DEBBIE-DABBLE BLOG: Reflections on My One Little Word for 2015!!!

I am a Victorian Soul, who lives in a small townhouse that was built in the mid 1970's, not a huge Mega Mansion!! I just recently lost my Hubby Joe, who was a Retired Letter Carrier. I worked night shift as an RN on a Hospital based Rehabilitation( Physical Medicine) Unit for 37 years before I had Knee Replacement Surgery and officially Retired in 2019 after 41 years working in Direct Patient Care ... I am so glad that we retired at 62 years of age and got to spend that time together before he passed....I still do love Retirement!!!!

I DABBLE IN A BIT OF THIS AND THAT!!!!

" IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO BE WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN"
George Eliot

George Eliot was actually a pen name for a woman named Mary Anne Evans......

BLOGGING FOR FUN AND FRIENDSHIP!!!!!!

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Reflections on My One Little Word for 2015!!!

Here we are at the end of another year .......

For the past several years ,I have been choosing
One Little Word for each year...

A Word that would guide me through the year...

A Word to focus on......

My 1st Word was HAPPY in 2011, Please click HERE to read

My 2nd WORD in 2012 was TIME, Please click HERE to read

My 3rd WORD in 2013 was JOY, Please click HERE

My 4th WORD in 2014 was ME, please click HERE to read

My 5th WORD in 2015 was LIVE, please click HERE to read

I do like to aspire to do a few things in the beginning of a New Year......plan on what I would like to achieve during the Year......

This past year was the first year that I actually focused on and accomplished most of what I set out to do.......

I realized that I needed to learn to say NO and to take care of ME in order to LIVE!!

From November of 2013 to November of 2014, this is what I got myself involved in:

1. Co Chairperson and Vendor of our Church's Holiday Craft Fair and Specialty Basket Raffle
2. Co Chairperson and Vendor of our Church's Spring Craft Fair and Specialty Basket Raffle
3. Co Chairperson of our Church's Summer Flea Market
4. Hostess at our Church's Harvest Tea where I did 2 Theme Tables and had close to 20 Guests
5. Co Chairperson of our Church's Holiday Craft Fair and Specialty Basket Raffle which I doubled in size, causing me to pull out as a vendor myself.

I did all this while working Full Time!

I took the opportunity of a new Priest being assigned to our church for Joe and I to "retire" from being in charge of any Fund Raising Events.

This was the best thing that I did in 2015!! So much stress was eliminated from my life!!

These were my aspirations for 2015 and how I actually did at accomplishing them!!

1. Get myself back on track to be healthier by losing an additional 15 pounds , at least. The more weight I lose, the better my knee will feel and the healthier it is for me overall.

Okay, after gaining back about 20 of the 55 pounds that I had lost the previous year, I am not pleased with how I did on this one so this was a Major Fail!!

2. Get back on my Exercise Bike for at least 15 minutes a day 5 times a week. I had stopped doing it because of back pain from several compression deformities in my back and after completing 12 weeks of Physical Therapy for my back, I hope to be able to do the bike without any discomfort.

I also failed at this one!!

3. Purge...... I am a Victorian Soul who believes in the Philosophy that "More is More'. I realize that I have much More than what I need so I want to take a long hard look at all the stuff I have and decide what I truly do not need and can live without. This is what will probably kill me!! I did take 4-5 boxes of Christmas stuff up to our church Flea Market garage and I am really being very picky with what I buy at the after Christmas sales....

I have actually done really well with this one. I started going through and deciding which items I absolutely needed, loved and could not live without. If they did not fall in any of those categories, then out they went....donated to our Church Flea Market or to Volunteers of America. I have gone through most of the house now and truly got rid of tons of things. So I think I got an A+ on this one!!

4. Organize.... Now I always considered myself a very organized person because I am a bit ( well, a lot) OCD but over the last 18 months, I feel like I can not get a handle on things so that has to change before I loose my mind.

As I have been purging, I have also been organizing those things that I have decided to keep. I have organized all the drawers and closets in the house, my Craft Room, storage tubs, etc. I even did most of the Attic .
I think that I truly accomplished what I set out to do with this one for the year.

5. Eliminate some bills and get finances in better shape and spend less money

Joe and I have been working on this for 2 years now and have done well. All of our credit cards are now paid off and we do not use them unless there is something we need in an Emergency. We remortgaged the house for a lower interest rate and for less years to be close to being paid off coinciding with Joe's retirement. We have also curbed our spending , buying only what we need and not impulse spending.

6. This one has to do with the one above....... Go PART TIME by November of 2015!!!

I have come to the conclusion that I need to take better care of myself and that going PART TIME will seriously help with that. My job is very physical because I work in a Rehab department as a nurse and I lift people for a living, some times 200 and 300 pound people who have disabilities!
I also work full time night shift and sleep very little. As I am aging, it is taking a physical toll on me. Dropping down to working 7 days in a 2 week pay period from 9 which is still
considered full time should help that a bit but there are issues with going part time that I will talk about in a later post.

I was able to go Part Time at the end of July! So this one was a major accomplishment!! And one that greatly improved my quality of Life!

7. I think the most that I aspire to do in 2015 is to Enjoy My Life! I feel that I have not been doing that for some time now and Life is short. You never know when it will be taken away from you so I need to make changes now that will allow me to enjoy my life!

Okay, I truly have been enjoying my Life this past year........

I have taken the last year to purge, get organized, free myself of previous obligations, focus on what I want to do and when I want to do it, enjoy my house and garden like I did in years past, get rid of some of the stress in my life and change my work situation!!!

I reconnected with my sister and her family and hosted a Christmas party at our house for over 20 members of our family!!

All in all, I think I did pretty good this past year at reclaiming my Life!!!

Allowing me to LIVE more!!

All of this has allowed me to relax and enjoy simple wonderful everyday things!!

I also chose to continue to Blog!!

This is my new philosophy on Life!!

How true this was for me!!

I hope you enjoyed reading how I changed my Life over the past year!!

I also hope that maybe I have inspired some of you to make changes in your Life!!

Soon I will reveal what My One Little Word will be for 2016!!

I just want to say that this song became my song for 2015 because I fought to take my life back!!

I want to THANK everyone who stopped by to visit Debbie-Dabble and A Debbie-Dabble Christmas during the past year!!

I truly appreciate your friendship!!!

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!!

And I do hope you will come back to visit again!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment. If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......

Hugs,
Debbie