Year in Review Survey: 2012

[2008, 2009, 2010, 2011]
 
1. What did you do in 2012 that you’d never done before?
A yogi headstand.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

2012 resolutions:

• Give up diet soda. OH, I WEEP! But it's time. It's way out of line with my other eating beliefs and I know it makes my body feel kind of gross. I will allow myself 13 diet cokes during the year (one a month and one to grow on) to whoop it up on occasion. 

I gave up soda through late February and then there were bigger fish to fry than giving up soda so I didn't stress about allowing myself some when I was out and about. Then after we moved I started buying it again and had one can a day. I go days without if I run out, but it is still something I'd like to cut out of my diet completely. So, in conclusion, no, I did not meet this goal.

• Be more positive. Husband and I both want to work on this. I have always struggled with negativity (my fatal flaw, perhaps), but it's especially challenging when you are operating on little sleep. So we now have code words to say to each other when we are getting bogged down with what's wrong. There are many things right. I need to see those and not the poopy stuff.

Did I meet this goal? Yes and no. I think I have shifted a bit in what my definition of positive is. I now think it is fair for me to express my frustrations, as that is simply part of being an authentic person, but I do not think dwelling on it or giving it more mental space than the good stuff is healthy. This will be a lifelong goal for me and I will keep working on it this year through writing a daily gratitude using an iPhone app.

• There are a million other projects that I'd like to work on, but I'm trying to be more realistic about my non-time. Maybe that's a resolution in itself? Be realistic about this stage in life and embrace my limited personal time in a meaningful way (read: not only turning to Netflix between the hours of 8-10 pm).

I find my wording on this interesting. On one hand, I allowed myself a pass for the fact that life is crazy with very small children. On the other hand, I had expectations that I would do things like file papers and exercise at 9 pm at night. So while on the surface I failed at this goal, I think my most recent post on the Life Lessons of 2012 shows that I actually did come a long way in this resolution.

2013 Resolution:
And now the second part: my goal/resolution/mantra/word for 2013 is NOW. I will be writing up a post with more about this, but the concept is that I will use "now" as a grounding word for myself to remind me that my life is in the here and now and to enjoy it as it unfolds around me, whether the moment might be good or bad.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My friend Audrey along with several other friends (and that includes my blog friends!) and a cousin.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Person: thankfully no. But Stevie-the-cat had to be put to sleep a few weeks ago. He is chowing down on heaping bowls of Iams in the sky.

5. What places did you visit?
We did one trip and one trip only last year and that was the family tagging along on a business trip of Husband's to Chicago in March. It had fun moments, but it was another trip where I got zippo, zilch, nada sleep due to sleep drama from the kids. I insisted we not do any other trips until Oliver is 2 because the non-sleep on vacations is a little too much for right now. And since Husband's family visited in July and my parents moved here in September and my sister & her family along with my brother came for the holidays, it was very feasible to (selfishly) not travel. But I am itching to go somewhere now and willing to handle some sleep deprivation in the name of adventure! Husband has a tentative work trip to California in March - I think we might be joining him.

6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?
What I wrote last year: The feeling that my head is above water on a regular basis. A house better suited to a family with two small children. A thrush-free existence.

I have been thrush-free since last winter and I'm still breastfeeding! We have a new house that is great for kids! But that head-above-water feeling? Eh....it comes and goes :)

What I want for 2013: To continue to master the art of taking in the moment. I want to enjoy my kids more. I want to enjoy my free time more. I want to enjoy life more. Oh, and sleep. I WANT MORE SLEEP.

7. What dates from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Hm...I would say July 6, the day we moved.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I faced some deeply buried and sad thougths that had been lurking in me and I am the better for it.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Maintaining perspective. Except sometimes I did do a good job with that. But always plenty of room for improvement. Maybe a better answer would be picking on Husband when I wanted someone to be crabby at.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Mild illness - colds, mostly - for weeks and weeks and weeks. But nothing serious.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
The house, bien sur.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Still a big Obama fan.

13. Where did most of your money go?
The HOUSE. Getting the old townhome ready for renting. Also (organic/local/humane/covered-in-magical-spices-harvested-by-unicorns) food.

14. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Finding a house that was very suited to our family and met all our criteria and then actually getting it and hearing that we could move in right away. WHEE! And another good moment was when I realized I could download full resolution images from my blog (they were stored on a Picasa account) after losing all my photos in a hard drive debacle. That was such a gift. Finally, the blog revamp was a thrill for me.

15. What song will always remind you of 2012?
Gangnam Style. WHOOP WHOOP!

16. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Happier.
b) thinner or fatter? Thinner, but I was thinner/more fit at other points during the year.
c) richer or poorer? On paper we are richer, but in terms of what is in our bank account at the moment we are poorer. We had a whopper of a December in terms of both planned and surprise expenses (gifts, furniture, vet bills, furnace repair, car repairs, etc...) and it has left us depleted.

17. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Relaxed my brain. Exercised my body.

18. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Same as last year: Ruminating and feeling negative over things that were out of my control.

19. How did you spend Christmas?
Feeling like Ass Crap McPoop at home along with sick Husband, Bella & Oliver. Had we not been so ill it would have been family gathering at our place.

20. Did you fall in love in 2012?
Um...would it be very wrong to say I fell in love with a house?

21. What was your favorite TV program?
I started watching Grey's Anatomy early last year (had only seen the first couple seasons) and then got very hooked and Husband joined in on the fun at some point. We are quite sad about the loss of McDreamy.

22. What was the best book you read?
I read 60-something books last year. Favorite new author is Liane Moriarty.

23. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I'm bored with this question. From here on it's struck from the survey.

24. What did you want and get?
A house!

25. What did you want and not get?
Finding time to myself on a regular and reliable basis.

26. What was your favorite film of this year?
Pitch Perfect was fun.

27. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 32. It was a pretty low-key day watching the kids on my actual birthday, but I got to go on a date with Husband that weekend.

28. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I really can't complain about my past year. But probably to have bypassed the whole PPD thing would have been nice, to say the least.

29. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
Mother effer. I'm such a fashion mess yet again this year. Husband gifted me a shopping spree as an anniversary gift, a gift that is very much needed because my "nicest" jeans are old and have that "whisker" look (ugh) and are ripped in the knees (and those rips are from true wear & tear). Of course, that shopping spree is on the back burner after all those other expenses this month. Anyway, one notable thing is that this was the year that I realized my torso really is the longest in the world and that dictates what clothes will work for me. In some ways it's liberating because 95% of all tops are not going to work on me unless a cropped look is my goal. Anyway, someday I will care enough to actually DO something about my fugly fashion sitch. And when I do that I will start a website to aid in the fashion needs of other long-torsoed women-folk.

30. What kept you sane?
Those moments when Husband graciously had me step away and catch my breath before diving back into the beautiful chaos of life with little ones.

31. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I might have had to do a little googling after seeing Step Up Revolution. The main guy is real purdy-like.

32. What political issue stirred you the most?
Also stricken from the survey. I mean, I care about stuff, but I want this survey mostly frivolous and navel-gazing.

33. Who did you miss?
I miss Stevie-the-cat, but he's only been gone a few weeks.

34. Who was the best new person you met?
New blog (turned real-life) friends.

35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.
As I said in my last blog post, the lessons from last year seem complex and still unformed, but what I am basically taking away from last year is that life is going to remain complicated and messy along with being joyful and wonderful. It's up to me to accept the messy wonder of it all so that I can live in the here and now.

36. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
I used an Alanis Morrisette song - Everything - in the video montage I made for Husband. This past year pushed us to a new place in our love for each other. Did I want to be pushed? Ha! No. Am I grateful for having been pushed to an even better place? Yes.

You see everything, you see every part
You see all my light and you love my dark
You dig everything of which I'm ashamed
There's not anything to which you can't relate
And you're still here