Blog Hop: 2020 Summary

A little late to the party on this one, but loving this 2020 summary blog hop from Alberta Equest!

What's the best thing that happened to you in 2020? 

Personal: Transitioning to working from home -- obviously not thrilled about the cause (fuck off global pandemic), but having that extra 1.5+ hours back in my day from not having a commute is HEAVEN. And from the sounds of it, my agency/direct supervisors are in favor of continuing remote work, so I hope this is a permanent change (I still do go into the office occasionally but I'm happy with a hybrid of like 85% remote/15% in person). There is nothing better than being able to look out my window at the horses while I work, or pop out to swap blankets or throw extra hay or feed midday meals. Also my dogs are living their absolute best life snoozing on the couch all day, or in my office on their dog beds. Bliss. 

Midday pony checks are life, especially with one on stall rest -- picking his stall every three or four hours means it doesn't get NEARLY as gross!

He has become one with the bed. 

#bestlife

OK so this was actually after work was over but still, they are V HAPPY I work at home now. 

Horsey: Being able to get back on a regular riding schedule after 2019 was mostly eaten up by construction. Also had some really great new trail adventures with my favorite trail buddies -- DH, Ruby, and Trigger <3  

From our last trail ride :( I hope this is in our future for 2021!

What's the worst thing that happened to you in 2020? 

Personal: My grandmother passed away in May, and because of the lockdowns, there was no way for us to go out and see her to say goodbye. It's still something I struggle with guilt over. She was mostly deaf by the end, so we tried to call when we could, but it usually ended up with us yelling into the phone and her still not being able to understand us, which sucked really bad. We still haven't been able to plan a memorial service of any kind -- she spent most of her life in Hawaii but they've had VERY tight restrictions about incoming tourists (which is absolutely fair, I'm not upset about that), so we're tentatively trying to schedule something for 2021, but it may not be until 2022 at this rate. 

Horsey: Toss up between Jack's EOTRH and now Trigger's hoof hole. 

I won't torture you with graphic photos of those events, enjoy Jack eating alfalfa scraps out of a bucket one weekend morning when I forgot to put his chain up after feeding breakfast but before turnout, lol. 

Trigger remains in good spirits (although he feels well enough now that every time you try to clean his stall he tries to escape, naughty boy). 

What was your biggest purchase in 2020? 

Personal: Definitely LONGBOI, haha. Although I guess that could kind of be either personal OR horsey, since I needed it to haul my horse trailer. Or the tractor? Honestly when you have a farm most big purchases are for the farm, lol. 

Still love it though. The guys at the feed store make (good-natured) fun of me every time I come get grain haha.

Tractor doing tractor things!

Horsey: It's not a fun one, but vet bills? Sigh. Or the truck. Toss up again, haha. 

What was your biggest accomplishment in 2020? 

Personal: It was at the end of 2019/beginning of 2020 right before the pandemic kicked off, which seems like FOREVER ago, but I got personally recommended by my boss's boss to be a trainer for a new program in my agency. That meant that I was the instructor for sessions that all supervisors in our agency were required to attend, and I had to teach them about coaching their employees. It was UTTERLY TERRIFYING when I was asked to do it, and I wanted to say no, but I'm so glad that I LEAPED out of my comfort zone and did it. It was very beneficial for personal growth and opened up a bunch of new opportunities. In previous jobs I was pretty stifled and kind of got accustomed to the status quo, but since changing jobs in 2018 the opportunities for personal growth have been off the charts and it's definitely changed the way I view my job as fitting into my life as a whole, in a good way.  

So blessed to be in an organization that helps me out of my comfort zone. 

Horsey: Nothing is immediately springing to mind -- honestly probably just keeping up with the slow, steady slog of making sure my horses are reasonably trained solid citizens :) I'm in a phase of my life where I have to fit the horses in where I can, not where I build everything else in my life around the horses, and I'm fine with that, but it also means it's not a season of big accomplishments, just the slow and steady little personal wins. 

WFH means I spent SO MUCH quality time with these derps in 2020. I love them. 

What do you feel COVID robbed you of in 2020? 

Personal: Getting a chance to say goodbye to my grandmother tops the list. The second thing would be that DH and I were hoping to do a lot of travel after construction was over (including FINALLY using our passports), and clearly that... didn't happen. That's been a super bitter pill this week in particular, as this time in 2016 we were in Puerto Rico, in 2017 we were in Seattle, and in early 2018 we were in Hawaii, so seeing those memories pop up in FB is a little depressing. 

Last visit with my grandmother.

Horsey: Truthfully I hadn't been doing a ton of lessoning and showing prior to 2020 (between burnout and construction), so while I had hoped to change that this year, covid merely delayed it, so I don't really feel robbed of something I hadn't been doing much of lately, lol. Although going hand in hand with the travel above, meeting up with the best blogger friends at not-Rolex is always top of my list every year for trips and Covid fucked that pretty badly. Fingers crossed but not hopeful for 2021.... 

I need more of this in my life, STAT. 

Were you subject to any COVID Impulse Buys in 2020? 

Personal: Ha. We were originally hoping to nurse our existing hauling truck through a few more years, but when I ended up with PTSD over driving it, a new truck could be considered an impulse buy I guess lol. Also once we had moved in/lived in the house for a while, we had a better idea of layout changes or small additions to make things nicer -- like screening in the back porch. So I did a LOT of online shopping for weird little one off purchases like lighted bathroom mirrors or plant stands for the growing plant addiction haha. Also basically any time we made a trip to Walmart or Menards we somehow came home with more plants. I did not see 2020 as the year I would become a crazy plant lady, AND YET HERE WE ARE and I have zero regrets. Also had to buy a lot of computer equipment and desk things to set up a home office, lol. 

I took this photo for a blogger friend who had 28 plants in her house and I have nearly that many IN THIS ROOM lol. And that's not counting the rest of my windowsills (almost all full of plants) plus the hanging baskets and other ones. We have a problem?

Horsey: ARE YOU NEW HERE? 😂 Oh gosh let's not talk about this. Saving money by not commuting led to a lot of not-strictly-necessary shopping. Selling my Pixio and getting a Pivo, Custom Mattes pads when Hufglocken ran their 25% off sale, a ridiculous amount of Kastel, new sheets/blankets, greatly increasing the scope of my tack shed renovation (which started pretty small and ended up becoming the Taj MahTeal), the unicorn bridle which then led to more unicorn bits, the rose gold bridle, ombre breeches and saddle pads, the works, lol. I guess on the farm front, not COMPLETELY an impulse buy, we had been planning it for a while and just moved up the timeline -- bigger tractor to move round bales with. 

That day I decided to see how many blue (or blue-trimmed) Kastels I had. That's not all of them. Just the blue ones. AND I STILL DON'T HAVE ANYTHING THAT MATCHES MY PEACOCK
LE MIEUX SET (not even the damn peacock base layer from LM). 

Ultimately while 2020 was certainly full of difficulties and frustrations, I can definitely say that we are lucky in the grand scheme of things -- DH and I are still employed (even if his employment is what directly led to us both contracting COVID this fall, UGH), we are in a much better place financially than we have been in the past, we are settled into a house we love, we have made significant improvements to the property in the last few years that makes it more enjoyable/chores easier, and we have a life full of things that we enjoy doing (even if somewhat curtailed by covid restrictions this year). And since he's an essential employee who still goes in to work every day, we didn't even have to overcome that phenomenon of never getting any time apart while working from home :) plus I am an absolute HOARDER of funny memes, and this year has had more fodder for those than any time I can remember #itsthesmallthings. However, I am still more than ready to see out 2020 and welcome 2021!