2021 in Review and Excitement for 2022

It’s a New Year and 2021 in Review!
2022 Yahoo!

I have not previously been much a year in review type of person. But since I’ve started taking budgeting and investing a lot more seriously in the last two years, keeping track of what’s happened in a year can be really exciting.

Here’s the quick recap:

January & February (of last year)

Maine! We were so excited to be back in the woods with many of the people we knew. We had a great season, but because my leg bothered me so much to put on my ski boots, I didn’t enjoy as much skiing as usual.

March

Transitioned from Maine to Vermont. We were going to go home this spring, but the world still felt weird. There were reasons getting outside our bubble felt really stressful so we cozied up in Vermont.

May – October

Vermont State Parks! It was a very busy park season. In total over 1M people visited a VT State Park. Our park had 40K visitors. There are at least a few pictures in this post.

November

New Hip! Yes! Tiff had a total rip replacement and I feel like a new person. I even had a special card to say, ‘yes I have metal in me’ when I go through airport security.

December

Saw our families for Christmas.

This January onwards –

Working on projects in Vermont and going for walks.

2021 in Review Creative Accomplishments:

My Moles and Shrew Article for Northern Woodlands Magazine (there are live prisoners beneath the snow!)
Photo in VT Fish and Wildlife calendar
Note cards in Tyson General Store & Green Mountain Sugar House
Increased sales in our Etsy shop
Viral YouTube video that continues to trickle along at 5.7 MILLION views
YouTube channel has over 4K subscribers

2021 in Review Financial Accomplishments:

Dedicated a lot of time to learning about all types of finances. Some of my current YouTubers are Nate O’Brien, Our Rich Journey and Frugal Fit Mom.
Invested or saved approximately 50% of our income.
Increased knowledge and savings by using apps like Fetch, Ibotta and Rakuten.
I  was interviewed by Vanguard, the investment firm, for my financial choices. It will only be for internal use and not shared publically, I don’t even get to see the final result, but that was cool.

2021 in Review Health Accomplishments:

Tiff got a new hip!
We could improve this area more, especially now that Tiff can move again.
We are trying to eat more bomb salads, increase water and exercise more.

Sometimes I hear people make remarks about trying to keep motivation high. Or it’s easy to feel good when life is going good. And we all certainly know it has been a heck of time for the world. I love the mantra of James Clear’s perspective in the book Atomic Habits. (free trial with Audible)

Just do 1% better.

That’s it.
All you have to do is try and be 1% better than you were yesterday. Make small changes in your environment, i.e., your daily life, to get the results you desire.
I now have a favorite water glass and I leave it by the sink. I now drink more water. This makes absolutely no sense because I typically despise drinking water from glasses! I love all my water bottles. Yet – it works. I drink more water. I can’t argue that.

Make your environment easier for you to succeed in even if you are a skeptic.

The rest of life – just get by. Make yourself 1% better. Look for opportunities. I am hearing from those in my circles they are starting to enjoy traveling again. There remain to be lots of unknowns as restrictions continue to flip flop. We have used Agoda to find some great deals on hotels both in USA and abroad, G Adventures is still going strong for easy group travel and Expedia we still use.

What else? What have been some of your great accomplishments this past year? Some of your struggles?

For me it’s hard to not feel as though I am bursting at the seams because it feels like I have a second life given back to me with this new hip. (Some videos below.)

If you find yourself on the side of the coin where you are feeling great, yeah! I am happy for you.

If you find yourself on the side of the coin where you feel you need a burst, then do whatever it takes. Stop at nothing. If something doesn’t work, let it go and try something else. If you gotta get someone to jam some metal into you with a mallet, (yeah, that’s what my doctor did), then by golly, jam some metal in you and then move on. Find something to give you that burst.
Regardless of which side of the coin we feel like we are on, may we each do 1% better.

Onwards to 2022!
Tiff & Chris

Here are some of my recent hip recovery videos. 
This first one of me shoveling my driveway on day 33 of recovery got some decent interest.

And of course this classic where Chris was the lime light. 🙂