Good bye 2013: Hello 2014!

Last year, right before New Year's Day I decided to create a bucket list.  Not before I kick the bucket, but before the year 2013 kicked the bucket.  It was my first bucket list and I have to say that I loved it!  It kept me focused on the year and getting things done that I wanted to accomplish.  So many times, we say, "someday" or "when I have some free time" but this helped remind me of my goals, there is only so much time to get them done and accomplish my goals.

I'm happy to report that I accomplished 6 out of my 7 goals!  Woot woot!

1. Buy a House  This one was kind of cheating because I knew it was happening and still put it in the list.      Nonetheless, it was crossed off my list!
2. Run a Half Marathon  I really did!
3. Donate my hair  All 12 inches!
4. Go on a shooting date with Josh  (we did this one right before Thanksgiving-it was a blast!)
5. Have a family picnic in our new backyard  (I'm counting Rory's birthday party as our "picnic")
6. Start a garden with Rory  This was so much fun that we will be planting again this year.  We learned a lot-mostly from our failed attempts to grow any real food.  We did, however, have more zucchini than I could count, at least 3 cantaloupe, a handful of green beans, a cup of dry beans and a few tomatoes.  I'm blaming the rabbits for our dismal turnout.

7. Visit our friends in Texas--This is the only one we didn't get to do. : (

I've been thinking about what I want to get done in 2014 and here is my plan.


1. Complete "Challenge Cards" from church.  In November, during a service, we were challenged to accept a card.  Each card had a task that needed to be completed--the interesting part was, you couldn't pick your card and you couldn't look to see what was on it before you accepted it.  By accepting the card you accepted the task.  The last I heard about these Challenge Cards, our worship minister was challenged to memorized the entire Sermon on the Mount.  He recited the Sermon during church and it was fabulous--will never read that portion of the Bible the same way again.  However, knowing that, my first thought was, "Well, they wouldn't make ours that hard."  Which is probably why we ended up with the cards that we did. While my card (& Josh's) don't require memorization work we do have a lot of prep work to figure out.  More to come-we are really excited about the tasks and seeing what happens with them.

2. Get Rory a passport. We don't plan on traveling internationally but I find that maneuvering the airport is so much easier if you have one.


3. Run Half Marathon, 10k and 5k.  And not in that order or all within a short time frame.  I ran Cincinnati's Flying Pig last year and it was so much fun!  But, I didn't register for ANY races after that and haven't run much since. BIG mistake!  I'm hoping this goal will keep me motivated and moving all year long.

4. Start a Thankful Journal- This was another idea brought up at church.  At the end of each day, write down 3 things you are thankful for.  Actually, we were supposed to start this at Thanksgiving but I like to start things at the beginning of the year so I'll start mine then.  Maybe by Thanksgiving 2014, I'll have a good list to share.

5. Give up Soda! It's probably fair to say I have an addiction--and it's just not healthy.  Technically, I've already started this one.  No soda since Dec 26th and it's hard!! I could really use a Coke right now.

6. Family Activity Time-It's really easy for us to get caught up in getting through life each day that sometimes I forget to do fun things.  This year it's my goal to plan one really fun, and hopefully, new activity each month for us to do together.  I'm pretty excited about this one and already have a few ideas up my sleeves.  If I run out of ideas, well, there is always Pinterest. Ha!

That about sums it up!  I'm anxious and excited to see what 2014 holds.  There are many wonderful, amazing, God given days up ahead.  I'm ready to take 2014 by the horns and wrestle her down! :)