Category: ME

It’s been a pretty good year for me. Lots of great memories, lots of things done with my family. However, personally I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished much. I weigh more now than I did at the start of the year, I didn’t get to as much scrapbooking as I usually do and besides making slight progress with my photography I didn’t really make any progress with my hobbies. Some goals were achieved, but more weren’t 🙂

PERSONAL

**** Blog EVERY DAY (where possible)    Pretty much – most months had around 30 posts with a low in November of 15!

Take a digital scrapbooking class – already enrolled  Completed, but have already forgotten EVERYTHING and need to redo the class online

Look for some volunteer work (there must be something out there I’d enjoy doing)  NO

Less time on the computer (a tough one for sure)   NO!!!

Complete Project Life (daily photograph)   NO – only got up to April this year but I’m planning to go back and catch up

Develop crocheting and sewing skills   NO but I’ve recently bought some books to help me along

Make more homemade gifts (or buy homemade if necessary)   Didn’t make many homemade gift but I did buy quite a few from Made It

Read more books on simple living, homemade craft, cooking, etc    Not really, though I did do a vegetarian cooking class

Have a fabulous – no regrets – trip to the UK!!!    YES! YES! YES! (even though I wasn’t the weight I had planned to be)

HEALTH/FITNESS/FOOD

Start and Complete the Diamond Club with Valerie Waters Started, not completed 🙁

Make at least one new recipe each week   Progress here, definitely getting more adventurous in the kitchen

Get back to menu planning   Somewhat, still need to work on this.

Focus on healthy foods for the whole family   Mixed bag – made great progress with Christy’s eating this year

HOME

Work on making my home more “homey” with craft and handmade items   Yes – still a WIP

Incorporate detailed cleaning into my weekly routine  Did great with us until our trip

Develop veggie garden    Yes, this years is one of the best we’ve had

Try to have fresh flowers in the house most of the time   Yes, and it’s made me so happy

FAMILY/FRIENDS

More one on one time with all family members – make dates if need to.   Yes, but still room for improvement

Spend more time with friends   Besides the Powells no – I’ve become much more reclusive this year now I don’t go up to the school at all.

Monthly family day out (we all loved this when we were doing it)   Mixed bag – I think we mangaged most months

Help Christy with her reading and spelling   Yes, and the results were shown in her school report

Weekly game/movie night   NO 🙁

Okay, so I didn’t even know who Michelle Bridges was before Saturday when I signed up for her transformation challenge but I was lucky enough to get to meet her and hear her speak last night. I only found out on Tuesday that she was coming to Wollongong on Wednesday. I wasn’t sure about going until a new internet friend, LanB, who is also doing the challenge, said she’d met with me beforehand. I’m so glad I went. Mish spent quite a bit of time talking to just the two of us (we were half an hour early :-)) as she knew we were doing the 12WBT. Her talk was inspirational and motivational. And the woman is simply stunning in real life.

Last night certainly helped make for the fact I was unable to attend Valerie’s Red Carpet Beauty and Fitness Summit in LA this weekend :-).

Thanks to my wonderful blog readers, many of whom sent helpful, caring comments in response to my last post. Many of you suggested getting out for a walk and taking the attitude of “just do it”. So I did. I got myself dressed and out the door before the sun was even over the horizon. I’ve had to stop my walks with the dogs while they were undergoing some training so today was my first normal walk with them – and they were perfectly behaved. Which means I’ll be able to get back to walking them in the morning. I’ve missed our early morning walks. And I’m sure doing them again will help set me up for a happy day.

I was so loving my everyday life before the trip and I did not expect it to be so hard settling back into routine. Hopefully the worst is behind me now. I’m going to work on sticking to my daily routines as well. When I did that the week before last I had a good week. A few of you also suggested I really focus on the positives in my life – and there are so many that it shouldn’t be hard to do :-). Working on more blog posts should help with that too.

Thanks again. I’m feeling much more optimistic and positive today and am sure I’m going to have a fantastic week.