{heavy exhale}. Can that just be how we start anything regarding 2020 from here on out? I’m not going to spend the next paragraph talking about the trials and tribulations of 2020, because I know we all felt it. So I’ll do the blog equivalent of hitting fast forward through the commercials. Yada, yada, we get it.

So what the hell is this 20 for 2020? For the uninitiated, I’m a huge fan of the Happier podcast with Gretchen Rubin and Elizabeth Craft. At the beginning of every year, they create a list of x number of things to get done in the coming year. 18 for 2018, 19 for 2019… you get the idea. Along with these items, they choose a one-word theme for the year to inspire and help shape their goals.

Here’s what I chose for my one-word theme for 2020:

The one-word theme of this year is MORE/LESS. It’s time to focus MORE on what ought to be done and listening LESS to the anxious voices in my head. This year calls for allowing myself MORE flexibility and MORE space for spontaneity and focusing a little LESS on the metrics and what I think is expected from me… because usually the only one expecting anything is me.

Did I just see into the damn future? Honestly, past Sarah… well done, though I can tell this isn’t probably how you imagined it all shaking out. I lived these words this year, and I’m sure you did too. And just like years past, some of the 20 get a huge ole gold star and others get a demerit:

1. More memories — 1 Second Everyday and family photos ⭐️

Guys… I did it. I freaking did it! If you read the update for last year, I got a demerit for the family photos. But this year, I get a big, fat gold star. At the beginning of the year, I found several photographers in the DC area who had a style I liked. Obviously, I didn’t want to get pictures in the dead of winter, so I was tentatively looking at spring… maybe with the cherry blossoms. And then, as we all remember, everything shut down.

Cue moving to Montgomery and forgetting about the whole thing, until one day while trying to find places to go around Alabama, I found a local photographer. She had just wrapped a bunch of sunflower field sessions, but I saw in the fall she would be offering cotton fields. As soon as the appointments opened, I booked a session and now we have exactly what I’ve been after for the past two years — good pictures of our whole family.

I also succeeded in my 1 Second Every Day venture (what a year to pick, btw). Check it out:

2. Less wardrobe issues — replace clothing lost in the move from Houston ⭐️

I had an unexpected resolution to this issue, so that makes this gold star even more sweet. If you recall, we lost all of the belongings we shipped from Houston to DC which was mainly my winter wardrobe and professional clothes. To compound the problem, I’m also a bit of an underbuyer when it comes to things for myself. For example, I workout nearly every day and now work from home, and for the longest time I only had three sports bras. So you can see the issue.

With so much time spent at home, I really got into my knitting hobby… like obsessively knitting for hours a day. Determined to challenge my skillset (another 20 for 2020), I eventually knitted a sweater. When I found out it wasn’t so scary, I made another one… and another.

Then the light bulb flashed — I could rebuild my winter wardrobe! Everything would be the EXACT color I wanted and fit PERFECTLY. Good job, Sarah.

Also, in case you’re worried, gentle reader, I did buy all the stuff I couldn’t knit… like sports bras.

3. More DC adventures — see all the sights before we move ⭐️

UGH! I know you’re shocked to see a star here, but I need this. Did I see all of the things I wanted to before we moved? No. Not by a long shot. Because, you guessed it, everything was closed!

Before shutdown, we were going to a new museum every weekend, so we did get to go to some but not all like I had perfectly planned out. However, since we weren’t able to go to all of the museums, we did get to explore a lot of sights within walking distance of our house which we probably wouldn’t have made time for otherwise.

We spent a weekend walking around Jones Point, the park where Maryland, Virginia and DC merge. We were able to do a driving tour of all the murals in DC without fighting traffic or crowds. We made lemonade on this one, so I’m giving it a shiny gold star.

4. Less disorder — organize the junk room and keep it from happening in Alabama ⭐️

I got right on this one and checked it off in January… which Mark should probably thank me for because by mid-March it became his full-time office.

If you read the 2020 Year in Review, you know that the second half of this item also earned the gold star. I’ll admit, some things are in weird places in our Alabama home but it’s mainly because we don’t have a garage and four bedrooms to fill. So yeah, Mark’s toolbox is indoors. Whatever. It works for this random year-long venture.

5. More balance — have a more well-rounded fitness program ⭐️

Another item with an unexpected resolution! I don’t know why it makes me so much happier, but it does. My bestie and I always talk about putting your intentions out into the universe. The belief is that once you give weight to your desires, the universe has a way of helping them come to fruition. I know, I know. It sounds super cheesy, but it freaking happened.

Last year, I set this aim because I had let weight training fall to the wayside with all of the running taking its place. Then in March, we were walking home from another one of our around the neighborhood loops, and saw a full weight set just sitting on the corner of our street for freaking free. Needless to say, Mark raced home to get the truck and we loaded the whole thing up.

We didn’t have the space to set it up in our DC house, but we do in Alabama and now weight training happens at least three times a week.

6. Less waste — do less harm to the environment 🚫

Someone please call my brother because he was waiting on bated breath for this one to crash and burn all year. Not to say he’s sitting there like, “Eff the trees!” More like he knows how big of a problem it actually is and a single human is making little to no impact.

I had good intentions, but with the pandemic, it’s safe to say I went in the complete opposite direction for this one. After shutdown, we ordered everything on Amazon, had groceries delivered… you name it. Plastic, plastic, plastic. I don’t feel good about it in the slightest.

This is still something that’s important to me, but I need to focus on what I can change to make a dent in the coming years.

7. More meaningful metrics — take body measurements ⭐️

A tiny gold star on this. We started the year with weekly measurement, but it was just too much. I learned you really need more than seven days between measurements to see true gains. Once we stopped measuring weekly, it fell out of our habit pattern completely.

Honestly, I’m not all that sad about abandoning this one. For the first time in my life, I’m in a decent place with body image and acceptance, so I quite honestly don’t care what the inches are. I’m at a fantastic level of activity and all of my clothes fit how I like. Could I be trimmer? Sure. Couldn’t we all.

8. Less knitting anxiety — complete 10 projects to get more comfortable ⭐️

Woah, you better take shelter because it’s a star shower out there. As I mentioned above, my knitting hobby turned into an obsession… and yes, I chilled the hell out about it.

The more projects I completed, the more I learned that every single one would have a mistake. Somewhere, somehow it would not be perfect. I would do a stitch goofy, add a stitch, not join the new yarn correctly, mess up on a row count… the possibilities are endless.

What I quickly realized though is that it doesn’t matter. No one, sometimes even I, can find these “mistakes” (the class I took encouraged us to use the term design feature or technique instead).

Because of this, I pushed myself to try harder projects like sweaters. Now the goal is to not be shocked every time I cast off that it fits as intended. Also, maybe make things for other people. Maybe.

9. More time with friends ⭐️

Giving myself a shameless gold star on this one as well, mainly because I have all the canceled airline itineraries to prove it.

Since flying and seeing friends in person was more or less out of the question for a majority of the year, we all found new ways to connect. I don’t think I’ve used the FaceTime feature so much.

Also, let’s not forget that I spent day in and day out with my forever friend… Mark. A year trapped with only your significant other had the potential to go completely wrong, but I found joy (most days) in the time together.

Sometimes it’s easy to take people for granted and I think this year helped us all remember the importance of connections. This insight definitely helped me to shape new goals for 2021.

10. Less selfishness — find ways to give back 🚫

No excuses, this one fell off the radar. I’m not happy with that, BUT I did find something I want to do in 2021. It’s the perfect fit for my personality type and interests.

In all honesty, I wanted to do it in 2020 and had the time set aside to do so, but I didn’t find out about it until after the deadline had passed for 2020 participation.

11. More seasonal love — up the decor game for fall and Christmas ⭐️

Remember that whole conversation above about how I’m an underbuyer for clothing I probably need? Well, the same is true for decorations. Due to our frequent moves, our house is basically Spartan status when it comes to interior design, with the exception of our wall hangings.

My Christmas decorations have been lacking and fall has been non-existent, despite both being my favorite seasons. Not this year! I spent a whole half day on two separate occasions finding fall and Christmas decor.

There were so many possibilities in our current house with fireplace mantles in every single room. When everything was put in place, Mark called the effort a “fallsplosion,” so I think I earned this star properly.

12. Less unfinished challenges — complete the 30 Day Do Yoga with Me Challenge 🚫

Another year where this didn’t happen. I made it about halfway through the challenge and then stopped. I do enjoy yoga when I do it, but I’m having issues in making it a consistent part of my day.

Clearly the yoga challenge isn’t working, but I think I have a way to cement this habit for the next year. I know that if I can successfully do this for 30-45 days, it will be something automatic.

Here’s to trying to find balance and flexibility… in 2021.

13. More writing — post 12 blogs throughout the year 🚫

This one gets partial credit. I didn’t do as much writing as I had wanted at the onset of 2020, but I did successfully do four seasonal book blogs.

I think what’s happening is that I get so into one hobby that the others fall to the wayside because there just isn’t that much time in the day. I spent so much time knitting and reading this past year that the other things I wanted to do just didn’t get done. I’m okay with this.

Although now that my job responsibilities have shifted and I’m no longer writing all day long at work, I think I have more mental space to beef up my blog and work on all the drafts I have started (there are so many, it’s out of control).

14. Less beauty guesswork — find a go-to lipstick shade 🚫

LOL — nope. Nowhere to go means no motivation to find the right shade. This year I did start getting in the habit of putting on minimal makeup during the week (if you don’t have blonde hair, you don’t understand the necessity of mascara and a good brow pencil).

It helped me feel a little more put together during a chaotic year, plus it always came in handy for those surprise last-minute video work meetings.

15. More Southern adventures — bucket list for Alabama ⭐️

I got on this one as soon as we moved… and quickly found we would be making a lot of our own fun. There is just not that much to do here, or maybe more appropriately, there isn’t much to do here in comparison to everywhere else we’ve lived.

This is another odd year, but we’ll make the best of it by camping, hiking, and drinking all of the local craft beers.

I view it as a blessing in disguise. If you’re going to be somewhere not able to do anything because of a pandemic, you may as well be somewhere that didn’t have much to do to begin with.

16. Less unfinished pins — complete a Pinterest craft ⭐️

While not technically a Pinterest craft, I did make something that solved a problem. I had all of my race medals just stuffed in a box. I only liked elements of all the medal displays I found on Etsy, so I built my own!

I’m excited to start adding to it yet again and putting up stickers from new states. Gotta start filling out the right side of that map!

17. More creativity 🚫

At the beginning of the year, I was waking up two hours before work started and dedicating that time to creative exploration, be it writing, reading, knitting, or editing photos. This was fairly easy to do since I naturally was waking up around 7 a.m. and work started at 9 a.m.

Once we moved to Alabama, I kept the same East coast work hours while living in the Central time zone. Now I struggled to get out of bed when my alarm went off at 7 a.m. By the time I got moving and had my coffee made, it was usually 7:30 which really isn’t enough time to dive into anything.

This isn’t to say I abandoned creative thought, I just didn’t have a consistent dedicated time of day for it. I miss my creative mornings, but I also don’t realistically see myself waking up any earlier. Sigh. The life of a night owl.

18. Less unfinished business — update my portfolio ⭐️

This one is still in progress. I capitalized on creative mornings/early quarantine to make a spring aircheck from my last days at the radio station in Houston. You can listen to it here if you haven’t already.

I’m still working to put together my portfolio stuff from my day job, so that is still a hidden page until I’m done. I’m glad that I at least started working on it, even if it didn’t get finished this year.

19. More beauty techniques — learn how to curl my hair 🚫

Another year and I still can’t girl properly. This one is another case of not dedicating any time to practice. Obviously when you go to get family photos is not the proper time to experiment with things.

I’m sure I’ll eventually figure this out… I just don’t know when.

20. Less restrictions — add one to the list during the year ⭐️

What a freaking year to decide to give myself a free space! Quite honestly this happened because I ran out of ideas for the list, but I’m glad I did because it allows me to highlight a major, unexpected achievement:

READ 52 BOOKS IN 2020

This is something I’ve wanted to do for some time, but I didn’t think I would be able to complete a book a week. Enter 2020 and a LOAD of free time on my hands. I ended the year with 56 books and started listening to audiobooks for the first time (and yes those count!)

There you have it! All of the 20 for 2020. I’m pleasantly surprised at how many I was still able to complete. I developed a lot of healthy habits this year, and I’m so looking forward to building the 21 for 2021.