See ya 2014

Well, it's officially 2015 around most of the world by now...Finnish time - it's 1:21pm.
So happy new year to you!

I know I've read a lot of people (via Facebook) say that New Year Resolutions don't work.
If they're not realistic or too grand - of course they don't.  I agree!
But I'm hoping and trying hard to make mine stick.

I should probably add some more common-sense resolutions (not necessarily New Year ones but general overall...) in there - such as:

• Say what I really mean.  It'll lose me a few friends for sure and I've been told repeatedly throughout my life that I'm "too nice".  Blame the Canadian in me.
• Isolate myself a bit more.  Trying to back away from Facebook and the internet in general and spend more time in the real world.  How else will my resolutions be complete otherwise?!
• Clean up my Facebook friends.  I do this about 2-3 times a year.  If I don't speak to a person in about 6 months (and it's not because they passed away or went into FB hiding - aka the real world) - I usually remove them.  "Oh how mean of you!" - yeah well - there are worse things I can do in life than "un-friend" someone.  
• I wouldn't be offended if someone un-friended me if we didn't talk.  But that's just me. 
• I also don't understand why people I un-friend throw a fit 3-6-12 months after the fact I un-friend them.  If it takes 3,6 or 12 months for you to realize it...
• By some un-spoken law - of course the family members and the ones I see the most in person have to stay on my friends list...or else shit hits the fan otherwise - right?

Anyways - loads of people are playing "My Year in Facebook" videos.  Something FB created so you can see what has happened in the past 12 months.  Generally, it's the most popular posts and photos.
I see no point in sharing mine because if we're friends on FB - then I have probably seen your year in Facebook on Facebook and you've seen mine.
Still it's a neat idea and reminds you of all the stuff that happened 12 months ago.

Well, here's my year:

• Had a baby.
• Surprised FB friends with said baby news. 
• Found out there were some crap blogs IN MY NAME made about me with various racial slurs and so on.
• Been to the hospital with the kids for various infections, appointments, tube surgery, split forehead...
• Dealt with several fist fights among my boys.
• Went to parent/teacher meetings galore this past year.
• Paid bills.
• My friend got a puppy.
• Had my whole computer hacked, blogs erased (funny enough someone took up the Learning About Finland blog URL pretty fast), e-mails broken into and the cops couldn't do anything about it.
• Started a new blog.  This one! :) 
• Became friends with the neighbours beneath us (this took two years).
• Lost my wallet and had it returned.
• Saw Fröbelin Palikat in concert with all 3 kids.
• Fell down a bunch of times.
• Bought a fuckton of yarn.  Didn't knit it all.
• Went to Helsinki a couple times. 
• Dealt with: hand-foot-mouth disease x3, Norovirus x3, chicken pox x3...
• Went to Tampere's Ikea.
• Threw a double kids' birthday party.
• Got a spot to learn Finnish again starting in about a week.
• Hosted Christmas and New Year's Eve dinner.

Aims for 2015?

• Less trips to the hospital with the kids.
• Not get pregnant.
• Not give birth.
• Not get my blog hacked (yay 2-step verification this round) by jealous ding-dongs (again - too nice to say something worse).
• Not buy yarn. #UseMyStash is my hashtag I've been using on Instagram whenever I complete a project.  So far there's only one.
• Go to Helsinki on a Saturday or Friday even...instead of Sunday - when nothing's open.
• Read more.
• Stop wasting time on idiots of all levels.

Fairly straight forward - some might say blunt - but here's to 2015 and whatever could possibly happen this year!
BIMU