RaptorMama

2023 was a year of incredible change for our family! We made the painful (to be fair more painful for some of us than others!) decision to leave Texas and move to Maine to start a new adventure. In addition to a whole new state, Kate started high school and got involved with technical theater which does my little inner stage manager heart good. Mia has had a massive developmental leap and it now doing amazing drawings and reading anything she can get her hands on. And Xander has fallen in love with all things snow and winter sports! He and Kate just started ski lessons at a little learn-to-ski area in our town and Xander especially is obsessed. As for me, I fulfilled a lifelong dream and went on safari in southern Africa which vastly exceeded my sky high expectations. 🙂 With that in mind, let’s take a look at the 2023 annual goals.

1. Old Project Life. OK. I’m going to be honest here, very little scrapping happened once we packed up the house in Texas. But, my new scrap/ sewing room is close to set up and I’m hoping to get a ton done in 2024! I did a whopping 5 layouts from old Project Life albums this year.
2. Current Project Life. I did marginally better here in that I made a few layouts at all. I ended the year with 15 layouts done in 2023. So only a bazillion to go.
3. Old Scrapbooks. See above re old Project Life. lol. I got 25 layouts done this year from older albums.
4. Current Scrapbooks. I did 15 layouts? Y’all. I only did 61 total pages in 2023 across old and new Project Life and scrapbooks. I need to do better this year!
5. Lose 30 pounds. I was doing horribly on this one until we moved, but thanks to the cooler temps and lack of a fenced backyard, we are taking the dog on multiple walks a day. So I’m proud to say that I lost 14 pounds this year bringing my grand total up to 59 pounds lost! I’ve officially lost the baby weight! Now if I can just lose the taco weight…
6. Africa. Best trip of my life and I’ve been to some pretty darn cool places. 🙂
7. Hexagons. I’m not done, but I’m getting closer! I’ve started binding it while I quilt it and it’s helping me to see more progress.
8. Try New Things. Oh yeah, you betcha.
9. Crafty Nights. I had a bit of a slump this fall, but I think I’m finally getting my crafty mojo back.
10. Felt. I did make some progress on the advent calendar! It’s still not done, but it is getting closer. 🙂

So now goals for 2024! This year, I kind of just did big categories.

1. Books. I read pretty much every day, but I’ve gotten into the bad habit of just reading trashy romances. My goal this year is to read 12 books from different genres. I’m not talking War and Peace here, but just actual real books that have a plot and character development. Once I finish the book, I’m going to print the cover and make a teeny tiny copy of the book for my dollhouse. I think it will be so fun to add real books to it!
2. Project Life. Here’s the deal. First priority is 2024. Second priority is the second half of 2023- once we arrived in Maine. If I can look at 2021 and 2022 without being sad, I’ll work on them too.
3. Scrapbooks. The plan is the same here, except that I have unfinished scrapbooks going back to 2019. ::sigh:: So I think the main goal will be 2024 and the second half of 2023, but I have got to put 2019 out of its misery…
4. Home Projects. So many fun house projects I want to tackle! Among them, rainbow stairs, painting all the things, built-in lockers for a mudroom area, wallpaper for the dining room, and finishing out the laundry area.
5. Monthly Theme. I’m so excited about this one! I set up a little area for Mia to have a sensory bin and some Montessori trays. Currently, all it has is the (adorable) snowflake themed sensory bin, but I’d love to add some Montessori trays and little activities. Also following under this goal is craft projects for the house. Now that we have space (yay basement!) I want to make a tub for each month and then when I see something cute at the dollar store, I can throw it in the tub. I think I might need to turn this goal into its own blog post, but I’m counting it as a win if I manage to have a singular themed item…
6. Hexagons. Oh boy. I’m taking the kids back to Texas in February for their break and I really want to have the hexagons at least stabilized and bound so that I can bring them down to show my grandmother. It’s doable, but I really need to stay focused on it if I have any hope of finishing.
7. Quilts. Speaking of quilts, I do have a few other quilts that I need to just buckle down and finish- the log cabin, hearts, and the color wheel. Not sure what else but I’m sure I’ll come up with something!
8. Game Night. We are really enjoying game nights in Maine! I’ve always wanted to be a board game family and I feel like the kids are finally at the right stage to play games that are actually fun. (Candyland is not my favorite.) This isn’t a super measurable goal, but I wanted to put it up here so I could continue to make it a focus this year. I know, I’ll say 12 game nights this year. I actually want to make it a weekly thing, but maybe we’ll work our way up to that.
9. New Friends. I’ve got to put myself out there more and make some friends! Maybe I’ll set a goal to go to an event or meeting once a month? I also just turned in my application to start subbing so I’m hoping that gets me out of the house a few days a week.
10. Explore Maine. I’d like to average 1 new place or experience a month.

Should we push on and do January goals? Why not.

1. December 2023 Project Life. I think I have 2 weeks left to do.
2. December 2023 Scrapbook. I need to edit/ print photos and do this. Honestly, I’m probably only going to have 3 or 4 layouts and I’m ok with that.
3. Rainbow Stairs. I was doing some research and I think the best way to approach this is going to be to order a set of vinyl from Etsy. Initially, I was planning to paint them, but by the time I bought 14 different colors of paint, I figured I might as well just order the vinyl. I’m quite sure it will be easier and look better! RaptorDad suggested that we order 1 piece to try it out before we order the whole set and I’d love to get that done this week.
4. Snowflake Theme. The sensory bin is already done! Maybe now I’ll try to make a few Montessori trays? Or a wreath? IDK.
5. Stabilize Hexies. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.
6. Start Subbing. I turned in my application yesterday and I have an interview tomorrow! Eeeppp!
7. Prep for Trip. I need to pack and get organized for our trip in February! It’s coming up soon!
8. Walk Every Day. I was going to put 10K steps a day, but it’s the 3rd and I’m already failing on that one. But you know what? I did manage to go on a walk both days!
9. Paint Bedroom. An alarming number of walls in this house are this awful mauve color and I’m slowing painting over them. Next up is the master bedroom.
10. Thank You Notes. Kate and I still need to write ours and I need to actually mail out Xander and Mia’s. I want to get this done this week!

And now that I’m done with my annual way-too-long blog post, I’m going to post it and get to my to do list for the day. 🙂

It’s a whole new year! And 2023 was a doozy. I think I’m going to break this into several blog posts, the first of which will just be the general December goals reflection.

1. Advent Calendar. It’s still not done, but it’s closer than it was and we all had a great time doing it, even if the last 10 were just outlines.
2. St Lucia Buns. Ugh, I kind of dropped the ball on this one, but we did have some cinnamon rolls a day late so yay?
3. Buy all the things. Done!
4. Wrap all the things. Done!
5. December Daily. Nope. Totally gave up on this before I made a single page, but this goal did push me to take some more pictures so I’m counting it as a win anyway.
6. Project Life. I think I managed to do 2 layouts? To be fair, we lost power for 4 days which put a real damper on editing and printing photos.
7. Scrapbooking. lol. I did a singular layout. In my defense it was super cute!
8. Reflect on 2023 goals and create 2024 goals. Still working on these!
9. Plan activities for Christmas break. Well, we mostly stayed nice and cozy at home, but Kate and Xander did start ski lessons so that was fun!
10. Write thank you notes. I haven’t managed to write mine yet and neither has Kate, but Xander reminded me that he needed to write his and he and Mia sat right down and did them! I really needed a parenting win and this was a huge one. 🙂

I’m going to (hopefully) finalize my 2024 goals today and then I’ll write another post. Stay tuned!

It’s December y’all! And I feel like I’m living on the set of a Hallmark movie. Seriously, it snowed and it was MAGICAL! Let’s see how those November goals went.

1. Advent calendar. Whoops. Although I did make some more progress! I’ve now gotten 14 of the ornaments done. Only 10 to go! And the kids are having so much fun!
2. Advent activies. Fail. I’m still writing on them each day right before I pull them. lol.
3. Thanksgiving. The week leading up to Thanksgiving was a real doozy, but the actual day was lovely. Complete with facetime calls to talk with family back home.
4. Christmas list. Well, I didn’t get much of anything done in November, but this week I’ve gotten quite a bit ordered and shipped. Mostly thanks to my elves over at Amazon!
5. Project Life. lololololol.
6. NaNoCraftMo. I’ll be honest, I just wasn’t feeling it this year. I need to get my crafty mojo back!
7. Blog. Well, I got 1 out of 4. Better than nothing!
8. Hang some pictures. Nope.
9. Christmas cards. Nope. To be fair, I could still try to get these out, but ugh.
10. Front yard pictures. I was hoping for a somewhat posed family picture (see above re Christmas cards) and I didn’t manage to get that. But I did some fun candids of the kids playing in the leaves! 🙂

And now onto December! (Only ::checks watch:: 8 days late. Whoops.)

1. Advent Calendar. It’s almost comical at this point, but I still feel compelled to put it on here. Can I finish another handful of the ornaments?
2. St Lucia Buns. Yummy yummy. I want to make these again this year.
3. Buy all the things. After today, I’m so close to being done!
4. Wrap all the things. We went up to Target this week and picked out this year’s wrapping paper. 🙂
5. December Daily. I seriously doubt that I make any progress on this, but I’d at least like to have a photo for each day.
6. Project Life. 4 layouts.
7. Scrapbooking. Maybe I could do a big push to finish 2019 before 2024? lolololol
8. Reflect on 2023 goals and create 2024 goals.
9. Plan activities for Christmas break.
10. Write thank you notes.

We survived October! It was touch and go for a bit there, but we made it. :). Let’s see how we did on the October Goals.

1. Set up sewing room. Well, it’s not done yet, but I did make some progress! I have all of the furniture assembled (for the most part) but I still have loads of boxes to deal with. Still, it’s getting there!
2. Finish setting up art room. Lol. We’ve made some progress here, but it mostly involved opening up the boxes and putting bins where ever they fit on the shelves. I really want to take a couple of days and actually ORGANIZE this space!
3. Finish assembling furniture. This is mostly done! I think all I have left are my office chair and an extra dresser that we’re going to use for storage.
4. Winter clothes inventory/ shopping. Done! Well, I think this will be an ongoing process, but we have made a good start. We all have snow pants, snow boots, and snow coats at least!
5. Set up guest area. This is still a work in progress as we ended up making an unexpected trip down to Texas this month so we’ve had to reschedule our visitors. But we did get a sofa bed!
6. Blog 5 times. I made 3?
7. Halloween costumes. Done!
8. Set up big computer. Done!
9. Africa photos. Well, I got them all of the camera and I’ve started the process of culling them.
10. House project list. Didn’t make much progress on this, but we’ll get there.

Now for November?

1. Advent Calendar. I have to finish this this year!
2. Advent Activities. I want to be more intentional with our advent activities and plan them ahead of time. I know I say this every year, but this time I mean it! lol.
3. Thanksgiving. It’s just going to be us for Thanksgiving this year so we are trying to come up with some new traditions. Suggestions?
4. Christmas list. I would like to start this a bit earlier this year, especially since we’re going to need to ship everything?
5. Project Life. I’d like to do October 2023 and then also 4 old layouts.
6. NaNoCraftMo. RaptorDad is doing NaNoWriMo this year, so I’m giving NaNoCraftMo another go! Yesterday’s project was our “gratitude tree.” Every day each of us will write one thing we are grateful for on a paper leaf and then tape it to the tree.
7. Blog. Maybe 4 more posts in November?
8. Hang some pictures.
9. Christmas Cards? Speaking of pictures, I want to send out Christmas cards this year. I should work on that…
10. Front yard pictures. I had this really cool idea to do a seasonal photo shoot in our front yard for each season. Who knows if this will really happen, but in my head it’s super cool! So the fall photo will involve us raking leaves and jumping in them. 🙂

I’m back!!! Oh my gosh, we were in airports or flying for over 30 hours, but I made it back to my family yesterday and I could not be happier! I’m planning to write up a blog post or 2 specifically about the trip, but suffice it to say that it was life-changing. Beyond gorgeous. The nicest people. And 2 weeks with my mom!

But lets take a look at the September goals. I did manage to get some more unpacking done, but there is still loads to go. Still, I feel like we have a (mostly) functional house so yay! And I managed to get packed for Africa! So I’m counting September as a win even if my goals were a bit vague. lol.

October

1. Set up sewing room.
2. Finish setting up art room.
3. Finish assembling furniture.
4. Winter clothes inventory/ shopping.
5. Set up guest area (we have people coming to visit! If it’s not you, come visit!)
6. Blog 5 times!
7. Halloween costumes.
8. Set up big computer.
9. Pull Africa photos off camera card and do an initial culling of photos. I go through and give anything that’s decent and in focus a one star rating then I delete the rest. Since I took over 5k pictures, I anticipate it taking a while! I’m hoping to get down to about 500 photos with the initial culling.
10. Start a list of house projects and start making plans! We know that some of our first projects will be building out storage in the mud room and laundry room. And painting rainbow stairs!

Well, I’m going to go get to work!

Here’s my very late September goals post. 🙂

August Goals

1. Register kids for school. Done! And they’ve started! I think school is going well so far. And they’re riding the bus!
2. Scavenger hunt. This was super fun. We only managed to get 4 or 5 things in the time limit, but I’m going to keep looking. 🙂
3. 4 more blog posts in August. I made 3! Honestly, I’m pretty impressed with myself for getting that many done in the midst of a move.
4. Fairy houses. We collected lots of materials, but then ended up not actually making the houses. But we still had fun working on them. I think we might try this again in our new house!
5. Hiking. We ended up needing to make quite a few trips down the mountain to deal with house and school stuff, but we did find a nice 1 mile loop near the air bnb and we enjoyed taking the puppy on walks there.
6. Finalize plans for Africa. Oh boy. Y’all, I leave a week from tomorrow and I’m not ready!!! I have loads to do this week, but I’m so freaking excited I almost can’t stand it! I can’t believe the date is almost here!!!
7. Milky Way Photo. I got some that looked pretty cool from the back of my camera. We haven’t managed to get the iMac set up yet so no telling how they actually turned out, but the experience was super fun and I’m looking forward to trying again while we’re in Africa.
8. Game night. We aren’t back to our weekly game yet, but we did play a few times in the cabin and it was nice to do something that felt normal again.
9. Planner. I finally ordered one yesterday! It should arrive around the same time I get back from Africa. I’m so excited to have a planner again!
10. Hexies. I made some more progress! I’m very eager to finish this project. I haven’t gotten a chance to work on it since we’ve been in the new house, but soon!

September goals anyone?

1. Um, unpack?
2. And unpack some more.
3. And then pack for Africa.
4. Unpack more boxes.
5. A few more boxes
6. Assemble some furniture.
7. Unpack even more boxes.
8. Good lord the boxes keep multiplying.
9. Why are there so many boxes???
10. Ahhhhhhhhh!!!