2015 YUMMommy Year In Review

I can hardly believe that 2016 will be here in just a few hours.  I'm bubbling with excitement and a little anxiety over all the things I want to accomplish next year both in my personal and professional life.  2015 was a year of both great highs and major lows for me ( and my family).  There's so much that was happening behind the scenes.  It was beyond frustrating not being able to find the words to share what I was going through without going into too much detail.

Alas, if I had to sum up 2015 in three words, I would say this year was challenging, eye opening and motivational.  The high point of my year was winning the Food Lion Frugal Cook-off.  Not only did my team win, I got to meet some incredible people and landed my first featured appearance on live television!  I'm forever grateful to the folks at Food Lion, Theory House and the Southern Women's Show for helping to make this dream of mine come true.

There were many low points to this year like battling my depression, my mom's breast cancer scare, almost throwing in the towel on my marriage and losing my blogging mojo.  We're not even going to talk about how I managed to break two cameras, had my laptop break down on me or the hit and run accident the kids and I were in.  When it rained, it poured and it felt like it rained a lot over the course of 2015- figuratively and literally.

My ability to put a positive spin/twist on my negative situations as well as my faith really helped to keep me afloat.  This year taught me that perspective is everything.  Seriously, if I didn't force myself to find the good in all of the bad things or stay focused on the light at the end of the tunnel, I'd be in a mental hospital right now.  There were more than a few times when I felt like I was going to jump off the edge of the cliff, but God wouldn't let me.  He has a greater purpose for my life and I can't accomplish that purpose if I give in to the storms.

With that said, I do feel like I spent 2015 shifting from being super stressed to being overwhelming excited.  There were very few in-between moments.  The most stressful parts of this year were seeing all of the progress JJ has made, but hearing from his OT that he still has a long way to go developmentally and I struggled with not being as financially independent as I wanted to be.  Since JJ's diagnosis, I've cut back a lot in terms of properly monetizing my blog and taking advantage of paid opps.  Being available to my kids will always be my first priority, but there will be serious changes coming in 2016.

Through it all the people I could rely on the most were my family and Tara from The Young Mommy Life.  Tara is a great listener and partner for bouncing around ideas.  As a fellow mom and business woman, she understood the struggle of balancing home and work life better anyone.  She's become a trusted friend and someone that I look up to over these few years.  I'm grateful for having stumbled across her blog.

I'm not proud to say that I was the person who most hindered my own success and efforts this year.  I have this annoying habit of being able to be a cheerleader and motivator for everyone else, but not for myself.  While I took some risks this year, I spent way too much time still second guessing my abilities and talents.  I will definitely be leaving this bad habit behind.

By far the biggest lesson 2015 has taught me is to say yes to things that will make me better, things that will help me grow and things that will put me in the position to leave my mark on those around me.  2016 is going to be much better and more improved.  I'm naming it, claiming it, praying on it and most importantly taking action.  Faith without work is dead!  So get ready to watch me work y'all!

How was your 2015?  What is one thing you want to do differently in 2016?

Toodles 2014!

Oh my goodness, I can't believe it's already NEW YEAR'S EVE!!  I had to triple check the calendar today to make sure I wasn't imagining this.  This year it's just the kiddies and I celebrating because the Mr had to work.  I'm sure they'll fall asleep before the ball drops as we've all been under the weather since two days after Christmas.  It started with Moo and JJ both wheezing and then I caught the flu.

Nevertheless, we're literally just a couple of hours from ringing in 2015 and I'm super excited.  I truly believe that with the start of every year, we are given a chance to start anew.  Another 365 in which we can challenge ourselves and set measurable goals aka resolutions. I'll save my New Year's Resolution post for tomorrow.  Right now, I want to reflect on 2014.

Hands down my favorite memories from this year are Moo's first day of school (before we picked her up in tears) and chaperoning her first field trip.  It felt like I had to wait forever for those moments to get here.  Watching her grow and find her independence even more has certainly been bittersweet for me, but rewarding at the same time.  I'm grateful that to have been had the chance to share in those moments with her and look forward to what other firsts the school year has in store for us.

2014 has absolutely been a year of tremendous growth and improvement for JJ.  My little guy seems to have morphed from a baby to a toddler and now a little man so quickly.  His speech and temperament are levels ahead of where they were this time last year.  Our communication is better than ever because I can understand him clearer and he is better able to tell me what he wants and needs.  I can't say enough how proud I am of him.

This year I got had the opportunity to attend some awesome blog related events.  At these events, I was able to meet and connect with a few other bloggers and social media influencers from my area.  It's always nice to have people who can not only relate to you as a blogger, but who can connect with in real life.

I still can't believe that I added vlogger to the list of hats that I wear.  I honestly didn't think I would ever have the courage to start vlogging.  I'm very much the introvert and private person.  So, it's crazy to think that I've been vlogging almost a full year now.  Be sure to check out my YUMMommy Channel!  My inner fan girl totally bugged out when I got tweeted and replied back to by three of my favorite YouTubers- Gabe & Babe TV,  April Justin TV and Shaylee Daily.

My family and I moved to a bigger apartment in a better neighborhood.  Speaking of our new neighborhood, it's relatively close to all of the malls here!  I love that because I had cut down on going to the mall because we lived so far out and with traffic going and coming it just wasn't worth making frequent trips.  I'm also back closer to Target, my thrift stores and favorite restaurants.

This year marked nine years that Mr and I have been a couple and four years that we have been a married couple.  I can't believe our tenth couple anniversary is just around the corner!  It's such a huge milestone when so many couples don't even make it three years together now days including the dating period.

The greatest lesson I've lessons I've learned this year are:

• Respect the process of your journey.  What may come fast for others may take some time for you to achieve or accomplish.  I could so frustrated so many times this year working on my novels and my blog.  I felt like everyone else around me was finding their success faster than I was and when I tried to force myself to take shortcuts or speed up, it often ended in disaster and further irritation.
• No matter how much you support some people they won't ever ride for you as hard as you do for them.  There's always going to be a few people who will take more than they give.  They'll ask you to support them, claim to be a friend and then go missing.  Don't sweat it.  Karma will repay you ten fold in  positive ways.
• It's okay to not associate with certain people regardless of if they're family, a former classmate, etc.  I've spent too much of life taking crap from folks because we were related or used to kick it.  I finally said enough is enough and dropped that baggage.  Life is too short to be surrounded by folks who keep stuff stirred up and who don't show you proper respect.  Yeah, I'll say hi if I see them in street, but I keep it moving.
• I am a PHENOMENAL mom.  I've struggled so hard with considering myself a good mom because I felt like somehow I was solely responsible for whatever was wrong with my kids.  Their severe allergies, JJ's ASD, etc were all things I blamed on myself.  It seems crazy because these are things I have ZERO control over, but that was my thought process for so long.  I'd cry day and night over it.

If I had to choose one thing that I got better at this year, it would be my patience.  I'm more at peace and when you're calmer and more at ease, you're able to be more patient with people.  This has really helped me in dealing with my husband.  He used to get the brunt of my impatience a lot and I've dailed it back a lot.  I could still do better and that's something I'll have to continue to work on in the New Year.

Overall, I'm most grateful for just having more opportunities to spend time with my family.  The kids have loved seeing my mom, baby sister and niece more this year.  They actually just went home after spending fours staying with us.  I got photograph and video record everyone opening their Christmas presents.  We had some good laughs and they helped with the kids once the sickies descended upon us.

That's it for my recap of 2014.  I hope that you all have had a great 2014 and that you have a wonderful start to 2015!  Thank you for your continued support.  It is very much appreciated.  See you in the New Year!