Seems About Time

Now that we are knee deep into 2014, it seems about time I should do a little assessment of how I would score myself on my New Year's Resolutions from 2013. (I will do my 2014 goals in another posts - I PROMISE). 

So let's get to it. These are my resolutions from last year. 

1. Remember friends and families birthdays. 
2. Live with the clutter.  

3. Be more humble. 

4. Relish the moment. 

5. Bring less stuff into the house. 

6. Read more. 

7. Learn how to really use my camera.  

8. Be more kind and loving to my husband. 

9. Get all our financial paperwork and wills completed.

10. Be healthy and lose weight.

Here is how I think I did. 

1. I think I started out of the gate solidly on this one. I was on top of Heather's [my older sisters] birthday in January, even mailing her a gift. I followed up with the next few family birthdays pretty good. I am notoriously bad at remembering friends birthdays but was more aware of people's birthdays on Facebook. In the last quarter of the year there seems to be a birthday celebration in our family every two weeks. Since we were here, I attended all the obligatory dinners but don't feel that I did anything super special for some of the folks. Actually I don't know what I am talking about. I bought Matt a 40 ounce for his 40th birthday. 

2.I think that it isn't in my DNA to live with clutter. I have decided that a little mess I can handle. By no means am I perfectly tidy or live in a pristine house but when things get too out of control, I lose my cool.  

3. To be perfectly candid, I don't know really how to gauge this one and whether I was more or less humble. I will say I was a little bit more mindful of it but not as much as I would like to be. 

4. Oh yes. With the kids especially. They seem to be getting older and older by the second. I am so nostalgic ALREADY of this time. They are so little, cuddly, and sweet (most of the time). They want to be with me and still think I am cool. I know this is all short lived so I try to drink in as much as possible. Now that is not to say I am not on my phone or computer or tinkering around. I probable tell them that I am busy doing [insert dishes, cooking, cleaning, etc] too often. But I am definitely trying. 

5. Yes, I believe I succeeded in this, especially when still in Seattle. With the impending move I insisted nothing come into the house and even made sure that for Whitaker's birthday party this year no one brought a present. In addition to not bringing anything into our Seattle house, we got rid of gobs and gobs of stuff. However, with the move into our rental, we have been less strict about this rule. First off, it seemed we had to buy some stuff to fit this space and we have more room then ever so even though we have a little more stuff then we left Seattle with, it doesn't feel like we are living with clutter. 

6. Yes. And I think I actually might have hit the 12 books. I came on strong at the last third of the year. 

7. Sadly, no. I still am pointing and shooting and not knowing what a single damn button means. However, I did try to register for a camera class this Arlington County tonight but it is full but I asked to be on the wait list. So if this class doesn't work out, I am going to take it the next time. I promise. 

8. Yes and no. We have had a lot of stress this year. Trying to sell the house, moving, renting, new job for Pearson, etc.. I would love to say that things have been all happy and rosy but they haven't been. As I have said, marriage is a work in progress. And thankfully ours still is. On the flip side, all this stress has united us on certain things. For example, I thought living with my folks would be really stressful on our marriage but in fact  it was the opposite. 

9. Nope. In all fairness we were on track to get this done. We even met with the lawyer and all. However, when we told him we were planning on moving, he advised us to wait until we moved state since we were just going to have to do it again in Virginia. So looks like that is going on my list for 2014. 

10. I guess this one always seems to go on my list and I am now even wondering why. I am thinking that instead of a yearly goal. Getting healthy should be a daily goal. I had some sports/post pregnancy related injuries that crept up on me at the beginning to middle part of the year that really forced me to slow down on running and working out. 

There you have my self scoring system for my resolutions for 2013.