Year-End Wrap Up (Personal)

Let's check in and see how I came out on the goals I set for myself at the beginning of 2010.

1. Go to a yoga class at least once a week and practice at home at least once a week

I only went to a few yoga classes. I was president of my church's Board of Trustees for half of the year and that took up WAY too many of my evenings. However, I started P90X about a month ago and part of that program is doing the Yoga X DVD once a week most weeks and twice a week on "recovery" weeks. It's a 90 minute, very challenging routine. And of that 90 minutes, shivasana is only five minutes! (If you want to follow my workouts, you can check out my workout blog. It's mostly just a record for myself so it's not all that exciting.)

2. Train for and run the Hospital Hill 10K (it's in June sometime I think)

I ran Hospital Hill but I downgraded to the 5K because I didn't train very well due to being sick and accepting a new foster baby. BUT I had a huge painful boil on my inner thigh that rubbed against my shorts and I ran anyway. I actually ran (and walked) the 5K, came home and took a shower and then went to the ER to get the boil lanced. (Gross and totally TMI I know, sorry.) And the really funny thing is my time was over two minutes faster this year than last year!

3. Read at least one book a week (hopefully more but I want to make sure that reading stays fun and not a chore. I read 40 books last year so this would be 12 more, hopefully not too much of a stretch.) I also want to make sure I read at least a couple of classics.

I blew this the first part of this goal away – I read 61 books this year! As for classics, I read Pride and Prejudice which I LOVED. I started Wuthering Heights but I couldn't get into it and gave it up about halfway through. I've hardly read any classics so feel free to suggest some that you've loved. Except Dickens – I've tried and failed.

4. Scrapbook at least one layout a week, either digitally or on paper

This did not even come close to happening. I did make our family's Life Book which is a scrapbook that we take to adoption staffings so the team can see what an awesome family we are and pick us to adopt the child in question. (We had two staffings in 2010 and weren't picked but I'm hopeful for this year.)

5. Lay out my clothes for the next day (both running and regular) before I go to bed every night and make sure everything the boys need for school is laid out/packed up.

I did great at making sure the boys stuff was ready the night before, not so great on making sure my own stuff was ready.

6. Plan a dinner menu every week

Hit or miss. I lost my cooking mojo the last half of the year and I think it was because I let my Cooking Light subscription lapse. I've started that up again so hopefully it will inspire me.

7. Go to bed earlier. Ideally I would like to be upstairs getting ready for bed 10pm and then I can read for an hour or so. (It's 10:30pm as I type this so obviously I'm not doing too well so far!) I know an earlier bed time will help with the motivation to get my butt out of bed to run.

This didn't start to happen until I started doing P90X. I am really committed to completing this program and there's no way I can do the intense workouts with getting enough sleep. I'm upstairs most nights by 10:30pm or so and lights out happen by 11:30pm. I'd like to get to lights out at 10:30pm because by the end of the week, I am TIRED.

8. Be more patient with the boys. Practice deep breathing and counting to ten when they're pushing my buttons.

This is a goal I'll be working on for the rest of my life and will probably never acheive to my (or their) satisfaction.

9. Pay off the credit cards

We made a pretty good dent in them and Travis has us on a plan that should get them paid off in 2011.

10. I feel like I need to have some kind of goal to decrease my Internet time but honestly, I get the shakes just thinking about it. Maybe if I concentrate on all my other goals my computer time will automatically decrease.

Having three children for most of the year and four children for a small part definitely helped me break my Internet addiction. Also being the president of my church's Board – that took up WAY too much of my time. Oh wait, did I mention that already? I digress… Another thing that helped was getting a smart phone. I can check my email on my phone throughout the day when I'm out so when I get home I don't feel the all-consuming urge to fire up my computer.