December Update – New Year’s Resolutions

It is now 2015. Can you believe it? This is the last update of the New Year’s Resolutions I made in January. As much as I would like to say that I completed all of my goals, in actuality that would be a lie. I worked hard, but it just was not enough. Now I just have to hope for 2015 to be the year that everything happens. I already wrote my resolutions for this year.

1) Leave the country – We went to China!!! I realized last week that I have started taking this fact for granted when I should be amazed every day. I actually went to China and walked on the Great Wall. It was the most amazing trip, and you can read about it in the following posts:

The announcement of our trip, our arrival in China, our trip to the Great Wall, Beijing and the 798 Art District, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven Park, Nanluogu Xiang and the Hutong and the Lama Temple and Natooke. After writing those posts, I decided to fit all of the events in one day per blog post. The posts from our time in Shanghai are by date: March 20, March 21, March 22, March 23 and March 25. There are two posts on the day we spent in Hangzhou here and here.

2) Write at least one post a month in Spanish -I just realized that I forgot to write an update for December 2013. I guess Alzheimers is setting in because I could have sworn that I did. Luckily, I had written an extra, so I still wrote twelve posts in Spanish this year.  If you can read Spanish, check out my project list, Lista de proyectos, and a recap of what we accomplished last year in enero,  febrero,  marzo,  abril, mayo, junio, julio, agosto, septiembre, octubre y noviembre.

3) Move more – In December I walked for eight hours and forty five minutes, did yoga for one hour and fifteen minutes, swam for one hour and ten minutes and biked for twenty. This totals eleven and a half hours of work.

I am glad that I kept my resolution, but I was hoping to lose weight as well. I am exactly the same weight that I was last January. I am glad that at least I did not gain any weight, but I am planning to take a lot off in 2015.

Here is a picture of Douglas and I on a walk at Pokagon State Park in Indiana over winter break and another with our hiking companions.

4) Visit one of the last six states on my list – We went to Maine in August. I cannot believe it took me so long to get to a state that is so close, but I am glad I finally did.

5) “Finish” the kitchen – We did nothing in the kitchen in December, and our kitchen is not finished. I am sad, but there is always hope for 2015.

Here is the rest of the progress we have made so far this year. Before we ran into a problem with the electrical, we had removed the old countertops and had templates made for the new ones. We had a new countertop installed, and I refinished the cabinets and hardware,  organized the cupboards, and installed under sink tip-out drawers. Then, in June we had the outlets rewired. When July rolled around, we made the final decisions on tile, prepped the walls for the tiles, tiled the backsplash and then grouted. In October, we hung a new cabinet in the kitchen, and I rearranged the objects on the wine crate shelves. All we have left to do in the kitchen now is to paint. We continue to check things off our project list.

6) Take better care of the garden – I thought that our work in the garden was done in November, but we were out there again in December. People were amazed that Douglas was in his shorts, but that is normal for him.

The first steps were taken in April to prepare the garden for summer.  Then, I planted the garden when my mother came to visit for Mother’s Day. While I was in Oklahoma in June, my loving husband built me a trellis for the green beans and sweet peas. By July, we were eating the garden goodness, and that trend continued in August when we were harvesting more green beans than we could possibly eat ourselves. There are two bags of beans frozen, and we continue to eat them nearly every day. In October,I made quince jam from the fruit on our bush.

7) Do more for Douglas – We spent the winter vacation in Michigan, Illinois and Chicago with Douglas’ family. It is always sad to be away from my family at Christmas, but I am lucky to enjoy spending time with his family.

8) Finish cleaning out and organizing the basement – I made some progress down there in early May, and nothing was done in June. I worked down there a lot in July and August and posted an update a couple of weeks ago. Then, we had a yard sale on the weekend of the 23-24. The basement is about 90% cleaned out and organized. In November, we did work on a project in the basement, but I don’t know if it counts as cleaning or organizing. First, I wrapped the pole in twine and then Douglas built a perch for Crème.

The only thing that we did in the basement in December was to decorate it, but I have big plans for down there this month!

9) Paint all of the trim in the living room and dining room – I have to admit defeat on this front as well. I never even cracked the can of paint. Boo! At least the coat rack is now hanging on the wall. And I rearranged the furniture.

10) “Finish” the dining room – I redid my great grandmother’s chairs. My great grandmother’s table is out of the basement and we used it for Thanksgiving. We are still planning to get the table refinished, but it has not gone anywhere yet.

11) Regrout the tile in the bathroom – We scraped and grouted one and a third of the walls. That is probably as far as we are going to get this year, but that was the worst section. I am relieved to have that much done.

Several months ago I started calculating percentages as to the amount of work I estimated myself to have accomplished. With these calculations, I figure that I am now 66% through my resolutions. Here is how I did my calculations.

1) Leave the country – 100% complete

2) Write one blog post a month in Spanish – 100% (I have written twelve.)

3) Move more – 100% (We are through the twelfth month of twelve.)

4) Visit at least one of the remaining six states – 100% – We went to Maine!

5) Finish the kitchen – 71% (There were eight items on the to do list for the kitchen, I added four more and we have finished ten of them.)

6) Take better care of the garden – 100% (There is not much more that we can do for the garden, other than to keep eating the produce until the frost finishes it off.)

7) Do more for Douglas – 100% (Same reason as was given for #3.)

8) Finish cleaning out and organizing the basement – 90%

9) Paint all of the trim in the living and dining room – 0%

10) Finish the dining room – 20% (I am glad to have finally done something in there!)

11) Regrout the tile in the bathroom – 30% (There are four walls, and we only regrouted one and a half of them.)

If each item on the list is out of 100% there are 1100 points total, and I have completed 811 of 1100 earning a 74%. That would be a solid C. It is certainly not a grade that I am proud of, but I will have to accept it. Wish me better success in 2015!

Happy Homemaking!