Happy New Year Y’all!
Hope everyone was able to celebrate it in a fun and safe way. Some people may think it’s dumb to celebrate a kind of trivial holiday like New Year’s but I kind of like it. Aside from it giving us a chance to get together with people we love and enjoy, it’s kind of nice to to feel like there’s a fresh start to things. Plus, I really do love the well wishes and hugs and kisses at midnight!
Happy New Years Eve! Hope everyone has a fun and safe night of celebrating the old and bringing in the new! I figured I’d celebrate by doing my annual year end survey (third year in a row! though the others are hidden from public eye) and reflecting on the past year. Sending wishes to you all that the new year brings all the happiness and joy you deserve. Thank you for reading and can’t wait to see what 2012 brings.
With the year coming to a close, everyone is doing what we all do best at this time of year – taking stock of our lives, throwing out the old, bringing in the new and making resolutions.
Some we will keep, others we will fail miserably at.
Sometimes you do things you didn’t even set out to accomplish during the year. Sometimes you don’t do things you’d thought would be easy.
Resolutions aren’t set in stone for me. They’re more like guidelines, a malleable set of ideals or goals that I would like to accomplish during the upcoming year. Suggestions, if you’d like. In other words, my world is not going to implode if I don’t accomplish a single one of them.
Last year, I split them into two lists: Accomplishments and Resolutions. This was to give me some flexibility. Accomplishments are finite things, tasks that can be accomplished easily and have an end goal. Resolutions are more broad – they function as general ideals to implement into my life. Ways of living, thought processes and they usually don’t have an end goal. I think I’m going to use the same this year.
But in the spirit of reflection, let’s look back on the list from this past year (note: I had originally posted these on my old website but those entries aren’t public anymore so I’ll just recreate it here)
Things to Accomplish in 2011
I don’t think I even picked up the knitting needles this year. I think it’s a matter of being able to only handle a few hobbies and, let’s face it, the Internet, video games and my Nook won this battle.
It didn’t quite work out the way I envisioned it. They didn’t all happen on the same day and they were on weekends so there was no extra special day off. But I got the massage as a birthday treat to myself then my mom and I went out for mani’s and pedi’s for Mother’s Day.
While I’m not adverse to say, adding this to 2012’s list, I hesitate to do it because I don’t think it’s very conducive to my work environment. But I did pay to have my hair colored and highlighted professionally so that might half count! J
This was something that basically didn’t happen because I determined that my money was best spent other ways. It is still a goal and it’s going on 2012’s list and will definitely happen this year, thanks to some gifts from family (means a smaller difference for me to have make up).
Big fat fail. Like HUGE. And I keep them in my glove compartment! They were in my purse and I was more successful when this happened but they were always in the way. As soon as they retired to the glove compartment, they were out of sight, out of mind.
Eh, I’m not sure what to call this one. I’d say I leans more towards fail than success. On one hand, there was a good period this year where I was showering, lotioning and moisturizing every night but I never remembered the vitamin or flossing. I wouldn’t mind attempting this again with a real list hung up in front of my face – there’s nothing that motivates me more than a list.
Kind of. I switched OB/GYN’s and am using her to check the basics and some other issues I want to get looked at. I was also required to take a wellness exam for work where they tested my cholesterol and blood pressure (both excellent!), which was the main thing I figured would be included in the checkup. So for now, I’m good but I do need to find a primary care doctor to use instead of using Urgent Care when I’m sick, which is rare).
This was actually something I didn’t even plan on when I originally wrote the list – it was more wishful thinking. But when we started talking about going to Gatlinburg in July and found out we were both onboard, I was all over it and in October, we took an amazing weeklong trip alone to the mountains and had one of the most peaceful and wonderful weeks of my life. Guess at some point I should write about it! J
I think I would call this complete, though judging my own personal taste is relative. Steve would probably argue no but he won’t agree it’s complete until I get rid of ALL the trash and I’m sorry, I’m not going to stop with either of the two shows listed above. However, I’d say the “volume” of TV we watched/record has reduced drastically which leaves more time for movie watching or video gaming or even just spending time together. So I’ll call this a success!
FAIL! I feel like I’m never going to get this done. We’ve been in the house four years and it’s still the same ugly blue that I hate. I need to just bite the bullet and get it over with. The only thing keeping me from it is moving our ginormous king size bed. I’m not even sure it moves at all! Maybe in 2012! J
Fail, though with some success. Weekends and social situations are the hardest. I don’t smoke at all during the week. So I can’t even explain it. It’s gross. I need to just stop.
According to Good Reads, I read 10 more books than I did last year so that’s a success. No book club though which is fine because I don’t think I process books enough to be able to discuss them.
We were lazy with the house this year. We thought we’d attempt to rebuild the deck in May but it was either going to be a lot of time or a lot of money, neither of which we had at the moment.
I probably wouldn’t put this at 100% but it’s close enough to be complete. I bought a new domain but didn’t change my handle because that wasn’t practical. I’ve consolidated sites as I go along, closing what I don’t use and finding better options for things that were a bit archaic. I’m still working on organizing my logins and blogging 3-5 times a week and it’s getting better. Instead of putting off the urge to write, I’ll just write. And it is less like a chore because I’ m loving it and I’m getting inspired!
I’m not going to put a status on this one. I don’t know why I put it on there. I didn’t keep tally or anything. It seems fairly balanced.
I’m always learning with my photography and while I’ve always understand what aperture and shutter speed is, my goal was to be able to think, on the fly, hey, this is a situation where I need to blow the lens open and slow the shutter speed, or vice versa. And I’m getting that. I’m understanding how to bounce light and pose people for the shots. It’s actually a lot of fun. Now to put it into practice more!
Always on my list, always not completed. I have good intentions that I never follow through with. I am just not all that interested in exercising. L
I saw semi because this is an ever evolving task as new music comes out and gets added to my library. I can say I have organized what I have and have found some awesome music this year but it’s keeping it organized and continuously finding new music that’s the task!
I baked bread quite a few times with the bread maker but didn’t get around to trying pizza dough. Will need to do that soon because I love fresh pizza and Steve got me a pizza stone for Christmas.
2011 Resolutions
With regards to the actual resolutions above, they’re not easy to break down and determine if one is complete over the other. I have tried very hard to live with “Keep Calm & Carry On” in mind but sometimes, I am just more dramatic that any situation calls for and I have a hard time calming that down. The standing up for myself has gotten better, for the most part. I still prefer avoidance or letting it roll off my back over direct confrontation but I think the older I get, the less bullshit I want to deal with and the less problem I have with telling someone that. I got a new job, that was focusing on the positive. And there are so many positives over negatives.
As far as making good girl friends, reaching out more and selecting those in my life wisely, I’d say I succeeded. I’d say I haven’t made new girl friends but I’ve chosen excellent ones to develop deeper friendships with. I still hate the phone but try to keep in touch at least via text message and both Steve and I have stopped dwelling over people who only make us unhappy and have moved on from them. Sometimes, it’s time to realize that if someone is making you miserable, they don’t belong in your life.
Still on a quest to eat better and spend more time on hobbies – my new job has afforded me the ability to do both by offering more time and more money and easier food availability (cafeteria in the building, woot!).
Nine things accomplished, ten failed. Fifty percent successful! I’d say that’s pretty, especially considering this was an immensely successful and pleasurable year all around. Plus, the more I do this, the more I learn in how to write them so they’re easily attainable. Oh man, I am such a dork in that I love crossing things off lists!
I should just write a resolution like this: “Cross this line out!” BOOM! One down!
What about you? Did you write resolutions and accomplish any? Do you plan on setting ones this year?
[featured image via]
Y’ALL! (Or ‘YOUSE GUYS’ for my Philly readers!) Can I tell you about Christmas? Because Christmas was fantastic! I mean, literally the last week or so has just been so good that I want to cry over how happy and content my life is. Save for a few snags that we had in the middle of last week, our holiday went over so smoothly that I almost couldn’t believe it was Christmas. Forgive me, because this entry might be long and tedious but I want to remember every moment when I go back and read over it.
And sadly, I have like no pictures. There are a few floating around, probably on my mom’s or Steve’s phone but I don’t have the gumption to track them down right now. Guess I can chalk it up to either having too much fun or being too busy to pick up a camera. All of it relative to what time of day we’re talking about.
From our home to yours, here’s wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Here’s hoping your holiday season is filled with peace, love and joy. Love you all and thanks for reading!