Year-End

As an accountant, a generous part of my career is focused on year-end. Recently, along with all the brainwork I've been investing in final 2015 spreadsheets and communication, I've also been processing my personal year-end.

2015 was a good, rewarding, fulfilling, rejuvenating year. It was a year full of transition and many beautiful, happy memories.

Once upon a time you may remember me sharing the SPICE life acronym. At the start of 2015, I drafted my annual goals using the SPICE model. Here are some ways I experienced SPICE stimulation and health throughout the past year:

S piritual

• participating in weekly church meetings (English and Spanish)
• teaching Sunday school once a month
• joining the Wednesday noon prayer group that meets in my office building
• reading the entire Old Testament (and some of the New)

P hysical

• participating in a variety of exercise classes each week-- PiYo and Boot Camp are two of my favorites
• running a 5k in July
• cycling with Malinda
• hiking-- a handful of times on the Appalachian Trail, once to Flat Rock, and once on the White Rocks trail
• participating in the monthly wellness challenges at work
• eating ice cream-- Ashby's Michigan Pot Hole was the highlight of the year :), though Turkey Hill's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup was also a hit [and, yes, this is supposed to be entered under the Physical category!]

I ntellectual

• projects at work including prepping payroll, filing a few FBARs, researching IRS rules, attending a conference for ministry administrators, creating and resourcing QuickBooks company files for remote financial tracking, building Excel spreadsheets, communicating with global employees, running database reports, transitioning bosses, switching COLA providers, spending a multitude of hours (okay, actually only four months...) preparing 2016 budget detail, and... maybe a few other things too...

C reative

• decorating the house-- sewing curtains for my bedroom 
• experimenting with new recipes-- maple syrup, coconut oil, and King Arthur white whole wheat flour have been three of my favorite 2015 ingredients
• picking fresh strawberries and helping friends/family with canning
• making little projects here and there-- like literary Christmas ornaments at the library, and MWC wall hangings for international guests in July
• shopping at Farmer's Market
• hosting new friends and old in our half-a-house

E motional

• weekly 2 hour phone chat with Amy (Sunday mornings)
• monthly dinner out with roomies
• quiet times-- walking and jogging through the nearby cemetery
• drinking tea
• praying before I walk into the office in the morning
• $3 bouquets of fresh flowers at a local roadside stand
• listening to the Susquehanna Chorale's spring concert
• traveling-- to Canada (twice), Florida (twice), Colorado, Indiana, the Atlantic Ocean, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and Michigan (five times)