It’s late December and time to have a look back on my 2017 and a summary of what happened this year. As I type, I think the word that sums up how I feel right now is tired. This has definitely be a year of high and lows, and a lot has happened! Not everything has gone to plan (just to keep things interesting!), but in time honoured tradition, here is my end of year report.

Liz Driver: End of year report 2017

Family

Mum has spent less time overall in hospital this year overall, but it’s been a bit of a shaky end to the year with several admissions. However, I spent a lovely weekend with Mum in June whilst Dad visited his relatives in Italy and they made it here for Christmas which was great. The girls continue to enjoy school and their activities. Daisy won the best newcomer award at Street Dance and Poppy’s swimming is really coming on. We had some lovely family time away too.

Work

Ok. It’s going fine. I’m not sure there’s much more to say really. I don’t love my job, but I like the people and I enjoy working for my boss. The big plus point is that I’ve been able to reduce my hours to 4 days a week. That’s agreed until the end of March for now, but we’ll see after that. That really helps free up some time to focus on college work and take a bit of the pressure off my evenings.

Relationships

Since we moved, we’ve made more of an effort to eat our evening meal at the table (well, breakfast bar!) which has been good for spending a bit more time catching up each day. We’ve both been busy and under a lot of stress though, so would be nice to have a bit more fun together next year.

Health

Bit rubbish. The year started well but an injury picked up in March followed by a bike accident in July, has meant that my goals here remain mostly unfulfilled. On the plus side, I’ve focussed on walking as my main form of exercise, and the installation of the treadmill desk at work has meant that my 5 million step target was still achievable, and I hit the target. That works out as an average of 13700 steps per day, which is pretty good going for someone with a sedentary job. It’s definitely led to behaviour change! I also kept up my minimum of 10k steps per day for this year, which I’m pleased about.

The running goals didn’t happen as I just haven’t really been able to run this year, and I also wasn’t able to continue with the strength training I was doing. The upshot of all of that was that I didn’t achieve my body fat % this year either. So not a vintage one, but the only way is up for 2018!

Home

All change here! We moved house in April and the latter part of the year has been spent preparing for all the work we need to do. The overall goal this year was to move, so that’s achieved, and we’re in good shape for starting to create the home of our dreams next year.

Money

We’ve restructured things a bit with the house move, but until we have quotes back on the building work, it’s hard to know exactly what that’s going to cost and then how we manage things going forward. One to keep on top of next year.

Personal Growth

The NT training is reaching the final stretch now. I’ve enjoyed this year, but it’s definitely been tough as the bar has been consistently raised and I’ve been into clinic for the first time, which was both exciting and nerve wracking.   I really need to start thinking about next steps, but there are lots of other variables around work and money considerations that I need to take into account!  I also took part in my first every dance show this year which was fun if a bit scary!

Social Life

Ok. I’ve been able to catch up with friends from my old job a few times and had a fun reunion with university friends in Leeds. There were some friends I didn’t manage to catch up with this year though, and I’ll make a conscious effort to see them in 2018.

Major Achievements/Things Ticked off The To Do List

Moving house

Getting through year 2 of my course successfully

Doing 5 million steps

Things To Be Carried Over Into 2018

Going on a photography course

Doing the splits (again LOL!).