We made it, everyone! 2020 is in the past. I love to look back at the end of each year and reflect on all the things I’ve accomplished and all that I look forward to in the new year. As 2021 opens before us, I feel more grateful than ever for the people, opportunities, and material comforts that helped me to survive one of the most trying but wonderful years of my life. I don’t normally write end-of-year recap posts, but then again, not much about this past year felt “normal.”
For one thing, I didn’t travel anywhere! Between maternity leave and quarantine, I spent the entirety of the year in Florida. I refocused my brand and site layout here to include more non-travel-related content. And finally, I spent lots of time at home soaking up all the baby time and getting started on a few home projects. Here’s a look at some of my personal highs and lows that made 2020 a year to remember.
2020 Wrapped
I Became a Mom
Let’s start with the most dramatic change of the year. In March, I became a first-time mom to a sweet little girl named Lily. Having a baby completely changed our world, and the initial adjustment period was very difficult on our little family. Maybe it’s because my pregnancy was so easy, and everything in the hours leading up to Lily’s birth by emergency C-section was not. Maybe it’s because Covid-19 precautions left us stranded at home, cut off from any of the support and resources we had counted on, and that we so desperately needed in those first few weeks. There were no visits from family, no mommy lactation groups, no fun outings with baby or nights out with friends. Lily was colicky, wouldn’t breastfeed, had terrible eczema, and only took very short naps.
But here’s the thing: it was all 100% worth it. As stressful and even dehumanizing as those first months were, they were also filled with incredibly sweet moments. Lily’s milk-drunk smiles made up for the miserable hours spent at the pump. Her warm, sleepy snuggles made up for the 12 AM wakeup call (and the 2 AM, and the 5 AM). I tried to savor the good moments and remember that the bad ones wouldn’t last.
Nine months later, here we are, and Lily is crawling and standing and cracking us up all day long. I love being Lily’s mom. There are still difficult moments, of course, but I feel overwhelmingly lucky and happy to have this sweet, funny girl in our lives. Becoming Lily’s mom, with all its highs and lows, was the absolute highlight of the year.
I Graduated From College at 30 Years Old
My college experience was anything but traditional. I delayed college in order to move to Florida, leaving the on-campus student experience behind in favor of living in an apartment with friends and getting some “real” life experience. I have never regretted that decision, but I do regret that I didn’t take college more seriously after my so-called “gap year” was up. I took classes here and there and changed my major often over the years, and by the time I got my A.A. degree, many of my old high school friends were already a couple of years into their post-grad careers. My continued lack of a four year degree was a constant source of frustration and shame; something that prevented me from being hired for certain jobs or having the free time to pursue hobbies outside of school or work.
Well, in April 2020 I finally graduated and got my Bachelor’s degree in creative writing! As relieved as I am to finally have my degree and have some time back to myself, what really makes me proud is not the degree itself. It’s the fact that, after flip-flopping majors for years and trying again and again to force myself into more rational or profitable career paths, I ultimately had the guts to pursue passion over profit. 2020 was the year of owning who I am and who I want to become, and this degree is just one reflection of my desire to live a more authentic and satisfying life.
We Made Our House a Home
Dan and I started the new home construction process nearly two years ago with the intention of tackling small upgrades a little further down the line. Read about our new construction journey here. Once the dust settled (literally) and we got a good feel for our monthly expenses with a new home and baby, we completed a few minor updates with major impact. We painted and decorated Lily’s nursery, making hers the first completed room in the house. We painted the entry, hallways, living room, dining room, and kitchen. Most of the painting was done in spurts while Lily napped in her bassinet. We added curtains and shelving in the living room, mounted the TV on the wall, and installed gorgeous cabinet hardware in the kitchen. Finally, we cleaned out the garage, added more storage options, and unpacked the last few boxes from our move.
We have several more home projects in the works for 2021, which I’ll detail further down in this post.
We Celebrated Our First Christmas in the House
Last year we spent Christmas week up in Washington with my family, so this year marked our first Christmas day in our own house, with our own tree. It was also Lily’s first Christmas, which made the day feel extra special. Dan and I shared some of our favorite holiday traditions, like baking cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and introduced a few new ones to the mix! This, of course, meant matching pajamas, a cozy afternoon nap, and a spruced-up Christmas dinner for our little family of three. Lily got to try turkey, potatoes, and stuffing! We helped Lily to open a wealth of new toys, video chatted with our families, and bundled up for a sunset stroll around the neighborhood. While I look forward to celebrating Christmas with our parents and siblings in the future, I was grateful to spend our first family Christmas at home, just the three of us.
What’s Next in 2021
As the new year unfolds, I feel hopeful and excited for what the future may hold. Here is what you can expect to see in this space over the next twelve months. This is not a list of resolutions, per se, but rather a quick look at what I’m working on right now, and the things I’m most looking forward to later this year.
More Lifestyle Content
I’ve been itching for a while to move away from writing solely about travel, and include more of the topics and projects that inspire me in my daily life. I’ve written a few non-travel-related posts here in the past, with great success. My Buyer’s Guide to the KB Home Design Center, for example, is my most popular and searched-for post by a long shot. As travel halted around the world in 2020, I embraced the opportunity to leap into lifestyle blogging and share more of my life beyond my next flight.
To everyone who’s ever messaged me asking when I’ll share more home content, the time is here! I have a host of lifestyle posts planned for 2021, including home tours and how-tos, before and afters, travel-inspired recipes and reading lists, and maybe even a couple of personal posts.
Travel Content & Plans
Don’t worry, there are more travel posts coming your way as well! I’m working on a series of Central Florida travel and dining guides, itineraries, vacation planning tools, local hotspot roundups, and more. I always have more Paris content up my sleeve, like the Budget Travel Guide and list of Free Things to Do in Paris that I shared last month.
I am really looking forward to exploring more of Central Florida this year. Dan and I moved into our home in late 2019 eager to get out and explore all the wonderful things in our new city. Wineries, breweries, u-picks, state farms, you name it! A few months later, the whole state shut down. There were no visits to the pumpkin patch, no holiday tree strolls, no weekend trips to the beach. We missed out on a lot of local events over the past year, and I look forward to being able to safely experience those events with Lily over the coming year.
I am hopeful that we all will be able to travel safely by air by the end of the year. COVID-19 quarantines and travel bans effectively cancelled four visits from family around the time of Lily’s birth, and I look forward to hosting guests in our house once again later this year. I plan on flying to visit family in Washington and Georgia before the year is up. I look forward to planning a few family vacations in the years to come, including a trip to France so that Lily can meet her great-grandmother. I’ve missed travel so much over the past year, and I’m eager to get back out there in 2021.
Home Projects Continue
I always feel extra productive and motivated to get things done around this time of year. Dan and I are already looking forward to our next home projects. Here are a few of the things we have in the works:
This month we are giving Lily a closet makeover by swapping out the basic wire rack shelf for something more functional with lots of individual shelves, closet rods, and storage boxes. We will probably add more functional shelving and storage solutions to the pantry around the same time, since dry goods are constantly hidden from sight or falling through the existing wire racks. In a dream world, we would also add custom shelving in our master closet.
At some point I’ll tackle the dreaded task of painting our ceilings, doors, and trim a bright white. They are currently a builder grade off-white, and I can already tell that correcting them to a true white will have major impact on the overall look of each room. Expect a full kitchen reveal later this year, once we get the ceiling painted and add pendant lighting and window treatments. Finally, we plan on putting up a fence and giving the patio a small makeover with lighting, colorful accents, and a grill. We are ready, in other words, to start hosting people in style and get back to a sense of normalcy.
If we have extra time or money after all those little projects, we will also add more decor on our woefully-bare walls, paint the remaining bedrooms and hang curtains, and possibly tackle the bathrooms as well. My dream update list is much longer, of course, and includes things like upgrading the floors, countertops, and kitchen backsplash, but I know it won’t all happen in one year.
Read More, Write More
I want to make writing more of a focus this year, whether that means blogging, drafting stories, brainstorming, creating characters, or even inventing silly song lyrics. It’s easy to see that I’ve written less here in the last three years than I did in my first year of blogging alone, even if the quality has drastically improved since those early days. I want to blog more often, find professional writing work, and challenge myself to write more fiction.
Now that I’m done with school, I’m able to pursue more hobbies, and I look forward to reading often throughout the year. Between physical books, audiobooks, and e-books, I always have something on hand to read, which is a welcome relief after so many years of reading primarily for school rather than for pleasure.
Moving Forward
After surviving such a difficult year, I feel like I’m now in the midst of my own personal Renaissance. 2020 brought many challenges and significant changes to my life, and I ended the year feeling transformed and ready to tackle what’s next. That means pursuing more passions, trying new hobbies, and spending more time exploring the world with the people I love. Going into this year, I feel more confident in who I am and what I want to bring to the world. And I intend to share the journey right here, with all of you.
Now it’s your turn! What are you most looking forward to this year? Share your resolutions, hopes, and goals in the comments below. Happy New Year!
Beth
Leave a Reply