Well, here's how I did:
- Read 12 books. Check! A variety of genres. I liked some, didn't like others. Here's what I read:
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
- Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
- Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis
- The Glass Castle by Jeanette Wells
- The Choice by Nicholas Sparks
- Loving by Karen Kingsbury
- The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers
- The Vow: True Events that Inspired the Movie by Kim and Krickett Carpenter
- The Red Tent by Anita Diamants
- Imperfect Birds by Ann Lamott
- One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp
- Also read bits of Give Them Grace:Dazzling your Kids with the Love of Jesus, and On Becoming Baby Wise:Giving your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep (a re-read from several years ago), and probably a few others that I'm not remembering.
- Paint the Laundry Room: Check! Click here for the blog post about that.
- Take care of "grading issue" on the north side of the house. Well, we decided to put our money towards a new driveway instead. So, this project will reappear on my 2013 goal list.
- Have a summer neighborhood party. This will have to go on the 2013 list also. I chickened out when someone down the street told me that our court area has a history of a little bit of Wisteria Lane going on (reference to Desperate Housewives TV show...in other words, some drama and not getting along).
- Sew Something. Check! I did not count fixing minor holes or putting a button back on a shirt as sewing BUT I did make my dad a sock monkey for Christmas!
- Have people over to our house for a meal at least once a month. Didn't keep track of this, but I'm pretty certain that we met this goal. As Adam and I talked through this, some months we had people over almost every week. So....I'm pretty confident we met this one.
- Grocery Budget: $45/week. I didn't do good at keeping track of this. I tried using cash for a little while, but it was just more of a hassle and I would end up forgetting the cash I had set aside for groceries. I know I went over this on occasion, especially when we were doing a lot of hosting. But I do keep my grocery spending pretty low. Aldi's. Coupons. Grocery Outlets. Eating Vension. Following Meijer sales closely. (And on a side note, several people asked me how we could possible meet this. I'll be honest, we're eligible for WIC assistance and this helps us out tremendously). Not going to consider this a "check", but I did watch my spending closer than I was.
- Go on an overnight getaway with Adam (no kids) - Check! Click here for the blog post about that.
- Get Tate potty-trained. Check! He did great!
- Get up by 7:15am 5 days/week. Again, I didn't do a good job of tracking this. Some weeks I did well, others not at all. Landon and Tate sleep until 8. During the summer, it's easier since the sun rises earlier. Plus, I ended up watching another little boy 3 days a week during the summer and he arrived at 7:15 a.m., so that helped me meet the goal then. And well, these past few months, I just get sleep when I can. If I feed Heath at 6am....you better believe, my head hits the pillow again as soon as I'm done and I stay there as long as the boys are still out. Don't think I can count this as a "check."
- Set aside 10 minutes every day to pray. I think I consider this a pretty big fail. I often pray throughout the day, but I was not good at finding a quiet time to do this and this alone. I can do my Bible study with the boys in the room, but I cannot focus on praying when they are there with me. Sigh. Someday.
Overall, it felt good to have some goals and to have the satisfaction of reaching them by God's grace. I'm not going to get down about the ones that I didn't successfully check off. When I stop having goals and striving to stretch myself or prioritize things differently, then I'll get worried.
I heard a quote the other day that said something along the lines that you should NOT reach 100% of your goals. If you do, you are setting your sights too low and not challenging yourself at all. Made sense to me.
I'm working on the 2013 goal list this week. Stay tuned!
