Was 2024 a good year? A bad year? Just an ok year? Honestly- as I look back on things, I don’t really know how to classify it exactly. There were some GREAT moments, some ok moments, some moments I could have cheerfully screamed for several minutes, and then a fair amount of rinse and repeat (just routine days).

I will be eventually in January sharing my “resolutions” that aren’t really resolutions. No huge sweeping THIS IS MY YEAR. Just hoping for another gentle-ish year filled with enough good times to make me smile, spending time with family that I love (less time with family that makes me want to say “take a long walk off a short cliff”), visit with friends that save my sanity, more wine nights with friends on Facetime, and traveling with hubby places, and also greater job satisfaction.

 

Last year when I shared my “resolutions”, I had been coming off of a big year of change. Getting married. My work place had big changes happening and my third boss since I started there had just arrived. Moving stuff into my new house. Decluttering stuff from the house. On and on.

So I shared my my “resolutions” for 2024 and I really have to say that I made a great effort with all of them. But I probably excelled at this one: Spending less time worrying about my social media numbers, more time being authentic. More on that in a bit 🙂

 

So a little look back at the things I did in 2024!

Reading: I set a reading goal of 24 for 2024. As I write this post on December 29, I’m at 57 books. So by the time you read this, I could have made it to 58. Who knows?

Sleeping: Get more sleep. I did better this year. Trying to get more sleep by going to bed earlier, settling in with my Kindle or book while hubby settled down for the night by watching some TV or YouTube.

Unfortunately, I had a fair amount of waking up at 3am-4am and being too warm and not being able to get back to sleep till around 5am. I recently started taking magnesium and that was helping, but I’ve had a set back during this last week of December. I took part of my Christmas bonus from work and purchased a Boll & Branch waffle blanket, and that is also helping some.

At a doctor visit a few weeks ago, we talked about some of my struggles with periomenopause and I am supposed to be hearing from a doctor about potentially having some lab work done to see where I am in that stage of life.

Self-care: I did excellent in the category of facials this year, with essentially having a facial every month (and 2 in September as I wanted to look extra nice for the wedding we were attending in New Orleans).

Massages: I had 2 in 2024 and I must say that even though it’s pricey, I much prefer going to Beau Rivage on the coast because the vibes are so much superior than the local-ish place I go for my facials. Why are the vibes so much better? Even though the local-ish place has a policy on their website about no children in the relaxation room, the last 2 massages I have had there (and they were some time apart) they have allowed people to bring children in relaxation room. I don’t care how “well-behaved” your child is, I don’t want to listen to your kids Ipad, etc. when I am trying to enjoy my post-massage bliss.

Relaxing: I wish I could tell I relaxed quite a bit. I tried. I attempted. I did achieve some, but I’m also not completely built for relaxation. When I’m upset about stuff (and between work and one of my in-laws talking much trash about me) I had plenty to get upset over. And I wish I could just put shit out of my mind, I truly do. But I have to deal with it in some way and then I can usually get it out of my mind (for the most part.)

So any tips on what you do to relax would be great!

Making workouts a priority: I did better this year. I tried to walk on some of my lunch breaks and then after work. In the summer, I spent a good bit of time swimming. I made it more of a priority, but I wasn’t always consistent.

Spending less time worrying about my social media numbers, more time being authentic: I feel like here, I crushed this goal.

I still post on Facebook, but because my Facebook account is tied up with my work life, and I don’t like to look at work stuff when I’m not at work- I post less there (my blog automatically posts there). And X I have gotten extremely hit or miss there because it’s just not fun like it used to be. So I mainly post on Instagram.

For 2024: I posted 206 times and did 42 reels (with about 25 of them coming from something I dubbed Reel-tober as a way to shake me out of my funk. So my reels that month were not scheduled or thought out- they were the most off the cuff things (with my most popular reel being one I did at Chick Fil A talking about the need to fill my cup more often)

I’m just over the algorithm and the engagement groups and so while my numbers are WAY less than others, I’m proud of my reach because it’s truly me out here being me. And that is a great feeling.

I wish publishers wouldn’t judge us based on our numbers (at least that is how it feels) because while yes, little miss XYZ may be getting 50k likes, but there are a lot of us out there hustling, still reading the books, etc and so while 50k looks impressive- is it really? Or do you want people to get your books that LOVE books and will gladly talk about books like all the time? Food for thought (am I right?)

I also took part in my first Instagram Live in 2024 with my favorite author, Kristy Woodson Harvey, and it was SO fun! I was a little nervous, but I didn’t need to be. Now, if I decide to get more IG Live friendly for 2025, I’m going to need to do some upgrading and get a better setup, but we will see!

 

And lastly… so I was inspired to do a 2024 Unwrapped on Instagram and just for kicks, I’ll share it here too 🙂

 

I fully anticipate doing another post later in January for my “resolutions” and ideas and goals for the year. And my Unwrapped was so fun, I’ll def do that again. And I’ve come up with a great system for my book reading stats and can’t wait to have enough stats for some comparison type stats (like how many more pages did I read in 2025 vs 2024?)

 

And to all the people who still visit my blog, THANKS. My blog turned 13 in 2024 and honestly- with work being what it was, I just didn’t have the energy to even do a big blog post. There may be one coming up- who knows? I still LOVE blogging and love when people visit my little corner of the internet 🙂

 

Happy Reading and Bookishly Yours,

T @ Traveling With T