Taking stock

2016 was a challenging year in many ways, but within our nuclear group of family and close friends, it has been a wonderful year of adventure and growth and simply of enjoying each other’s company. I hope for the same from 2017.

My 2016 wish list, and progress

• More sleep – It’s better, but not great.  
• Camping – Yes! We went three times.  
• Baby book progress – I bought some paper and made some notes and piles of scraps and things, so… that counts, right?
• More home movies – Not as many as I wish I had, but we did a few.
• Minimalism – Nope! We tripled our square footage of living space this year, not to mention got a garage, and rapidly expanded our stuff to fit into the spaces we acquired. Oops. We are still reorganizing, and finding the right place for each or our things as well as letting go of what is no longer needed. It’s hard to know what baby/kid things should be saved for the next one vs. what can move on. In the last few days we have pulled a car load of donations to go become someone else’s thrifted treasure and it feels good to move the clutter out.

My 2017 wish list (in addition to everything again from last year)

• Stop using the kitchen counter as storage space / landing zone for everything that comes in the house. Really, I need to work on all downstairs surfaces, but the kitchen is the hardest.
• Backpacking – Now that I am no longer exclusively pumping and K isn’t reliant on bottles, the need for electricity and clean running water won’t hold us back from adventure. I’m hoping to go backpacking at least once this year.
• Finish painting the inside of the house, and add more pictures and color. We’re still unpacking… so decorating has not happened yet. This is the year.

Listening to: Mairi Campbell’s rendition of Auld Lang Syne, looking back and forward.