going back to the start //

This past year has been the most eventful year of my life. 

A few highlights:

• I birthed a new little life into the world. He arrived two weeks earlier than expected, and has stolen my heart since his arrival. 
• I celebrated my first Mother's Day, Hubby celebrated his first Father's Day. 
• I turned 30. Hubby turned 30 {5 months before I did. Booyah.}Though it was rather uneventful, superseded by the birth of my son, I have enjoyed being 30.
• Hubby finished graduate school.
• Our little family moved to new apartment. We moved out of my family's home and into our own apartment again. 
• I learned to accept the balance of working motherhood. I can't have it all, but I can have quality time with my family and an engaging career.
• I updated my professional license, and will hopefully never have to take a standardized licensing exam. Ever. Again.

Goals for 2014:

• Blogging: I miss this part of my life. Where I share the things that are going on in my life with the cyber world. It was such a fun part of my life in years past, and I miss it. 
• Working out: like many things in my life, this has been on the back burner for most of 2013. I'd like to change that for 2014 and get back into my old, good habits of running and exercising regularly.
• Photography: Something else I miss from my "former" life -- taking photographs. Though I have thousands of my adorable child, I'd like to take another class and get some photo editing software to further develop this skill. 
• Being kind to myself. 
• Re-engaging myself and my family into our faith community.

2012

I suppose the phrase "better late than never" applies to this post where I recap New Year's and the last few weeks. We spent the new year weekend in Michigan with good friends. We stayed up late, played a few games, and relaxed in the hot tub. It was lovely. B and I saw Young Adult on New Year's Day. Overall, I thought it was a good film, just not a "feel good" film. Charlize Theron is officially my new girl crush. She's drop-dead gorgeous.





Since we've been back, I have been sick for nearly two weeks. I finally dragged myself to the Doctor's office on Friday, and was diagnosed with a double ear infection and a sinus infection. Even though I'm on antibiotics and "getting better", I still feel pretty miserable. I also haven't been running for two weeks, which makes me feel even more out of it. I've watched Season One and Two of Gossip Girl, gone through two boxes of tissue, two containers of orange juice, and nearly 20 cups of tea.

Here's hoping this week I finally start to feel better. Ho hum.

xoxo,

PJ

List-maker

{a few of my lists from my daily planner: 2011 goals, 2010 goals/wishlist, various songs/musicians to check out}

I'm a list-maker by nature. I love making lists of all sorts of things: for the grocery store, my daily tasks, weekly goals, etc. In the back of my daily planner, I have a section with a list of baby names {yes, I admit this}, blogging ideas, and various songs I've heard on Pandora that I want to download. Often, this drives Hubby crazy because I insist on "making a list". I will say that over the years, my process of list-making has begun to rub off on him as he has taken to writing down lists and enjoys checking them off almost as much as I do.

Every year, I make a list of things that I hope to accomplish for the year.  I vary between significant goals {fitness, learning a new skill or hobby}, and small goals {baking 1x/month, reading a leisure book 1x/month}. I find that writing down my goals, carrying them with me each day, I'm much more motivated to make efforts to achieve my goals. I love this method of goal setting often referred to as "SMART goal setting":

• Specific: What, Why, Who, Where, Which


• Measurable: How much, How many, How will I know when I have accomplished it?


• Attainable: Realistic, How can the goal be accomplished?


• Relevant: Is this goal worthwhile? Is this something that I really want to do?


• Time-Bound: When will this be accomplished? What is a realistic timeframe for me to accomplish this goal?

This system really facilitates the process of goal-setting. This creates a much easier system for setting specific and measurable goals. As I head into the new year, I'm carving out time to reflect on the things that I accomplished, and also re-evaluating previous unmet goals.

Are you a list-maker? Do you set weekly/yearly/monthly goals? How do you track them?

xoxo,

PJ

another year over

i can't believe 2010 is coming to a close. it's been such an incredible year of growth, and i've enjoyed a majority of the lessons learned and memories made.

last year as 2009 was coming to a close, hubs and i had an incredible conversation about our goals for the new year. being obsessed with writing things down in my planner, i created a running "list" of things that i wanted to accomplish in 2010. i'd be fibbing if i said that i met all of my goals, but i can say (with a great deal of pride) that i met most of them! it's so fun looking back on my list and seeing what i thought was really important at the start of 2010. so without further commentary, here is a look back on my year...

{i got glasses}

{i graduated from graduate school*}

{my baby sister graduated from high school}

{hubs and i took a california vacation*: visited our good friend, photos of us biking the golden gate bridge, & taking a canopy tour of the redwoods}

{i got a tattoo*}

{my other sister got married}

{my best friend moved from michigan back to the east coast}

{i ran a 5k* and an 8k*}

{lennon turned one}

{hubs started taking classes & got a 4.0!}
 

{i took a photography class* and got a new lens* and started blogging more regularly*}

{i made a turkey, again}

{i took a sewing class* and then promptly broke my sewing machine}

{i started reading books again via my new kindle*} 

{we visited colorado with my hubs' family}

{i ate lots of greek yogurt ... i'm a little obsessed}

*indicates that these were actual goals for 2010 that i crossed off my list!

all in all, i look back on 2010 with fond memories, and hope that 2011 will be even better! 
happy new year!

xoxo,

pilar

another year over

i can't believe 2010 is coming to a close. it's been such an incredible year of growth, and i've enjoyed a majority of the lessons learned and memories made.

last year as 2009 was coming to a close, hubs and i had an incredible conversation about our goals for the new year. being obsessed with writing things down in my planner, i created a running "list" of things that i wanted to accomplish in 2010. i'd be fibbing if i said that i met all of my goals, but i can say (with a great deal of pride) that i met most of them! it's so fun looking back on my list and seeing what i thought was really important at the start of 2010. so without further commentary, here is a look back on my year...

{i got glasses}

{i graduated from graduate school*}

{my baby sister graduated from high school}

{hubs and i took a california vacation*: visited our good friend, photos of us biking the golden gate bridge, & taking a canopy tour of the redwoods}

{i got a tattoo*}

{my other sister got married}

{my best friend moved from michigan back to the east coast}

{i ran a 5k* and an 8k*}

{lennon turned one}

{hubs started taking classes & got a 4.0!}
 

{i took a photography class* and got a new lens* and started blogging more regularly*}

{i made a turkey, again}

{i took a sewing class* and then promptly broke my sewing machine}

{i started reading books again via my new kindle*} 

{we visited colorado with my hubs' family}

{i ate lots of greek yogurt ... i'm a little obsessed}

*indicates that these were actual goals for 2010 that i crossed off my list!

all in all, i look back on 2010 with fond memories, and hope that 2011 will be even better! 
happy new year!

xoxo,

pilar

should old acquaintance be forgot

2009 is in its last few hours... this year has been rough. but it certainly has been a year of growth. here are the significant memories that time (and photo uploads) will allow.

the new year began at the cook's house!

our good friends from college, where we will also be spending new year's eve this year :)

we actually spent a lot of time on weekends hanging out with

tammi, chad, and their two kids: hannah & zeke.

betsy came to visit - several times, in fact!

i did a lot of cooking in our nice but tiny apartment.

chris & i went to see wicked. it was an incredible production!

we moved into a new apartment with a living room, dining room, and two bedrooms!

we celebrated our 3 year anniversary at sola this year. yummy yummy.

jen graduated!

chris threw me a birthday party. here are the ladies :)

chris & i took a biking adventure weekend in wisconsin.

dad ran the marathon!

we took a road trip to visit leslie!

we took a day trip to st. joseph, michigan.

i wore lots of vests...

my grandfather died in october.

here's a photo of all of the grandchildren, spouses, fiances, and great-grandchildren.

we hosted thanksgiving at our apartment this year. the turkey was fabulous!

our new addition! added in november, our puppy, lennon.

lots of sister time was had in 2009!

here's to 2010, which will surely bring its share of trials and joy.

i look forward to beginning fresh again with the promise of new goals, hopes, and fulfilling dreams.