Week in Review 12.30.17

It's almost the last day of 2017! We had a very quiet week which started with snow on Christmas Eve and ended with major cleaning of our basement. Scott was off work this week which meant we just flowed through the week. It was something we all needed as Molly and I recovered from being sick, Maggie was Maggie and Scott was able to relax. 

Exercise

I got in 1 workout this week- one barre3 class. I had to be forced into my workout. Luckily, my friends like to work out with me and asked me to work out with me. It was nice to take a break though as I think we all need a break at times. I'm ready to get back to it next week though and have already scheduled all my workouts. I'm also considering doing B3 All In with modifications on the workouts (because I love my boot camp too much!) but I'm not sure I want to do the prescribed food plan which excludes gluten and COFFEE! It's the coffee thing. 

Food

We overindulged this week on food and about halfway through my body was crying out for more vegetables. I've started making simpler meals and finding them to be great. I made a sheet pan dinner the other night and was quite pleased with the easy clean-up and delicious meal. I'll be making more of these! 

The Girls

The girls loved playing in the snow and wearing pajamas most of the week. We also hit up Playdate SEA one day to get some wiggles out. While the parking in that area is the pits, the girls LOVE Playdate SEA and are finally at an age where I can just sit at a table and knit while they run around. 

Maggie had her 4 year old well check and except for the shots, she thought it was great. Her doctor said she was healthy and sent us on our way. She did say that Maggie needs to watch less tv but honestly I don't think an hour a day is bad. *sigh* 

Other Goings On

I also embarked on a LEGO organization system. It's been driving both Molly and I nuts to have the LEGOs just jumbled in a cabinet. I'm keeping it simple by organizing like colors into plastic shoeboxes. I know I'll be doing this again but so far, Molly is playing with her legos even more. I also love looking at the colors all organized. 

2017 - A Year in Review

2017 is coming to a close and while the political climate is not good, my year was pretty good, ok it was great! 

We went on a ton of trips - Disneyland, the National Parks and lots of places nearby. I traveled for work and increased my client base. I exercised a lot. 

I released a lot of feelings and belongings. We got a kitten! He destroyed things and I forgave him. 

Molly started kindergarten and I started my elementary school volunteer career. 

As for my goals, I completed 60% of them this year and I'm pretty happy about it! I did make great progress on 3 of the remaining 4 which is fantastic!

2017 Goals

1. Workout 217 times in 2017 - I did it! I got in 227 workouts in 2017. Having this goal really kept me focused on working out. It is something I really love to do but sometimes I fall off the wagon and running to catch up with it leaves me out of breath.

2. Participate in the Year of Creativity -  Our last theme was Hope and I have to say that I participated fully in this group. It got a bit too religious toward the end for me but otherwise it was really good and got me more into writing and developing my craft. 

3. Shoot one roll of film a month - I did well with this at the beginning of the year and then stumbled when it came to processing. I do think shooting film is a great way to work on my photo skills but this just wasn't the goal for me this year. 

4. Complete TKGA Master Knitting Level I - I'm about a third of the way through this goal and have a new deadline of March 15th for sending off my notebook. 

5. Finish my Miter Square Blanket - I stopped working on this goal sometime in June and never picked it back up. I plan to finish this in 2018. 

6. Read 52 books. - I almost did it! I read 46 books and loved most of them. 

7. Finish up various House Projects 

8. Catch up on my yearly photo books of the girls - It took me all year but I have all the photos gathered into Flickr albums. The next step is making books for the girls. I have about 500 photos in each folder which means selecting photos is going to be a challenge. I might just have HUGE (i.e. expensive) books. I have a plan for continuing these. I have a monthly reminder to cull photos into albums and then in August/September a reminder to start the books for the year. I'm excited about getting caught up on this goal done by April 15th of next year. 

9. Become more politically active and work to be the change in my community. 

10. Learn how to make a really good stock 

Bonus Goal: Grow two new crops in my garden and add some chickens to my flock. 

2018 Goals and My One Word

2017 was spent working on "Release" which was my word for the year.  I have to say I embraced it. I released bad feelings, I released so much crap from my house, I released expectations, I released negativity. In releasing, I gained a lot. I gained new perspective. I gained space. I gained understanding. 

This year, I'm choosing the word, "Finish". This will be my year to finish projects, finish goals, just finish. 


In that vein, I'm focusing on 18 goals, some small, others big and some are repeats (but I'm getting them done this year in the spirit of FINISHING).

2018 Goals

1. Workout 218 times in 2018 
2. Go Skiing
3. Complete "The Artist's Way"
4. Learn Hand Lettering
5. Paint the Bathroom
6. Find a picture for the oval frame in my bedroom
7. Replace the sad Rhododendron plant with a Dwarf Japanese Maple (or another plant)
8. Build (or buy) a trellis for my vegetable garden
9. Buy a new dishwasher
10. Embrace Minimalism by doing the Minimalist Game for an entire month
11. Reduce our food bill and food waste
12. Read War and Peace, Moby Dick, A Tale of Two Cities and The Grapes of Wrath
13. Read the Bible 
14. Knit Nanoo
15. Knit 12 hats for charity
16. Repeat Goal: Complete TKGA Master Knitting Level I by March 15th.
17. Repeat Goal: Finish my Miter Square Blanket 
18. Repeat Goal: Catch up on my yearly photo books of the girls

Week in Review 12.23.17

It was birthday week around here. I celebrated my 43rd birthday on Tuesday and Maggie turned 4 on Thursday. It was also a sick week as Molly came down with pneumonia and an ear infection. Luckily she is on the mend after some good dosing of amoxicillin which she luckily takes without a fight. It made for a very lazy week at home though. 

Exercise

I got in 2 workouts this week- one boot camp class and one barre3 class. Molly got sick over the weekend and then on Tuesday I started to feel sick too. I decided to let my body rest since I felt so fatigued. I slept like 9 hours a night and laid on the couch all day and still felt tired. Boo! Sometimes a body just needs to slow down and recuperate. 

Food

It was a week of cheesecake, cake and cupcakes! Maggie and I celebrated our birthdays so I was a baking queen. I made an amazing cheesecake which was just what I wanted for my birthday. It was so good! Maggie requested a chocolate cake with rainbow frosting for birthday and strawberry cupcakes for her class celebration. The cake ended up leaning a bit but it was still delicious!  

We also had sushi on Thursday for Maggie and I's birthday dinner. We went to Blue C sushi and it was so much fun (and so much $$). The piles of plates afterwards were hilariously shocking. Our family knows how to dig in to sushi! 

The Girls

Molly was sick but didn't miss any school because she is on winter break. Maggie still had school so she went while Molly and I rested. I had planned to take the girls swimming but the sickness put a stop to that. Instead we watched a lot of tv, played board games and cuddled. 

Other Goings On

I finished Molly's birthday sweater and made some good progress on Maggie's. One year I'll have their sweaters ready BEFORE their birthdays but this is not the year. Lewis continues to climb the Christmas tree and I can not wait to take it down on December 26th. Until then, HAPPY HOLIDAYS! 

48 months (4 years) with Mag-Pie!

Dear Maggie,

Today you are 4 and yet, you are still my baby. You tell me that you are a Little Kid and that you can't wait to go to kindergarten. You need to hold onto that thought though as you have another 18 months or so before that happens! 

You had a great year! You went so many places (Disneyland, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, Glacier, California) and this coming year, you'll go so many more. You love riding in airplanes, hitting up the hotel suitcase cart and swimming in hotel pools. Actually you just love swimming which you are doing astonishingly well. You have started to really get your arms out of the water and your fierce kick propels you across the water.

You are still an amazing eater. You will try almost anything and love vegetables. In fact, I can serve you a plate of veggies and you just chow down. I keep waiting for that to change but so far, it hasn't.

You are going to speech therapy and you are not a fan. You like your new therapist better but overall, not a fan. I bribe you every week with sushi from Met Market. You are a sushi hound!

You are enjoying your preschool and get into all sorts of adventures there. Your preschool teacher is always texting me silly stories about you. We both love how you see the world. 

While you try my patience at times, I really do love your stubborn, determined demeanor. You know what you want and will do whatever it takes to get it. Sometimes the trick is getting you to take a deep breath to listen to my thoughts on the matter. Sometimes you do and then you listen and we compromise. I love it when that happens. 

May you always have your loud, boisterous spirit. As long as you can corral it, it will serve you well. Just remember to breath first. 

Maggie, we are so lucky to have you in our family and we so love your sense of humor. You are quite funny and tell the best jokes. I do love your sense of humor. Happy Birthday, Maggle-Rock! We love you! 

Self Care, Retreats and Ornaments are this week's links from around the web

How to use an Instant Pot - This might be useful for those of you getting Instant Pots for the holidays!

Rest Retreat - Have you ever thought about taking a month off social media? This blogger is suggesting you do so and provides a guide.

Knitted Christmas Ornaments - You still have time!

I Can Not Make Dinner - We've all been there. When we just can't.

35 Self Care Practices for the Holidays - Take care of yo'self!

October/November Book Report

Well hello there....It's been awhile since I posted a book report. Sometimes I just stop reading as much and then I don't feel like talking about it. Let's get caught back up! There is no time like the present.

Louise Penny is amazing and her latest book, Glass Houses: A Novel (Chief Inspector Gamache Novel) is even more so. It has layers and layers to peel back. So many layers. The book addressed the opiate crisis with a murder at the core. I loved visiting the residents of Three Pines and Chief Inspector Gamache. I love that town though I'd never live there - too many murders! 

Small Great Things: A Novel by Jodi Picoult was a book club read with my Coffee & Crumbs Year of Creativity group. It was so uncomfortable. There were parts where I had to put the book down and just walk away. The  most upsetting part was how all of it was true. The book addresses a family of white supremacists and what happens when they accuse an African-American nurse of harming their baby boy. 

Anything by Ann Patchett makes me happy and this book off essays was wonderful. I listened to This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage read by Ann Patchette herself. My favorite essay has to be the one around the trip she took in an RV with her now husband, Carl. It was so well written and I wanted to listen for hours. 

This is one book that unfortunately took me a long time to read. Magpie Murders: A Novel by Anthony Horowitz is a book with in a book - both about murders. It was a fascinating read but something kept me back from flying through it. 

I actually read The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter for an article I wrote on Swedish Death Cleaning and I loved her brisk, honest writing. It is true that we should clear out the clutter so our loved ones are not left to pick up our stuff. Such an inspirational read. 

I picked up Louis Undercover at the library, intending to read it to the kids. Then I saw it was about an alcoholic father and decided to just read it myself. It was tragic, beautifully drawn and happy all at the same time. 

The Burning Girl: A Novel was the Seattle Refined Book Club pick for November. I really liked this book even though there were a few too many things left unanswered. I don't need all of a book's mysteries to be answered but this one left too many unanswered.  This is a story about two girls in middle school and their friendship. Trauma rips them apart and questions are left unanswered. 

Yearly Book Total: 45/52

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links which means if you buy something from a link, I receive a very small percentage back.