non-resolution review.

so here we are: the end of another year. a year that has been full of adventures and projects and family and happiness. a year where i tried to let go a little bit of my ridiculous quest for my own skewed perception of perfection, the idea i have in my head of what life should look like at 25. instead i made more of an effort to embrace a little bit more of the crazy, and the reality of what my life does look like at 25. and i think it looks pretty good.

this was also the year of non-resolutions: a list i made back in January of postive, attainable things that i wanted to do this year. i wrote this list as an attempt to help myself crawl out of a mid-winter funk last year. there was no pressure associated with any of the things on the list: no expiration dates, no guilt, no obsessive tracking of my progress throughout the year.
(just one halfway point check-up in june)

 so, how did i do? let's check it out: 

• make a reasonable meal plan. with the exception of a few weeks here and there, Meal Plan Mondays lasted all year!
• paint the front door. done here! still loving the turquoise, but the spraypainted hardware is starting to show some chippage.
• run a 5K. nope. not this year. (but i have a couple in mind for next year if i can get the hubs on board)
• go to Europe. been there, done that.
• enjoy that trip thoroughly. ohmygoodness yes! and i would go back in a heartbeat.
• bring home at least one good souvenir. we picked up our Christmas ornaments for this year, and also managed to find good stuff for a few other people too.
• feel good about myself in a bathing suit. sadly, i started my fitness kick well after bathing suit season this year... but i have lost a few pounds and a couple inches this fall/winter, and i'm feeling the best i have in a while. so better late than never, right?
• sit-ups. three times a week during p90x.
• clean the front porch. its dirty again already, but i did clean it.
• have pretty flower beds. hahahahahahanope.
• shower with the door closed.  new fan in the master bath, and guest bath completely overhauled. this was a major win for this year.
• read the Lord of the Rings trilogy. lets say 25%. i read the Hobbit. and i've started the Fellowship. i'm on chapter 2.
• then watch the movies. since i read the Hobbit, i went to see the first installment in theaters. 1 out of 6 aint bad, especially since 2 of them dont even exist yet!
• paint and organize my kitchen. i feel like this was done forever ago! hard to believe it was just this year...
• invite more people to our house. we've had more house guests and dinner guests this year than ever before. now i just have to remember to get them all to sign the guest book when they come!
• smile. pretty much every day!
• make curtains for all my naked windows. this stalled around 30% complete. there are curtains on the windows, but not the pretty patterned ones i had in mind.
• clean regularly. define "regularly." ok so i dont have a cleaning system or schedule in place, but we're not living in filth and squalor over here either.
• use my crockpot. recently i think i've been averaging about one crock pot meal a week!
• read through my bible. ummm...7%? i started a reading plan. and then i stopped.
• run. nope. not really. i went on a few runs this year, but i wouldnt describe this year as "the year i ran" or anything like that.
• dismantle the mountain-o-junk in the basement. dismantled, distributed, and reorganized.
• decorate for seasons other than Christmas. yes? i did a little bit for fall. that's about it.
• yard sale. i'm happy with the little bit of yard-sailing i did this year. quality over quantity. 
• read a book by Jane Austin Austen. approx 40%. i started reading Mansfield Park. and i watched the movie Emma. if i would have known either 1. how long of a book Mansfield Park is, or 2. that i was going to be watching Emma, i would have picked a different Jane Austen book.
• hang things on the walls. mirrors, paintings, frames, and diplomas oh my!
• build something. i built the shelves and the towel hooks in the bathroom all by myself.
• laugh. as much as possible.
• organize the office. this went hand in hand with dismantling the mountain-o-junk.
• carve a jack-o-lantern. arguably some of our best carvings to date!
• buy pants that fit and make me feel fantastic. i had one amazing pair of jeans. and then i lost weight and they got a little loose. i have since procured a new pair of work pants, and a pair of red skinny jeans that i feel pretty awesome in. but i have a feeling the journey towards the elusive perfect pair of pants is never-ending.
• clean out my closet. i thought maybe a post-Christmas closet purge would happen. and then it didnt.
• put new music on my iPod. i did move my music from my old laptop to the new computer and reshuffled my iPod with some different songs, but nothing that i would describe as being particularly new. 
• be a good friend. i dont really know that there's a way to quantify this...but i like to think i at least did pretty ok with it.
• quilt our old t-shirts. 98% done with Mark's quilt. still have to finish tacking it all together. debating on whether or not to start one for me.
• close my other bank account. this one seems like it would be so easy... and yet here it is, still on the list and undone.
• hit 'play all' on abs and buns of steel and not want to die. i havent actually tried it yet, but with all the p90x craziness i've put myself through i like to believe that this is a real possibility. i will definitely be testing this hypothesis post-p90x.
• go to the dentist. another easy one that just didnt quite happen.
• give more homemade gifts. this year i gifted some homemade mason jar soap dispensers, and a bunch of handpainted stuff: a recipe box, wooden signs, coffee mugs, and an actual painting on canvas.
• play outside. not very much, mind you, but at the very least we played some catch, so i'm crossing this one off even though we could have done better.
• ride my bike. a few times around the neighborhood. and successfully completed this year's tour du bridge/tunnel.
• the big book of everything. i printed everything out and put it all in its own binder. but i didnt actually fill out any of the pages.
• go to a baseball game. i went to 2 O's games this season, watched a zillion of them on tv, and got sucked in to the point that i even bought postseason tickets for a game that didnt end up happening. i also made it to 2 or 3 of Mark's softball games. it was a good year for baseball.
• swim. i floated around the in-laws pool a couple times, but i dont think that quite counts as swimming.
• paint something little. i know i had Stasi's shoes in mind when i put this on the list back in January. it only took me until September to get them done.
• have fun. yes.oh so much yes.

by the numbers:
    46 - number of items/activities on the list.
    63 - percent of things on the list that got completely crossed off.
    89 - percent that i at least started even if they didnt all get done.
    11 - percent of things on the list that just didnt happen.
     0 - regrets.

wow. it is kind of mind-blowing to look through this list and just be struck by how abundantly blessed we have been this year. we have good jobs. time and resources to travel. good health. great friends. a comfortable house. loving families. the ability to relax. and we have each other. it started as just a checklist of sorts, but its pretty fun to see both big and small blessings show through this little experiment in goal-setting.

i'm thinking i might do something similar for 2013. but as of this moment, there are still a couple days left of 2012 and i intend to enjoy every single day that i am blessed with as much as i possibly can.