That time of year again.

Greetings, dear friend! It’s that time of year again. The Jenn’s-annual-blog-post-and-site-refresh time of year. Rejoice! In the fine tradition of lame wanna-be bloggers every year, I have decided to make my New Year’s blog post about my personal motivational word for 2020. That word is:

Retrospection
noun
The action of looking back on or reviewing past events or situations, especially those in one’s own life.

Playing off the idea that hindsight is 20/20, what better year than 2020 to look back at my last 40 (I know, right?) years of life and think about what has worked for me, what hasn’t, and where I’d like the next 40 to take me. I haven’t fully worked through exactly what that means to me yet (that’s why it’s a word of the YEAR) but for the time being, here are a few of my focus points.

Adding the tentative: socialize.

I have always struggled with socializing. I’ve never had many friends and the ones I do have are intermittent at best. I’m not the kind of person who chats daily (or weekly (or even monthly)) with my friends. I don’t know how to hold conversations with regular adult people. I would say that ~20 years of being a stay-at-home mom, and then homeschooling mom, and then work-from-home mom hasn’t helped, but honestly I wasn’t any good at this junk before I had kids either.

So my first focus point for 2020 is adding in checkpoints for socializing. I don’t know whether this might take the form of IRL getting-out-and-interacting stuff, or taking back up youtubing, or just making a point of being more active on social media. But especially since I have one kiddo graduating high school this year and another working on getting his drivers licence and getting out into the world, now seems as good a time as any.

Keeping the positive: revitalize.

About 15 years ago, I started feeling a desire to begin dressing more modestly. I have been through a vast number of iterations since then; from cape dresses and prayer kapps to long sleeves, maxi skirts, and tichels. And during that time, maybe just by taking that first step of obedience, I entered a period of great spiritual growth. It was amazing!

But then the naysayers and my own doubting-Thomasness started creeping in. The pastor of the church we were attending asked me to stop coming to church dressing “differently” because it was making the other congregants uncomfortable. We found a new church but I still had to deal with a lot of gossiping and negative comments. And I caved.

Over 10 years have passed since then and I’ve never felt “right” about my decision. So I want to get right with my choices again. For my second focus point, I am going back to how I’m comfortable dressing and, I guess courtesy of point 1 above, I really don’t need to worry about what anyone else thinks about it. I’m also going to be more dilligent about prioritizing my daily bible time and getting to church regularly even when I really don’t feel like it. Unless it’s below -30°C outside. I don’t mess around with that nonsense.

Turfing the negative: minimize.

Clutter. Not just clutter, trash. My house is awash in it. We’re not hoarders or anything but, realistically, I do have a restrictive physical disability that significantly limits my housekeeping abilities. Which was fine for a long time because, thankfully, the hubby would pick up much of the slack. Until his car accident. Now he’s in the same boat I am. That is, hooped.

Things have been slowly escalating for a long time as more and more things have crept into the house, with very few creeping back out again. It drives me absolutely insane. It worsens the depression I already struggle with, as well as my physical health courtesy of both asthma and allergies to basically every substance know to humankind. I cannot keep living like this. Something has got to go. And, honestly, we have way more junk than any one family even needs. I think that means this third focus point is going to have to take priority on my to-do list for immediate and drastic action.

Anyhoo, I suppose that’s it for now. I’m terrible at gracefully wrapping up a blog post so I guess it’s a good thing I only do this once a year, eh? I’m curious, though. What’s your personal motivational word for 2020 and how do you plan to implement it into your everyday life? Let me know!

Blessings,
Jenn ♡

P.S. Here’s the link to last year’s annual New Year’s Blog post in case you have insomnia or you’re at an airport and your flight’s been delayed.

Bonne Année, mes amis! (Happy New Year, my friends!)

Wow. It’s been over a year since I posted last. How embarrassing. I hope you can forgive me. I only even thought to post anything being as how it’s new years day.

I wish I could say that my amazing jetset lifestyle kept me so busy that I just didn’t have time to blog, but I think we all know how ridiculous that would be. I kept super busy with work, volunteering, and kid teenager stuff but, honestly, I just didn’t feel like any of it was riveting enough to blog about.

So here’s a quick update and maybe we can move forward from here?

Work

I passed my 3rd anniversary at work this year, doing insurance data processing. That’s a huge accomplishment for me, given how many places have deemed me “unemployable” due to my disability. I worked on 3 different specialty teams throughout the span of the year and now, as a result, I may be up for my 2nd promotion, this time to commercial lines processing. More money is always nice but my team lead is pretty damn kickass and I don’t know if I can break another one on how to deal with me without wanting to fire me on the regular.

Volunteering

I started out the year with my only volunteer gig being Awana club secretary at our church. In January, I added in working as a volunteer librarian at our community library on Saturday mornings. Then I made the mistake of going to our community association meeting and ended up as a director on the board, which may actually change to my taking over as treasurer in the next few months. I also found myself recently at a meeting of the local riding association of my preferred federal political party and ended up as treasurer there too. Oh! And I’m a regular volunteer for our local reptile and amphibian society. As well, I am (or soon will be) in charge of the websites for the community association and the reptile society. So that’s where most of my free time went this year.

My kidlets

Boy child turned 13 this year so both of my kids are now, officially, teenagers. Oy.

Girl has been participating in both wind ensemble (on clarinet) and steel pan bands at school. I had the dubious honour of parent chaperoning the wind ensemble trip in the spring and have, subsequently be voluntold for the upcoming 2019 trip as well. She’s also had a boyfriend for very nearly a full year now and her attempts to integrate him into our many family events, outings, and traditions has also kept us on our toes.

Boy has also been participating in the senior band at his school (trombone) and talked his dad into chaperoning their band trip. Apparently I can’t even have my dubious honours to myself. He also joined the local air cadet squadron, which seems to be almost a full time job (for us parents, at least) in and of itself.

Animalia, etc.

We both lost and gained a few animals this past year. Previously. Our current count is as follows:

  • Spooky, a dog whose name is quite apt.
  • Clarabelle, the embodiment of a very cranky panda in feline form.
  • Philip J. Fry, fluffy ginger doofus cat.
  • Kaiya Ufgood, dwarf kitty. Kinda blind. Yells a lot.
  • Lord Nibbler, black gerbil. Quiet and considerate officemate.
  • Noodle D. Doodle, ball python with a penchant for Taiwanese dramas and Marvel movies. Especially Thor.
  • Crab, baby B. auratum tarantula.
  • Ash Gilliams, bedside betta fish.
  • Goldeen, goldfish, enjoys house music.
  • Plecostomus, unnamed, Goldeen’s roomie.
  • 4 African cichlids, unnamed, except for the big blue one who is reffered to as “Jerkbutt” when he chases the little ones around the tank.

Anyhoo, that’s about all that’s new with me. I was tempted to make this a “new year’s resolutions” post, but, honestly, mentioning what I want to do is likely to both demotivate me and make me feel bad when I, inevitably, fail or fall behind. So instead, let’s celebrate what we have accomplished in the last year! And lets hope that my next post isn’t just a similar one in celebration of new years 2020.

Blogtober – Day 14 – Spina Bifida

October is Spina Bifida awareness month. I was originally going to write this as a “Facts you may not know about Spina Bifida” post. But there are so many of those online and they’re pretty impersonal. So instead, here are 5 Facts About My Spina Bifida.

  1. I have myelomeningocele, which is the most severe form of Spina Bifida. This means that before I was born, my spinal cord grew out of an opening in my spine.
  2. Most people think that Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus always go together but that isn’t always true. In fact, I have SB but not Hydrocephalus but my half-sister has Hydrocephalus and not SB.
  3. I have had innumerable surgeries and procedures for my Spina Bifida. I have had my spinal cord untethered twice. I’ve had numerous surgeries on my feet: my arches adjusted, my toe tendons cut, and my ankle bones fused with staples. I’ve had the muscles around my bladder tightened. As well, I’ve needed about a hojillion ultrasounds of my kidneys.
  4. My spinal lesion is at the L5 vertebra. The impairments I experience include bladder and bowel incontinence and widespread numbness below the knees. My right side is much more strongly effected than my left. Despite the numbness in my legs, I am able to walk. Sometimes on my bad days I use a crutch on my weak side. If it’s going to be a long day out I will take my wheelchair.
  5. The public perception seems to be that people with this condition cannot lead normal lives. While everyone’s impairment is different, in my case this is 100% untrue. I attended various gifted programs throughout school. I attained an associate’s degree at the age of 17. I’ve been married for 16 years and have raised 2 wonderful, able-bodied children. I have an awesome job that I love, as well as a home business I am incredibly proud of.

For more information, you can check out the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Association of Canada.

 

Blogtober – Day 13 – 20 Things About Toby

Today is our 16th wedding anniversary. I thought it would be fun to dedicate this blog post to my husband. So, while he is sitting here playing Lego: The Hobbit on our xbox, he will graciously answer this 20 Questions tag for me. Enjoy!

20 Things About Toby

  1. Your height: 6’4″
  2. Favourite color: Forest green
  3. Favourite school subject: English
  4. Something you want to learn: Flying
  5. Favourite quote: 
  6. Favourite food: Prime rib
  7. Favourite place: New Zealand
  8. Do you use sarcasm: No. (Seriously, he tried but he’s terrible at it so he gave up.)
  9. What song did you listen to last: The LOTR theme song
  10. Shoe size: 15
  11. Eye colour: One is green, the other is brown
  12. Hair colour: Dark brown
  13. Sweats or jeans: Jeans
  14. Favourite movie: Lord of the Rings, or The Matrix
  15. Favourite song: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (I know that’s 4 songs. I didn’t feel like arguing the point)
  16. Favourite book: (I said he wasn’t allowed to use LOTR again but then he spent 10 minutes not being able to come up with an answer so…) Lord of the Rings
  17. Favourite Band: Weird Al
  18. Favourite holiday: Thanksgiving
  19. Favourite console of all time: SNES (The question was originally “Why did you join pinterest?” which wasn’t particularly relevant)
  20. The last book you read: The Hero of Ages (Mistborn book 3) by Brandon Sanderson

Blogtober – Day 12 – This Week’s AWANA Verses

My family and I have been involved with AWANA for many, many years. If you’re unfamiliar, AWANA is a weekly kids club that includes games, music, stories, crafts, and Bible memorization. While my kids were attending our church’s club, I volunteered as a secretary. Now that they’re too old to attend, they also help out. My son is a junior leader with the 3- and 4-year olds and my daughter is a secretary with me.

On top of simply volunteering, a number of us staff members are also working through the same books the kids do. Many are parents who are helping their children study the books so they work at the same pace. Some, like me, are just ridiculous overachievers. I thought it might be fun this week to post the verses I’m working on.

A few weeks ago, I completed the Wing Runner book, which is for 6-year olds. Since I’d at least like to think I have better memorization skills than a 6-year old, I’m working on the Wing Runner extra credit book and the Sky Stormer book (for 7-year-olds) concurrently.Continue reading “Blogtober – Day 12 – This Week’s AWANA Verses”