My 2017 word of the year is not one of my five finalists!  Those choices certainly figure into my word but none of them seemed quite right for this year.

It just didn’t seem possible to squash what I would like to focus on this year into a single word.   Perhaps I’ve always been a rule-breaker at heart.  I think this task of choosing a solitary word for the year is a bit harder when you love all the words so much.

I do want to focus on my health in 2017.

We all want peace (I hope we all do anyway!).

How could I not want to bring a little Hygge into our humble home?   I placed a hold on The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering The Secrets Of The World’s Happiest Country at the local library so I could learn in a bit greater detail how to do just that.

I’m admittedly a bit out of practice with hospitality to dedicate an entire year to it.

Shall I just gracefully admit the last word grace came closest to winning?  I think it will fit nicely in with my phrase though.

Announcing my phrase for the year of 2017…

I’ve become a bit complacent lately and been feeling rather blah most of the time.  It’s time to rediscover the things I enjoy doing.  Revive my tired blah feelings and spaces.  Renew myself a bit so I can return to or even discover a better version of myself.

Find the lost 20-year-old who used to be in such great shape from working out.

Become once again the person who is on top of news and current events.  I recently didn’t “pass” a news quiz on one of those fun sites.  That has never happened to me before and it shook me a bit as not all the stories were the silly ones.

Time to rediscover some old hobbies or even find some new ones.  Learn a few new tricks.

Today’s tiny goal was to figure out how to check out e-books from the library.  Painless yet so many times I didn’t want to hassle with it so I’d pass up those books opting to wait until I could get there.  So many times I never made it there.

My goal with my 3 word phrase is to rediscover, revive, and renew myself in 2017.

What goal or word do you have for this year?

I stubbornly continue to pick a word of the year.  Do you do that?  It’s not that I don’t set goals and think about making resolutions.

It’s just that this is so much simpler to me.  Seems more doable.  I don’t always accomplish the mission behind my word of the year but I still prefer the idea behind it.

Sometimes my word of the year just settles on me.  Sometimes it leaps out at me from some locale like the aisle of my local Dollar Tree store.  Maybe if I’d have purchased that silly glass, I’d have had better luck with last year’s word.  Some years I simply can’t make up my mind and think I’m going to just pick a new word each month (note: that didn’t really work so well).

Each year I ponder what my choice for the coming year should be and come up with a few candidates.   I always think of announcing my finalists in terms of an awards show.  They are just waiting to hear if they’ve been nominated.

So without further ado…and in no particular order….announcing…

The finalists for my 2017 Word of The Year:

As I sit here getting over sickness once again at year-end, I entertain making 2017 a year to focus on getting healthy.  Healthy food, healthy habits, you know the drill.  I know the drill.  Of course, I could still work on being healthy should I choose a different word.

This year was a little more turbulent than I cared for it to be.  I think the last few months may have been that way for many of us.  The turmoil started prior to the election and went beyond it over here.  After a year of hurting hearts (and some are still hurting), I am craving peace.

This word.  This is a fun, new to me word!  A random Pinterest pin that caught my eye and led me on a journey of discovery.  What is Hygge?  Obviously, it’s not an English word as spellcheck is glaring red at me right now.  Here’s a link to a quick definition but do yourself a favor and search it up on Pinterest and the pins that come up will give you a good feel for the word.  It’s a concept from Denmark and it just seems like an idea that would soothe my very soul.

While I’m not much of one for tooting my own horn (dislike to do that very much), this is I admit one of my talents.  One I used to use quite a bit but let fall by the wayside (Another talent? Apparently a massive over use of clichés!) with the exception of our annual Easter brunch.  I’d like to get back in the habit of having friends and family over here.  Stop making excuses for not doing it and just start inviting friends and family over for any and all occasions, small or large.

My final word of the year nominee is the one that seems to be calling to my heart lately.  I think we all (I know I do!) need to be a little more generous with this stuff to ourselves and others alike.  By the way, I recently discovered and loved a blog titled I Choose Brave and this post really spoke to me yesterday.  Worth a minute of your time to read it.  On a completely silly note: I also recently discovered the Philosophy scent of Amazing Grace and you know what would be more fun than a word of the year with its very own scent.  It does smell amazing, very clean and fresh, like it could be my go-to fragrance.

So those are my five finalists and I’m having a hard time deciding on the winner as they all speak to me on many levels.  Could you please help me out?  Which word of the year would you declare as the winner?

I want to take a minute and reflect on my word from last year.  As typical for me, I started off great with my word and then fizzled out somewhere along the way.

The season which should have held the most celebration lacked it the most.  More about that later though.   In the spirit of local news shows, this post will be a month by month review as I share some of my favorite memories of last year.

Note: I’m going to be linking back to several of my posts from 2016.  Don’t feel the need to click on them all, I’m mainly doing it for my own reference to look back and enjoy the happy memories (a wonderful, benefit of a blog).

January 2016

The first thing I could celebrate about last January was getting back in the groove of posting on my blog!  I noticed I had a large gap from October to January in 2015 and while I don’t post on a serious schedule, I am glad to have managed to post at the very least once a week since then.

One of my favorite low-key celebrations (best kind, no?) from last year was making a bit of a feast to celebrate the Epiphany on January 6th with our small family and a friend of G’s who happened to be over here.

February 2016

My husband’s birthday is in February and we celebrated that, of course.

I don’t see any specific blog posts about a Valentine’s Day celebration but I do remember doing a fun science experiment with candy hearts so at least we had those at some point in February.

Looking back, I can see we celebrated amazing spring-like weather in most of February!  Three cheers for that one!  I also had a fun time with my turn at hosting Bunco using a somewhat tropical menu plan.

March 2016

While our stove broke and we had a sick kid in March, neither turned out to be overly serious bumps in our year.  We were able to purchase a new stove and health returned readily to our son.

We celebrated Easter by hosting our annual brunch.  The weather didn’t cooperate but our families still came and there was still good (I hope) food that all enjoyed.

April 2016

April was apparently a rather slow month in these parts.  Sometimes a break (especially after a break…what is that phrase, a vacation from the vacation?) is nice though…

May 2016

May is always a nice month around here with lots to celebrate!  This year was no different.

It’s the end of the school year!  Always cause for a celebration around here.  This year was extra special because it was the end of our elementary years.

My oldest son turned 15.

I was able to help the preschool with their end of the year program and celebration.

June 2016

The official start of summer with quick outings and summer science experiments. 

My Easter day lilies bloomed for a second time!

We took a trip to see family in Oklahoma.

And celebrated Father’s Day with a cookout at my brother-in-law’s house.

July 2016

J and I enjoyed the outdoors with a week of walks around the block. 

America’s birthday did not disappoint me and we had a wonderful celebration at my nephew’s house.  It was also special since my brother came home from Texas to celebrate with us all as well. 

We added a new dishwasher to match our new stove from March.

August 2016

We went on our first (and if I get any input, our last) family camping trip!

Our boys started a new school year and J started a new adventure in middle school.  G got his learner’s permit right before the start of school!

We went to Oklahoma to celebrate the boys’ great grandpa’s 97th birthday!

My husband and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary in August as well.

I joined a Harry Potter Book Club that I’ve very much enjoyed!

September 2016

I was able to double the fun and host Bunco twice in 2016! (We follow a 16 month calendar and I picked the last date available of one round followed by the first date available for the next one so I’m off of hosting duties for a while now).

We were able once again to go to the first band competition of the season and cheer on our favorite high school clarinet player in our favorite high school marching band.

October 2016

We were able to enjoy the beauty of a freshly emerged monarch butterfly on the evergreen tree one warm evening.

As much as I enjoy watching my son and marching band season, the end of the early morning rehearsals is always cause for celebration.

Another first this year: we stayed home and answered the door to the neighborhood trick or treat calls.  No outing in costume for either of my boys.

November 2016

Whether your candidate won or lost, I think we can all agree that the END of the political ads and phone calls were worth celebrating.

My youngest son turned 12! 

We celebrated Thanksgiving with family in Oklahoma.

December 2016

We attended 2 lovely winter Christmas concerts, one at the middle school and one at the high school.

My forty-something birthday!

A fun coffee date with a friend!

We had a nice Christmas weekend.

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I found more to celebrate earlier in the year than later.  I did start off the year and make it almost to mid-year with the sending out of actual paper birthday cards before fizzing out on it sometime in September.

I do think I did remember to stop and celebrate and enjoy the smaller moments this year although celebrate turned out to be a bit of a pressure word for me in the end.  I felt stress that I wasn’t doing enough to make each holiday special or I didn’t do anything to make the holidays (the little, the big, and the goofy in-between days) special and so felt guilty.

I could also blame a bit of family strife that occurred on my husband’s side in August as well.  It made our holiday season a bit more tangled than it really should have been.  However, I will be honest and say I’d probably long forgot my word by the time all of that happened.

Did you choose a word for 2016?  How did it work for you?  Are you like me stubbornly going to choose yet another word for 2017 and try it all again?