Lessons Learned in 2018 – Personal, Preparedness, and Professional

Written by on in From Karen

Christmas is Tuesday.  New Years follows the week after.  Even in the midst of the busyness of the season, I am caused to pause and reflect on this year and the things that I’ve learned.

As I get older and my children grow, life has seemed to pick up a frenzied pace.  Some of the craziness showed up in our lives this year in several key events.  This year I published a book and started a business.  Our family tested some of our basic preparedness supplies.  We purchased a house on 1/4 acre, and we started “homesteading in the burbs.”  Between those things and everything else we did this year, we had a busy year.

Next week, I’ll be sharing some of my personal and preparedness goals for 2019, but it’s hard to know where you should go if you don’t reflect on where you have been.   So to that end as I reflect on this year, I’ve come up with nine main lessons that I’ve learned.

Things I’ve Learned This Year

Lessons Learned in 2018 - A Review of the Year

1.)  I stink at gardening.

I’ve learned that I have a black thumb, and I have a lot to learn about gardening.  We had a small raised bed on our back deck.  I got a whopping three cherry tomatoes and nothing else.

2.)  Homesteading, even in the suburbs, is different than I thought. Lessons Learned in 2018 - A Review of the Year

Homesteading, even on just a 1/4 acre takes time, planning, money, forethought, and space.  I’m learning to make the best use of the limited space that we have.  Things have to be done a little at a time because we have limited resources.  Even with a plan, fitting everything we want into such a limited space is hard.  Providing for our family as much as possible in such a small area is even harder.

Lessons Learned in 2018 - A Review of the Year3.) Investing in others should be high on our to-do list.

As a family, we’ve started to reach out to those around us, but we need to do a better job of it.  Ties of friendship and family will be important if things ever get hard.  We need to develop those ties now.  We need to really get to know our neighbors.

 

4.)  Surviving a nuclear attack is most definitely Lessons Learned in 2018 - A Review of the Yearpossible.

I took a very informative and helpful class on surviving a nuclear attack. It can be done.  We can all take concrete steps to survive a nuclear attack and keep our families safe.  I’ll be sharing more about this during the course of the year.

Lessons Learned in 2018 - A Review of the Year5.)  Water is precious.

At this house we don’t have a source of water like we did at our last house.  We need to figure out our water situation this coming year.

6.)  Sacrifice can be a blessing.

There are things that make me happy to be able to sacrifice for in order to bless others.  I have two people in my life who are going through difficulties.  It has been such a blessing to be able to sacrifice in order to bless them!

7.)  Running a business is HARD work.  Lessons Learned in 2018 - A Review of the Year

This has been a rewarding year, but it’s a lot of hard work – honestly more than I realized.  The research, writing, formatting, finding pictures, etc takes time.  Social media takes time.  Website issues take a blackhole’s amount of time.

8.)  Running a business is REWARDING.

I love getting to know new people.  Knowing that in some small way that I’ve made a difference in people’s lives – in your lives – is important to me.

9.)  I’m not a mind reader.

I don’t necessarily know what people want to learn more about or don’t like hearing about as much about.  If you haven’t gotten a chance to tell me what’s on your mind, I’d love it if you would give me 2 minutes or less (literally) of your time by taking this survey.

What About You?

What have you learned this year that really sticks out to you?  Are there events in your life that have taught you about being more prepared?  What personal strides have you taken this year?  Inspire us and share them with us by leaving a comment below.

Together lets Love, Learn, Practice, Overcome

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