2016 Year In Review

Here's the thing about 2016. It was pretty terrible. Which might sound overdramatic when I also add that nothing truly earth shattering in my life happening. There wasn't one big event when the world collapsed around me but more like 300 moments that strung together to leave me feeling defeated and generally unhappy. And maybe 2017 will be different, but maybe it won't, it could get worse. 

January// I rang in 2016 with J. and had dinner with his family which mainly revolved around his sister sharing her tales of adventure from the night before. Then I headed off to Florida and got to experience Disney World. Turns out I was very wrong in my thought process about not enjoying Disney because I don't like rides. Disney World is a magical place. I turned 26 and didn't do much to celebrate because I was working. January was also the month that I committed to spending a fifth summer working at camp. 

February// I celebrated four years of blogging in this little space. And spent the rest of my time working at the office job and planning for the summer. I had a very low key Valentine's Day celebration and didn't blog all that much. 

March// At this point I was working seven days a week. In addition to working Monday-Friday I was also working overtime on Saturday & Sunday. I forget exactly how many days I worked in a row but I know it was a lot. 

April// My contract for the office job ended towards the end of the month and as soon as it did I hopped on a plane to visit H. in Ontario. We hit up all the major tourist attractions and had the best time catching up. 

May// I transitioned into working at camp full time and right from the beginning it was a bit of a gong show. Blogging moved to the back burner to the back of the fridge and then became that thing you put in the freezer that you keep meaning to defrost. 

June// More camp, no blogging. I ended things with J., which was probably my best decision of 2016. Camp was one tale of adventure after the other. I wish I had blogged more but I did keep a written journal and I documented everything using Project Life so I'm letting myself be okay with not blogging. 

July// R. arrived home and since we were in the middle of an epic staff shortage she came on board and also moved into my room. We made a lot of jokes about being 26 working at camp and having bunk beds. I think we passed the ultimate friendship test sharing a room, working together and still going on weekend adventures. 

August// R. and I went on many weekend adventures and camp continued to teach me a lot of things about human resources. 

September// We ran our first two fall camping events! Which was really exciting and also meant I didn't leave camp until mid-September. I started blogging again and also started seriously pursuing year round camp jobs out of province...none of which worked out. I did start helping out with a new Spark/Brownie group which has been a lot of fun!

October// We had some serious weather over Thanksgiving weekend. I got back into the groove of blogging and participated in the Back to Blogging Challenge hosted by Alyssa Goes Bang which really got me back in the blogging groove. I finished off the month with a weekend trip to visit H. & R. and continued to reach a lot of dead ends on the year round camp job front. 

November// We had our enrolment ceremony at Sparks/Brownies and celebrated my grandparents 50th anniversary. I was feeling really discouraged about the job hunt but tried really hard to embrace the journey.

December// I embraced the mantra always forward for the remainder of the year because the search for full time, year round employment is still coming up short. I continued to apply for positions and try to be in the moment rather than worrying about what happens next.

I have no idea what 2017 will have in store. I hope that it brings an amazing new job, that I get to spend lots of time with H. & R. and I can keep working on becoming less of a worrier and more of a savourer. 

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What's Up Wednesday - December

 

What I'm Eating This Week: English Muffins, Tacos, Grilled Cheese, Pad Thai and my beloved "Best Sandwich Ever" which involves chicken breast with cajun season, chipotle mayo, red onion and avocado. 

What I'm Reminiscing About: This time last year when I felt a lot more confident in life. I've gone from employed and in a relationship to unemployed and very single. The relationship status part doesn't bother me, that was a positive change. The employment part though, not so much. 

What I'm Loving: I am loving that this year is almost over. And grilled cheese.  

What I've Been Up To: Still on the job hunt...

What I've Been Dreading: It's hard to properly articulate exactly what I'm dreading. In some ways I'm dreading the constant reminders that when people inquire about what I'm up to these days I have nothing of substance to offer them. 

What I'm Working On: Finishing up Project Life album for the year, figuring out how I'm going to use my Happy Planner, trying to finish my 52x52 list for 2017 and a fun (and hopefully profitable) camp related project. And you know, the never ending job hunt. 

What I'm Excited About: As long as the weather cooperates I'm planning on celebrating the new year with H. & R., so I'm cautiously excited about celebrating bestie Christmas and starting the new year with them!

What I'm Watching/Reading: I've been watching Grey's Anatomy on Netflix along with a documentary called The Drop Box which I highly recommend (and is on Netflix). Right now I'm reading A Year of Living Prayerfully by Jared Brock, which is pretty great so far. 

What I'm Listening To: I usually have Grey's Anatomy or Friends on in the background. 

What I'm Wearing: Lots of comfy clothes, leggings, hoodies and warm socks. 

What I'm Doing This Weekend: Christmas things! 

What I'm Looking Forward to Next Moth: Maybe 2017 won't be as terrible as 2016. 

What Else Is New: Refer to the 'what I'm dreading' question above. But I will share that I've applied for my first totally unrelated to camp job, but is still working with people who have disabilities and is much closer to home than the camps I've been applying to. It's still pretty competitive and I'm sure they will have loads of internal applicants (which have become my arch nemesis) but it's worth a shot. 

What's Your Favourite Memory from 2016? 

There wasn't any one standout moment this year. The first thing that came to mind was a quick visit to camp back in the fall with H., R. & M. there were so many leaves that it just felt quintessentially fall. I also had a lot of fun visiting H. in Toronto back in May. And meeting Meeko at Disney World also deserves a shout out because even if the trip was sort of a do over it did make me fall in love with the place. 

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February Currently

Reading... Nothing that I felt very passionate about in terms of novels. I did start reading the Savor devotional and even though I'm only a week in so far I'm pretty happy with my purchase. 

Playing... Still playing 1010!

Watching... I've been watching Top Chef on a weekly basis. I've caught up with the last few episodes of Big Bang Theory and caught up with Criminal Minds.

Trying... to catch up on sleep. I am all over the map lately and I would love to get back on a regular sleep schedule. 

Cooking... I haven't been cooking anything elaborated lately. 

Eating... Lots of pitas with tzatziki, chicken and feta cheese.  

Drinking... Coffee, Hot Chocolate, Water and the occasionally Pop for good balance. 

Calling... Nobody! Which is great, I hate calling people. 

Texting... The usual crew. H., R., J. and N.. Sometimes the ladies I carpool with to work. 

Pinning... Craft Ideas, quotes and project life ideas.

Tweeting... Mostly just the automatic tweet from Bloglovin' when a post is published.

Going... Still waiting to find about work before I make any plans. I was hoping to know this week but it doesn't look promising. 

Loving... Winter is half way through. I would say almost over but I assume we'll have our typical April snowstorm. 

Hating... The weather. It's cold, it's warm, it's snowing, it's raining. There is green grass and blue sky, there's freezing rain. I don't know what's happening and I never know what shoes to wear. 

Discovering... I don't think I discovered anything life altering this month.

Thinking... About what I'm going to have for lunch. 

Feeling... Sleepy. 

Hoping (for)... Concrete information about work being extended or not extended so I can get on with my life. 

Listening (to)... Podcasts! Camp Code has been my go to this month and I've also discovered Bringing Up Betty which I'm enjoying so far. 

Celebrating... I ate a lot of cake in February. A belated birthday cake for me, birthday cake for my mom, leftover cake my brother's girlfriend brought over, Valentine's Day cake at work,  cupcakes at work because of a storm.

Smelling... Still enjoying the Winter Sun B&BW candle, although it hasn't matched the weather which has kind of been bothering me. 

Ordering... I ordered this stamp set on a bit of a whim (mostly to use up a visa gift card) we'll see what happens when it gets here.

Thankful for... The local news. This might sound weird but whenever I happen to click on news for a big city or when I was in Florida last month I'm always surprised by the news. So many murders and standoffs and robberies. Around here it's weather and animal stories 75% of the time. The other 25% is pretty depressing but I'm thankful to live in a pretty safe part of the world. 

Considering... I know it's way early, but I'm going to say it anyway...post-camp plans. Sigh.

Starting... It felt like a started a lot of things this month - books, Project Life layouts, lists, camp projects...

Finishing... You might assume since I started so many projects this month I would have finished a lot of them. This assumption is wrong. I have ticked off a handful of stuff on my "Things to do Before Pre-Camp" list but other than that there is a lot of half finished stuff lying around. 

Linking up with Stuff & Things

January Currently

Reading... I just finished The Princess Diaries : Royal Wedding by Meg Cabot. I love Princess Mia. Amelia is one of my favourite names because of that character. I loved 'catching up' with Mia through this book, it was a light read but I enjoyed it all the same. 

Playing... I downloaded a game called '1010' and it was a great find. It's similar to Tetris (which I love) but has a little twist to it. 

Watching... The Curse of Oak Island! It's the one show that I make sure I'm up to date with each week. I've also been following Top Chef. 

Trying... To eat more veggies and drink more water. 

Cooking... Chicken, rice, veggies, pasta. Nothing too fancy this month. I do have ingredients to make Thai Chicken soup over the weekend, so hopefully that goes well. 

Eating... I've perfected the baked potato so I've been eating those pretty frequently.  

Drinking... I've always been under the impression green tea is gross, it turns out while regular green tea isn't my jam, ginger green tea is delicious! So I've been drinking lots of that. Along with water and the occasional pop. 

Calling... Nobody! Which is great, I hate calling people. 

Texting... The usual crew. H., R., J. and N.. Sometimes the ladies I carpool with to work. 

Pinning... I didn't too much pinning this month. Now that I'm officially decided about camp (more on that later) I'm sure I will be pinning camp things soon. 

Tweeting... Nothing too exciting. 

Going... back to camp! 

Loving... R. gave me a Five Year Journal for Christmas and it's so great. I haven't missed a day yet which makes me very happy. And also carpooling to work because it eliminates the parking game (for the most part). 

Hating... Winter. 

Discovering... Turns out I'm actually a Disney World fan and it is true that you can throughly enjoy the experience even if you don't do rides. 

Thinking... I'm starting to feel more organized and on task, which is a great day in my books. 

Feeling... content, inspired and optimistic. 

Hoping (for)... time this weekend to work on blog posts, make valentine's for the Sparks and a quick and painless Guider meeting on Sunday. 

Listening (to)... I'm years behind the bandwagon, but I listened to the first season of Serial!

Celebrating... My birthday...sort of, I worked on my birthday so it mostly involved J. brining me chicken strips for supper and a weekend Skype date with H. & R.. I save the big celebrating for my half birthday in July. 

Smelling... A B&BW candle called 'Winter Sunshine' or something along those lines, it's yellow and I'm a fan. 

Ordering... Maybe some new books. I have a gift card from Christmas that I think I'll use to invest in a few things off my reading list. 

Thankful for... all the F's, food, family, friends, faith.

Considering... a trip to visit H. either in the spring or during a break this summer depending on how long my current work contract lasts. 

Starting... to think about camp and 

Finishing... Right now I need to finish getting ready for work. 

Twenty-Six

This morning I went searching through my photos to find one of birthday cake or candles or balloons but I didn't have one. So instead I put a party hat on a squirrel and I'm calling it a birthday win. And if anyone presents me with an actual squirrel wearing a party hat at any point today you will win some big bonus points. Last year I posted 25 things about me at 25 and I've decided to continue with the tradition.

1. Squirrels are my favourite animals, they have been for a long time and in the past few months it seems like they're becoming more "main stream". The woodland animal trend that's happening right now is great, my second favourite animal is the magically raccoon.
2. Speaking of raccoons, I got to 'meet' Meeko when I was at Disney and I could hardly contain my excitement. We danced, I got his autograph and J. took multiple photos. 
3. My maternal grandmother is my very favourite person. H. & R. are a close second and J. is also pretty great.
4. I don't like violence but I love Criminal Minds and Law & Order: SVU. I've determined it's because I like figuring out the mystery.
5. The older I get the more importance I place on wearing comfortable pants. 
6. I enjoy being somewhere new and exploring a different place, but I hate the act of travelling. If teleporting was a thing that would be great.
7. 75% of my bad habits are acquired during the summer while I'm at camp. 
8. I love photography and scrapbooking and anything that involves paper, scissors and adhesive.
9. Broccoli is my most favourite vegetable. 
10. I got new flannel sheets for Christmas and they are my favourite thing ever. I had forgotten how much I love flannel sheets. 
11. Cooking is my favourite. I think I would enjoy a career as a chef, except that I would be so stressed and anxious about feeding other people that it would over shadow the enjoyment.
12. I generally don't pay any attention to celebrity gossip but every now and then I can't help but read things about reality tv stars, mostly the teen moms and the Duggars.
13. I prefer my drinks to be ice cold, except for water. I like to drink water at room temperature.
14. My phone is always on silent. I don't even know what sounds it makes for alerts.
15. Supper is my favourite meal of the day. 
16. I think gummy bears are the best frozen yogurt mix in because they are the perfect texture when they are a little cold.
17. I thrive on organization and routine. Lists and detailed schedules are my favourites.
18. I would enjoy winter more if it didn't involve winter driving. 
19. Instagram is my preferred social media platform.
20. I prefer to eat multiple snacks between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. opposed to one big lunch meal.
21. I still bite my nails. 
22. I make my bed every morning and it really bugs me when beds aren't made.
23. This past year I've realized that 9 hours of sleep is the magic number for me and anything less than 7 leaves me feeling tired.
24. Lime green is my favourite colour.
25. I sort of wish I could play an instrument but I'm also very happy with the hobbies I currently have.
26. It's only halfway through the first month of the year but so far I am super happy with how well I've been keeping up with all the things I want to do in 2016!

A New Year's Do Over

I spent January 1st in an excited panic. 

My One Little Word prompts had arrived for the month of January.

My blank Five Year Question Journal was sitting on my bedside table ready to start. 

My Project Life Album was full of empty pocket page protectors. 

My 52 Things in 52 Weeks list waited for the first thing to get crossed off.

The year had hardly started and already I felt slightly overwhelmed by my imaginary to do list. (I say imaginary to do list because I did have a real to do list. It involved packing, arranging, Sparks things, meal planning...you know things that would actually impact my daily life.)

And then I messed up and my one month old phone met with water which was enough for my mind to grind to a halt and recognize that I was rushing myself to do all the fun things and ruining the fun in the process. 

I am not going to disappoint Ali Edwards if I don't finish all of my OLW prompts by January 2nd.

It will take me approximately 5 minutes to respond to the prompt in my Five Year Journal. 

It's called Project Life not Project January 1st.

52 Weeks...not 52 minutes on January 1st. 

It was like the calendar changed to 2016 and I went coocoo bananas and lost all sight of reality and logical thinking. 

I spent January 2nd in my yoga pants and hoodie. I helped mom tear down Christmas and return it all to the attic. I communicated by landline and e-mail while my cellphone hung out in a baggie full of rice. I sharpened a tupperware container full of pencil crayons left over from my elementary school days to use in my new colouring books. I hit the reset button. 

I'm declaring a do over on January 1st. 

Reminding myself that there is no need to rush into things. There is no prize for finishing things first and nobody is going to hand me an award for starting the most projects on January 1st. I've secretly rolled my eyes a little every time I've read about a blogger committing to being more intentional over the last few weeks. Now I'm about to join the ranks. I still have every intention of completing Project Life this year, following along with my One Little Word, crossing off items on my 52 Things List and responding to the journal prompts every day. I also have every intention to do one thing at a time and enjoy the process. 

So tonight I'm going to ring in January 3rd and remind myself that Rome wasn't built in a day and the year doesn't revolve around crossing items off on my to do list. 

2015 Loose Ends

I fully intended on blogging between Christmas and New Years but obviously that didn't work out. Before the clock strikes 12 and everything switches to new years goals and resolutions I did want to post about Christmas and tie up a few loose ends before I jump into 2016.

My Christmas first started when Alex's package showed up! Alex blogs over at Whitehall & Rose and we were paired together for the Blogging Elite's Christmas Cheer Swap. I had the best time exchanging e-mails, reading her blog, following her on social media and getting to know her during the month leading up to the swap. Alex put together an awesome box and included scrapbook paper, stickers, an alpha stamp set, pretty metallic markers and two of my favourite treats - Reese and dark chocolate. Plus an adorable card. I can't say enough wonderful things about Alex. It was probably the easiest swap I've ever participated in and I really wish we were closer and could arrange an awesome blogger date! 

Christmas Eve afternoon J. and I had our own unconventional but awesome Christmas. 

Originally the plan was to go out for lunch when he finished work and then go back to his house to exchange presents. He ended up working a little later than anticipated and town was absolutely crazy by the time he was finished. We opted for McDonald's take out back to his house and a fast food lunch before presents. It wasn't the least bit fancy but I kind of love it. I'm positive that McDonald's lunch on Christmas Eve will not become a forever tradition but in this moment, when it's just the two of us it felt fitting. And knowing that I want to focus on documenting the everyday moments during 2016 this felt like a good start. Anyway, after we had finished our fries we got to presents. We had already determined that Christmas would be small since we're going away next month so I was pretty darn surprised when I opened my FitBit. Thankfully J. was equally as happy with the somewhat random assortment of stocking stuffers and gifts I had compiled. Shortly after gifts we went out separate ways to spend Christmas Eve night with our respective families. I headed to church and my aunts and was happily in bed by 11 p.m..

Christmas morning we opened our gifts, Peyton had the time of her life playing with wrapping paper, jumping in and out of boxes and bags and generally causing as much havoc as possible. We had Christmas dinner with my Dad's side of the family and then visited with my Mom's side. On Boxing Day (which I've only recently learned is mostly a thing in Canada and the U.K. and not so much anywhere else) I woke up bright an early and headed to the city to be reunited with H. & R.!

As per usual our time together included wine, Twisted Teas, hot tubbing, shopping (purchasing matching t-shirts) and a snow storm. My drive home on Monday was pretty sketchy but it was worth the time we got to spend together. 

Since I got home I've been visiting relatives, colouring in my adult colouring book, organizing my supplies to tackle both Project Life and One Little Word in 2016 and squeezing in time to stay caught up with The Curse of Oak Island and Top Chef!

I don't have any big plans for New Year's Eve. J. and I are going to make supper at his house (or go to his parents for Chinese that part is to be determined) and then spend the evening watching Harry Potter movies (we started the first one last night after homemade pizza) and playing boardgames. There is a supposed to be a fireworks display in town at midnight so we might check that out but it really depends on the weather. I have no interest in being outside in the cold for hours, especially in the snow. 

Project Project Life 2016

I jumped on the scrapbooking bandwagon pretty early in life, I don't remember exactly how I got started but I know that there is a stack of Scrapbooks documenting my junior high self. And yes, there are just as cringe worthy as you imagine. In high school Facebook made it's debut and I was a little more focused on making sure my Facebook albums were up to date than I was about creating scrapbooks. My high school years are documented through boxes of photos and 'stuff', maybe someday I'll feel inspired to put it all into albums but that day is not today (or tomorrow...and probably not anytime soon). In university I didn't take a whole lot of photos. I do have a Smashbook from my fourth year and I've got some traditional photo albums filled with camp photos. Post university life I pretty much stopped taking photos because I didn't feel like I had anything to take photos of, except for camp. Camp is the exception, my camp life/career is fully documented each summer has it's own album and/or box of memorabilia. A year and a half ago I got my DSLR and (re)discovered a love of photography. And now I find myself identifying as one of those people with thousands of photos on their hard drive without a purpose in life other than to pop up when my screen saver comes on.

I know I need to get a handle on the situation before it gets even more out of control but I don't necessarily want to spend hours meticulously cropping/cutting/pasting/embellishing two photos at a time. And so I've decided to hop on the Project Life bandwagon. I've happily waved as the PL Bandwagon passed by the past few years but I never felt like joining. I've even invested in some PL supplies when I've seen them discounted at Michael's. The journalling cards made a great addition to my Smashbooks, I used the bright patterns for card making and they are the perfect size to write a quote on and include in a package. They were also perfect for writing warm fuzzy notes to counsellors this past summer. I guess you can say that I had the Project Life Bandwagon on speed dial but hadn't bothered to call and make a reservation.

Until now. After a lot of in-depth research courtesy of Pinterest I've decided to jump on the Project Life wagon. At first I really liked the idea of following the Project 52 formula, a two page spread every week of the year. Then I did some more reading and realized that's not really what I'm interested in doing at this point. I'm not going to invest in a fancy printer to print my photos at home and I'm not going to order prints every week so the Project 52 formula isn't really going to work. I still want to keep life in chronological order and "document the everyday" but I know that some weeks won't really be all that action packed. So I've decided that my formula will keep Project 52 in mind, but focus more on the month than the week. I'm confident I can commit to printing photos once a month and carving out a Sunday afternoon (or two) to document them in an album. In fact, I prefer to scrapbook in large chunks, I don't think I would enjoy just doing a page at a time. And enjoying what I'm doing is very high on the priority list.

Album//Seasons Core Kit//Kraft Core Kit//Page Protectors

Like all scrapbookers I have a sizeable stash. I wasn't about to purchase a whole lot of new supplies but I did let myself buy a few new things in preparation. First up I wanted a Project Life Album, I ended up with two because they were Buy 1, Get 1 Free. I will use one for 2016 Project Life and the other I will either save for later or I'll use it as a traditional photo album for photos that I don't want to include in the Project Life album. I know it won't go to waste. I used a 50% off coupon to buy a core kit. I decided to invest in the Seasons kit because the cards are made to go through the entire year. There's a few for each holiday and I know that they all coordinate. I know I'll supplement with the cards from other kits I own and make my own cards but I like having a core kit to set the theme. And of course I needed pocket pages so I used another 50% off coupon to buy the variety pack. Which gives me everything I need to dive into Project Life in 2016. I also ended up buying the Kraft Edition Core Kit because I happened to find it at Winners for $20 and I just couldn't pass up that kind of deal. When I got it home and went through the cards I realized it would make a perfect camp album. So we'll see what happens.

I am eagerly awaiting January 1st when I can convert all my enthusiasm into creativity. Until then I'm going to stalk the Project Life blog and admire Kelly Purkey's amazing memory keeping skills. Is anyone else a Project Life convert for 2016 or a long time fan of the memory keeping system?

I was saving this post for later on in December but Becky announced this morning that on Thursday Creative Live will be broadcasting 18 hours worth of Project Life 'how to' for free! I know Thursday is Thanksgiving for those of you in the US but you might want to check it out post turkey dinner and for those of us not in the states know you have your Thursday plans!

**It's worth noting that Becky Higgins has no idea who I am and what my opinions are on her products. I bought all this stuff entirely by choice with my own money. I'm just spreading the love because I believe in documenting life. 

Thursday Stuff

I don't know how my to do list got so long this week but it is out of control. Monday I had my usual Spark meeting which was more chaotic than usual because when I got there I found another group using the hall. They were equally as surprised to see me as I was to see them, luckily I arrived a few minutes early and determined I would have to use an adjacent room for the night. Luckily our "craft" for the night was play-doh sculptures so I didn't have to start dragging our supplies from one place to another.  Next week is our district meeting so I had to complete the unit report and financial report and send those off to the secretary and the treasurer. I made a trip to town for very specific groceries needed for the church tea & sale this weekend and in the process learned that there are many different kinds of canned pineapple. Yesterday I was in town again for the Remembrance Day ceremony and then spent the afternoon working on decluttering more stuff.

The thought of acquiring anymore stuff during Christmas is so unappealing. I think I've got J. on board with doing something extra when we go on vacation in January. I am tempted to add a FitBit to my Christmas list but I'm not convinced all the way. So if you have a FitBit feel free to offer me your advice/suggestions. I know I don't want the super fancy one, but I would kind of like to have the time on my wrist? 

I've eaten garlic bread for three meals over the course of the past two days and I'm not even sad because it's delicious and if toast can be a meal then so can garlic bread. This item probably should have been saved for next weeks Confessions but it's a thing that's happening now and come next week it's entirely possible I'll have forgotten about my current garlic bread obsession.  

I'm feeling oddly excited about 2016, I assume its partly because I like the number 16, but that really shouldn't be enough to make me excited. By rights I shouldn't be excited and the thought of another year full of short term contract/seasonal jobs makes me want to pack it up and join the circus. Or become a farmer, I'm flexible. 

I was going to ramble on for a bit longer but there are concert tickets going on sale in five minutes and as long as I can secure two of them I will be able to cross my mother's Christmas present off of my to do list (so wish me luck)! 

Linking up with Stuff & Things.