A Year in Review: 2012

At the end of last year, I sat down and made a list of goals/milestones coming up in 2012. I didn't post them on my blog because every time I post goals, I don't seem to ever accomplish them. However, I kept this list in our budget notebook where I would see it often. I read in a magazine this year that it is better to not post your goals because once you post them, somehow, subconsciously you kind of think you have already accomplished them. Now, I have several friends who thrive off of posting their goals and who do a great job at it. But, for me, I accomplished a lot more this year be having my personal list.

As we approach 2013, here is a brief reflection of 2012.

Pay off my student loan
Not only did we pay off my student loan, we also paid off my car! We became debt free in 2012!! God, of course, always provides and this could not have happened at a more perfect time as Stephen is back in school and only working part time. Paying off these loans opens up room in our budget to continue to give even as we make less in this coming year.

Finish p90x
I started p90x December 1, 2011 with every intention of completing it by March 2012. I purposefully started at the beginning of December instead of the beginning of January to try to avoid the inevitable new year's resolution that never gets accomplished.  You may remember from this post or this post or this post that that goal (being done by March) did not happen. However, I did complete it and that has to count for something. Right?

Get a new job ?
At this point last year, I was not loving life as a teacher and had already begun to think about finding a new job. This "goal" was written with a question mark beside it. I did not get a new job this year. And, I'm happy to say that this school year is going much much better!

Celebrate our first anniversary
Our first anniversary came shortly after our big trip to California so we made a quick trip an hour down the road to Greensboro to a cute little bed and breakfast for the weekend. It was a lot of fun!

California trip
What a great summer trip this was! We got to spend a week on the west coast exploring San Francisco and Yosemite National Park!

5 weddings...Be in 2 and attend 3 others
This year was the year of weddings for us and it was so fun to see some of our closest friends tie the knot with their love!

And, an unexpected 6th wedding of one of my favorites! Even though I wasn't there, I still celebrated with them!

Stick to a strict budget
At the beginning of this year I went through past expenses and set a budget for us to follow. We did not follow it exactly but we managed to save enough to pay off all of our debt! I've tweaked some things for this coming year and hopefully we'll do better about sticking it to it more closely in 2013.

Stephen started grad school
I am happy to say that my husband is a student again! This first semester was a rough transition and it was hard to learn that he wasn't in college anymore. He had to learn how to balance school, work, and a wife. With some tough lessons learned, semester one is over and we're ready for semester two!

Try lots of new recipes
Right behind paying off our debt, this is one of the goals that I did the best at accomplishing. If you've been around here long at all, you know that we've been trying all kinds of recipes and only had a few busts!

Book Club: Read all 12
This goal was a little harder to accomplish since both of the book clubs I was in ended up fizzling out by the end of the year. However, I did read a lot of books this year and have a long list of books I still want to read.

Go to Allyson's graduation
Among all of the weddings, my little sister completed college! It was a long day mixed among 2 of the weddings we attended, but I got to see Laura Bush and hang out with my wonderful family!

Give more
In 2011 I supported one friend in ministry. As 2011 progressed and 2012 came along, Stephen and I had a lot of friends raising their own support in ministry. This year we were able to spread out our giving and bless them each with a small gift throughout the year. It was a lot of fun because each month we chose someone else and they had no idea it was coming. It was nice to do something unexpected.