Sunday, January 3, 2016

Happy New Year!! Looking back on 2015 and Goals for 2016 and Such :)

So, I'll start with my usual of HI! It's been a while... I don't know why this keeps happening, but I also keep coming back to blogging, cause I do love it.
But it's a whole new year and I wish everyone lots of love, health and only good things and amazing reads for 2016!

Looking Back on 2015

Bloggingwise: Yep, I kinda totally failed again. I did REALLY well up until June, and then we went on vacation and my brain never went out of vacation mode and everything just sort of... stopped happening on the blog. My goal was to get the number of review I had to write back into the single digits and instead it's gone into the triple digits... Yeah... I suck.
I've done a teensy bit better on the requesting things on NetGalley and Edelweiss goal, but let's face it, I could still really do with some cutting back in that department. 

Reading: So I actually read 159 books this year (it sort of irks me that it's not a nice rounded number), which I'm pretty proud of! I've dipped my toes in the world of manga and graphic novels and I really like it so far, so I'm looking forward to read more of them in 2016! If it wasn't for book club, I probably wouldn't have read some of the books I read this year, including The Casual Vacancy and Anne of Green Gables. Some are bigger successes than others, but you can't have it all ;) I've been trying to get more backlist reading in, but the shiny new releases keep being shiny and distracting. 

TV wise: I've been watching a lot of series this year and I LOVE it, it's interfering with my reading time a bit, but hey, with 159 books read, I'm not all that worried. I've started watching Nashville, Downton Abbey, Awkward and White Collar. Sadly, one of my favourite series, Hart of Dixie, ended and I was filled with all the sads. And also due to some deaths on TV series. Can all the TV show writers just stop killing off my favourite male characters? KTHANXBAI.

Personal life: I haven't been sharing all that much on the blog about what's going on with me personally, but 2015 has mostly been a good year for me!

-I cut back on the hours I work and now work 80%, which means a full day off each week and it's heaven. I have a lot more energy to actually do stuff on the weekends and I get things done and it's just bliss. It also helps that we got someone to clean our house for us, I used to put a lot of energy into procrastinating about cleaning and now I don't have to anymore!

-I finished my ER rotation in August, I totally loved it! It was hard at times with all the night shift and I had some experiences there that I could honestly say that I could have done without because it was just horrible, but I learned a lot and the people were awesome. It's also made me more into the person that says yes to things, mostly work-related, but still. I'm more confident and I know I can hold my own in a tough situation, which is really worth a lot to me.

-I also did a psych rotation. Yeah. Let's just say that while I do appreciate the things I learned there, it wasn't really my thing and I'm glad it's over. I was so stressed from not enjoying my work there! I didn't even fully realise this until it was over and I started work somewhere else and I was just HAPPY.

-In December I started my final year of residency as a GP and it's AMAZING so far. I get real enjoyment out of working again, the people are lovely and it's just a good place for me. So I'm very thankful for that!

-The boyfriend and I went on vacation to Thailand and Berlin this year. Thailand is just this beautiful place with so much amazing nature and very friendly people and yummy food! We went on a group holiday and met some wonderful people on it. 
Berlin was fun as well, the Christmas markets had just opened and everything was decorated festively and there was gluhwein and chocolate covered strawberries and we also did some cultural stuff ;) Oh, and we stayed in an apartment that came with a cat, so that was awesome. I love visiting different places, but I'm always happy to go home again as well!

-Obviously book club keeps being awesome. They are my people, I love how we've done the 24 hour readathon together and I always look forward to our monthly meet-ups! I love how we manage to always pick the restaurants with the worst service ever (except for last time, that was a fancy nancy place and they were very friendly!) and we still have a good time and flail over books and generally spook the other customers. I regret nothing. <3 p="">

Goals for 2016

-Get back to blogging. I know this was my #1 goal last year, but I failed spectacularly in the second half of 2016 and I really want to fix this. I'm gonna try and crank out mini-reviews for all the books that are on my need-review shelf and hopefully get the number down a lot soonish.

-The requesting less on NetGalley and Edelweiss thing still stands. I'm SO bad at this! I've gotten a little better, but then there'll be a lot of shiny looking new additions to the catalog and I'll just be like YES NEED TO HAVE IT!! 

-Hand in hand with requesting less goes reading more of my own books. I've gotten a little better at this in 2015, but I still have a LOT of unread books on my shelves, so this needs to happen.

-Now that I don't need to clean my house anymore, I should really get a bit better about tidying it, more specifically: folding the laundry. I really, really, really do not like folding laundry and putting it in my closet and it piles up. Like a lot. Like it's on a chair in the attic and you can't see the chair anymore. 

-The last couple of months I haven't been buying as many books. The thing is, I've been buying a lot of clothes and such. And mugs. And while I don't really have a problem with this, it might be nice to save a bit more money, so I'm just gonna think my purchases through a bit more before buying something. 

-Continue working out. Starting in July, I decided I needed to start working out regularly again and since then I've been working out 2-3 times a week and I think it's really good for me. I'm generally trying to be a bit more healthy, trying to balance the not so healthy meals out with some healthier ones and basically trying new recipes and I really like it! So I'm gonna try to keep these new habits up :)

So those are my goals, I've actually started trying to be better about all those things over the last couple of months, so they may not really be new year's resolutions, but perhaps they'll be stronger for it? 
What do you hope to accomplish this year?

2 comments:

  1. Haha, I have the same thing with my total books, I really wish I could have made it 115 :p We should support each other in requesting less books from Netgalley/Edelweiss. Book club <3 best thing. I'm also looking into healthier cooking and it feels great. Keep up the good work! :D

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  2. I'm glad this year was mostly good for you!! *hugs* and that you had so many fun things to do!! and I wish you all the best with the 2016 goals.
    I agree with the NetGalley-Edelweiss thing, i'm not even really blogging anymore but I still check all the offerings and I'm very tempted often.
    My big goal this year is to sleep more and learn to make pies. :D

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