Skip to main content

Dear 2022, Thanks for the Memories

 Breathe. 

Do you ever choose a word to serve as the overarching theme for the new year? This is mine. While I'm not planning to make any resolutions, I do set goals all year long. In recent conversations about 2022 and a lot of reflecting, I realize just how much of my time didn’t actually belong to me. I did the one thing I said I would never do. I overbooked, over-scheduled and gave a majority of my time to others. 

I struggled with ongoing feelings of burnout. I was stressed to the max. Overstimulated most days. I rarely took time off from work, because I felt I couldn't. I felt that I let a lot of people down in the process; those I had to turn down. There were the friends we didn't get to see. There were the celebrations we had to miss. There were the moments when I just needed to breathe, but instead remained in survival mode. 

At the same time, 2022 did have its special moments and lifelong memories! Don't get me wrong. There were moments that I truly enjoyed! In no particular order, here are those that come to mind:

We welcomed a new nephew, sweet Corbin. 

We celebrated the marriage of Morgan and Lukas. I was blessed to be Matron of Honor and delivered what I believe to be my final MOH speech. 

Our sweet nephew Nash turned the big 4. 

We learned that Morgan and Lukas are expecting another nephew for our cute cousin crew.

We had a wonderful, much too short family vacation to the Gulf Shores. We're heading back this summer!

We completed our basement renovation project. 

Rhylan played a fantastic football season as a Palmyra Panther and had a great baseball season! 

Emersyn & Everly played both softball and soccer. So much fun! 

Morgan and I lived our 90's kid dreams and saw BSB together for an epic sister weekend! 

We attended countless weddings and witnessed so much love! 

We welcomed a new dog into our family. Betty Zehnle! 

My first trip to Nashville was a blast! Take me back! 

Our Dad celebrated his 60th birthday and we took a family trip. 

We reunited with old friends up in Iowa with a day trip! 

We took STL by storm on Black Friday! 

We celebrated New Year's Eve at home surrounded by family and friends. 

The list could go on and on, but reflecting on these special memories gives me a positive outlook on the coming year. 2023 is the year where I plan to make downtime a priority. 2023 is the year that I will be proactive in saying "no" to the things that don't bring me joy or are detrimental to my mental health. 

2023 is the year that I will disconnect as much as possible and just be. Be the best mom for my kids. Be the best wife I can be. Be the best friend I can be. Be the best leader I can be.

Breathe.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What I Learned from Frugal January

While I don't believe in new year resolutions, I do believe in goals, aspirations and dreams. As a society, we're made to feel that with each new year, we must make resolutions, which more often than not, fade by March or set us up for failure. The feeling of failure is never good for the spirit, so a couple of years ago, I decided to stop giving in to that societal pressure. I have found that self-reflection is an excellent place to begin a new year and set realistic goals. This year, I started by challenging myself to what I named Frugal January. It's exactly what it sounds like. I challenged myself to only spend on necessities. I gave up runs to the coffee shop and trips to TJ Maxx. I gave up frivolous, careless and impulse-based spending, no matter how big or small it was. I asked myself one question with every single purchase decision, "do I really need this?" If I could live without it, I declined it. Did this cause me physical pain at times? Yes! There were...
Post a Comment
Read more

2023 Taking Care of Me

For me, 2023 has been a year of conquering fears and making lifestyle changes. As parents, how often do we place ourselves on the back burner? It's so common and I am 100% guilty of it. This year, something inside of me clicked. Maybe it's the whole "wisdom with age" thing. Maybe it's finally getting the courage to go to therapy. Perhaps, it's a little bit of both. For me, it happened with a 3-step plan. It's a plan that terrified me, but I held myself accountable and put the plan into action.  Step 1: Medical Health January 2023, the 4th to be exact, started with a wellness visit to my primary care doctor. Was I even allowed to refer to her as that when I hadn't paid her a visit since 2018? Yes. 2018. Of course, we had the whole pandemic thing in the mix, but we can only use that excuse for so long. I hadn't had a women's well check since 2018. I was having all kinds of strange symptoms, that I told myself was just the downward spiral to 40 (n...
Post a Comment
Read more

Betty's Story

 Let me preface with this. The Zehnle family was not looking for a dog. For over a decade, I remained firm in my stance against getting a big dog. The commitment, costs, added responsibility to our already loaded plate, my need for clean, etc, were all reasons why I never thought that adding a big dog to our family would be a good idea. I also believe that sometimes four legged family members find you at the right time, when you are not even looking. I'll admit, hearing Michael's half of that phone call made my skin crawl at the idea. However, I saw his face. And in that moment, I knew it was happening. I can't be the villain forever and he was willing to step up and take care of her.  After that phone call, I had the next couple of weeks to wrap my head around the idea. Ready or not, Betty was coming to live with The Zehnles. I'll be honest, I lived in total denial for those couple of weeks and prayed that things would fall through. That Saturday morning arrived though...
Post a Comment
Read more