One Last Look Back

I can hardly believe it, but it’s true… the New Year is COMING!!! Which means new resolutions, which means it’s time to check back in one final time to see how I did with this year’s goals. I did this months ago and it was a lot of fun to see how much I had accomplished failed at, so I figured it would be a good time to see how everything turned out, now that we’re nearing the end of the year. Let’s do it!

1. (Personal) Read a book before bed, not a screen. 

Fall asleep to pages, not Pinterest… This year, I’ve definitely made more time for reading and have really enjoyed it. However, I found that I read more over vacations and during slower weeks than in the hustle and bustle of everyday. And honestly speaking, I definitely slipped back into screen time before bed. So overall… some progress was made, but I need to continue to work on this.

Overall Grade: C

2. (Work) Give lesson planning more of my time and energy.

This year, I have every lesson for Youth Group picked out and ready to go all the way up through May, complete with  printed hard copies all put together in a binder. The organization lover in me went on to include post it notes on each lesson to remind myself of announcements that need to be made that night and to give space to jot down a game or two that would go well with the lesson. What I’d like to continue to do better is to read through the lesson on Monday and give myself the flexibility of having the whole week to think on it and allow space for creativity to happen.

Overall Grade: A-

3. (Personal) Drink five large cups of water every day.

Water, water, water… that was the theme of this year for both Mitch and I. I’m happy to say… we did really well! There were definitely times when we slacked, but since we had started to condition our bodies to have a constant supply of water each day, we felt the effects of not drinking enough sooner and were able to catch it and get back on track. For me, my days of not drinking enough were directly connected to if I remembered to bring a re-fillable water bottle or not. We go through water bottles like they’re napkins in our house. Since we’re so on-the-go, they get lost/broken/left behind ALL THE TIME, which is why we shop at the Dollar Store for them. 🙂 If I was without a water bottle, it definitely impacted my day and I think the fact that I was so conscious of that indicates improvement!

Overall Grade: A

4. (Blog) Decide if February will be the end of an era or if we’ll press on.

Done and done. You can read all about that decision here… but clearly, a decision was made. 🙂

Overall Grade: A+++

5. (Personal) Clean the house in small bits throughout the week, not all on one day.

Ehhh… we didn’t do so hot with this. We had good weeks and bad weeks. Like this week? Really bad week. Two weeks ago? We knocked it out of the park. I’d say that the clean-as-we-go habit has not yet been formed.

Overall Grade: D-

6. (Personal) Find an accountability friend. 

Someone (preferably who does not attend the church I work at) to be the friend that will shoot straight with me- both in the good times and in the bad. I want to intentionally meet with that friend often enough that we could be that for each other on a regular basis.

Overall Grade: F

7. (Work) Try new games at Youth Group.

This is a work in progress… but good news! I started a Pinterest board for Youth Group games and it has been great so far in helping me corral the random ideas that I find floating around the internet. We’ve tried some new ones that have worked and others that flopped. That’s just the way it goes, so we’ll keep at it. 🙂 Ironically, one of our most popular posts this year was the Human Hungry Hungry Hippos we played way back when!

Overall Grade: C

8. (Personal) Make some healthy changes.

I’m proud of this one… I’ve worked really hard to exercise regularly, eat better (although I am currently on a chocolate chip cookie craze that is threatening all of my hard work), and drink lots of water. I did a lot of classes this year at the YMCA and recently realized that my phone has been tracking how many steps I take in day, so Mitch and I are on a new kick to “get our steps in” everyday. There’s always room to grow in this one, so I’ll be thinking about what next year’s goal will look like.

Overall Grade: A

9. (Personal) Work on a Family Yearbook.

No progress. Nada. Nil. Zip. This is mainly because I really want to do a vertical 8×11″ book in Shutterfly, but they don’t offer that size yet. When they do, though… I’m all over that.

Overall Grade: F- (is that a thing?)

10. (Personal) Have at least one planned adventure and one unplanned adventure this year.

Yes! We did this! Most recently, our unplanned adventure was stopping at a diner late on a Saturday night after seeing a concert. The concert was planned. The diner? Just a PULL-OVER-THERE’S-A-24-HOUR-DINER scenario on our way home. Felt just like a college kid… except not really because I was the college kid that went to bed early all the time. Freshman year was all the time it took to realize that me staying up until 4am benefits NO ONE. 🙂 So, yeah, we were living large that Saturday… especially because Sunday is a work day for me and you don’t mess around with preparing for Sunday morning. #adventuregoals

Our planned adventure was definitely our vacation to Florida… we planned that sucker within an inch of its life. This was probably a good thing, though, because I think it’s the reason we had so much fun; we really did our research beforehand and had everything we needed to know all worked out before we even boarded the plane. Mitch and I still talk about how amazing it was to walk through Harry Potter World, how fun it was to go back to Disney for a day, and what an adventure we had getting to jet ski/parasail/swim/snorkel in Key West. I’m so thankful that we have those memories to look back on. Again, ironically, the tips and tricks post about Harry Potter World was another one of our most popular posts this year. Clearly all the planning has benefited more than just us!

Overall Grade: A++

So there you have it… this year’s resolutions in the bag! I’ve already got my 2016 List in the works and I can’t wait to share it with you, come the New Year! Until next time, have a great weekend… if I can get my act together, I might be able to pull together a quick post for tomorrow on some Christmas decorating in the kitchen. Cross your fingers and we’ll see if we can make it happen. 🙂