At this time last year, as I looked back at 2016 and toward 2017, I chose a one-word intention for 2017: stability. As I wrote in last year’s year-end post,  2016 had been a year of change, and all I wanted for 2017 was to feel settled and stable, recommitting to old habits and forming new ones in everything from work to running to blogging to relationships.

As the five of you who still follow this blog have noticed, my blogging was anything but habitual and stable, and that’s kind of how the rest of my life felt, too, for much of 2017. Stabilizing was more of a process, and a slower one, than I anticipated.  I wrote in last year’s post, “I want to work on continuing to make this house feel like our home, through painting and completing lots of the other projects that need done. I want to meet people and build friendships  in our new community. I want to finish out this school year and immediately start working on making next year better, now that I’ll know how things are done and what is expected at my new school. . . . [regarding running,]  I literally need to focus on stability: strengthening, stretching, and foam rolling my muscles to keep this injury healing and prevent others from popping up.” Here’s how all of that went:

The House

Still a major work in progress. We got office furniture and new windows (holy expensive!) and window coverings, and Jordan painted our bathroom; the rest of the house is still waiting for fresh paint, new carpet, etc. It still doesn’t really feel like home to me, but I hope it’s getting there.

The Relationships

Also still a work in progress. I tried to start a running group, but that fizzled out due to a lack of interest (and I was as much at fault as anyone, often not showing up myself). I’m a true introvert, and building new relationships is hard for me, but this is an area in which I really want to improve. More on this in my New Year’s post, as this is going to be a big focus area for 2018.

The Work

 

This school year has been a bit better, but teaching is one of those always-changing, always-busy jobs, and while I got better about work-life balance this year, it’s still an area for improvement.

The Running

I was overly optimistic last December, when I wrote, “I think I’m finally recovering from this injury.” After several more setbacks, I finally got smart and went to physical therapy (in May. I’m a slow learner). Now, finally, I’m uninjured and working my way back into shape. Twenty-seventeen wasn’t much of a running year, but especially in the latter quarter of the year, I really honed in on my goal of stability, diligently doing my PT exercises, adding more strength and cross training, and zoning in on my running form. After a few more weeks of base building, I think I’ll be ready to actually start training again …  for real this time. Now I just need to settle on a goal race!

2017 Highlights

While not everything in 2017 went as smoothly and stably as I’d hoped at this time last year, it was still a good year, and I don’t want to end this post sounding disappointed in myself or my 2017 — I’m not. Here’s a photo dump of some of the best parts of the year:

 

And so ends 2017. Here’s to new friends, new adventures, and new growth in 2018!

What were the highlights of your 2017?