Mid-Year Reflection and Summer Goals

Summer is a good halfway point to reflect on yearly goals.

So far, I have survived the virtual school year. I will be reprising my role as a math teacher next year (One goal down!). 

I have also started a regular workout routine. Carrie bought me a pull up bar. The maximum number of pull-ups I could do non-stop started at 10. The last time I checked max reps I did 15. I can bounce my chest off the bar, but I normally just clear my chin. I suspect I can do at least 16 now, because I've been doing 36 pull-ups across my five sets lately (6-12-6-6-6).

There have been a few close calls, but Carrie's still mostly sane. I'm praying summer will be a time of rest and healing for the both of us after a busy year!

Shane got a sleepover offer from a friend recently, but the timing was bad. The family beach trip is coming up, so he'll get to see a ton of cousins instead. Afterward, he'll go to his first sleepaway camp and hopefully forge some new friendships there. 

And those are the main victories. I learned a lot about how to run virtual and hybrid classes which helped me survive the year, but I'm not sure all those strategies will apply going forward. I'm thinking about practicing my Spanish on Rosetta Stone or something else once my energy levels rise more over the summer.

I haven't come close to writing a book. I still talk to my writing partner each month, but neither of us has done much writing! That's another thing I'm hoping to rectify this summer. I've been thinking more about it, but I want to catch up on the blog first (Thanks, Beach Trip!).

Churchwise, Shane and I just started attending in person again. Carrie still prefers virtual. She's always been hesitant about crowds and COVID's made her even more so. What I want is to join another small group that won't disband within a few weeks of us joining. Burrough might have been the start of that, but he moved to teach at a Christian school in Thailand. 

So that brings me to my summer goals.

1. RELAX - It's been busy!

2. WRITE - I feel like this is the goal I'm the furthest behind on that I have the most control over.

3. LEARN - I had a lot of fun playing with archery last summer. I may do it again or I may practice Spanish or even Japanese. I like to learn! It works best when I have the energy for it, though.

4. RECONNECT - There are a lot of people I haven't been in as much contact with as I'd like. I haven't driven to NOVA in a while. Ryan and Kim aren't that far away, but we haven't seen them in forever. Henry is even closer, but the schedules haven't worked out and we haven't seen him since January!

I feel like it's a pretty simple set of goals (which plays into RELAX!).

Carrie and Shane had some yearly goals, too.

Carrie wanted to get healthier and she has. She had knee surgery that was long overdue and has mostly recovered from it. She's been eating healthier and was starting to ride regularly before taking a break. 

Shane was supposed to work on typing, but we haven't touched it since. I'm thinking about making him practice for half an hour a day. It's summer, so I don't want to use up all his time. An hour or two of work a day between chores, Japanese, and typing is probably good for him. Typing is one of those skills that's boring to obtain, but oh-so-useful in a digital world. He's asked about programming, as well, so I could substitute that instead. The start of summer is going to be exciting, so there's no need to rush into anything, though.