It’s 2022!!!

It’s 2022 y’all! I am mildly OCD and I love even numbers so I feel like this is going to be a good year for me. 🙂 RaptorDad’s brother lives out in the country so got a bunch of fireworks and went over there to hang out in the yard and have some quality cousin time. So much fun!

Let’s check on the December goals and then the 2021 goals…

1. December Daily. I actually ::gasp:: decided not to do December Daily this year. I KNOW! I couldn’t believe it either. But it was feeling more like a burden than anything else and I’m not into making my hobbies feel like a job.
2. Hexie Blocks. I had a massive success with this one! The whole top is together. Now I just have to decide if I want to trim it square or applique it onto border. But I’m content to put it on a shelf for a bit and let it marinate.
3. Day Trip. This one didn’t happen because we all got a cold (negative covid tests thank goodness!) But soon I think. I need to see the ocean!
4. Scrapbooking. I didn’t get anything done. In fact, I’m making some changes for next year. I’m 90% decided that I’m going to do a single hybrid Project Life/ Scrapbook. One Project Life layout a month, ditch the calendar pages, and maybe 2 or 3 scrapbook pages a month, but only if I feel strongly about the pictures. Now that the kids are in school full time, there just aren’t as many pictures.
5. Christmas Cards. Fail. But I did get my thank you notes sent out so that’s something.
6. Advent Calendar. I got exactly 3 toys done. lol. But I am still enjoying it!
7. St. Lucia Buns. Done and they were delicious this year!
8. Activity Advent Calendar. I actually didn’t do great with this one this year. But that’s ok.
9. Downtown Lights. Yes! We did this and it was so much fun. We got a take out pizza from our favorite local pizza place and ate it down by the plaza so we could do some people watching. Then the kids had a blast looking at all of the lights.
10. Cookie Stuff. Done! I actually bought something on Etsy and modified it to work. Soooooo worth the couple of dollars. lol.

Let’s see the 2021 goals…

1. Hexies. Done! I got the center done and I’m super excited. 🙂
2. Butterfly Quilt. Top is done and I’ve decided to have it professionally quilted so now I’m just waiting for the long armer. 🙂
3. Caterpillar Quilt. Ditto! Maybe I’ll actually have these finished by their birthday. 🙂
4. Project Life. Well, I got 2019 done. Still need to finish 2020 and 2021. I got 26 spreads done in 2021, so 1/2 of the year. Both better and worse than I was expecting.
5. Scrapbooks. I didn’t work on 2020 at all. Like, I just looked and I didn’t do a single page. lol. So I’m still 6 months behind there. I did 22 pages from 2021 scattered throughout the year. January is done and February only needs the calendar page.
6. Scrapbook Gap. Well, I am caught up through the end of February 2019 so that’s something? I finished 20 pages from 2018 which closed out that year. And I did 17 pages from 2019. I usually get some scrappy motivation in January/ February so I’ll have to see what I can knock out this month.
7. Advent Calendar. I made some progress, but there’s still loads to be done. Still, I’d really like to wrap this up before next Christmas.
8. Monthly Kid Adventures. I actually switched this up to a monthly state park challenge midway through the year. We didn’t make it to 12, but we did make it to 5! I’d love to keep exploring these. 🙂
9. Monthly Seasonal Celebration. Hmm… I feel like maybe we got 7 out of 12?
10. Homeschool. Well, we survived. lol. And I am getting some distance so that I can remember it fondly. Or at least more fondly. lol.

Other notable achievements include losing 50 pounds! Many more to go. lol.

Hmm… I was trying to decide if I even wanted to do annual goals, but I do like being able to check in at the end of the year so here goes.

1. Monthly Adventure with RaptorDad. We have been taking advantage of the kids being in school to go on some local adventures! Sometimes we do fun Austin bucket list things (Barton Springs and Peter Pan Mini Golf topping the list!) and sometimes we just go try a fun new lunch spot or go for a hike. Either way it’s been so nice to have some time to reconnect and we want to keep it up in the new year. 🙂
2. House Reorganization. This is a big one. We have a 4 bedroom house- master, twin’s room, Kate’s room, art room. Currently the only carpet is in the 3 small bedrooms and it’s super gross builder grade carpet. We also have a crazy indoor “playhouse” that RaptorDad build when Kate was a baby and it’s taking up 1/3 of our living room. The master plan is to put wood floors in the bedrooms which will require everything coming out of the 3 small bedrooms. We’re going to tear out the playhouse as well. (Yay for a massive decluttering opportunity!) Since everything is coming out anyway, we’re going to switch the twin’s room and the art room. We’re also getting the twins big kid beds and new storage. I’m hoping that this can happen in the spring, but we’ll just have to see.
3. Road Trip! I’ve been wanting to take an epic road trip for many years, but the timing has never been right. Now that the kids are all older, I’d really like to plan a road trip for this summer. I’m sure it will not be the 2 month cross country insanity that I’m envisioning, but surely I can manage a week or 2. Maybe we’ll finally make it to the Grand Canyon! Or Mount Rushmore!
4. Past Project Life. Hmm… What seems reasonable… I think I’d like to finish 2020 (8 layouts), and finish 2021 (27 layouts including the front and back pages).
5. Current Project Life. I’d like to attempt to do 1 layout a month.
6. Past Scrapbooks. Ideally, I’d love to finish 2019, 2020, AND 2021. But more realistically, I’d like to cull the list so that I’m only aiming for 4 or 5 layouts a month. Then try to get 2019 done. Just to keep myself organized, I need to do 10 months from 2019, 6 from 2020, and 11 from 2021.
7. Current Scrapbook. As always, I’d love to get back to scrapping in real time. Fingers crossed that the new plan of 1 scrapbook to rule them all will help with this plan. I’m thinking a goal of no more than 4 pages a month? Some months I end up with 20 or more pages and that’s just not reasonable. I seriously do not need 40 scrapbook pages of the same creek at Garey Park. lol.
8. Bucilla Advent Calendar. I for real want to finish this before December this year.
9. Smitten Quilt. I want to finish this one! I think there’s hope. lol. I currently have 7 of 33 blocks done. (27 full blocks and 6 1/2 blocks).
10. Butterfly/ Caterpillar Quilts. I’m hoping to get these back from the quilter and bound/ labeled before the twin’s birthday. 🙂

So January Goals….

1. Staff Development Hours. We are officially down to the wire. My certificate expires in March and I’ve started subbing at the kids’ school so I actually have to renew it. I only need 25 more hours and I’d love to get them done in January so that I have a bit of a buffer.
2. Declutter. I’d love to get rid of 4 more giant trash bags from my office.
3. Walk twice a week. RaptorDad found an outdoor running trail. I’d like to go walk while he runs twice a week.
4. Family Dinner. Covid really did a number on family dinner. Honestly, we haven’t had it regularly since March 2020 and I’d like to change that. I want to sit down with RaptorDad and come up with some simple HEALTHY meals that I can easily make. Maybe shoot for me cooking dinner twice a week?
5. Family meeting. I am hoping to start a habit of a family meeting each Sunday where we go over plans for the upcoming week and fill in our planners. I think this would be a really good habit for Kate especially.
6. Smitten Quilt. I’d like to finish 3 more Smitten blocks. That will bring me up to 10 completed (2 of each color). Then I want to lay them out and prep the next round of 5.
7. Scrap. I want to set up my new book and get January 2022 done. Then maybe focus on Project Life 2020 and just get that done?
8. Cookie Season. Oh dear. It’s go time. lol. Somehow I’m the cookie mom for Mia’s troop. lol.
9. Clean Scrap Desk. I want to get it cleared off and organized.
10. Draft New Art Room. I drafted out the twin’s new room and it was very helpful in decided which furniture would work in there. I want to do the same with the art room so that I can get an idea of what storage will work in there.

Oh boy. This was the world’s longest blog post! lol. I really enjoy setting and reflecting on goals each year/ month. Clearly. Fingers crossed for more blog posts (with pictures!) in the new year.