What's Up For 2021?

Our new business card.

 Like many, I am ready to put 2020 to rest. This has not been the best year for many. We had a virus take our freedom, safety, security, and livelihoods away from us. Many states had to lockdown to keep the virus from spreading. I haven't been able to give my Mom a hug and kiss since the beginning of the year. She is 92 and living in a group home. Thankfully, she is doing well. We have seen heroes emerge such as first responders, nurses and doctors who worked tirelessly to save lives. I can't wait to stop wearing a mask!

We did have some good things happen this year. After losing our pup, Lucy, to illness at eleven years of age in November 2019, we decided to get another pup. We found Tilly, an 8 week old cocker spaniel. She is a bundle of energy and very bossy. She has managed to destroy some of our items causing us to Tilly proof the house. Max didn't take to her right away, but is warming up to her. We love her so much. She will be a year on January 4th.

Gary and I finally got the jeep we really wanted, a 2020 Jeep Willys Wrangler. It is an army green color which is now called Sarge. This jeep has opened up so much exploring for us in the Arizona desert. We have gone places off road that we would have never gone otherwise. We feel very lucky to have our besties exploring with us. We added "Ferguson" and the army star to the doors of our jeep.

Next year I have lots of plans. I am hoping that something unexpected doesn't happen like this year to ruin things. Gary and I are planning to get 3 to 5 acres of land in northern Arizona. We need a summer home to get away from the scorching summer heat. We like the idea of getting land and slowly adding a home and other structures to it. We want a couple of quads to cruise around in the area. We also want it as a bugout place to go if things get bad. Hopefully not, but we want to be prepared.

Next April, Gary and I will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. We were planning to take a cruise, but that did interest us. We decided that renting a house in another state, possibly Utah, with our friends would be more of what we want. Our interests have changed and sitting in a cool climate with fresh air and trees with good friends, sounds perfect. I will definitely be posting about that.

The one thing I will be working on with Sharon is our Groovy New Life's YouTube, Instagram, and blog sites. We are working on how we want our YouTube channel to look and sound. We want it to show everything that we are doing in a fun way that others will want to watch. We live in Arizona so it will have a southwest flare showing all the crafts, cooking, personal life struggles, travels and other antics we are up to. We plan to have it ready to go by April, before we go on the anniversary trip. We want to get to the point where we are posting a video a week.

I also want to get better at blogging here more often. I have backed off of Facebook for many reasons. I am keeping my account to keep track of how my friends are doing. I am just not posting there much. I am posting on Instagram on two accounts: @photosviajulie and @groovynewlife. Mostly on @groovynewlife where I will share photos and add to our story. I will continue working on crafts and keeping up with my garden. I will post pictures of how it looks now on my next post.

I am praying that next year will be much better. I hope all stay healthy and happy in 2021.