Goals 2023

Honestly, I write the same types of goals every year: Write, exercise, learn something, make memories with the family...

And I'm going to do it again this year! Why throw out something that's not broke? I tweaked a few to make them more interesting, though.

1. Keep building connections! Shane started in the Youth Group, and I want him to keep doing all sorts of activities with it. I'd love to meet up with some of the other kids outside of group to strengthen bonds. I want to find a small group for the family, but failing that maybe I'll just join a men's group.

2. Learn a new coding language - I pretty much have to do this for school. I'm flexing a part of my brain I've started to re-use more. I'd like to think I'm growing the Computer Science program at Monticello. If it keeps growing would I switch from being a Math teacher into being a CS teacher? Or would they hire a CS teacher to take over since I can't teach AP Computer Science? I'd need a Masters in CS to teach an AP class. I already have my Masters in SPED and since there's no raise involved in getting a second Masters degree I don't see the point in spending thousands of dollars over two or three years to earn a second degree at night.

3. Put my Spanish to use - I want to go on a mission trip with Shane eventually. It'd be neat if it was to a Spanish speaking country. I've enjoyed watching some shows in Spanish, because it counts as work and fun!

4. Summer camps - I want to do stuff this summer. Camps for Shane. Both of us working at VBS. I applied to work for a STEM Summer camp (just for 3 days). 

5. Work - Next August will be the start of Year #5 at Monticello for me. This will be my second longest run at a school. The record was 6 years at Rachel Carson Middle School. I would have been there longer if I hadn't been short-staffed (which helped kick off the move to Charlottesville). I'd like to work at Monticello at least long enough for Shane to make it through his Freshman year there. We could ride to school together! That's three more contract years after this one. 

6. Japan - With Shane learning Japanese, I want to go to Japan at some point. For now, we're continuing with lessons from Sunny and making him practice for 30 minutes a day. It's good for instilling a routine and a little discipline, but we'll need to do more eventually to help his ability get to the next level. If Shane decided he was really interested he could be watching shows in Japanese or reading Japanese comics to progress more. It would be awesome if a Japanese family moved next door to us with kids to be friends with Shane, but that's highly unlikely. Maybe we could host a foreign exchange student at some point? If so, preferably a wrestler. The team could use more members.

7. Memorize Bible Verses - One per week! 52 for the year! Of course, I'm writing this well past New Year's, so I'll have to play catch up for a bit. I either need to pick verses I know, but can't say the verse numbers OR I could pick verses I vaguely know and focus on learning them over their notations.

Note: I drafted this a long time ago. It's May/29th as I'm playing catch-up and I have done zero memorization of Bible Verses. Maybe I'll play catch up in summer, but I don't feel bad. My days are full, and not of useless things either. I've been taking care of higher priority things and resting as appropriate. I read my Bible even if I can't recite it well (I can't do that for anything!).  Right now, I'm starting work on the blog again instead of memorization. 

Shane goals - I want to focus on Shane getting connected to a wider community. The adolescent years are hard, but having a healthy social circle helps protect against all sorts of evil. He's been involved in Youth Group and I intend to keep that rolling. He'll do sports, camps, and all the like to keep his extroverted self busy. I want to keep instilling healthy routines to keep him disciplined and learning. Animal chores and 30 minutes of Japanese are the main routines now, but an exercise regimen would be good, as well...

Carrie goals - Carrie's connected into a wider horse community. Sadly, all the people there have no kids, grown kids, or kids not Shane's age! It'd be nice if the two communities would overlap more, but I'm glad that she's found her peoples. Carrie's normally runs lower during the winter months, so I hope to keep her healthy and moving into a brighter summer this year than the loss of Kitsune the last.