I’ve already seen several blog posts from others wishing 2013 a grateful goodbye. This year hasn’t been very good for many folks, and I hope the coming year will be kinder for everyone.

For us, it’s been a not-too-shabby year. It’s not the best year ever, but it’s had plenty of good moments. If the next year is at least as good as this one, I wouldn’t be upset.

There were a lot of happy moments this year. Aaron and I celebrated our 10th anniversary, and with that came our first big family vacation. We took the kids to Walt Disney World for their first trip to meet The Mouse (and the princesses). I wasn’t sure how well it would go, but the magic of Disney happened and we had a week with no major meltdowns and lots of fantastic memories. In a stroke of luck, we’ll be going back to Disney in 2014, something I didn’t think would happen for two or more years. I’m hoping for a repeat of the magic in the new year.

Letting our Disney Side show. Pure happiness.

I also FINALLY got this blog moved to WordPress. About time, right? I wish I would have done it sooner, since WordPress has a lot more versatility to it than Blogger. Like much of my life, it’s always a work-in-progress and I’m not happy with the current design. But I’ve been so busy helping with other blogs that I haven’t had a lot of time to tinker with this blog. So 2014 will likely see the design altered when I can make time for it.

Job-wise, I’m happy. In May I was promoted to a permanent position. I like what I get to do, and I love all of the people I work with each day. This job has made me into a pseudo-workaholic by choice, and I am continually grateful for the way fate directed me to this place. Aaron switched to a new position mid-year, finally ending the daily drive to Dayton each day. He’s much closer now, and while his job is contract based at the moment, we hope it’ll become more secure in 2014.

Our biggest challenge this year was probably in the areas of education and politics. Or the combined area of education politics, really. I’ve become more and more disappointed with our school district, from constant and epic failures with their transportation department, to a district administration that ignores parent input and seems to be tone deaf to the real needs of the students in favor of pet project agendas and fostering an atmosphere of crisis.

I still like our school and the teachers and principal there, but I’m growing increasingly concerned with Cordy’s experiences. In 2013, Cordy changed from being a child who loved math and was gifted in it at the start of the year, to now hating math and struggling in class. The girl who used to cozy up with a math workbook and do math problems for fun is now the girl who avoids her math homework, cries and protests when doing it, and says she no longer likes going to school. She’s also developed behavior issues at school, too, mostly in her math class.

how she feels lately

We have yet to pinpoint what could be causing the issue, but needless to say it’s distressing. In 2014, we’re hoping to have her psychologist shadow a day of school to determine what could be causing the problems, and hopefully all of our detective work will result in a better school experience for Cordy and her teachers.

My position as an advocate for Cordy also turned into becoming an education advocate on a larger scale. I didn’t plan or want to get involved in the school district’s levy issue in the fall, but found myself drawn in once I learned more of the details and realized the lengths the city and school district would go to in order to push a bad plan through to pull more tax money into questionable projects. I couldn’t in good conscience sit by and not be involved when they city was trying to take over the school district in what felt like a move towards the new “education reform” model that is really privatization. (See Chicago and Philadelphia schools as examples of this model.)

So I did what I could, which mostly involved writing, explaining what was and wasn’t included in the district’s plan, and bringing up questions about parts of the plan that were too open-ended and could be abused, and parts that weren’t developed at all. It was painful to be against a school levy, but this wasn’t the right plan. Did I make an impact on voters? I don’t think my words reached that many folks, but hopefully I helped sway a few minds. Considering the overwhelming defeat of the levy, I don’t think our campaign changed the outcome, but hopefully it helped more people think about what’s needed for our district.

While I may not have made much of an impact, my vocal opposition to the city and school district possibly landed me on the radar of a few officials. It’s impossible to say with any certainty, but it’s mighty unusual that Aaron and I received a city tax audit timed two days after the election, along with another vocal opponent of the levy. Since then, a third person tied to the opposition is having his business audited by the city, too. Coincidence? Possibly, but the odds of three out of eight vocal opponents being randomly audited by the city after the election are so unlikely that I’d be more likely to be struck by lightening…in my house.  I’ll be submitting a public records request for more information on how our audit happened and why.

you’re on notice, Columbus

So it’s possible I now have a few enemies at City Hall, which is amusing considering we’re all in the same political party. And if the audit was politically motivated, they failed in any attempts to intimidate or silence me. Instead, it’s making me look even closer at the problems within my own city. 2014 will bring more questioning, more investigation of our school district, and likely more writing about the issues affecting the education of my kids (and other kids in the district).

I’m done with making goals to do more each year. Truthfully, I’m doing more than I can handle, and it’s probably better to make a goal to scale back a little. Instead of doing more in 2014, I’d like to do less, and do everything better: work smarter, use my free time more wisely, be engaged and patient in the time I spend with the kids (aka: get off the computer more), truly relax when it’s time to relax, and follow through better with promises made to family and friends. I’ve reached a point in my life where I feel mostly comfortable and confident in my skin, and it’s time to put that confidence to use.

As I wrote earlier, if 2014 is at least on par with 2013, I’ll consider it a good year. If we can make it even better than 2013, it’ll be a great year.

And when in doubt, make funny faces.