Some of the highlights of the year in our household(s) (plural due to the major move this year):
- I drove over 20k miles this year...from Northern MN to Indiana, to our new home state of South Carolina. Add in a drive from Indiana to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for our annual trip to the family cabin (minus the hubs, who was working:( ). Trips to Cincinnati (my husbands hometown), family vacation in Kiawah Island, SC (shortest vacation we have driven to in years, around 2 hours down the coast from us). I am thankful for a good car to drive, one that I don't feel worried one bit about. If I keep this up,though, I will need new tires sooner than later!
- We managed to become a little more "green". I was introduced to Norwex, a cleaning and beauty line of products. We have (almost) completely weaned ourselves off of paper towels. I began making our laundry soap (SO easy, much cheaper, and you use so much less!). I also attempted the dishwasher soap, but have yet to find the "just right" mix for us. Also,in the dishwasher, we began using white vinegar for the rinse agent (instead of Jetdry).
Using the "Enviro cloth" and the "polishing cloth" from Norwex, I can clean our house using just water. Sounds too good to be true, but there is science behind it, and I have become a fan. Using no chemicals to clean, I find that the house doesn't get as dusty either.
Instead of fabric softener (which I learned is horrible for our skin and clothing, as well as dryer sheets), I now use white vinegar in our wash. I promise, though, our clothes don't smell like pickles. :) I also began air-drying more items. I purchased a used drying rack from a great rummage sale group we had in the area of MN we lived in, for $5. It has become an invaluable member of our family! For the dryer, since we discontinued the use of dryer sheets, I made felted wool dryer balls. Wool wicks away the water, reduces static cling, and reduces drying time (over-drying is the biggest amuse for static cling. I've gotten used to reducing the drying temp and time into increments).
-Not selling our home, and still moving. What a pain! I managed to get a hitch installed on my car, rented a U-haul trailer and crammed it full of things that I thought we would need or use. Daily, I find myself saying "we have a ______....in MN". I HATE purchasing things twice! I've tried to avoid it as much as possible, but it is hard! The upside? Learning that we don't need nearly as much as we think we do. I have several bags of clothes that I left in the closet in MN- I simply ran out of room. I now know that I don't need any of them. It's refreshing, really. I hope to sell many more items when our home in MN actually does sell. Less stress! :)
-Learning to live in a condo. When I was single, in my 20's, I lived in an apartment. I made a bold move to live completely alone in my mid-twenties, and it changed my life. I LOVED IT. you learn a lot about yourself when you live alone. If the kitchen is a mess, guess who's responsible? Laundry piled up? Guess what? It's time to do it, no excuses. One great perk of apartment life? Lawn service was included. Snow was shoveled. Any issues inside the apartment, and I called a maintenance person. Easy peasy!
Living in a condo, even married, with a cat and a dog, I still love it. It's a lot like that apartment life I loved. We have year round exterior maintenance, lawn service, and a pool right outside our window. Amazing. We are, however, responsible for our own maintenance. That's fine. We do also pay association fees, but there are perks to that. 24-hour security (gated community). 2 pools, that WE don't have to maintain. Cable. Beautiful landscaping.
Smaller spaces after having a home that was almost 4,000 sq ft is weird. And liberating. Looking back to our it Indiana home, guess how much of that beautiful home we actually used? Yeah, very little. But it ALL had to be cleaned weekly. Even when we moved to MN, and to a home half the size, it seemed to be too much home for us. I can clean our entire condo so fast now,that its unbelievable. I do run into storage issues, especially being a crafty girl, but I seem to be making it work. I do have an entire craft room full of things in MN, but I will make it work when it comes to that point.
-Rekindling my relationship with my husband! Probably the most important goal met this year. We were apart for about 9 months total. A weekend here and there, and a week last December. That was it! So to be in the same place, permanently, TOGETHER has been great!
So, if you're still reading (God bless ya if you made it this far without falling asleep!), lets move on. The new year is upon us! Too much happened in 2012 to list it all.
I enjoy making GOALS versus RESOLUTIONS yearly. I believe that we are ALL works in progress, and there is always room for improvement or change. I made my OFFICIAL list last night... Instead of writing them all, I am posting a picture of the note that I made on my iPad. Maybe a goal should be less lazy?! Nah.
What are YOUR goals, or goals for your family? What are some accomplishments you reached last year? Most of us don't think that way; if you stop and think about your year, you'll realize some pretty remarkable things happened!
