This one might be long. The other day I read this post from Pip at Bub Sweat and Tears about what went right for her in 2011. Pip is someone I’ve connected with through Twitter this year and I’ve loved seeing her adjust to and settle into her new role as a mother. She led me to visit Deb at Home Life Simplified who is running a Simplify Your Life challenge this year. I’m going to give it a go. I might not blog all of the challenges but I will follow it throughout the year and see how I go. Week 1 is to think about what went right for you in 2011. So I thought I’d start by looking at the goals I wrote last January to see what I actually achieved.
- I did manage to do the couch to 5k running program for eight weeks but fell off the wagon before Christmas. I enjoyed it and will get back to it.
- We painted the front door and fence. (Thanks to Len and Lynda for the help with the fence.)
- I reorganised the playroom/study/sewing corner and it’s working much better for us all now and looks better too thanks to my furniture makeovers.
- We made some decluttering progress but I think that will be a perpetual goal.
- We have definitely settled into being a family of four and I would say that on the whole it was an enjoyable year getting to know Edward and seeing him grow and change as babies do so quickly in the first year.
Other things that went right in 2011:
- Lillian has become a great big sister and watching the relationship between those two develop has been a highlight.
- Lillian has really grown into a big girl. At 4.5 she has her own social life and strong friendships.
- I’m very grateful that breastfeeding worked so well once again and that stopping at 14 months felt right and was mostly drama free for both of us.
- We made progress inside and outside the house. As well as the playroom reorganisation mentioned above we put in a front garden of herbs, flowers and frangipanis that is now thriving, and we made the back room more useful with the corkboard and blackboard for the kids.
- We had a fun roadtrip to Queensland and holiday with family.
- Dave and I survived another baby’s first year and still like each other.
Today Nonna looked after the kids while Dave and I had a lunch date. We spent a lot of the time talking about our goals for 2012 and here are some of the things we came up with:
- Get Edward settled and comfortable in daycare.
- I’ll be starting uni at the end of February so will need to get into a routine that enables me to get my study done and still have time for everything else.
- Get back into running. The two things slowing me down with that are needing better shoes (my knee was starting to hurt last time) and my iPhone is dying and keeps crashing. I need music!
- Makeover our back yard within our budget. I’ll do a future post in more detail about this.
- Finish the niggly house painting jobs: verandah kickboard, living room wall patch, back door.
- Have a date at least once a month. This doesn’t have to be a night time thing. Lunch or breakfast dates are also good and often easier.
- A weekend away for me. I was aiming for a night but Dave says I should take two so….ok? (Watch out Beck, I will be discussing this with you.)
- A night away for Dave and I. (Watch out Nonna, but probably not anytime soon. We have all year.)
- A holiday away with friends. We really enjoyed our holiday to the south coast with friends last summer and would like to repeat something like that, perhaps in the mountains this time. (Watch out Emma and Shane!)
- Do more fun things as a family. I think this will be easier now that Edward is on a solid one nap schedule. There should be less splitting up and doing things separately while someone stays home with a sleeping baby.
- Make the most of Lillian’s last year before starting school.
- Read more books. I’m off to a good start with that one. Hoping I can keep it up even once uni starts.
- Keep track of my spending. I used to (like, ten years ago) write down everything I spent money on in my diary. It helped me be more aware of spending and to see where the money was going. I’m trialing an iPhone app for this now.
So. There we go. Bring it on 2012!
It all sounds so good. Wishing you lots of luck with it all – especially monthly dates. We need to do something like that too.
What’s the name of the app? The one I have for budgeting at the moment is hopeless. Let me know if you have luck with yours.
Zoe, the app is called Lemon. I found it through an ad on words with friends. It has room for improvement but seems to be working well for me for now.
Hey Mad, for some reason I thought you stopped blogging years ago!!Then I happened on here… I’m catching up, it’s so cool. This is the year we’re going to fix our not seeing enough of each other. Bring it on, 2012 and see you soon! x
Good for you! You did a LOT in 2011. Best of luck with your 2012 goals!
Thanks Sherrie!
I love the “survived another first year with a baby and still like each other” bit – that’s how I feel too. We are working on monthly dates as well!
Good luck with the dates! So important but so hard to make time for.
Awesome – love the way this challenge helps you recap and plan. Yep I agree – no doubt there will be some weeks when I’m not able to or don’t feel like blogging all the challenges but just have the sense that a lot of it will be quite cathartic. Especially like the relationship time you’ve focused (boy do I need to include that) certainly takes a thrashing in baby’s first year – FYI a retreat we loved to bushwalk behind on a nice weekend away (pre-baby) was http://www.fernhemcottages.com.au/index.html – happy I know someone who will be doing some of the challenges alongside me
P x
That is a great recap of your year and loved reading how you breastfed to 14 months. It is certaily something to be proud of and you know you have given your little one such a woderful start.
Thanks Melinda. I know I’m very lucky I had no troubles breastfeeding.
Can totally relate to alot of those “Do more fun things as a family..” thats on my list. Our little boy is still having 2 naps but hes alot more flexible now that when he was really little, he probably could have 1 but im hanging on to it for as long as i can lol Good luck with your 2012 goals
Great lists – welcome to the challenge. I also loved this line “Dave and I survived another baby’s first year and still like each other.” – liking each other is probably more important than loving each other in my mind!
Definitely! Thanks Deb.
I am usually not one that is big on new years resolutions (mainly because they are too easy to break) but your post provided some inspiration to put some goals down on paper & work towards them. The simplify your life idea looks interesting too!
Ps- the mountains sound fun!