Year End Review

Well, here we are at the last day of the year, and I believe I said that I would check in and give an update with how well I was doing with my empty-nest goals that I set in September.

Read through the Bible.  I am still working on this. I got a little behind with all the excitement of our trip and the holidays but I am trying not to be too hard on myself. I will continue on and what does it matter if I don't complete it in a year. I will still have read through the Bible and if it takes me longer than a year, so what.

Clean my Upstairs. I did manage to get one room cleaned out and organized. That leaves me with two to go if I don't count Megan's room. I think it would probably be a good idea not to touch her room. I'm afraid she takes after her mom a little with the thought, "if no one can see it what does it matter." Anyway, I hope to continue on and clean out another room, but it does get a little difficult in the winter because we don't heat those rooms and so I always have the excuse that it is too cold to work at it. And believe me, if I have an excuse, I use it!

Lose some Weight. This is probably the goal that is actually going the best. I have now officially lost 18 pounds and I was delighted to shop for new jeans and find that I had gone down a size! I was also pretty happy not to put on weight while we were on vacation. Thankfully we walked a lot and I think that really helped me.

I plan to continue on with my goals as the new year starts. I would like to lose another 15 - 20 pounds and I would love to reach that goal by summer. I will continue to read through the Bible and I will conquer my upstairs. Some other things I hope to accomplish are to make a digital scrapbook of our European Christmas Market trip and to make a homemade soup once a week this winter. I had made soup once a week last winter and Steve, Josh and Megan loved it and I actually found that I enjoyed planning and making the soup so I want to do that again.

I believe I will stop there and not make any more goals, because sometimes they are hard to keep and then I feel like a failure. However, I think a few ambitions that seem manageable are good for a person. It helps me feel a little bit organized and motivated in an otherwise chaotic world.

As I reflect over the past year, it was a good one and I am thankful for my family and friends and for a job that I enjoy. I am looking forward to 2014 and I hope and pray that it will be a year filled with plenty of laughter, love, and peace.

Happy New Year!

PS. I just had to share this picture of my family. We tried really hard to get a family picture this Christmas and this was the best one. As you can see, even though the end result isn't what you typically see in a family picture, it is obvious that we were having a lot of fun!