Accomplishments in 2014

Every year in lieu of a New Year’s Resolution, we each decide to learn or try something new.  I am a highly productive person, but I also think I try to add to many things to my list.  Look at what I wanted to do in 2014! Looking back on 2014, I think there are things I ended up learning that I had not intended to learn.

1. Piano:  This is something we all definitely still want to learn, but to be honest we need to find time to fit the lessons in and we aren’t willing to give up other things to make it happen.  At least not yet.  In August, we changed course and chose to not add piano lessons to our already-full-plate.
2. Dance a solo part for ballet:  I danced a solo part for Swan Lake in June.  For the Nutcracker recital in December, I did several dances, as well as the splits.

 

1. Complete Warrior Dash & Tough Mudder:  We did both, and also did the Rugged Maniac.
2. Photography – Instagram once a day:  This didn’t happen.  I like Instagram, but I don’t like pulling out my phone all the time to capture moments.  Not to mention Instagram kills my phone battery because it gets my camera looping and pulling power from the battery via the operating system.  A downfall of switching to Android this year.  I did a few photo shoots this year, got a new Nikon Df (full frame!), and caught up on old photos/vacations so I definitely still worked on photography.
3. Escape/Relax – Read 25 books:  I don’t have any clue how many books I read, but I know for sure it was more than 25.  It was very likely double or triple that, because I read a series that had 24 books, another series with 13 books, and just last week, finished 5 books.  I would keep a count, but it takes away the fun of reading when I’m tracking how much I do it.  Suffice it to say, I have recently added a line item into our budget for books – separate from all other ‘entertainment’ money.  The books that were most impactful for me and still think about, include: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Compelling People: The Hidden Qualities that Make Us Influential, The Girls Who Went Away, Ashfall Trilogy, The Glass Castle, and Half Broke Horses.  Suprisingly, only one of those is fiction.
4. Write more – Blogging & Journaling:  Although I did blogging every day in November, and generally kept this blog up (46 blog posts this year, although about 30 of those were in November), as well as my photography blog and ballet/fitness blog, I don’t necessarily feel like I am writing for me all the time.  Something I would like to do more of.
5. Give back – volunteer 1x/month:  I did zero volunteering this year and that is tough for me because I am very service oriented.  I really, really miss volunteering.
6. I learned about make-up (aka my flickr became a selfie feed)!
7. Karate – Chris wanted his purple belt by year end and wanted to do the Spartan race in May:  Due to neck surgery he was delayed in his progress and will be working toward those next year.
8. What’s Next – for Chris:  My husband is much more of an introvert than I am and he will spend hours upon hours thinking things over in his head (while I yap at him to work out my own problems) before he talks to me.  We’ve had a variety of conversations and the most likely area he will work toward is helping to run our foundation that we plan to start in the next 5 years.  We would like our foundation to be a way to give back to our community.  We hope to fund a theater production, provide scholarships to college to students every year, ensure music/PE/art/technology are provided to schools that don’t have strong PTO support or large budgets, support veterans programs, and have programs that support the elderly.  Essentially we want to do our little part to bring some equality to the world to make sure others are afforded the same opportunities to succeed that we now have due to our age, race, and economic level.  This foundation lines up with our values (that we defined in 2013 as part of our personal finance goals):  Fun/Spontaneity, New Experiences/Learning, Security, Health, and Charity/Altruism.
9. Kids:  Cooper wanted to stick with karate and start soccer, both of which he did.  He now has a blue belt with white stripe and is ready to test for blue belt with black stripe.  Although he loves the social aspect of soccer, he doesn’t seem to show the interest or the skill for the sport and mostly goofs off.  Charlotte wanted to do gymnastics and soccer, but midway through the year decided she would prefer karate. She now has a purple belt with black stripe and is ready to test for a blue belt with white stripe.  Charlotte excelled at soccer and was fantastic at being sweeper (effective goalie at this age).
10. Vacation to Hawaii or Alaska – We decided to travel back to North Carolina to visit family instead.  Neither of us were up for planning anything big and it had been awhile since we had seen Chris’ parents and siblings, so we rented a beach front house. 

I never posted more photos about our vacation, but really, the highlight were the crabs.   We also did two adult vacations – one to go camping in Ouray with good friends,

and one for a wedding in Cozumel:

In other good news this year, the kids graduated kindergarten,

Chris finished the laundry room!

And he got a new car!

This year has been full.  We experienced loss this year with my mom and Chris’ uncle, both unexpected.  These losses have affected us more because they deeply affected people we love.  Life continued on and we went swimming, to concerts, and theater shows, and sporting events.  We made new friends – people who we find to be intelligent, funny, and kind.  People who will push us to become better versions of ourselves.  We continue to cherish our forever friendships, but it has been wonderful adding new people to our life. 

We look forward to 2015!