that you feel is doing great work in the corporate social responsibility space, let me know!
- I also want to start doing some freelance grantwriting. I definitely think I can fit it in and it would be great to have another source of income.
- And I want to start writing more articles for Startup Cuba. I started writing book reviews for them this summer but really want to write more!
- I just want to travel again! Somewhere, anywhere! I'm really, really hoping that things will be OK for Berlin in September. It's been three years since my last trip to Europe which is the longest I've gone since I first went there (we fly free, so we go a lot!).
