2011 year in review... resolutions...

Yeah, I  made resolutions last year.

{when will I learn???}

In the interest of full disclosure, here's how that turned out for me...

***Eleven for '11***
1)  Teach Rory to read. - HA.  She can write her name now, though.

2)  Finish the dang basement.  We've lived here 3 years in April and it's been a work in progress the whole time. -  SO CLOSE.  All we are lacking is a coat of paint on the doors and some trim around a couple of windows.  I'm calling it "as done as I need it to be to not ever really be motivated enough to finish."

3)  Continue to improve in the "cooking and eating healthful, whole foods" area.  I want to eat food that looks like it did when it came off the tree/vine/out of the ground, etc.  We've already made the switch to organic grass fed beef (local farm we LOVE: DeGraan farms) and are working on chicken. - Major successes in this area!  Switched completely to organic meat (found great chicken at Costco) and only bought about two dozen cans of cream of whatever for the entire year!

4)  Catch a baby.  I realize this is probably a complete pipe dream that will realistically only happen if someone at the supermarket births in line ahead of me, but you gotta aim high, right? - CLOSE CALL.  A sweet friend surprised us with a 57 minute labor (I was just there as the doula) and if that nurse had taken 5 more seconds to respond to my shrieks of "SHE'S CROWNING!!!" I was gonna hafta slap on some gloves and catch baby Josie myself.  :)

5)  Lose 12 pounds.  Or more.  But minimum 12.- HA.  HA HA.  I gained 5.

6)  Do some form of exercise 3x a week.  Walking on the treadmill, Pilates videos, strolling the neighborhood all count.  "Chasing kids" does not. - See update to #5.

7)  Get better at showing my husband how much I love him.  He's a "words of affirmation" kinda guy, which is not my strong point. - You'd have to ask him, but I think I've done better.  {pats self on back}

8)  Learn how to dress myself.  I seriously lack fashion sense in a major way.  I'm hoping to really find my own style this year, with the help of my good friends Tiffany, Christi, and Google. - Ooh!  Another area of measurable success!  I feel much more stylish this year thanks to the weekly What I Wore Wednesday challenge I followed (and occasionally participated in).  Still not sure how to completely kick the hoodies and flip flops habit but looking in my closet is much less depressing now than it was a year ago.

9)  Stop yelling at my kids.  I'm a stress yeller.  I can feel my blood pressure go down when I yell, which is NOT a good way to decompress.  So this year I'm going cold turkey and do something else every time I feel like yelling to hopefully train myself to stop.  I'll admit that I failed already yesterday.  Any ideas for what to do instead of yell would be appreciated.  Just don't tell me to eat candy or something like that because that will counteract goal #5. - You'd have to ask them, but I think I am doing a lot better in this area.  Lotsa prayer involved with this one.

10)  Limit myself to one or two diet soda type drinks per week.  I recently read this article and it reallllly made me want to swear off for good.  Then I remembered that life is short and so is the sugar crash from one teeny weeny little Diet Dr. Pepper, so one a week won't kill me.  :) - HUGE success here!  I quit drinking diet drinks (okay, okay, I cheat every once in a while, but I mean really very rarely do I have one now) and it had some pretty significant health benefits I noticed right away.  Since all you lovely readers (as far as I know) are ladies, I will divulge that it cleared up a slight *that time of the month* problem I had been having.  Totally worth it!

11)  Grow in my faith.  I want to read more, pray more, meditate on Him more... this last year has been an incredibly freeing one, where for the first time since we left the mission field I felt myself really HEAR God and be LED by Him.  It was such an exciting place to be again. - FAIL.  This has been a very challenging year in this regard, and it is with much wailing and gnashing of teeth that I resolve to do better next year.  Again.



The only resolution I am making for 2012 is to forge on with my "30 Before 30" list.  Like that's not enough to do in the next 4 months... *snortlaugh*