Completing War and Peace and Looking Towards 2019

Done. FINALLY done. Can you tell I got a little resentful of War and Peace by the end of the year? Ha! There's something about year-end reading and the pull of the 'best of lists' (I'll add mine to the pile soon) or just wanting to get to all the holiday books on my shelf. For sure, throughout the year, sitting down with this doorstop did not feel burdensome and I was hopeful about the story's conclusion. However, in the final chapters and weeks of reading, I wasn't getting any emotional investment in the characters or their predicaments. You would think after 1400 or so pages I would have felt like I knew these people inside and out and been invested in their fates. Alas...  
I will say that it was totally accessible reading and not terribly complex - just long. There were certainly parts I enjoyed, mostly anything having to do with the women in the story, and Pierre. Sadly those parts were given short shrift to all of the incessant minutiae of the battle scenes. Which is ironic, because Tolstoy goes on at length about how the planning doesn't matter in war, just luck and circumstance. I'm glad to know the story. I'm glad that I learned a lot about my reading habits. I'm glad I did something new. I'm glad I saw it through. I'm glad I have this lovely Penguin Clothbound Classics edition to commemorate this task.
The thought did cross my mind to tackle another humongous classic, perhaps Les Miserables because I adore that story and definitely would be invested in the characters! But since I know the plot already, I don't think it would be an impactful reading experience. My other reading goals, reading from my unread shelf and books I've been meaning to read, really went by the wayside this year. I'd rather put my effort into that again, as well as reading more work by POC and own voices (fingers crossed for at least one a month and perhaps a dedicated review) rather than classics by old white dudes. 
So that's pretty much it for the yearly goals! Perhaps I'll do even more simplifying here - most of my interaction with publishers happens on Instagram and microblogging over there is way more fun. Although minimizing has already been a natural progression on this space, gradually going from 185 posts in 2012 (!) to 44 this year. I shall be back soon, though, with December books read, yearly favorites, and a review of the new Karen Thompson Walker book - The Dreamers. So, I hope you stay tuned and please do come join me on Instagram if you are so inclined!

Scoring the Summer Bucket List 2018

Another summer break has come to a close, and another year of school has begun, which means time for the annual scoring of the summer bucket list. Things are a little crazy around here, since my oldest started middle school! I am slowly getting into the groove of juggling between two schools and, so far, my boy is having a great experience (my daughter is, too, but she's still in elementary and loves school no matter what). The responsibility, multiple teachers and the school itself really seems to suit him. I rather hated middle school, although it was junior high (just 7th and 8th) for me, and I think my anxiety is for my former self and not this kid, especially in this day and age. Even if/when, he runs into any issues, there are as many school counselors on staff as when I was in HIGH SCHOOL! One of his electives right now is Yoga/Mindfulness/Meditation and the teacher is a buff young dude with a man bun and a beard! I would like a do-over please! ANYWAY...
We had a really great summer and this year my husband took off every Friday, which was excellent - highly recommend. This enabled us to check off a lot of bucket list items and we're hopeful that summer 'fun family Fridays' will be a yearly thing. Without further ado, here's what we managed to accomplish besides slothing in the backyard, hitting up the pool and beach.

Blueberry picking
An easy one to check off the list, and I highly recommend these Smitten Kitchen muffins.

Mini Golf
Another gimme for the summer! 

Go to the Movies
Christopher Robin was the consensus this year, and it did not disappoint. I have a huge crush on Ewan McGregor, so this was a win win for me!

Bowling 
We ended up enrolling in the national Kids Bowl Free program and went at least once a week, which was pretty fun! It doesn't end up being free, exactly, because I paid $30 for my husband and I to have unlimited bowling with them, and I spend $12 on shoes each time we go. But, all in all, it's a pretty good deal for keeping entertained during the summer months and it's still good through September.

Point Defiance Zoo 
My husband checked this one off with the kids, while I had a day of relaxation for my birthday. Ahhhh.

Visit Paradise at Mount Rainier 
Another year, another successful and strenuous hike for the kids! We finally hiked the skyline trail after a 12 year hiatus, waiting for the kids to be old enough to handle it. They had some setbacks, there were bouts of whining, but when they were done with over 8 miles of walking for the day, and well over 1500 feet of elevation gain, they were really proud - as were we! 

Having pool time post hike is also a great incentive, we love staying over at Alta Crystal Resort!

Hike Big Four Ice Caves trail and Wallace Falls 
We did Big Four and happened upon a hike and sketch program which was really awesome! Additionally, my husband took the eldest on his first Rattlesnake Ledge hike.

Wallace Falls fell off the schedule, but we hit up Snow Lake just before school started. It was a little overcast, but it's always beautiful there.

Go to an Outdoor Concert 
Nope. Just as with the school year, and even more so in the summer, I am stick-a-fork-in-me DONE by the time evening rolls around and am not super motivated to leave the house. Oh well, I'll put it on the list again next year, I'm sure!
Annual Car Show
My daughter had a birthday party on this particular day, but my boys went and enjoyed!
Art Project 
Well, we didn't do an art project per se, but the kids did their Amazon STEM kits, as well as National Geographic fossil kits and they discovered paint by sticker books - which were a HUGE HIT this summer!

New to us Museum 
Our first visit to MoPOP was so much fun, and we are now working our way through all of the Marvel movies with the kids (they had only seen the Guardians films and Black Panther). They mostly geeked out over that, while my husband and I also enjoyed a lot of old school sci-fi memorabilia  - Aliens, The Fifth Element, Battlestar Galactica, the list goes on!
Deep Clean/Purge and Rearrange Kid's Rooms 
We did this the last week of summer and my boy actually said it was FUN. I mean I enjoy a good game of keep, toss or donate, so the apple must not fall far from the tree.

Complete Library Summer Reading Challenge and Read Harry Potter Books
My son and I are nearly done with The Order of the Phoenix, but I got a late start on Prisoner of Azkaban with my daughter, since we spent the first part of summer reading Anne of Green Gables! YAY! She really enjoyed it and that makes my heart so HAPPY. And, of course they completed their summer reading challenge!
Visit Wild Waves
NOPE. Another thing that I keep telling myself I'll do with the kids that I'll put on the list year after year. One day, when I'm feeling brave...
Yoga Breaks
Cosmic Kids Yoga is so darn cute and I highly recommend! We even did some in the backyard! 
Have Each Kiddo Pick a Meal to Make for the Family 
This didn't happen, but since it's not necessary for warm weather/an outdoor activity, I'm hopeful that we will do this sometime during the school year!
Theo Chocolate Tour 
The day that I chose to do this, the tickets were sold out online! Boo! Again, something that could be done during the school year, so maybe we'll try again and plan well in advance.
Redmond Night Bazaar 
See above re: outdoor concert.

Ferry to Bainbridge 
We've had bad timing in the past with ferries, so we didn't feel up to Bainbridge. Instead, we hit up Whidbey Island, visiting Coupeville and Fort Casey avoiding the ferries. Thumbs up for this as a day trip!
Try a New Cocktail Recipe
I tried this Escape From Alcatraz  and made quite a few Aperol spritzes, but I kept coming back to last year's Gold Rush cocktail of bourbon, lemon juice, honey syrup and mint: so easy and delicious!
Try a New Restaurant for Dinner
We tried two new restaurants in Enumclaw during our summer road trip and both were excellent! The Historic Mint Restaurant and Ale House was really trendy and cute with tasty food and wikki stix for the kids! Il Siciliano also had excellent atmosphere, delicious pasta and pizza, as well as a nicely done Aperol Spritz. I wish we had a similar neighborhood Italian joint!
Unexpected bonus summer accomplishment number one:
My husband and son do a twenty mile supported bike ride every year, and this year I got a great pic:

But the real accomplishment was getting my daughter up and running on her bike! She was really determined and proud of finally hitting this milestone, and we are, too.

Unexpected bonus summer accomplishment number two: enroll my son in joining me for my boot camp class! He asked to come with me and I thought maybe he'd try it a time or two. And, lo, he loved it and dutifully came with me every Tuesday without fail this summer! 

He's already looking forward to classes during winter break! And yes, I'm already counting down the days to Thanksgiving and Christmas...

New Year, New Goals 2018

I find myself realizing, like last year, that I didn't refer back to my goals very often. But, writing something down is still fun. It's kind of like opening a letter that a wrote to myself one year ago: Ooooh! What'd I say? Did these goals linger in my subconscious throughout the year? For the most part, yes. That I succeeded in all of them, no...
2017 GOALS
Read 65 Books. 72! I had another successful year on meeting the book goal. Thinking I need to change this up going forward, though. *foreshadowing*
Get back to regular Mom's Demand Action Meetings.  Sadly, this was a pretty big fail. They tend to conflict with my school PTA and kids extra curricular commitments, so I may try to shuffle things around in the future since this is something rather important to me.
Get plantar fasciitis under control.  Thank goodness I took care of this early in the year. I did a pretty crazy treatment, but it WORKED.
Run three races. Even though I fixed the foot, I have still been wary of racing. I was still injured during Hot Chocolate season. But I did run the inaugural Tenacious Ten 10K! So, one third complete. (My 5th grader's math has me thinking in fractions a lot lately.)
Eat more fruit.  Yeah, I didn't really do this - it would seem I'm just a veggie person. In related news, the new salad kits at Trader Joe's are SCRUMPTIOUS. I could devour the slaw with orange tahini dressing by the boatload.
Get six new meals into regular rotation. I'm pretty sure I can check this one off, I got into a good cookbook kick in the second half of the year.
Plan the summer road trip and perhaps a girls trip. Check on an awesome Rainier trip and I'm getting in a last minute meetup with girlfriends next month in Nashville! 
Do the 52 Lists project. Alas, I think this book is more well suited for someone who doesn't make enough lists in her life. As it is, I make plenty of lists - so this fell off the radar. I may have a little fun with it this year, but I'm not holding myself to it.
I'm realizing that my goals truly are aspirations that I carry with me all the time, because they mostly revolve around the same things year after year: running, travel, cooking, and number of books. So I'm doing away with all of that and only focusing on bookish goals, with something random thrown in - like the year I made makeup a goal, which was DEFINITELY fun.
It's also fun to look back at my book stats for the year (here's last year's) when making goals. 

Of the 72 books: 11 were POC authors (15%), 55 written by women (76%), 8 ARCs and 8 audio books each (11%). But, I don't want to dwell too much on the numbers this year. Even though I set a goal for 75 books on Goodreads, I won't be scrambling at the end of the year to meet it - I either will, or I won't. I would like to read more intentionally, and spend time on allll those books I've been 'meaning' to read. 

2018 Goals
Read one book a month from my unread shelf. Yep, those are all of my unread Book of the Month books. I don't think I'm alone in having this pile, and I take comfort in the fact that the 'read' pile is bigger. Alas, I would like to get through them so I feel less guilty about choosing new ones, as well as an assortment of complimentary copies or gifts I have languishing on my shelves.
Read at least six books "I've been meaning to read." You know the ones. The ones that get pushed back because they've waited this long and that lucky day shelf keeps calling, or that hot new release everyone's talking about or that ARC gets approved. One a month seemed lofty, so at least one every two months should be doable. I just recently got around to Anne of Green Gables, and side note: OMG! I'm pretty sure I read it as a kid, but it was a total re-discovery and just about the most perfect book. I'm seriously considering getting the complete set to read...
Read War and Peace. Speaking of reading some classics, I'm joining the bandwagon and just ordered my chosen translation to read one chapter a day (after I get caught up) this year. Definitely check out The Ardent Biblio's post on choosing a translation (I went with the same one they chose).
Non bookish/food/running related goal: improve handwriting and have more fun with art! As a lefty, this is a lofty goal, but I think I'm up for the challenge. I also had a lot of fun doing art with my kids over the summer with the subscription box we received. Now I might try and use our own creative juices to have fun with art! Wish me luck...

New Year, New Goals 2017

Photo from my Y, where we are all invitied to write our goals.

Since I didn't refer much to my 2016 goals throughout the year, and petered out on quarterly check-ins, I thought about forgoing them 2017. But I enjoy lists too much, and even if I only get around to a few of them, I still find the practice worthwhile and I think I did check off a good amount - about 7 out of 11:

• End the run streak when the time is right/obvious. Yep, I did this and am still coming back from ye olde plantar fasciitis. 
• Read 55 books. Woot! 62!
• Do the Book Riot read harder challenge. Welp. I never outlined books to read for the challenge and really didn't make decisions based on the prompts. However, it's fun to see how many I tackled looking back and I checked off about half the list!

• Run 5 races, including one trail race. Ha! Nope.   
• Aim for one PR. Welp. I can't PR if I'm not racing. I sincerely hope that my PR days are not behind me...  
• Plan a girls trip with my high school buddies. Yay! DONE.  
• Plan another summer family road trip. Also yay! DONE.
• More picture taking and maybe a small weekly or monthly roundup. Check! I enjoyed adding 'everyday life' to my weekly meal plan, because those are the posts I look back on the most. Definitely keeping up this routine.
• Get at least 5 new meals into regular rotation. I barely squeaked this one in, with exactly 5 favorite new recipes this year.   
• Try new restaurants with the hubs. Hm. Do vacation restaurants count? 
• Have more fun with makeup and find the right routine, colors, etc. for me. I think I can check this one off, too. I am definitely having more fun with it and learned a thing or two.

For this year, I thought about going with the increasingly popular idea of coming up with my one word for the year. And it was haaaaard. It felt rather limiting to me, and I love lists. I suppose I could do both. So my best attempt for a 2017 word is: SUBSTANTIVE. I want to engage in things that are substantive and nourishing to my life. Which equals reading things that bring me contentment and knowledge, continuing to eat healthy meals (mostly! everything in moderation!), more in person time with friends, less Twitter (and OF COURSE Facebook - I deleted the app from my phone/tablet months ago) and more New York Times (I added that app when I subscribed). Yet I had to write a list...

• Read 65 books! It'll be fun to attempt this, but like the Read Harder challenge, I think I'm going to forgo any hard and fast reading goals. I like the idea of reading pretty freely with the intention of: reading more diversely (hopefully increasing my percentage of POC authors to more than 10% this year), keeping advance copies to about one a month (though it's always so tempting to request ALL THE BOOKS), get back to reading more YA (I read so little in 2016) as well as more middle grade/Newberry Books.  
• Get back to regular Mom's Demand meetings, and perhaps add ACLU ones. I fell off going regularly to MDA when the school year started and all of a sudden it was the holidays. Plus I joined this equally substantive organization and will try to learn more about volunteer opportunities.

• Get plantar fasciitis under control. It's SO much better, but not entirely gone. I don't feel it at all before, during, or after a run up to about four miles. But if I add distance or speed, my foot aches at night. I did end up getting orthotics and I'm hoping they help me turn a corner. But, I have let a lot of the prehab slide, so I need to commit to that daily.
• Run three races. This sounds ridiculously easy, given my past racing history. Yet there it is. I don't want to aim for PRs, I just want to feel 100% injury free. Obviously Hot Chocolate and the 5K for the first time! And the Tenacious Ten (see sidebar!), albeit the 10K rather than the 10 miler that I wish I could do, but I know that would be pushing it - even as far out as April.
• Eat more fruit! I am a veggie person and get plenty of servings at lunch and dinner to cover the lack of fruit. But, I think it'd be a good thing for my overall health to incorporate into my diet/change things up. 
• Get 6 new meals into regular rotation. Why not one up last year's goal? I already have one to put on the list, too!
• Plan the summer road trip and PERHAPS another girls trip. I have yet to hit my girls up on ideas about this, but I kinda want to make it happen!
• Do the 52 Lists Project. How could I not want to dive into this beautiful book every week?
  

Quarterly Check In on the Yearly Goals

As I was realizing that we are through the first quarter of the year (!) I had a vague memory of stating that I'd probably check in on my 2016 goals every quarter. And I must admit, I hadn't even glanced at them since I wrote them. I did have a few in the back of my mind, but there were a few surprises on there that I'm not doing too shabby in checking off the list. Maybe I'll add a few more bullets...

2016 Goals
End the run streak when the time is right/obvious.  
There has been no obvious stopping point, so I'm on track for TWO WHOLE YEARS (WHAT) by this Memorial Day. Yes, I even ran my minimum mile every day on our weekend vacay.

Read 55 books.  So far, I've read 14 books this year which is spot on for my target! (My goal this year was to read at least one more book than I did the year before (47 books in 2014), and I HANDILY succeeded by reading 54. So yeah, one more book than last year.)

Do the Book Riot read harder challenge.  Eeeep. I haven't been doing as well on this challenge. I think I have about five books checked off the list, but I might have to be more deliberate if I really want to get through it it this year...

Run 5 races, including one trail race.  I haven't made very good on this one yet! I'm registered to run the 520 Go Long 10K this weekend, but I may have a conflict, so we shall see. Either way, it's not going to be a race - more of a fun run and to participate in probably the only race that will ever take place on the floating bridge!   

Aim for one PR.  Again, I'm not making much headway on the racing front. After the bridge run, I do have the Brooks Trailhead 15K on the calendar for May. Although, I don't think that is a distance I want to try for a PR. Nor is the Rock n' Roll half in June. So I may aim for a 5K in the fall, and just continue to enjoy maintaining my fitness and being laid back about my running workouts.

Plan a girls trip with my high school buddies.   Yayyyy! It's on the calendar and my plane ticket to Denver is booked for this summer. One of my friends relocated from Chicago to Denver last year, so we're all meeting up there this summer to check out her new home and then take a drive to stay and play in Beaver Creek.

Plan another summer family road trip. This is also planned/booked! We've headed West, and headed North, now we're gonna go South to Oregon and check out Hood River for a couple of days. And maybe do a better job on the family car ride selfie...

More picture taking and maybe a small weekly or monthly roundup.  And this is why This Weeks Eats has become Everyday Life and Menu Plan! The menu planning is so helpful for me to have here, and I look over these posts often for ideas and links. It's way more fun to have little photo album to go along with it and may be a cool thing to print out one day.

Get at least 5 new meals into regular rotation.  There have been at least 10+ new recipes I've tried this year, and I'll probably make one or two of them again. But the Thai Sticky Chicken Fingers recipe we made this week is one that will DEFINITELY go into regular rotation.  

Try new restaurants with the hubs. Do vacation restaurants count?? I suppose we even went to an old favorite when we went to San Diego. We're old and set in our ways. GET OFF MY LAWN.

Have more fun with makeup and find the right routine, colors, etc. for me.  D'you know that at Sephora, you can get a sample size of pretty much anything? I went and got a few tinted moisturizers/BB creams to try out over a few weeks and have definitely fallen into the Laura Mercier tinted moisturizer camp (the oil free with SPF 20). Love. Love. Love. My other favorite thing, because I just can't get into eyeshadow on a daily basis, is the Clinique Chubby Stick Sculpting Highlight. I drag it over my brow bone after putting on mascara and call it good.

New goals!

• Get my littlest riding without her training wheels.  There has been so much focus on how well she's swimming, that I've sort of let the biking go by the wayside. Although, I think her brother finally ditched them at age 6, too. So, hopefully she'll be on board.
• Register for one summer camp.  Can you tell I'm sort of 'summer focused' right now?? It's that time of year when the brochures come out, the plans start getting made and you start to freak out about what to do all summer long.  
• Reorganize our 'bonus room' and finally turn it into a play room.  The kids have gotten more into playing the Wii in our living room, and we got them an XBox for their birthdays this year. But I really don't want to have them all up in my grill every time they play, and it makes us nostalgic for our Midwestern upbringing where we had BASEMENTS. They are rare in our neck of the woods, so we're thinking about turning our guest room/loft into a game room/play room - but store the double bed for when Grandma comes to visit, of course.

Until next time!  Hopefully I'll remember to check back in sometime in July...

2016 Goals and December Recap

As some of you may have noticed, I went ahead and changed this blog over to Born and Read in Chicago, instead of maintaining two separate spaces.  It just seemed the logical thing  to do.  Rather than letting all the content here collect dust (I'm too sentimental about it!), I brought all the book posts here with the rename.  So, there will be slightly different content going forward.  As I said in my updated About Me page, more book focused, but I will still occasionally talk running and other stuff (just as I occasionally/monthly talked books since 2012).

In keeping with simplifying things, I'm going back to a yearly/to-do list for 2016.  I really had fun thinking big picture back in 2013/2014, and think it'll be simpler (and less boring) than talking monthly stuff.  But first, I've gotta check in on my last goals of 2015:  

December Goals

Finish gift shopping.
I felt ahead of the game on things this year and was done with all the gifts at least 2 weeks before Christmas.  Although, with the way shipping was backed up this year, that meant one or two things still squeaked in juuuuust under the wire. 

Purchase and assemble teacher gifts.  
Holiday bark  with the Target cards went over so well, that I got a recipe request from one of the teachers.  I make a note of the ingredients in case of allergies, but DUH.  Next year I will be including the recipe, maybe on nice card stock... 

Baking, so much baking.
Mmmmm.  Always a fun to-do item.  

Holiday Cards. 
Sigh.  The pictures and ordering were accomplished by the first week of December and, alas, I tried another coupon with a different company than last year and the same thing happened: not making good on promised timetables.  Thankfully, since I did order them so early, I was able to get them out the Sunday before Christmas.

Come up with some 2016 goals.  
Voila!  Those are below!

Put together a race recap on the Turkey Trot.
Done!

Stay well, and pray to the weather gods that I get a whole calendar year of streaking done in 2015.
I am knocking on wood as I type this, but we have been really healthy this year.  I haven't been sacked with a fever or cough since last winter!  By November of every year, I'm usually struck with some horrible virus the kids have picked up.  Maybe because they're getting older/less handsy in elementary school?  Nevertheless, I have that and the weather to thank for making the whole run streak thing possible.  Which brings me to my first goal for 2016, not exactly what you might be thinking...

2016 Goals

• End the run streak when the time is right/obvious.  Having completed a year in May, then a calendar year in 2015, I don't know how much more I need to do with the streak.  I will for sure keep going, as I said on Instagram, it's my daily meditation.  However, if I'm running a fever or feel like I'm dying?  DONE.  If we ever get a few inches of snow and a snow day? (Can I call one in?  I miss them.)  DONE.  So, my goal is to not be obsessive and give myself permission to stop.
• Read 55 books. My goal this year was to read at least one more book than I did the year before (47 books in 2014), and I HANDILY succeeded by reading 54.  So yeah, one more book than last year.
• Do the Book Riot read harder challenge.  I'm excited to do a separate challenge from the annual Goodreads and I'm going to outline the books to read soon.
• Run 5 races, including one trail race.  In 2015 I ran a LOT, but I cut my race schedule down by half.  Again, simplifying is a lovely thing.    
• Aim for one PR.  This is something that I've been able to accomplish every year since I really started running in 2011, so I'm hopeful I can continue the trend.  Speaking of trends, it seems that my PRs are always a surprise/not planned for, unlike ones I train for - so I'm going to kind of 'let it go' in the dogged mentality of getting that damn sub 25 5K or sub 2 half.
• Plan a girls trip with my high school buddies.   We haven't gotten together in so long and since I'm probably not doing Bird Camp this year, I have the time and funds to make something happen with these ladies.  It's just getting the stars our schedules to align.
• Plan another summer family road trip. This will be the first summer in two years that we don't have a weeks old puppy in the house, so we might be able to squeak in something fun like we did back in 2012 and 2013.
• More picture taking and maybe a small weekly or monthly roundup.  I really enjoyed doing a roundup in past years and now that I've signed up for Chatbooks, it has inspired me to take more pics.  It might be easier to do weekly (maybe along with menu day) than to make a roundup at the end of the month.
• Get at least 5 new meals into regular rotation.  I think this is a little more attainable than holding myself to trying a minimum number of new recipes a month.  
• Try new restaurants with the hubs. I dunno, we'll see!  We love our usual haunts SO MUCH, that it's hard to gamble with something new when you get a date night out.  So, maybe more date nights out then?  Birthdays will always be at Daniels.  That's non-negotiable.
• Have more fun with makeup and find the right routine, colors, etc. for me. For Christmas I got a subscription to Birchbox (from my list!), as well as some new brushes, so I'm on the right track.  But I still feel pretty clueless about stuff (I didn't realize, until recently, that I could apply my BB cream with a brush. Brushes are a BIG DEAL, apparently.), so I'm going to try to learn more.  Plus maybe find a new perfume!  Fun, right?  I've had the same two scents (Issey Miyake, L'Eau D'issey and Fresh, Memoirs of a Geisha) for nearly a decade.

December Birchbox!

Okay!  I'm excited!  Maybe I'll do a little quarterly check-in.  Maybe not.  Keepin' it easy breezy.

Goal Setting for 2015! (Also Looking Back on 2014)

It's always a sad day when the holidays come to an end.  I think one of the reasons it's fun to set goals for the year is so that we have something to look forward to!  Although, going forward, I think I'm going to stick with a monthly to do list instead of a yearly one.  As I pointed out last year, I do much better with short term goals and it's easier to add/change/adapt monthly goals throughout the year.  Some of my proudest accomplishments from 2014 were goals I hadn't anticipated in January - namely NaBloPoMo, training a puppy, starting yoga, the run streak that I began in May (did day 222 today) and hitting 1,000 miles for the year (1012 total).  Since I hadn't looked at my yearly list in MONTHS, I told myself that I'd be pretty pleased with myself if I conquered half of them.  And, lo...

2014 goals:

1. PR in a race - hopefully a 5K. Not a 5K, but a 10K!
2. Volunteer at a race.
3. Do another trail race, or two, or three... well, I got one in.
4. Run a 5K with my son. YASSSSS.
5. Clean out the junk areas in the house - a couple of closets and drawers are getting scary. So much win on this one - all the closets and drawers!
6. Learn how to use the DSLR in manual mode. 
7. Plan another family trip. I am counting the trip to Great Wolf Lodge, yes I am.
8. Make that damn will.
9. Read more books than I did in 2013. Yay! I read 46 this year (here's my year on Goodreads), 3 more than 2013.
10. Redecorate/refurnish the kids rooms.

Six items out of ten crossed off the list and I'm calling that GOOD.  Certainly I have some overarching goals for 2015: I'd like to keep the run streak going all year, hit at least 1,000 miles, PR a 5K, volunteer at a race AND in my kids classrooms (this is the fall they will BOTH be in elementary!), read more books than last year, and then some.  And hopefully those will come by setting my smaller, monthly tasks.  So! Overview on December goals:

Set up and decorate the tree.  Done!  
Hang the outdoor lights. Womp, womp.  We never did this, probably because we were dealing with so much illness throughout the month.
Get all the Christmas shopping done.  Done!  Thank you, Amazon Prime.
Send out holiday cards. Done!
Make and deliver gifts for teachers. Done!
Make an appointment to see the eye doc first thing in January and maybe squeeze in a visit to my chiro. Half done, I'm all set for the eye doc, but I just keep putting off the chiro because I'm feeling fine.  But I really should go as a preventative measure...
Decide on Christmas day menu and get shopping. Done!
Keep up with ye olde run streak. Done, even while sick!

January Goals:

• Decide on a plan for the Lake Sammamish Half and get to it!  I've been wanting to do this race again for the last couple of years, but it's always the weekend after Hot Chocolate.  I've decided to just bite the bullet, and incorporate the 15K into the training.  It's only two months away and I haven't really thought of what kind of plan to follow.  I'd like to do well.  I don't know if I'm in a place to PR like I did three years ago, but I'd like to put forth a solid effort and continue bettering my time from my last few halfs.
• Keep up the run streak, of course.
• Reign in the alcohol and dessert consumption/get back to a normal routine.  I only gained about three pounds this holiday season, and I consider that a total WIN.  But I certainly want to get rid of it, get back to eating normally, and to our regular routine with the kids and the gym.
• Change the batteries in all of the smoke detectors - exciting!
• Get out and run the trails, maybe try and hit up a new one - gotta put a fun and easy one on the list.

Happy New Year!

2014 To Do List and January Goals

Hey! How was everyone's holiday!?  Before I get into ours, I thought today would be a good day to kick off posts for the year with the annual to do list.  Given the year long time frame I had to work on my to-do list, I think there was a bit too much room to procrastinate on some of the individual items.  However, the monthly things that I held myself accountable for went pretty well, except for Pinterest goals.  And, well, that's easily explained by my lack of craftiness/crafting motivation.  Clearly food and photography are more motivating, so I'm taking that into account for 2014.  But first I've got to grade myself on this past year...

 1. Get caught up on pictures taken at the end of the year and upload them to share with family  (Because of the #2 on my to do list, I've been really good about keeping my pictures from all sources uploaded and organized.)

2. Take one picture a day for an monthly online album and then a hard copy book at the end of the year
(JAN, FEB, MAR, APR, MAY, JUN, JUL, AUG, SEP, OCT, NOV, DEC) (I didn't stick to a picture a day, but came close.  I'm almost done with December and have a Shutterfly coupon all ready to go, so I'd say I crossed this one off the list, too!)

3. Frame and hang more pictures of the kids  (I'm really glad I put this on the list, because it definitely kept me accountable and we have some lovely 8x10s that we put in big frames in our living room that I just love - will probably do more in 2014)

4. Read 50 books (Sooooo close! 43!  I'm giving myself an 85% score on this one - that's like a B+, right?  Here's my 2013 list on Goodreads, and you can read all of my reviews, so far, on the blog here.)

5. Run a marathon (Aaaaand, no.  As I've said, never say never, but not anytime soon.)

6. Do a trail race  (Soaring Eagle!)

7. Run 1000 miles total for the year (Well, if I had trained for and run a marathon this year, I'm thinking I would have easily met this goal.  Getting to 717 is pretty good (a 70%), and I'm definitely over 1000 kilometers!)

8. Run an overnight relay - (Ragnar Northwest Passage was so great, can't wait to do it again!)

9. Volunteer for at least one race (Handing out Nuun at the Seattle Rock n' Roll Marathon was awesome, and I really want to add this in a more official capacity for 2014!)

10. PR in something  (Barely squeaked one in with a 54:01 10K!)

11. Do more yoga (I definitely have done more than I ever have in past years, given so many great opportunities to work with Jasyoga, hoping to do even more this year.)

12. Go on another family overnight trip (Orcas Island was a great family getaway.  Now if we could only get my night owl daughter to sleep...)

13. Potty train a soon to be three year old and transition her out of a crib (Yay baby girl!  She made this pretty easy, 'nuff said.)

14. Find a new eye doc, get new glasses (Exciting stuff, eh? But: accountability! Done!)

15. Finally roll over that one lingering 401K into my existing IRA (Zzzzzz, but again, done!)

16. Make a will - even a free online one for the time being (Yeah, didn't get around to it - it's a tough thing to figure out, especially when you live very far from any and all family.  Will try again this year.)

17. Make at least one new meal every two weeks/twice a month (Easy goal, loved doing this and will just continue to do in 2014.)
(JAN, FEB, MAR, APR, MAY, JUN, JUL, AUG, SEP, OCT, NOV, DEC)
January favs - Seven Flavor Beef and crockpot cream cheese chicken chili
February favs - Thai green curry meatballs and million dollar spaghetti
March favs - Buffalo Chicken Salad and Barefoot Contessa's Minestrone
April favs - Baked Ziti (tried others, but this is the only one added to favs!)
May favs - Buffalo Chicken Casserole and Nancy's Chopped Italian Salad
June favs - Fire Roasted Mac and Cheese with Feta and Grilled Ginger Sesame Chicken Salad
July favs - Pesto Orecchiette with Chicken Sausage and Blue Cheese and Smashed Avocado and Roasted Tomato Grilled Cheese
August favs - Buffalo Chicken Burgers and Thai Chicken Rice Bowls
September favs - we did try at least 3 or more new meals, but they were all a bust! Biggest hit was making Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Muffins. 
October favs - Slow Cooker Steak Chili and Thai Quinoa Bowls
November favs - Chicken Hoisin Rice Bowls and Pesto Pasta with Sun Dried Tomatoes and Roasted Asparagus  
December favs - Crockpot Jalapeno Popper Chili and Turkey and Black Bean Enchiladas

18. Try something from Pinterest, other than food, once a month
(Didn't happen really - SO not my thing.  I wish it was, alas...)

19. Make a loaf of bread (I suppose I should specify sandwich bread or a yeast based bread loaf.  I was so lucky to get some friendship bread starter and I made a BUNCH of bread in the spring.)

20. Do a no shopping month (I thought this would be an easy one, but then I'd buy the littlest things that were on sale that I couldn't pass up.  Plus, Oiselle releases new stuff pretty consistently throughout the year and, well, it was just TOO HARD.)

About 15 and a half out of 20 ain't bad!  I think for this year I'm going to cut the to do list in half and add in monthly goals, since I seem to fare better with a shorter time frame.  

The to do list for 2014:
1. PR in a race - hopefully a 5K.
2. Volunteer at a race.
3. Do another trail run, or two, or three...
4. Run a 5K with my son.
5. Clean out the junk areas in the house - a couple of closets and drawers are getting scary.
6. Learn how to use the DSLR in manual mode.
7. Plan another family trip.
8. Make that damn will.
9. Read more books than I did in 2013.
10. Redecorate/refurnish the kids rooms.

Goals for January!

• Make a batch of soup just for my lunches/eat less frozen meals for lunch.
• Plank/do core work at least 6 days a week - giving myself one day a week to space out.
• Get some PT for my wonky leg.
• Refill contacts prescription. (exciting!)
• Make scheduled maintenance appointment for my car. (more excitement!)

Happy New Year all!  If you have a 2014 goal, to-do list, etc., please feel free to link it in the comments.  I'd love to read them!