My Goals // 2017 Review

Hey y’all!  Happy Friday!  Today is day 4 of New Year Blog Week 2017.  I’d love to hear if you’re enjoying this week of posts so far.  I know I am!  It feels so good to put up new content each day.  Today I’m going to be reviewing the goals I made for 2017.  Make sure to comment and let me know what goals you made this past year and what all you accomplished!

Blog 40 posts.  YES, I did do this!!  I’m so excited!  I tried to get into a more consistent blogging routine later in the year, which was a fail, but at least I got the 40 posts out for you all like I was hoping ;)

Gain 10 blog readers.  I gained at least 4 that I know of, and several others commented around that I haven’t seen around here before.   Thank you all so much for your support!  And remember, you’re always more than welcome to comment below! :)

Host 2+ guest posts/interviews.  I only did one of these.  Go visit my guests page for the links to my Q+A with Beth!

Guest post on a blog.  I did not do this in 2017.  Maybe next year. :)

Begin learning erhu.  BUT OF COURSE!! :)

Begin learning guitar.  I played around on the guitar a little bit this year, but I didn’t actually learn very much.  Besides the reminder that tightening a string a bit too tightly *might* result in the lack of an E string…

Continue learning harp.  I did not go through with this goal.  When you don’t have a harp and the only one you have access to is in your church office where EVERYONE there can hear you playing and you don’t have time to on church days anyway, harp practice doesn’t really happen.

Write 5 hymn arrangements.  I completed + put to music 2 hymn arrangements this year.  One of them was a beginner-level hymn arrangement for a sibling student, and the other was an erhu/flute/piano trio.   OK, so yes, I think technically that’d be called a duet with a piano accompaniment, but since piano is my main instrument, I consider it to be a huge asset to the ensemble.  Therefore, it deserves the right to be grouped with the other two instruments.  As a trio. :)  Anyway, getting off that tangent… I also created a third hymn arrangement this year, but it hasn’t been entirely put to music yet.  I have several unfinished instrumental arrangements I am in the process of writing, too.

Write 1 original composition.  This didn’t happen, and that’s fine.  I’m not sure original compositions are going to be my thing since any cool idea I get usually becomes inspiration for a hymn arrangement.

Play every song in the hymnal.  Later in the year, I decided to switch the hymnal I would use for this goal from a 700-and-some hymn hymnal to just a 100-and-some ;)   I’m not sure if I played every hymn out of that hymnal though… I lost track.

Have 5 photo-shoots.  I did only 2 with people in them, so I didn’t get anywhere close to reaching my goal.  I did get my camera out for a few nature shoots, though.  Several photos from those are displayed on my photos page.

Complete a Scripture-writing challenge.  I did not accomplish this, but it is something I want to take a lot more seriously in 2018.

Fill my prayer journal.  I also did not do this.  I’m taking my time filling it with thoughts and prayers from the core of my heart instead of trying to use it all up as soon as I can.  I am thinking it will probably be finished this coming year.

Read 20 books.  I read exactly half this goal.  When I was younger I loved to read, but as I entered my teen years I lost that love for reading.  I have been trying to revive that more this year, which has resulted in several late nights staying up reading whenever I found a really good book :)

Try 20 recipes.  I tried 13+ recipes.  As I was looking back at the record kept at what I had made though, I noticed a common trend… single serve chocolate-chip waffles, cream cheese truffles, fudge disaster… yikes!  I made a ton of junk!  I’m guessing that probably will need to change in 2018 ;)

I might have overlooked a couple goals in this post, but that is the lot of it.  Now, I want to hear what y'all accomplished this year!