How Do You Eat An Elephant?

This year I decided to make "resolutions" (I prefer "goals") on a monthly basis.  I made this decision for a few reasons...

• I've learned that I do better accomplishing tasks when I have a deadline in the foreseeable future (think: cleaning the house before guests come;))
• I also gave myself a major guilt trip over a large task I said I'd do for my extended family two years ago that I had hardly started.  

SO...this brings us to...How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.

First things first, I took the large task of scanning old family photos for my extended family and broke it up into bite-sized pieces.  If I stick to my plan, I should be done in July.  

I decided to take a similar approach with tasks around the house that I constantly put off.  I plan to tackle at least one a month.

I even took this approach on a big project at work that had no specific deadline but was going to to take a lot of time.  

I'm happy to say, that for the first month, with two days to spare, I succeeded in meeting all of my goals!  At home and work!

Slowly but Surely

I have a rather extreme hesitance to hanging things on our walls.  I can have an item, know where I want it, and it can take me a year (or more) to get it actually hung.  I can't pinpoint the source of this "fear", but I'm proud to say that today we hung several things that had been on my list for over a year.

I'm horrible at taking before pictures when we do anything different at home, but if you've been to our house in the past few years, you might notice the difference.

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I asked Ric Rozsa to paint these four canvases for me over a year ago!  I am so excited to have them up for all to enjoy:)  I love the colors and how the tree portrays the changing seasons.

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I got the idea for this towel rack about two years ago.  I found the door header (the cream wood) at Gold Rush in August 2013, added the hooks, and it's also holding a canvas print I bought at TJ Maxx years ago (which has never had the privilege of being hung).  

Finally, the towels have a home in our guest bathroom!!!

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The next is a debut of our new "home gym" too!  We invested in a treadmill in November so we could drop our gym membership but still stay active year round.  We've made great use of it. In the first month we logged about 120 miles!  This was previously our guest room, but we did a lot of shifting around in November to make space and it's all worked out great.  Today, we added the shelf next to the large picture so we could hold remotes, hand towels, etc while we're on the treadmill.  (There are holding spaces on the machine, but they can get jostled while running/walking since our there is plush carpet under it.)  We also shifted the Michigan scoreboard/clock to a better location with the treadmill.

I have to say, I'm feeling VERY accomplished today, simply because of a few "new" functional and fun things hanging on our walls:)

Reminiscing on 2014

For the past several years, we've included our favorite 5-10 things from the year in our Christmas card (2014 card).  Our favorites usually include events, places we've visited, and milestones.  As I look back on 2014, it was so much more than the things we did.  For me, it's about the people we did them with and the relationships we share.  

Here is what warms my heart from 2014...

• Anticipating and Welcoming Piper - My sister and her husband revealed on Christmas 2013 that they were expecting a baby in August.  It was an wonderful first half of the year anticipating Piper's arrival and watching Bridget grow with pregnancy.  All of the anticipation culminated on August 1 when Piper arrived!  Holding her and seeing her little face that was a combination of Bridget and Ross was priceless.  Since her arrival, we've enjoyed seeing Piper and Bridget frequently while on maternity leave, receiving Piper smiles when I drop Nora off at my parent's for the day, and watching Bridget, Ross, and Piper as they settle into being a family of three (which they have done seemingly effortlessly:)).  My parents and Nora share a special bond with Piper seeing and caring for her daily while Bridget and Ross work.  Piper was an incredible blessing from 2014.
• Far Away Friends - In January and February, we had the opportunity to visit friends that are dear to our hearts but far away in miles.  January brought all of us to Scottsdale, AZ to see the Gutierrez family who we met in Rochester when Luke and their son, Jacob, were 18 months old.  It was a wonderful trip enjoying each others' company for the adults and kids.  February brought Brent and I to Baltimore to see Stroms and Ericksons, dear friends from college (and childhood for Brent and Luke Erickson, aka "Big Luke").  Time with these couples is so good for our souls.
• Job Change - August brought a change in job for Jen.  Again, this change was felt relation-ally.  Even though I was only in my previous role for 13 months, I had developed great relationships with a couple coworkers which made it difficult to leave.  Thankfully, we've been intentional and still keep in touch and see each other when we can.  With change comes risk: what will the new job hold, who will I be working with, etc.  This change brought many blessings, including a wonderful group of ladies to work with daily who have taught we much in only four months in my new role.  
• Building a Shed - I shared in previous posts about Brent and my journey building a shed together this summer/fall.  Yes, we now have a long-awaited shed, but most of all I enjoyed the journey with Brent.  It was fun to have a project to work on together and to see our personalities compliment each other throughout the process:)
• Family Trips - We were able to share long weekends away with both Brent and Jen's families this year.  It is such a blessing for us and the kids to have the relationships we do with our parents, siblings, nieces and nephews.  
• Summer Fun - Two other events that stick out to me this summer were my cousin Steph and Richie's wedding and the Basilica Block Party.  Steph is the oldest cousin on my dad's side of the family and I've been very blessed by our growing relationship as adults.  This summer was extra fun anticipating her wedding to her wonderful fiance, Richie!  Brent and I also had a wonderful weekend at the Basilica Block Party.  Greg joined us for concerts both nights and Cally for one night.  The best concert and experience was definitely Michael Franti and Spearhead.  There's nothing quite like lots of feel good music and dancing at an outdoor concert:)  
• Mom's Retirement - Again, I posted about my mom's retirement, but now I've seen in in action for a couple months.  It's such a joy to see the enjoyment my parents both get from spending their days with Nora and Piper (and occasionally Luke when he's off school).  The relationships the kids share with Papa and Gma are priceless:)

It was a blessed 2014 indeed.