December/January is often a time of the year where we reflect on the year that’s happened and start making plans for the new year. I really didn’t start my more formal reflecting/planning until early January this year. This was in part because I had a temporary role that finished late December and our daughter was also visiting for about 2 weeks over Christmas/New Year.
As has been my practice for several years now I used these 20 Questions from Tsh Oxenrider, along with these 100 personal end of year reflection and review questions from It’s All You Boo. I should actually refine these questions as some are more relevant for me than others. I’m fairly good at the reflecting part but not so good at the planning part.
Highs, Lows and Buffaloes of 2021
This year rather than the reflection posts I’ve written in the past few years I thought I might just share a few of my highs, lows and buffaloes for 2021.
I first heard about highs & lows as part of the Faith Five practice which involves:
- Share (Highs & Lows)
- Read
- Talk
- Pray
- Bless
A colleague shared about the Buffaloes component after hearing Caesar Kalinowski share it on his Everyday Disciple Podcast.
This is a practice that could be done by yourself or with others daily, weekly, monthly or annually as I’m doing here. This is something that can be done around the dinner table or at bedtime with families. For a few years we did a version of this regularly at the end of dinner, in our household. Or it could be a regular part of a group gathering such as Sunday School, Youth group, Bible Studies or even during worship. Our church at one stage had a practice of sharing highs & lows with people near you or even highs or lows at the front during the beginning of worship. This way we got to hear and walk alongside others no matter what was happening in their life.
Highs are those highpoints or highlights of the period you are reflecting on. Lows are the low points or the things that didn’t go as you would have liked during the period. Buffaloes are those unusual or unexpected things that might have happened to you. Obviously, some things may fit into more than one of these categories.
So below are some of my highs, lows and buffaloes for 2021
Highs of 2021
Personally
- Celebrating our son’s 21st
Some highlights of his party included using the signature bingo and how well do you know the birthday person games that we’d also played at my daughter’s 21st. My son’s love language is words of affirmation, so I focused on affirming the positive character traits that we see in our son and after talking about how we see each trait acted out in our son’s life, I finished by saying “continue to use this power for good”.
Our son’s 21st 
My Y2K Bub is all grown up
- Leaving just before lockdown to enjoy a holiday with my husband travelling around Western Qld
We were fortunate enough to plan and travel around parts of western Queensland, visiting many of the towns I had lived in whilst growing up, plus visiting a few other places. A few of the highlights included walking the full track at Carnarvon Gorge, a sunset cruise on the Thomson River in Longreach and touring the school of distance Education in Charleville (the school the family was connected to when I was a Governess).
We made it to Big Bend at Carnarvon Gorge 
Thomson River Sunset Cruise, Longreach 
Lake Dunn Sculpture Trail 
Charleville School of Distance Education
- My daughter was here to celebrate her brothers 21st and Christmas
- Being part of the Artist’s Way Guide Hope Circle in June/July
- Doing morning pages regularly
- Starting Artist Dates
The Artist’s Way is a book by Julia Cameron. I had read The Right to Write in 2020 and had started morning pages but wasn’t doing them as successfully. The Guided Hope Circle helped me to refocus on morning pages; understand morning pages, artist dates and learn so much about myself; as well as start a regular practice of Artist Dates. Morning Pages are just writing whatever is on your mind each morning. I find this helps me to process some of my thoughts, feelings and ideas. Occasionally I write something in here that I use somewhere else, in fact this is how I wrote the speech for my son’s 21st. Artist Dates are about just spending time with yourself to fill your tank. Often I spend time in nature but have done other things as well. Both of these practices, along with the books are useful for anyone whether or not you consider yourself an artist in anyway or not.
- Walking regularly with my husband
Business, Blog and Ministry
- Led 2 workshops at & coordinated the Brisbane North Hub of the AMPLIFY Conference, which managed to go ahead in-person.
- Was able to attend the Intergenerate Australia Conference in person.
- Had a virtual booth for the MOPS Australian Online Conference
- Updated LiFE (Little Faith Experience) Packs
- Continued my contract with Moreton Rivers Presbytery as Day Camp, Intergenerational & Faith at Home Coordinator
- Was invited to speak at another MOPS group.
- Led 2 FB lives through Zoom
- Finished my Bible Journaling email series and set up automatic flow for new people who join the series.
This series share ideas for recording in a Bible to gift to a child and an email is sent each month for 18 months. The series talks about which types of Bibles to use, what sort of things to record, asking others to record and many more ideas.
Lows of 2021
Personally
- Postponing my 50th until 2022 due to COVID restrictions
- Not seeing my daughter for 8 months
Business, Blog & Ministry
- Only managing 1 Day of Day Camp due to a COVID Lock Down commencing
- Not doing as much on my blog and business as I had planned
Buffaloes of 2021
Personally
- Our parents-in-law selling their unit at Caloundra after owning it for over 30 years, this means no more cheap holidays at the Sunshine Coast.
Business, Blog & Ministry
- Ended up as Christmas Adventure Coordinator for another local church
This temporary 6 week role was not something I planned for at all. It involved finishing preparations for and coordinating a children’s Christmas program in the first week of the school holidays in December. When they were looking for a Christmas Adventure Coordinator, someone suggested me. After I looked more into the role, I decided to apply and then was offered the job. It meant the end of the year was full-on but it was a great program to be part of.
- Made up some Christmas Eve packs for another local church
Early in December a friend from another church approached me to see if I had any Feed My Family resources that they could give to the children attending their Christmas Eve service. After discussing more about what they were wanting we came up with the idea to make packs that were given to the children after the story component during their Christmas Eve service. So the pack contained an activity to do during the last part of the service and a couple of biscuit decoration activities to do at home to be reminded that the Christmas season doesn’t stop with Christmas day but continues for 12 days.
What I’m Planning for 2021
It is still hard to plan many things with certainty but the old adage is true if you fail to plan, then plan to fail. More and more I’ve noticed that if I want to do something small or big I need to plan to make it happen. These plans need to be specific and easily actionable. Of course even when we plan things it may not work out as we’ve planned but chances are that we are more likely to succeed. Without planning many of my highs would not have been possible. And despite COVID causing some of my plans to change into lows, or unexpected things happening that may end up as a high, a low or a buffalo; it is still worth planning. Plans can be tweaked and changed but having a plan gives direction.
As I was reflecting on 2021 I found some older reflections including one that was about 10 years old. Some of the questions I’d answered the same every year that I had in front of me. This was mainly about what I wanted to do less or more off, particularly around wasting time on my phone. So I decided I needed a more specific, achievable goal, which you will see below, in order to change this.
This year I’ve divided my planning up into different life areas. For some plans it was hard to know which section to put them in as life doesn’t neatly divide into different areas. Here’s some my plans for 2022:
Health, Wellness & Fitness
Fitness – My husband suggested we add some jogging to our morning exercise. So for now we are doing a part walk/part jog each morning. Mainly jogging on the flatter sections and walking up/down the hills but trying to walk one section and then jog the next depending on how hilly it is.
Mental Wellness – Continue with Artist Dates on Friday afternoons.
Spiritual
Continue my morning routine which includes exercise, morning pages, Bible Reading, prayer and 10 minutes of reading. The plan is if I wake up between 5 & 5:30am to get up early to start morning pages, etc before exercising just after 6am. This should mean I start on other tasks sooner.
Add in Centering Prayer Morning and Night – starting with 5 minutes and building up to 20 minutes.
Recreation
Have a hobby set up on the craft table ready to go and do at least 30 mins each afternoon. At the moment it’s Bible Journaling but may change to scrapbooking or sewing/craft projects.
Less time on social media/games by not using phone for these things until breakfast time and having 1 no screen day each week.
Family & Other Relationships
Plan to visit our daughter in Melbourne.
Hold my rescheduled 50th or 30th Anniversary of my 21st in August!
Personal Development & Education
Continue Learning for Living
Continue Hope Writers – watch Tuesday Teaching Live while the timing works and continue working through the Library on Saturday afternoons.
Complete a Coaching Course – More than likely this one.
Business
Continue Moreton Rivers Presbytery Contract.
Lead 2 workshops at Brisbane AMPLIFY Hub and pre-record one session for other hubs to use.
Draft a book proposal so that I can approach publishers with my Faith Practices book idea.
Community & Volunteering
Continue Kids Hope Mentoring, MOPS and Playgroup at this stage. Though if Business & Career opportunities change, I may need to review this.
Continue the “work” I do for our local church.
I’ve known for years that goals need to be specific and measurable but I’ve not been very good at writing goals this way or in fact even writing goals at all. I still thought I didn’t have that many specific goals but as I’ve written this last part of the post I can see that I do have some specific goals. Some of these will last for the year and some will be completed earlier. I can then refine my goals and add some more specific goals as I see what happens and what opportunities come my way.
To help keep this cycle of reflection and planning going I’m planning on doing a reflection and planning session at the end of each month and each quarter to see how I’m tracking and adjust, make new plans as needed.
What are you proud of achieving in 2021?
What are you planning for 2022?