Wow!  What a year it has been?!  I cannot believe how quickly life as we know it has changed within a matter of months.  So many of my goals were quickly thrown out the window with social distancing and so many of us spending months at home.  Before writing this post, I looked at last year’s goal post for 2020.  I was unable to cut my screen time for obvious reasons, but I was able to return to my walks not missing a day for several weeks at a time in the spring.  Now it is time to reflect on the unexpected, but positive things from such a negative year. 

Milk Tea With Mandy-Asian Drama Review Blog

After a few months of working from home, I had consumed so many Chinese and Korean dramas!  (It is amazing how much more time I had without the 50 minute total commute.)  For a while, I had wanted to have a place to share my thoughts on them.  That unique interest gave birth to my quarantine passion project.  I titled it Milk Tea With Mandy based on my favorite Asian treat!  It has been connecting with other like-minded fans on my Instagram.  

Don’t Tell Maw Maw Podcast

My second quarantine passion project came later in the year.  My best friends Leah, Katy, and I have discussed the possibilities of beginning a podcast for years.  Fall ushered in another desire to create something new and we decided it was now or never.  We decided to call the podcast Don’t Tell Maw Maw and focus on our southern roots growing up in a modern world.  We post new episodes twice a month with some bonus content.  Find the podcast here or wherever you prefer to stream podcasts!

Your Newest Outschool Teacher

It has taken about 4 months, but my Outschool schedule has begun to really pick up.  Outschool has allowed me more freedom in my teaching hours and now I teach students on three more continents!  VIPKid is still one of my companies, but I am looking forward to the flexibility Outschool provides.  Want to learn more about Outschool?  Read my review here! 

Road Tripping Instead of Jet Setting 

Ed and I were supposed to travel with his parents for a friend’s wedding in the U.K. September 2020.  That trip has been postponed and we came up with an alternative.  We decided to head out west instead of mourning our missed trip.  The trip was a success and we saw some great friends!  The highlights were staying in a bus, going to Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen Restaurant in Vegas, and hiking Sedona with our best friends.  I am happy we embraced the alternative for an unexpected adventure.

The Shed Kittens 

Everyone knows about my cute, little hedgehogs that brought some smiles to my social media friends.  Last December I noticed a small tabby cat eating out of our outside cat’s food bowl.  First, I assumed she was someone’s cat in the neighborhood so I chased her off.  She did not move on and continued to hang out on our porch.  Affectionately, I began calling her Little Kitty and tried to get her to trust me with the hope of getting her fixed.  This took over three months and by the time she would come to me willingly she was very pregnant!  Vets were only doing life saving procedures so she gave birth to kittens in late April.  We found four kittens in our backyard about a month later.  I fell in love with them and ended up keeping two of them.  Charlie Boy and Hey Hey and their mama are now members of the family.  

Another Year of Blogging

This year has been one of my bests with posting content.  Although, I did allow myself to just work on meeting my basic needs and focusing on my mental health throughout the summer.  Despite this, I do feel I turned a corner when it comes to my content and creating more unique posts focused on my personal mission to promote mindfulness as well as my home on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  With that in mind here are my top 3 posts from 2020.  

20 Things to Try in 2020-I did not realize that I would end up trying some of these because I was working from home for three months. 

Finding Yourself Abroad-This post made me relive all the emotions that go through me living abroad.  I hope it was found helpful to other hopeful expats.  

How to Part with Books-This is something I have struggled with for years.  I was able to make headway on this in 2019 and happy to share how I did it with you.  

Some Big Changes 

I do plan to pick up some of the goals I had from last year with unplugging, being healthier, and growing my relationships.  However, there are several big changes coming down the pipeline in 2021.  

-I will begin teaching less VIPKid January 2021 in order to get more sleep and have more availability with Outschool.

-Begin a Masters of Library and Information Science program in order to have more opportunities in the future as a supervisor over a library or special collection. (If I get in!)

-Growing my new projects like the podcast and launching my Gulf South History blog titled A ‘Sip of History.  

I hope that these things are possible while I continue to write and create.  In the meanwhile, Happy New Year!  

What content would you like me to cover in 2021?  

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