Year of Change

This is to be my year of change.

My birthday is November 8. 2023 will mark a significant age. It’s one that’s not too old but not exactly young either. Not to old to do anything I want with my life yet, but not young enough to no longer worry about possibly achieving what I want.

Nevertheless, when I was looking at my life in November 2022, I wasn’t unhappy but wasn’t exactly happy either. I just was. And that’s not enough. Not anymore. Especially after all the uncertainty and upheaval of the last nearly 3 years. Changes need to be made. Some things are out of my control right now due to various reasons, but other things aren’t.

So I made a list.

A few lists, actually.

Something that soothes me and helps me keep control are lists, doesn’t really matter what the lists are made of. Lists of my dreams, lists of to-dos, lists of possible achievments, lists of things that I enjoy.

So I made a few lists of goals that I want to achieve in this next year before my birthday in November. Now, I realize that it is February. I’ve had a few delays, something that I prepared for when I was making my goals for each month throughout the year. I know things crop up, things hinder and even change completely. I know myself well enough, that if I try to tie myself to an exact timeline too tightly where anything throws me off and I miss a deadline, I will spiral and then nothing will get done. So while I, of course, don’t know what the actual delays or hurdles may be, I know they will exist so I account for them.

Goals for Year of Change

• Lose at least 50 pounds (Goal Weight of January 1, 2024 is around 260)
  1. Lose at least 1-2 pounds a week(giving myself wiggle room as not every week will lose)
  2. Work out consistently
  3. Better diet
  4. Control portions
• Get in better health
  1. Go to the doctor-haven’t been in a long while
  2. Get fit as I lose weight
     1. Build muscle and strength
     2. Better endurance via cardio
     3. A better workout program that doesn’t require subscription(Don’t want to pay subscription for the next 10+ years)
  3. Dental work-broken tooth driving me bananas
• Grow the businesses
  1. Grow the blog by posting weekly-(That’s this blog)
  2. Crofoot Cottage Studio by various avenues
  3. Paula’s Pet Paradise by having a information and contact page on blog, Instagram and Facebook + other avenues
  4. Mystical Rose Book Shoppe via Pango and Poshmark
  5. Crofoot Cottage by selling on Poshmark
• Self-Care
  1. Journal Consistently
  2. Skin care-most is genetics but help doesn’t hurt and helps mindset
  3. Research-I enjoy learning
• Better myself
  1. Research each month so I continue to learn: computer, books, magazines, museums +
     1. Fashion-Shadows and myself
     2. American & European History
     3. Wolves/Tigers/Lions/Leopards/Panther
     4. Notebooks: various subjects
  2. Continue French lessons
  3. Learn new skills and better current-Craftsy/Skillshare+ (Includes crafts)
     1. Diamond Painting
     2. Wood Burning
     3. Candle Making
     1. Macramé
     2. Photography
     3. RPG Games
     4. Videography?
     5. Biking?
  4. Learn and get better at current hobbies
     1. Art/Crafts Hobbies: Cricut/Loom Knitting/Needlework/Latch hook/Sewing/Crochet/Perler Bead/Drawing/Paint/Scrapbooking/
     2. Technical(Not necessarily electronic) Hobbies: Video Games/Computer Game/Lego kits/Miniature Buildings/Models/Wooden Builds/3D Puzzles
        1. Games: Sims 4/Minecraft/Fall Guys/Edith/Yoshi/Animal Crossing/Misfortune/Fay/Mario and Rabbids/Mario’s Odyssey/Minecraft Dungeons/Stardew/
     3. Music Hobbies: Guitar/Piano
     4. Misc Hobbies: Board Games/Gardening/Calligraphy/Left Hand/
     5. Baking Hobby: Bread/Cupcakes/Cakes/Pies/Gingerbread/Desserts
  5. Read at least 50 books
     1. Join local Library and look at other public libraries
     2. Look into TBR List and TBR pile
• Publish at least 1 book, even if it means Self-Publish
  1. Publish 1st novel
  2. Work up publishing order list
  3. Work up writing order list
• Continue progress on graphic novel: The Shadows
  1. Concrete Plot of The Shadows
  2. Concrete design of each Shadow
     1. Create substance of each Shadow-looks, personality, age, creations, abilities, power,
     2. Create connections to each other
  3. Good development of the world they live in
     1. Immediate surroundings
     2. Worlds Shannon, Kerry and Aurelia hail from(including Izzy though they were created on Earth)
     3. Magic system
     4. Government system
     5. Start other characters
        1. “Google” and “Bing”
        2. Irish Brothers
        3. Shannon’s human friends?
• Establish Garden
  1. 2-fold purpose: gets me and Mom out in sun and fresh air and gives us our own produce-in long run cutting down on groceries and creating better diet
  1. Create landscaping-including cone and tire idea
• Settle into CB further
  1. Research Chickens and Goats
  2. Research Fencing
  3. Research Pottery and other outdoor hobbies
  4. Buy riding lawn mower
• Buy new car-giving Dakota to Mom and trading Tony-so both cars are dependable
• Reduce debt
  1. Reduce charges
  2. Pay down
  3. Increase income
• Build in relax time w/out guilt for not continually going and going and going

A few more details regarding this list.

Regarding weight loss: I have a significant amount of weight to lose, for a few reasons. Number one is overall health, which ties into the second item on my list. My health isn’t horrible but it can definitely improve, step one is to lose the weight. But I don’t want to just drop the weight, I want to better my endurance, build muscle and strength rather than just trim the waist. My current work outs are on a subscription service which just keeps increasing in $$ and I don’t want to tie myself to a paid subscription forevermore just to keep the weight off.

I have a few businesses. My primary business is Paula’s Pet Paradise. I want to build a website for it, connect it to various social platforms to grow it. I’m currently only sitting but wish to expand in the future for boarding so I can be home more often without cutting into my sitting which requires hiring employees. I’m also working on establishing Crofoot Cottage Studios selling handmade items-physical and digital- on various platforms, Crofoot Cottage-selling items I no longer need, Mystical Rose Book Shoppe selling books that are not a part of my personal library. The goals are to expand all of my businesses and increase my income so I can not only rest comfortably, I can care for my mom since she’s done so much for me and don’t want her to be working forever, but also need $$ to achieve many other goals not on this list. I also want to lessen my debtload that I have from various avenues and reasons.

Self-care is still in development. I’m still working on what it means to me. Journaling helps my mind, skin-care helps my skin. I actually have good skin, most of which is good genetics but help doesn’t hurt and learning helps my mind as well. Exercise is also included in a way in self-care. Relaxing is also a part of self-care that I’m still working on. Right now, I have a coloring book app on my tablet that I am obsessed with that is helping so much.

Bettering myself currently is primarily researching and learning. I’m fascinated by how so many things work, various animals, and always feel better when I learn more each week. But bettering myself is liable to shift and change.

I started learning French last year and want to continue it, plus I want to learn more craft mediums-both personally and professionally- and different skills. I also want to improve on the skills and abilities that I already know. Starting with just this list right now. I love games so I want to keep playing the games on the list-to either completion or for fun. I’m also adding the games as I find them, such as some on Steam and Gamejolt. I love baking and finally have a kitchen that I can actually bake, plus I received a bread and ice cream machine for Christmas that is so much fun to use.

I am a bibliophile-I currently have 4 nearly full bookcases, 5 shelf 6 foot tall ones- and have loved to read since I was 4 years old, reading ahead of my grade level nearly my entire school career. But my reading has fallen off the last few years-mostly due to burnout in other aspects of my life-so I want to reignite that flame.

I am also a writer-have been writing since I was about 11 years old. Well, 11 years old in the sense that the stories actually made sense written on paper but I’ve been creating stories in my mind since I was little. I have several novels completed, once that I’m ready to actually submit to be published. I’m working on traditional publishing for right now but if I can’t get it going anywhere by fall, I’ll look into self-publishing it, all the while writing other novels and short stories. Some of which I’ll post here, others will be locked and unlocked on my Patreon and Ko-Fi, both are linked on my social links on the side bar.

Alongside my written novels, I am currently working on a graphic novel. This will take a long while, not only due to my drawing ability-traditional and digital-needing improvement, but also the development of the world and characters of my novel and making sure it’s just as firm as my written novels. I’ve always enjoyed comic books, graphic novels and anime books and drawing nearly as long as I’ve been writing, though not to the same talent level. But I enjoy it and it’s a pleasure project so I’ll work on it no matter if it’s harder than it might be for others. I’ll post some about it here and on my Patreon and Ko-fi as it’s developed.

I enjoy gardening as well as am pretty good at it and am currently living on an acre so I want to establish a good size vegetable garden as it will not only improve my and my mom’s diet but will also lessen grocery budget in the long run.

My home-CB TX- is still in the process of being settled in between monetary limits and I’ve been gone so much with my primary business being pet-sitting so I want to finish it this year, preferably by May overall with just a few shifts and changes maybe.

My car is a 2008 Ford SUV, in decent shape and very dependable but crossed 100,000 miles last year. My mom’s car is her dream car, a 2015, but unfortunately, as fun as it is to drive, it is a lemon as it will not keep a good battery no matter what we’ve done-fixing recalls, getting a new battery since the OG owner had it as a collectible. So we’ll be trading her car in, buying me something new-ish and she’ll keep my car since he’s dependable and I need something with far less miles with all the travel I do.

Unfortunately, the way I grew up in my teen and young adult years, I feel like if I’m not constantly being productive in some manner or another, I’m wasting my time. I need to be doing something better and more important. That’s a large part of my drop off in reading and some other more relaxed hobbies like gaming in the recent years. I’m not entirely sure where this ‘pressure’ is from, as it’s certainly not from family. They’re very supportive. But I’m working on letting it go this year and relax a lot more. It’s going fairly well so far but I have my moments.

So, that is my Year of Change goals. There have been many improvement over these last few months, since this actually started in November, but I’ll go in more detail in a future post on that.

See Y’all later!