2011 in Review

I always feel like there is so much I want to do and so little time. With the girls running around I feel like it is hard to accomplish anything.  But, when I decided to summarize my year for a Facebook status I found out that I had ran 1085 miles, read 68 books, and sewed 25 items of clothing, except it was really 28 because I forgot a few things.  I really did get a lot done in 2011.  Shocking!

Last year I said I wanted to:

Sew a pair of jeans.  I've already done this, but my first pair had some mistakes.  I have more denim ordered and should get a perfect pair of jeans sewn within the next month.  

The denim I ordered ending up being lame, the stretch was length wise instead of across the selvedge.  They are wearable, but not perfect (thus why they never made it in a post).  I just bought some more denim.  Hopefully third time is a charm?

Sew a jacket.  

Yes!  It turned out really nice.  I was impressed with myself. Got to get a post up.

I am committed to running the Capital City Half Marathon in May.

I ended up running the Snoqualmie Half instead.  I ran a 1:41.  A bit slower than I was hoping, but considering I had pretty much taken four years off of running I was satisfied.  But training for that made me realize that always training to run faster and farther is exhausting (and a bit demoralizing since I am running so much slower than my PR's). Before I had kids I could do it and was able to relax while I wasn't running, but I do not have that luxury anymore.   I ended up slowing my pace down, and running a lot of trails, and running became really enjoyable, it felt good, and I ended up running even more than when I was training for the half(it helped that running was the only thing keeping me sane while weaning of anti-convulsants).  I ran a few trail races, and found out that I have finally mastered dominating the downhill portions.  My last race was a 10k with four huge hills and I actually passed people at the end!  I really can't think of any other races I've ran where that has happened.  Next year I am planning to do a lot of trail races!

I want to work on having less waste.  I buy lots of bulk items at the grocery store, but don't bring my own containers.

Didn't do too great at this one.  I'm too forgetful.

I want to eat more fish, preferably at least 3 times a week

Sometimes I did this.  But I haven't had fish in at least a month.

Be more ethically minded in my purchases.  Everything we consume has ethical ramifications.  Usually the cheaper something is, the more unethically it was produced.  I want to limit my purchases to only things we need, and I want them to be of good quality.  I want to make more of our clothes and buy more things used (I am going to have to overcome a snobbish attitude for buying used).  I don't want to be swayed by advertising, and I don't want to buy random crap. Sadly this is a hard goal.

I did pretty good at this.  I started shopping at thrift stores and have been impressed with what I find.  Getting great deals is cool too.

I am going to have a garden this year!  I thought I would be able to start a late one after we moved, but wasn't able to make it happen.  This year I will. 

My garden was amazing.  I have never been able to grow anything in my life, but I planted stuff and it was a jungle of food!  Hopefully I can have success again.

• Climbed Mt Dickerman with my sister.  Which was super hard due to all the snow on the trail, but really amazing.  
• Floyd and I took a trip to Vegas.  I had very low expectations for Vegas, but it was better than I thought.  We had a lot of fun.
• We went camping as a family at Padilla Bay.
• We did our annual golf/massage weekend at my uncles cabin where my aunt has the absolute best massage therapist ever come and give us massages by the river.
• Floyd's first complete year of being a professional poker player was great.  
• The girls are growing and learning and doing all sorts of amazing things.  

2011 was a good year!

I'll do a recap of my favorite books from last year in a separate post.