2016 Resolutions Recap & List of Books I Read

Waaaay back in January of 2016, I spent hours creating a list of resolutions/goals for the year and a plan to go with them.  I updated my progress a few times at the beginning of the year, but dropped the ball during the second half.  Here's an overall look at how things went:

1)  Get more organized by doing a room-by-room, closet-by-closet, drawer-by-drawer purge this year.  Eh, I did okay on this.  I certainly didn't cover every nook and cranny like I wanted to, but I did manage to hit the high traffic spots (most of them a couple of times). I've reset this as a goal for 2017, so we'll see if my OCD can get it knocked out completely the second time around.  

2)  Give/Serve More. ✅  As you may have recall, I came up with a list of 12 service projects (one per month) for us to do, mostly as a family.  We ended up doing 9 out of the 12, but picked up at least 2-3 other things during the year that weren't on the schedule so I call that success!  I pray it mattered to those we helped and hopefully the kids learned some important lessons about giving back and gratitude in the process.  

3)  Improve Connections with Others by/in:

• My marriage by spending more quality time with David.  I'm aiming for a date night every other week...once a month minimum.  Also, a night for kids at grandparents once very 4-6 weeks and a short trip somewhere.  ✅  We did great on having date nights and overnights.  We didn't end up taking a short trip anywhere, but have one in the works for 2017.  

• My relationships with girlfriends by having one monthly lunch or dinner with one of them and taking my annual trip with Kara.  ✅  I had monthly dinners with either Lauren or Lara Lynn most months and took my annual trip with Kara.  

• My community by attending 2-3 neighborhood social events and planning 2-3 small group social events this year.  Well...I did great on the small group social events!  And we attended a few church events as well.  But, alas, I did not attend any neighborhood social events.  We mixed with neighbors a few times on an individual basis and of course interacted a lot with the Timber Trek, so I'm giving myself a B-.  

• My extended family by getting together a couple of times outside of the kids' birthday parties.  ✅  We didn't get together as much as I would have liked, but we did manage a few gatherings outside of kids' birthday parties.  

• Blogging more. 🚫 Nope.  Big fat fail.  A major barrier I've recently pinpointed is that once I spend hours catching up, I'm so over it and tired of writing that I don't want to do it again for awhile.  This ultimately creates a vicious cycle that I find difficult to break.  So, my focus this next year is to power through that initial catching up and write immediately after so I have a better chance of sticking with it.  But as I said in a recent post, some is better than none.  Each post I write is another connection for a reader and another glimpse that my kids and grandkids have into their/our lives.  

One of the goals I had for 2016 that I was too scared to even blog about was doing a triathlon.  As you may have heard (because I wanted to scream it from the rooftops), I did accomplish that feat.  After a ton of work and taking some swim lessons, I did a super sprint in May and a sprint in July.  I am thrilled at having checked off those boxes and look forward to doing another one or two next year (gah!)

I also wanted to continue my goal from 2015 of reading.  I didn't get through quite as many books as I did last year, but I aimed for one per month and beat that goal.  

Here is my list from this year with my yes/no recommendation in parenthesis:

• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (yes)
• The All You Can Dream Buffet (no)
• Wild (eh)
• The Blue Castle (yes)
• My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry (no - didn't finish though)
• Giddy Up, Eunice (yes)
• Looking for Lovely (yes)
• The Undoing of St. Silvanus (yes)
• Glitter and Glue (yes)
• The Middle Place (yes)
• Where the Light Gets In (yes)
• Lift (yes)
• The Royal We (yes)
• Eligible (yes)
• Loving My Actual Life (yes)
• The Kitchen House (yes)
• Love Walked In (yes)
• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (yes)
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society (yes)
• Winter Storms (eh)
• Talking as Fast as I Can (eh)
• The Magnolia Story (yes)

So, all in all, not too bad.  There is room for improvement as always, but I'm pretty happy at what got accomplished in regards to these goals.  I truly believe that, beyond God's grace of course, the main reason I was able to check off what I did is because I wrote down my goals and planned specific, tangible steps to complete them.  Give it a try for next year.  I already have and will be sharing some...hopefully soon! 

Here's to 2017 and more GOOD, worthy goals getting reached!  Happy New Year!