Last Year's Resolution...Year in Review!

I was feeling pretty ambitious last January.  I guess being in a new place gave me a bit of motivation to make some changes to my lifestyle and create some new habits.  I think I did okay considering all the outcomes of this past year, so I'm going to summarize what worked and what didn't for me last year.

1.  Start quilting.  Well, I didn't start quilting, but I did make a baby blanket.  You see, I didn't realize that measuring (my mortal enemy) was so important to quilting and as it turns out...I'm lazy.  I'm still planning on working on this, but I'm happy that I still ended the year with at least one blanket sewing project.

2.  Start a vegetable garden.  This is another one that I cheated on...kind of.  A friend gave me some patio tomatoes that I planted in pots and we were actually able to harvest a few that the squirrels and dogs didn't get to first.  I'm glad I started small.  It was a good trial run and maybe this year, we can actually build a garden of sorts.

3.  Read a Proverbs a day.  I did this off and on throughout the year.  I learned something new every time I read the same thing over and especially loved a study I didn't on the Proverbs 31 Woman by Nancy Leigh Demoss.  Although I faltered quite a bit on this resolution, I feel like I reaped the most benefits from this one alone!

4.  Eat out no more than once a week.  We did better on this last year than we thought we would.  Especially during my whole "first trimester funk" where I couldn't cook, go in a grocery store, or open my fridge.  We definitely ate out more than once a week a lot of times, but we kept pretty close to this goal.

5.  Get rid of most of my clothes.  Weeelllll....if you count putting all of my clothes in the attic and replacing them with a closet full of maternity clothes, then I did this perfectly!  I did manage to get rid of a lot though and now pretty much only have dresses and coats/sweaters in the closet and the rest of my clothes in three drawers.  Not bad considering that maternity clothes just take up more space than regular ones!

6.  Join and become active in a small group at our new church.  We totally did this and it was awesome.  Our group decided to split up toward the end of the year though and we are now getting ready to join another one, so long as this baby doesn't decide to come on the day GroupLink is scheduled.  Either way, I can't wait to get back into a small group asap!

7.  Lose 10 pounds.  Or gain 20...hmmmm.  Blame this one on the baby too.

8.  Renovate our kitchen by the end of the year.  We didn't do this at all.  Remember how I said the hubs would veto some of these?  Well this was one.  We did, however, get new windows all over the house (which made a huge difference), and for under $2000 we were able to redecorate our bedroom (including upgrading to a king sized bed), create a nursery, and buy a new-to-us sectional sofa bed for our living room (aka guest room)!  Gotta love Craigslist!

9.  Teach the boys how to serve others.  I guess this is one where I definitely feel through.  We did SOME things, but definitely not something organized once a month like I had hoped.  I'm keeping this one on the forefront this year and hopefully will do better.  I do have to say that despite my slackness, my boys have the kindest, sweetest little hearts I could hope for them to have and for that, I am so thankful and proud!

10.  When I think something nice (specifially about my husband), I want to make it a habit to say it, share it, or write it down for him to see.  I guess Pack could tell you how I improved on this one.  I will say that he's still the most awesome, fun, and loving husband in the WHOLE WORLD and I still find it hard to believe that he somehow wanted to end up with me.  I'm such a lucky girl and when I see his traits in our boys, I couldn't be more proud!

11.  Make less waste.  Okay, this one, I feel good about.  I think the only disposable product that we're still really attached to is toilet paper (and we're not giving that one up any time soon).  I only bought throw-away plates, cups, and napkins for birthday celebrations this year and we don't even think about paper towels anymore.  There were also a few other throw-away products that I switched over to this year and not one of my choices as created more work for me.  Awesome!

Bonus:  Pack's new year's resolution last year was to not buy any sliced bread from the store for our home (which of course, was one more resolution for me).  I got a bread machine last Christmas and I guess he wanted to make sure we got good at using it.  I'm proud to say that for the entire year of 2011, we did not buy one loaf of regular sliced bread for sandwiches and such.  We did however, occasionally buy things like  hotdog buns and tortillas since I don't know how to make those (and didn't feel like trying to learn), but overall...SUCCESS!