Goals for 2016

This year, my goals are:

1) To make an impact in our new city,
2) To unpack EVERYTHING.....and get rid of a chunk of it,
3) To have Shane ready for his first year of school,
4) To take more family vacations,
5) To take care of ourselves,
6) and to catch up on my writing (I got behind).

Number 6 is self-explanatory. I've never been this backlogged on my blog.

Number 5 is dreadfully obvious if you've read since November. Carrie's next ortho appointment is next week. She's doing much better, but we all need to get physicals, find a family dentist, and keep healthy! I just got back on schedule with my allergy shots.

Number 4 comes straight from my Reflection 2015. Shane and I went a lot of places....without Carrie. She went to upstate New York, Oregon, and blazed a path down to Charlottesville without us. It'd be nice to travel more as a unit! Shane's old enough he has a chance to remember much more than before.

Number 3 hits after summer. It's an exciting time. I don't see a need to cram or study for kindergarten, but I want to start Shane off on the right foot. I don't want to have him miss out on anything because I forgot to register him for classes or something silly. There are questions to answer before August. What school should he go to? The neighborhood one? Or the one behind where I work so I can drop him off and pick him up easily? What will he need? Will we need to figure out a new form of child care before and after school? Will sports and/or preschool help him learn how to sit still for a moment and get along with others? When am I going to get that boy his next round of swim lessons?

Number 2 needs to happen well before kindergarten. Shane's clothes drawers are over-flowing. Used kid clothes are cheap at the thrift stores Nana likes to frequent. We need to donate or pass on a flood of clothes. Or porch has become our de facto attic and recycling/large trash staging area since we moved in. The only difference from a normal attic is that this one is outside for all of our neighbors to see. I hope they don't mind. It's bound to get cold and I'm not really in a huge hurry.

Finally, Number 1. Always have to look out for it. I want to set roots and make a difference in Cville. The longer we've been here, the more I've realized it is a much smaller town than I'm used to. There's a sort of anonymity in NOVA. People come; People go. You can go into a store, yell "DINOSAUR," and run out with long odds of meeting anyone you know. Not so, around here. The city is big enough at first glance, but small enough for connections to start to appear all over. Anonymity is harder to come by.

I've got a plan to get hooked, though. It starts with teaching. Roots come from people and teaching is a people centered job. Coaching comes next. The wrestling world is a smaller one here and I'm happy to chip in. We've found a church we like, joined a small group, and I want to find a volunteer opportunity after wrestling ends. Carrie's found a horse/nerd buddy in the area, but I haven't stumbled across someone I'd call a buddy yet. Lots of nice people, neighbors, and acquaintances. No one who approaches the level of my NOVA friends, yet (I was pretty spoiled in that regard). I hope to find a family with a kid Shane's age. That may be easier when he's in kindergarten, but I'll keep dragging him around town looking for fun things to do and people to bump into in the meantime.

My goals are general again, because the future is wide open. It'll be interesting to see where He leads me.