Resolutions

Between the moves, the twins, and Steven’s job status, last year’s resolutions were a bit complicated to complete.

I did read somewhere that you should only actually accomplish 75% of your goals or else you are setting the bar too low.

Let’s see how we did, shall we?

1. Pay off our car Thank you to a generous tax return!!!
2. Lose baby weight…this one didn’t work out so well. I think I’m one of those who hold on to the baby weight while nursing. The only reason I lost it with William was because I ran a marathon 4 months post-partum.  Between the bed rest, twins, and move, this wasn’t realistic this year.  But I already have several 1/2 marathons lined up next year, and am giving up baking, so this should be better this year.
3. Potty train William  Now if only we could get him to remember to flush and wash his hands…
4. Wean William from pacifier Not even interested anymore! MUCH easier than we anticipated.
5. Read 12 books Lots of bed rest and hospital time made quick work of this goal.
6. Be a better budgeter---I have a goal of replenishing our emergency fund. Steve didn’t get full-time work until the end of September, so we’re still working on it.  We have a small cushion at least.
7. Monthly DIY projects Lots of crochet projects on bed rest, and I made some new baby projects, too.
8. Finally finish William’s baby book---this one has been nearly done for 2 years. Our stuff was in storage until mid-November, so it just wasn’t going to happen with the move and the holidays.
9. Get a race PR Too much bed rest for this to be realistic.  I did get my 1/2 marathon time down to reasonable levels (1:47), but I still need to cut off 20 minutes to PR. My new treadmill will be helpful with that.
10. Pay off all our debt Unless you count the house (which we will pay off in 14 years at this rate), we are debt free!
11. Try 52 new recipes  Considering we moved twice, and had new twins, I’m pretty impressed I actually did this.
12. Organize our life---monthly organizing projects We are mostly unpacked, but it gets hard to organize when most of your stuff is in storage so this was a no-go.

7/12 (58%) isn’t great, but considering our crazy and complicated year, I’m okay with it.  This year will definitely be much better.  We are in a much more stable situation, the babies are on a schedule, and I have (more) time and energy and health to deal with resolutions this year.

I’ve got only 10 goals this year, but many of them are mighty ambitious.

1. Pinterest Projects (52): I figure I may as well have a reason to try those fun things I’ve been pinning.  2 down, 50 to go!

2. Lose the rest of the baby weight.  My old clothes fit, just not as well as they used to.  I’m hoping for 15 pounds, but we’ll see what happens when I’m not carrying around a gallon of milk all day, lol.

3. New house projects (12): we have quite the fixer-upper.  We are painting the entire house, adding base molding in the basement, new carpet, tile, re-doing the kitchen and yard, among other things. I promise I will post real pictures of the new house when we get a few more things done…it just needs some help right now.

4. Organize (12): Got to get to those projects that I finally can now that we’ll be in one place for awhile.  Starting with the toy room.

5. Race PR: I’m focusing on 1/2 marathons this year.  I just don’t have time for full marathons at this point in my life and before I got pregnant, was just starting to do really well and place in bigger races.

6. Discipline: I’m going to focus this one on the baby weight---I’m limiting baking for special occasions only, and have been working on eating healthier and getting back to focus on what I eat now that my milk supply is not an issue.

7. Save for a Disneyland Trip:  Liam and I have been having withdrawals…we’re not sure if we’re ready to take the twins on vacation yet, so it just might be two of us, but we’re tentatively saving for a family trip in Jan/Feb of 2014.

8. Set up Caleb and Lily College Funds: This all went on pause during our long unemployment, but we’re ready to get back into it.

9. Pay an extra $2000 on the mortgage this year: We have a 15-year mortgage, but I’m hoping we can shorten it down to 10-13 if we keep paying extra. This will depend on how much we want to spend on house projects, of course.

10. Decent Emergency Fund (10K): I’d prefer a bigger cushion, but it will get us through a few months of problems, and/or if we end up with expensive house/car issues, we’ll be ok. 

Hoping for at least 75% this year!