2021 Report Card
The one thing I said correctly about 2021 was that I needed to keep it “simple and uncrowded”. I had no idea. Last school year was difficult with Covid and constant changes being made at work. Then there was the 2020 presidential election and so many other issues. It was a tiring year but I’d rather focus on the good. My best friend has been back here for a year now and I’ve enjoyed getting to spend time with her. Everyone is in good health and one of the highlights of my year was getting to take a whole-family weekend trip to Branson. We took both sets of our parents, our daughter & her fiancé, my daughter- & son-in-law and all my grandsons. We went to Branson, Missouri, and while there we got some family photos in period costume. So some of my new prized possessions are photos of all my family together and also some wonderful photos of my grandsons all together, the men all together, and the women all together. Making memories is one of my favorite things.
Looking Back
My goals for 2021 were:
- Continue unpacking and organizing and preserve pictures and documents.
- Commit to writing at least 12 blog posts.
- Ancestral focus: Nicholas REITER.
I wrote 31 blog posts some of which were private posts for specific individuals. I was doing well up until the end of April/beginning of May which is typical for me. Because school is ending, April and May become difficult for me to find time to write. Last year it was not only the craziness of the end of the school year but also I was a Junior class co-sponsor which meant assisting with prom as well as supervising concessions at basketball games to raise money for prom. I helped the art teacher by chaperoning a trip to an art museum in May. Then add in the fact that in April and May I geared up for and then opened my own small business…well, writing wasn’t exactly at the top of the list. I spent the first part of June getting ready for our annual Cousin Camp, and then afterwards I was building my business for the rest of the summer and didn’t stop doing events until after this current school year started in August. By September I was exhausted! So, all things considered, I’m happy with 31 posts.
I am not finished with organizing and preserving photos and documents and I made no progress on the REITER family. The REITER family has been very elusive. Things that weren’t on the list that I made progress on include learning how to better utilize my DNA results to further my genealogy; moving forward with writing a book including taking two writing courses to brush up on certain skills; and, reading several instructional books. (I highly recommend Lisa Cron’s Wired for Story. It’s an excellent book for fiction writers and even though I’m writing non-fiction, I still got a lot out of it.) I was also fortunate to take several genealogy research trips to Kansas and Kentucky plus several non-research genealogy road trips to Arkansas, Missouri, and Ohio. One of the highlights of my year was when my cousin, Chris BENNETT, gifted me the old church records from the church we grew up in. I was so excited to receive those and I treasure them. So, overall it was a good year. I made some exciting breakthroughs in December that I’m not ready to talk about but I hope to blog about them soon.
Looking Forward
With my business still being less than one year old and my book project in full swing, I think following 2021’s mantra of keeping plans “simple and uncrowded” is a good idea. So here is my simple and uncrowded plan for 2022:
- Finish organizing and preserving documents and photos. I have to do that with the lines that are going into my book anyway so I think this is a good strategy.
- Print records that are online-only so I have a paper backup in case something were to happen to my online access. Of course, these will then have to be organized/preserved but I think having a paper backup is important. The end goal will be to have a dual set of records – one digital and one paper.
- Continue writing blog posts and commit to at least 12. That’s only one per month. I hope to do more but with all that’s going on, I think I’ll stick with this number as a minimum.
- Have a complete first draft of my book by December, 2022.
- Ancestral focus: my SEELY line.
I hoped for fewer than 5 goals but this is what I settled on. We’ll see how it goes. I hope that your 2022 is blessed and that you meet all your goals plus do a few things you never thought you’d get to do.
Happy New Year,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives