The Journey of Parenthood…

Year End Review ~ 2011

It’s time again for my year end review! I LOVE doing this every year at New Year’s. At the start of each year I make a list of goals then at the end of that year I go back over them to see how I did before making the goals for the new year. Here’s how I did in 2011:

  1. Take time out of my day to visit with God and His Word: Well. I bought a great daily devo book with short little devos in it. And I did good reading it. For like two weeks. It is SO hard to start a routine of digging into the Lord’s word. I know this is a common struggle for many people and it needs be a TOP priority in my life. Not only is it vital for my walk, but it’s critical for my children to be raised in a home where a Bible is found sitting out, opened, and well read!
  2. Be the wife I need to be for Zach, our marriage, and our Father: All relationships have ups and downs but overall I’m super proud of myself for how well I did during my pregnancy! When I was pregnant with Kye I let those hormones roar and took a lot of things out on Zach, this time around we got along great and I think he’d agree with that! I’m far from perfect as a wife but I continue to strive daily to do better.
  3. Transition Kye back to his scheduled lifestyle and keep it that way consistently: Did great on this one! As soon as we moved in the house we got him back into the grove of things and we stay on his schedule very hardcore still. We also got him back to independent playtime and by the end of the year he was doing an hour of room time with no issues. He often asks to continue to play! And he cleans up all on his own!
  4. Stay current with my blogging and blog daily whenever possible – also catch up and stay current on Facebook picture uploads: I am almost caught up on the facebook pictures, it took a lot of effort on my part to do that and I did REALLY great with blogging. I pretty much did blog daily, even though I often stayed behind of the current…it’s just something I’ll probably always continue to struggle with. We travel so often it’s hard to stay on top of it!
  5. Swim laps regularly and enjoy the new pool: I did enjoy the pool…but more from a mother’s perspective. It was SO FUN to swim with Kye all summer! I did not swim as much as I should have though but think I’ll do better this summer since we’ll be stuck at home so much with Brittlynn’s schedule.
  6. Have a minimum of 1-2 Stella and Dot Trunk Shows a month: Phhh. Didn’t come CLOSE to happening. I really love Stella and Dot and enjoy hosting trunk shows so much but it’s tough to get it going around here!
  7. Have Kye sleeping in a big boy bed by the end of the year: It’s crazy for me to believe that he wasn’t in a big boy bed at the start of last year. He adores his bed and it was a very, very easy and smooth transition for us.
  8. At least complete 2 blog books, but hopefully more: Didn’t happen 🙁 This is a MUST DO for 2012 because if I died tomorrow it’d be one of my biggest regrets!
  9. Take very good care of my skin and wear sunscreen each and every time I go into the pool or lay out: I also did great on this. I wasn’t perfect but I pretty much wore sunscreen every time I went out in the sun and I didn’t lay out nearly as much as normal. I’m weaning myself off of it slowly 😉 I’m THE palest I’ve ever been (well since high school anyway)!
  10. Have a more “Dave Ramsey” lifestyle. Save more. Spend less. Get stuff paid off. : Out of everything we accomplished in 2011 this is one thing I’m the most proud of. We had a LOT of medical debt from Zach’s back surgery and we paid it ALL OFF after only 10 months. That’s amazing and I really do credit Dave Ramsey for that!
  11. Become better friends with people in our church and fellow Christians: I have gotten to know several women from our church better this year and look forward to continuing to develop those friendships. Christian friends are so important to have as we can help build each other up and keep each other focused on God!
  12. Get rid of the paci around Kye’s 2nd birthday: Again…Kye had the paci in 2011??? It seems like it’s been AGES! That was another pretty smooth transition for us!
  13. Spend more quality time together with Zach – regular date nights once a week or at least twice a month! I’m not sure how many date nights we had or how often we had them but I think we did pretty good on this. Of course it’s hard to remember since it feels like we NEVER go anywhere now that Brittlynn has been born, but we had some decent together time last year. One thing to improve on is simply spending quality time at HOME together. So often he’ll do his thing and I’ll do mine at night and I think it’s nice to even just take 30 min to watch a show together or something each night!
  14. Have Kye swimming on his own by the end of summer: Thanks to Tiny Bubbles this goal was achieved beyond my expectations…we have a little fish!!!
  15. Go on walks with Kye 4-5 times a week: Phhh yeah right…we’ll try better for 2012…
  16. Have family Bible study time: It saddens me that this also didn’t happen. Zach was raised in an awesome Christian home but they did NOT do a family bible time and it’s something we both feel is important. It’s, again, a tough thing to start doing when you’re not already in the routine of it though. Kye and I did read completely through his children’s bible and have started it over again. I try to read him 1-2 bible stories each morning over breakfast. While it’s not nearly enough, it’s a start!
  17. Have Kye fully night and nap potty trained by the end of the year: Wow. I think with the parenting side of these goals I pretty much rocked them! We totally had this down with no issues too!
  18. Slow down at yellow lights instead of speeding up: Haha. I know this seems random but it is something I needed to work on as I ran SO many red lights in the past. I’ve gotten much, much better about this though!
  19. Start to save for retirement or invest in more Aflac stock: This didn’t happen. We focused on paying down debts and once that’s done then we’ll have a lot of money to put towards retirement. We actually had to dip into the stock savings to pay for the storage shed.
  20. Do better at responding quickly to emails, facebook messages, and blog comments: Didn’t do well on this either. I appreciate ALL the comments I get from you all and need to do better at responding, it’s just bombarding sometimes and I tend to focus on writing blog entries and getting them posted in my free time rather than spend it replying to stuff.
  21. Create a cleaning schedule for the new house and STICK to it:Didn’t happen. Mondays are laundry day though and I do great with sticking to that! I’d say our house is pretty clean at all times (not super clean lately but I have a valid excuse). It could always improve and, again, something to strive for.
  22. Use up all of our timeshare trips that will be expiring: We didn’t use hardly any of them but I was pregnant and that’s something I didn’t realize would be happening when I wrote this list 🙂 We’ll def start using them up this year though!!!!
  23. Have regular dr. and dentist visits: I did good on this one too!
  24. Send cards, cook meals, volunteer – have a more servant heart: I also think I excelled in this area. I need to send cards more often but I stepped up whenever someone needed me this year. It isn’t always convenient to help a friend but it’s always the right thing to do and is so rewarding to me to know I helped someone else during a time of need.
  25. Do fun, creative, interesting things with Kye: I need to do more crafts with him, but I’m just not a naturally crafty person. We did go and do a TON though and had a BLAST before bombarding his life with a sibling 🙂
  26. Visit my friends and family in the Atlanta area more often: I went up 2 or 3 times I think? Not too bad! I hope to plan some more visits that way, it’ll be tough with nursing all of 2012 but it’s well worth it. It always makes me feel rejuvenated and more like ME when I reconnect with my wonderful friends up there.
  27. Be under my goal weight before becoming pregnant: Nope. I was exactly my pre-pregnancy weight with Kye as I was with Brittlynn. Oh well. I think my body just likes that number 😉
  28. Pray more and have my prayers be more specific: I can’t say I did better at this in 2011 but already in 2012 my prayer life has gotten stronger (something Hallie Green taught me!)
  29. Do better at trusting Zach to handle his work stuff and just be supportive: You’d have to ask him how I did on this…I think it was an improvement from years past? He also ROCKED OUT this past year so there wasn’t too much for me to be worrying about, which made it easier. He’s also in a management position now though and it DID cause a lot of extra work stress on him (and on me too..)
  30. Make the best choice for Kye that we can regarding pre-school: Hands down we did this for SURE. I LOVE Carpenter’s Kids and am so thankful we made the choice we did. He adores school and is really excelling there!
  31. Save throughout the year so we can fully enjoy our big vacation trips: We did amazing at this as well! Even though the big Mediterranean trip fell through, we have a GREAT savings going for Italy in May!
  32. If pregnant then follow Bradley Method exercise routine daily, don’t
    gain more weight than necessary, and ENJOY pregnancy more than I did
    with Kye:     two out of three isn’t bad! Isn’t it funny that I wasn’t pregnant at the beginning of 2011 but that by the end of 2011 I had a baby?!?! I didn’t do Bradley Method daily like I should have but I did GREAT on my weight gain and I do think I enjoyed this pregnancy more 🙂
  33. Get a full body check-up to check for any cancer type moles and such: Did it, thankful to be cancer free!
  34. Pay at least one extra house payment: How about like 3 extra??? We pay a TON of extra money each month towards the principal on our home. We’re hoping to pay it off in under 20 years so we can buy a beach house!
  35. Have our new house feel and look like HOME by the end of the year: It is home for sure and it’s almost completely finished. I know MANY of you have been DYING to see it and we’ve been living here for over a year now and I still haven’t blogged about it. But I will…someday soon hopefully. I guess I need to just realize it’ll never be completely done ya know?
  36. Be the smiling, happy, nice wife my husband wants to come home to: Again, you’d have to ask Zach but I think he came home to an overall happier and nicer wife this past year than any other year before?
  37. Use our Wild Adventures Passes: We def got enough use out of them to justify buying them. I am glad Mrs. Charlotte didn’t get them for us this year though as with Brittlynn’s schedule I just doubt we’ll ever get to go.
  38. Floss: Well…the goal didn’t say how often…
  39. Get dressed and ready even when just hanging out at the house all day: Zero percent happened!!! I’m off to a WAY better start in 2012 though. At the end of 2011 I bought a ton of cute pjs that match and have been wearing them. Zach said he hasn’t once come home and looked at me and thought “ew” which I guess is an improvement? haha
  40. Choose a new car based of needs, not wants, and find one that will be a financial good choice: Proud of us for this too!!!!!! I worked my BUTT off on the car situations and I think we made wonderful, financially smart, choice!
  41. Take Kye on several trips : Did this! And will continue to do it every year!!!!
  42. Comment more on my friends blogs :): You all would be the ones to judge that…I think I did okay…I appreciate all of your comments so much that I try to do it back to others!
  43. Learn how to teach others the Gospel and help lead them to becoming Christians: I feel MUCH more comfortable talking about God but I still have the hardest time talking about Him to those that are closest to me. Isn’t that odd??? I feel uncomfortable about it and am SO scared that I’ll say the wrong thing and will push them further away rather than bring them closer to God ya know?
  44. Have more creative fun times with friends instead of just eating or watching shows together: Hello Vegas!!! You can’t get any more fun and creative than that right Katie? Plus our Twilight night is pretty dang awesome!
  45. Don’t buy more lotion, perfume, chap stick, or other stuff until I use up ALL of the products I have : I literally didn’t buy a SINGLE thing of lotion until the end of the year. Isn’t that SICK that I had THAT much lotion?!?! I stuck to this and it was good to use up stuff. I am a saver and it’s good in some areas but bad in others. Who needs 20 million things of lotion? What the heck was I saving it for???
  46. Cherish each day I have with my sweet boy as he’ll be grown up all too quickly: Funny that I ended on that goal when I didn’t even realize just how much I’d really truly cherish those times with JUST Kye. Now that he has a sibling my time is never just his and I’m so, so thankful for all of the fun moments we shared during my pregnancy this past year. I did cherish each second and I’m thankful for that!!!

Overall, I think I achieved more goals this past year than any other. Maybe I just set more realistic goals for myself??? There are for sure some areas that I need to improve (spiritually especially!) and I have several goals that will be repeated for 2012 but we are all on a walk and  journey and need to be improving in all areas of life! I’m thankful for all the blessings 2011 brought to my life and am eager to get started on my goals for 2012!!!

Emily Parker
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1 Comment

  1. Sarah Evans
    January 19, 2012 / 6:57 pm

    Sounds like you did a great job! I am hoping to have E off her paci by Christmas 2012. She will be 21 months at that point! Right now she uses it so much I am worried if it'll ever happen!

    Reply

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