**A Year of Goals and Reflections**

As I sit down to reflect on the past year, I realize that 2021 was a transformative year for me. It was a year marked by growth, challenges, and new goals. As I look back, I can see how far I've come, but also how much work is still ahead of me.

One of my biggest takeaways from 2021 is the importance of community and connection. Living in a busy neighborhood with lots of activity on the street has its pros and cons, but one thing that's clear to me is that it's essential to prioritize relationships with loved ones. As a parent of two young children, including one with special needs, I've learned to cherish every moment spent with my family. We make a point to spend quality time together, whether it's playing games, going on outings, or simply enjoying each other's company.

For me, another key aspect of 2021 was the need for balance and self-care. As someone who's always been driven to succeed, I often find myself putting others' needs before my own. However, this year I made a conscious effort to prioritize my own well-being. I set goals such as saving more money, investing in a new house, taking time to appreciate life beyond social media, and being more involved in my children's lives. These goals may seem simple, but they've been instrumental in helping me feel more grounded and centered.

Speaking of goals, one thing that struck me about 2021 was the realization that I had been neglecting my own interests and hobbies. As someone who grew up without the distractions of modern technology, I often find myself missing out on the simple joys of life – like playing games, reading, or exploring nature. This year, I made a commitment to rediscover these passions and make time for them in my schedule.

One of my favorite books that's been lingering on my shelf for years is "Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens. I've always meant to read it, but somehow it's never made it onto my reading list until now. Perhaps 2022 will be the year I finally get around to reading this beloved novel.

As we head into a new year, I'm hoping that 2022 will bring more rest and relaxation for me as a parent. My youngest child, Autumn Otto, has been struggling with sleep, and it's taken a toll on all of us. I'm praying that she'll find her rhythm soon and that our household can enjoy some much-needed peace.

As we close out this year, I want to express gratitude for the friends who've been with me along the way. It's not always easy being a parent, but having a supportive community makes all the difference. To anyone reading this, I invite you to reflect on your own year and consider what you're grateful for.

Finally, I'd like to share a little tradition that I've come across called the "Fairy Tag." This is a gentle reminder to slow down and appreciate the small things in life. It's a simple yet powerful way to cultivate mindfulness and presence. If you haven't tried it before, feel free to give it a shot – I promise you won't regret it!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello everyone today i'm here to do a tag video that i have done before but plot twist is actually a tag that i've created so that's pretty cool so three years ago might be four years ago now i took time i created a tag called the new year's book tag all designed around of course the new year's i have yet to do that tag again so i'm like i should redo my own tag there's no rules against that i created the tag let's do it again so we're going to do it again in hopes of talking about all things 2022 with our reading goals and things like that so let's get into it i'll link my original tag video down below so first up is how many books are you planning to read in 2022 um for this one i'm going to stick with my generic answer 50. 50 is my answer i hopefully surpass it every year it's just kind of a baseline goal for me i think if i put to 100 i would just stress out immensely so so 50 is just a standard kind of hopefully i'll read more if not 50 is usually just kind of my baseline so that's what i'm sticking with i've done that for years question number two is name five books that you didn't get around to this year but want to make a priority in 2022. oh i did not prepare for this tag video at all let's think about it um oh number one right off the bat makeup breakup by lily menon i have yet to read that should have read that this year number two the passengers by john mars another one i meant to read that this year didn't get around to it this comes like by alicia ryan i still have yet to read that i need to read that how many books is that three oh gosh i'm trying to think oh where the crawl dad sing by i forget the author's name is one that i've been wanting to read for forever i want to make that a prayer in 2022 and then the last sort of thing trying to think i can't think of one i am horrible maybe the wife upstairs by rachel hawking so the thriller book i've heard a lot about that i need to read so there's five books like i my tbr cart is freaking full and i need to read more but there's there's kind of like a um off the top of my head answer three is what genre do you want to read more from i primarily read a lot of romance now like back in the day probably when i filmed this video it was like why a mostly um and i probably said adult but i read mostly adult now i would say 80 of my reading is adult books um so for me i would say a genre i would want to read more of his literary fiction i don't read nearly enough of it and i think the reason is for that is because usually literary fiction is very hard-hitting and kind of sad and it takes me a lot to read a sad book when i watch a sad show or sad movie it really gets to me i know that's weird but it really truly does like if i re-watch parenthood on my favorite shows like i get sad because it's such a sad freaking show um or like this is us that's why i had to quit watching it because it was just so sad so for literary fiction a lot of their books are kind of on the sadder side and it just really affects me a lot but i want to read more of them because yes it's sadder and affects me a lot but they're more impactful and they're more just beautiful stories so i want to make that a priority in 2022 to read more literary fiction to you know embrace the sadness it's okay to be sad we all are sad it happens it's not fun to feel sad but it happens next up is name three non-related goals you have for 2022. oh my gosh um let's see three goals number one is to start saving for a house we just bought this house a while ago but then we weren't having to plan it then we weren't planning to have a second kid and we did we decided to have a second child which is awesome but this this house is great if you have one child but two kids it's a little small so we want something a tiny bit bigger we're not we don't ever want a mansion because that's not us but maybe you know and we want to be on a better street because we're the street we're on now it's not the best street to raise kids for sure like the busyness of it by the way the neighborhood's great just the busyness of the street especially for a special means kid it's just kind of scary but that's the goal is to save more for um you know hopefully investing in a new house soon another goal is to just um take time to like really embrace life to be off my phone more i've noticed that i am on my phone a lot and i don't want my children to see that because i don't want them i don't want them one day if they're like paint a picture of your mom and it's just going to be me with the phone in my hand i don't want that you know that's not how i want to be portrayed and that's not how i want to be so i want to be more involved in my own life and in my children's life so i want to put the phone down more take social media breaks just kind of just put it away because there's more to life than my phone i i was i'm one of the last generations that you know had childhood and uh young adulthood without phones and things like that they started coming up pretty prevalent when i was a senior in high school that's when computers and stuff and aol got big um but for me like i grew up with none of that like i grew up with blockbusters and having to play outside a lot and you know not having this the tip of my hands things like that and which i really enjoyed so i need to like be more about that and i you know i did that before you know this came about so i could do it again so that's i know that's kind of weird but that's truly one of my goals is to be more like focused and be more attentive to the world around me and to my family and my other goal is to just get back into the groove of things i know that's stupid that's super stupid but i just had my second child like four months ago and it takes a while to get back in the groove even when i had my first son noah it took me even longer i think because i dealt with a lot of postpartum depression and this time around i haven't thanked the lord um but it's taken me a while to like get more back into socially with church and things like that because managing two kids especially with one with special needs is a lot so that's one thing i would like to do is just to kind of get back in the flow with um having more of a social life which is hard already with kids um but just you know doing more i guess you could say so those are three non-bookish goals that i really have is what's a book you've had forever that you still need to read ah this one i really don't know i am a big fan of like if a book has been on my shelf for like more than two years like that's how i haven't read it's gonna go because obviously i'm not making it a priority so i don't know the one i could think of like i said is the where the crawdad sing i feel like has been on my shelf for quite some time that i still have yet to touch um so maybe that one but i really can't think of one that's been on my shelf for like forever that i just still have not read yet because like i said i'm pretty good at rotating out books because i guess i'm cut throat like that i don't know next up is one word that you're hoping 2022 will be restful i don't get any sleep my noah was a great sleeper he was well he wasn't a great sleeper but he was a lot better than autumn otto's not a good sleeper so i'm really hoping that she gets in her stride and things like that so i'm really hoping 22 and 2 become more restful because i need some rest in my life i know that's a lot to ask for a parent i shouldn't be complaining at all but it's okay to ask for rest it's okay so that's my whole word for 20.2 is restful and maybe also embrace i will embrace the rest i don't know and the last one is to tag a friend this this tag has been around for years so if you haven't already done it if it's your first time seeing it feel free to do it it's a great way to kick off the new year to think about things you've done in the past year to think about the year ahead 2022 is literally right around the corner i can't believe it but here we are either way i hope you enjoyed my revisit of my own fairy tag it's the only time i've made so i'm very proud of it it's like my little baby but either way i hope you enjoyed and thank you for watching bye ihello everyone today i'm here to do a tag video that i have done before but plot twist is actually a tag that i've created so that's pretty cool so three years ago might be four years ago now i took time i created a tag called the new year's book tag all designed around of course the new year's i have yet to do that tag again so i'm like i should redo my own tag there's no rules against that i created the tag let's do it again so we're going to do it again in hopes of talking about all things 2022 with our reading goals and things like that so let's get into it i'll link my original tag video down below so first up is how many books are you planning to read in 2022 um for this one i'm going to stick with my generic answer 50. 50 is my answer i hopefully surpass it every year it's just kind of a baseline goal for me i think if i put to 100 i would just stress out immensely so so 50 is just a standard kind of hopefully i'll read more if not 50 is usually just kind of my baseline so that's what i'm sticking with i've done that for years question number two is name five books that you didn't get around to this year but want to make a priority in 2022. oh i did not prepare for this tag video at all let's think about it um oh number one right off the bat makeup breakup by lily menon i have yet to read that should have read that this year number two the passengers by john mars another one i meant to read that this year didn't get around to it this comes like by alicia ryan i still have yet to read that i need to read that how many books is that three oh gosh i'm trying to think oh where the crawl dad sing by i forget the author's name is one that i've been wanting to read for forever i want to make that a prayer in 2022 and then the last sort of thing trying to think i can't think of one i am horrible maybe the wife upstairs by rachel hawking so the thriller book i've heard a lot about that i need to read so there's five books like i my tbr cart is freaking full and i need to read more but there's there's kind of like a um off the top of my head answer three is what genre do you want to read more from i primarily read a lot of romance now like back in the day probably when i filmed this video it was like why a mostly um and i probably said adult but i read mostly adult now i would say 80 of my reading is adult books um so for me i would say a genre i would want to read more of his literary fiction i don't read nearly enough of it and i think the reason is for that is because usually literary fiction is very hard-hitting and kind of sad and it takes me a lot to read a sad book when i watch a sad show or sad movie it really gets to me i know that's weird but it really truly does like if i re-watch parenthood on my favorite shows like i get sad because it's such a sad freaking show um or like this is us that's why i had to quit watching it because it was just so sad so for literary fiction a lot of their books are kind of on the sadder side and it just really affects me a lot but i want to read more of them because yes it's sadder and affects me a lot but they're more impactful and they're more just beautiful stories so i want to make that a priority in 2022 to read more literary fiction to you know embrace the sadness it's okay to be sad we all are sad it happens it's not fun to feel sad but it happens next up is name three non-related goals you have for 2022. oh my gosh um let's see three goals number one is to start saving for a house we just bought this house a while ago but then we weren't having to plan it then we weren't planning to have a second kid and we did we decided to have a second child which is awesome but this this house is great if you have one child but two kids it's a little small so we want something a tiny bit bigger we're not we don't ever want a mansion because that's not us but maybe you know and we want to be on a better street because we're the street we're on now it's not the best street to raise kids for sure like the busyness of it by the way the neighborhood's great just the busyness of the street especially for a special means kid it's just kind of scary but that's the goal is to save more for um you know hopefully investing in a new house soon another goal is to just um take time to like really embrace life to be off my phone more i've noticed that i am on my phone a lot and i don't want my children to see that because i don't want them i don't want them one day if they're like paint a picture of your mom and it's just going to be me with the phone in my hand i don't want that you know that's not how i want to be portrayed and that's not how i want to be so i want to be more involved in my own life and in my children's life so i want to put the phone down more take social media breaks just kind of just put it away because there's more to life than my phone i i was i'm one of the last generations that you know had childhood and uh young adulthood without phones and things like that they started coming up pretty prevalent when i was a senior in high school that's when computers and stuff and aol got big um but for me like i grew up with none of that like i grew up with blockbusters and having to play outside a lot and you know not having this the tip of my hands things like that and which i really enjoyed so i need to like be more about that and i you know i did that before you know this came about so i could do it again so that's i know that's kind of weird but that's truly one of my goals is to be more like focused and be more attentive to the world around me and to my family and my other goal is to just get back into the groove of things i know that's stupid that's super stupid but i just had my second child like four months ago and it takes a while to get back in the groove even when i had my first son noah it took me even longer i think because i dealt with a lot of postpartum depression and this time around i haven't thanked the lord um but it's taken me a while to like get more back into socially with church and things like that because managing two kids especially with one with special needs is a lot so that's one thing i would like to do is just to kind of get back in the flow with um having more of a social life which is hard already with kids um but just you know doing more i guess you could say so those are three non-bookish goals that i really have is what's a book you've had forever that you still need to read ah this one i really don't know i am a big fan of like if a book has been on my shelf for like more than two years like that's how i haven't read it's gonna go because obviously i'm not making it a priority so i don't know the one i could think of like i said is the where the crawdad sing i feel like has been on my shelf for quite some time that i still have yet to touch um so maybe that one but i really can't think of one that's been on my shelf for like forever that i just still have not read yet because like i said i'm pretty good at rotating out books because i guess i'm cut throat like that i don't know next up is one word that you're hoping 2022 will be restful i don't get any sleep my noah was a great sleeper he was well he wasn't a great sleeper but he was a lot better than autumn otto's not a good sleeper so i'm really hoping that she gets in her stride and things like that so i'm really hoping 22 and 2 become more restful because i need some rest in my life i know that's a lot to ask for a parent i shouldn't be complaining at all but it's okay to ask for rest it's okay so that's my whole word for 20.2 is restful and maybe also embrace i will embrace the rest i don't know and the last one is to tag a friend this this tag has been around for years so if you haven't already done it if it's your first time seeing it feel free to do it it's a great way to kick off the new year to think about things you've done in the past year to think about the year ahead 2022 is literally right around the corner i can't believe it but here we are either way i hope you enjoyed my revisit of my own fairy tag it's the only time i've made so i'm very proud of it it's like my little baby but either way i hope you enjoyed and thank you for watching bye i\n"