Every year, I get letters from friends giving their year in review. I ogle at the pictures and how organized they must be to achieve such feats, while I haven’t been able to get even a Christmas card in the mail for …well… forever. That’s not going to change, but I figured I might as well reflect on 2016.
The Great Stuff:
* My husband got a new job
* My husband and I celebrated 10 years of marriage by buying Legos and going to an arcade like responsible adults
* My husband talked me into playing WoW again
* My husband now has a computer that no longer shuts down at random
* My daughter now has a computer that shuts down at random
* My daughter and I had fun with a dress-up photo shoot
* My daughter progressed to the highest belt in Little Ninjas
* My daughter (crookedly) cut her own bangs
* My daughter earned 2 awards at school
* My daughter became a CATAN genuis
* My son started preschool
* My son got to ride an elephant
* My son is now potty-trained
* I jumped out of an airplane
* I ran a 5K event with my sis-in-law
* I painted a painting
* I started teaching myself how to digitally paint
* I revamped the cover to This World Bites
* I talked on a writing panel
* I finished 3 short stories (1 was accepted, 1 I’m waiting to hear back on, 1 will be the prologue to book 4)
* I figured out a name for my companion novel
* I dyed my hair purple
* I dyed my hair green
* I improved my art skills
* I took some photos
The Not-So-Great Stuff:
* I got rear-ended and it totaled my car (but hey, I’ve got a shiny new all-electric car now and have saved as much in gas as I spent on the car)
* My husband had a health scare that escalated to an emergency room stay. Thankfully, what started that has been proven benign.
* I did something wrong with my breathing that it now hurts my head to do push-ups, which hasn’t helped my overall fat-loss goals
* My kids and husband have been sick a lot this year
* My husband discovered he has sesamoids in his feet that are easily aggravated leading him to painfully limp around on occasion
* I don’t want any more kids, but my body keeps rejecting my preferred method of preventing that outcome
* I didn’t write nearly as much as I wanted to
It’s been quite the year.
Since I have been rather art focused these past few weeks, I wanted to share some of my art from over the year that I’m fond of. Some aren’t so great, but most of it is self-taught so I don’t feel too bad. The first two are digital painting, the next is a chibi/bobble-head version of my two main characters, and the last four are sketches I did on paper, took a picture of with my phone, and enhanced in an app called Snapseed.
What does your 2016 look like? What were some great stuff that happened for you?
Wow! What a year!
If it makes you feel better, I didn’t get nearly as much writing done as I wanted either. I miss it. 🙁
*raises glass of lime La Croix* “To better luck in 2017.”
Every year has ups and downs. You certainly had more ups. Your anniversary celebration sounds priceless.
Tell your husband there is a permanent way to fix the no more kids issue…
You have definitely have achieved a lot! Sounds like you’ve all had an exciting year, and the good outweighs the bad. That’s pretty great artwork for just starting to teach yourself.
It looks like the good outweighed the bad, ay? Thankfully that’s how life normally goes! Your pictures, by the way, BEAUTIFUL. 🙂
I love this post! Congrats on all of the wonderful achievement during the year, especially your ten years of marriage. Buying legos and going to the arcade sounds like the perfect way to celebrate. It’s the kind of celebration I would enjoy.
So much good stuff in there, Loni! I absolutely love your anniversary celebration. 🙂
Wishing you and your family all the best in 2017!
#1 accomplishment – potty training!
but that is a major list of well dones, and way to survive the downs.
also love the artwork – you’re very talented!
and thanks for visiting my Cradle Rock release tour!
merry christmas and here’s to more ups than downs in 2017!
All that good outweighs the bad.
Green is a neat color for hair. I used to have a green rat tail.
Quite a year in review, lady! The good stuff is longer than the not-so-good. Keep up that track record. I’d rather not make a list – I’m not so sure I want to see it. Though I did publish a book so there’s that.
I agree, it’s been a hell of a year. O_o I can think of a few good things for myself, but there’s a lot of bad, less for me but for so much of the world. So it’s hard for me to think of this year as anything but bad, even though I now have a book that’s nearly ready for querying and all that. Gah.
It’s good to see, though, that your list of good things that happened is much longer than the other one. I hope writing it all out helped you see that. ^_^
The jumping out of an airplane thing was just crazy! Shudders. As far as my 2016 went, I did a lot more writing than ever before (Yay!), but realized I still write much too slowly. (boo!). Have a great holiday season.
A tremendous year! The good does outweigh the bad. We’ve had a sick year too. I’m still trying to kick a nasty virus. Have a fantastic holiday season! 🙂