Wow, yes Happy New Year to all of you...best wishes and best of luck. May this new year be a lovely, healthy, and successful year for you.
When I look back at 2013, it was a rather sad and depressing year for me. Earlier during the year, one of my worst fear happened. I broke my left ankle during a stupid freak accident. Not only did I break my left ankle but I also sprain my right ankle and injured my sciatic nerve, which caused immense pain for a while. Lack of mobility and being confined at home for 6 weeks made my recovery days feel extremely long.
I had a friendship fall out with someone I used to work with. Her productivity and quality of work suffered greatly and after 2 years, re-training her, and doing a work improvement assessment with her for 6 months, she failed to improve. We had no other choice but to let her go. The perplexity of the situation was that she never once showed concerns or took ownership of her actions or lack of it. She believed it in her mind that we set her up for failure and that she was doing a good job. I don't know. I suppose it's hard to reason with someone who don't think they did anything wrong. I've worked with difficult employees but never with someone who didn't care about their performance. Most people take pride in their work and want to do it well but she wasn't like most people.
Aside from my physical ailment and work issues, I've also gained a lot of weight and I pretty much let myself go because my moral, my thoughts, my feelings really hit rock bottom.
I've spent the year battling my demons. I always try to keep a positive outlook no matter what kind of curve ball life threw at me but I suppose for some people, at some point something hits you hard and you just can't go back to being the person you once were. I kept relapsing back into this empty hole. For 2014, I'm gonna have to try to reinvent myself. I need to heal my soul. I need to find some hope and faith.
The highlight of 2013 is that my son graduated high school and went to a local college. I also taught him how to drive. The realization that I had a graduating kid gave me mixed emotions. Happy and proud that he made it and a little sad and scared that his new life goals may take him away somewhere far from home. His father, as we expected, didn't attend the ceremony. Didn't even send a card. His excuse was that his car broke down and can't make the drive. Anyways, I'll just leave it at that. My kids know who the real parent in their life is and all that matters is that I'm still here for them.
What's in store for 2014?
I took a hit financially last year because I was out of work for my injury and disability insurance barely paid for groceries. I had to pay for books and tuition that financial aid didn't cover. I spent a lot and didn't get much. I didn't even go on vacation. My last credit card statement makes me want to pull my hair. This year, I will try to spend my money more wisely. I've decided that I'm going to challenge myself to use no more than $70.00 on myself each month. If I stay under the budget, I can carry over the left over money to the next month. If I go over my budget, next month will have a shorter budget as well. I think it's doable and reasonable budget. I really hope I don't fail.
I really dread the thought of exercising but I need to do something about my body. I decided that I'm going to start with looking at my diet first. Perhaps looking at trying healthier recipes and portion control and once it becomes routine, go back to exercising. I know it's going to be hard to stay motivated but I'm gonna have to give it a try. I'm going to start looking at quick, easy, and healthy recipe. If you know of any that you enjoy, please share.
I don't like to make big plans. I just rather make realistic goals. I know for sure I'm gonna need to get another car this year. If I can keep my spending at bay, I hope to take a vacation with my kids in the summer.
As far as my blog is concerned, I may not post as often but I'll continue to post regularly, perhaps 2 or 3 times a week at least. The reason is I want to try to stay focused on other personal goals.
I guess that's it. I want to keep things simple and realistic. I know the last couple of years, my life has been hanging in limbo so I'm gonna need a lot of will power and motivation to make this a better year for myself.
Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your favorite memory of 2013 and what you look forward to this new year.
I wish you all the best in 2014! I hope that it will be a much better year than 2013, and that you will reach all of your goals! :D
ReplyDeleteYou were a lot braver than me when it comes to talking about the negative things that have happened to you in 2013, I unfortunately only kept my problems vague in my post and without explanation. What your post has confirmed for me is that blogging is definitely something that is healing. I follow many bloggers, and while everyone usually has cute and bubbly makeup and recipe posts, occasionally become write on a more serious issue and it just reminds me that we are all people with our own problems in life, and the blogs are what keeps us together. :) Bloggers are a very supportive community in my opinion.
In terms of recipes, have you hear of a website called Yummly.com? It's my favorite website for recipes because you can choose to look for things you have in your fridge at the moment, you can choose how many calories you want the recipe to have, and so many other options. So yeah definitely check it out if you haven't before! ^_^
Happy New Year and all the best!
www.amiciarai.com
Thank you for referring me to this recipe site. I will be pinning the ones I wanna try.
DeleteWe're humans and truth is life is not always fine and dandy no matter how blessed you are. Indeed, blogging was my escape and my therapy. It kept me distracted, occupied, and creative so that I don't let the negativity get the best of me. I know most people don't want to talk or hear about depressing things but I think what we don't realize is that even expressing a little bit of it can lift some of weight off our chest. You don't have to always put on a happy face when you're not feeling your best. It's ok to be sad sometimes. You just have to be true to yourself. Acknowledging our own pain and suffering is part of the healing process and allows us to grow. I appreciate your support and wishing you a lovely new year.
I'm sorry that 2013 was so scuzzy for you! But I think you're really brave to face your problems head on and keep moving on with your life. I think your budgeting idea sounds really feasible. As for recipes, I'm kind of hopeless because I'm always struggling to find time to cook, period! It's hard to find time to prepare fresh, healthy meals. I do find it's easier if I make large batches of things ahead of time and freeze single servings in plastic containers; then I can just pull them out and microwave them when I need to eat, instead of cooking from scratch.
ReplyDeleteI'm content with a simple life and so far my life has been simple. I suppose there are times I question myself because I feel like there is always something missing and I don't like that empty feeling. It's probably why I splurged on myself a lot but I realize now that it's not the best remedy and I need to try something different.
DeleteI come home late every day and by then I'm tired and pretty hungry so cooking is the last thing I want to do. I need quick meals. Not only that but my kids wait for me to cook and I try to make meals everyone will eat.
I so enjoy reading your blog and wish you nothing but the best in 2014.
ReplyDeleteThank you :). Wishing you the best as well for a happy 2014.
DeleteI really enjoy your blog. I'm glad that even though the year was difficult that you kept posting because sometimes reading your posts were the most pleasant part of my day. Seems I've heard a lot of people say (including myself) this past year was especially hard. Let's hope 2014 treats us better!
ReplyDeleteAww thank you. I'm happy to hear you enjoy reading my blog. That means a lot to me and I'm sorry that last year wasn't a pleasant year for you as well but I guess that's life and that cloud over our heads will eventually go away at some point. Wishing you a happy new year :)
Delete