My Real Life

It’s the end of May and I felt like this might be a good time to take stock of my 20 wishes for 2013.

Almost halfway through the year, and if I am slacking in some areas, I need to get on that.

So, bear with me, but here is where we stand on the 20 wishes in 2013.

20 Wishes for 2013

1. Take the family to DisneyWorld. We’ve been talking about doing this for quite awhile and just haven’t done it. I want this to be the year.

So…yeah.

Haven’t quite gotten there with this one.

I am hoping to get a plan in place for the fall, but as of now, this is a no go.

2. Get a playset for the backyard. I want the kids to play outside more, and I know my kids and a playset would definitely do it.

Ordering it this week.

No lie.
3. Get weight down by 9 pounds AND KEEP IT THERE. Goal weight: 125

I’ve actually gained weight this year.

I’ve had some change in some medications, and I’d love to blame it on that, but I can’t be sure, and at the end of the day, I can only blame myself.

It’s something I think about every single day and I know I need to make the time for me to take care of this.

It’s important for so many reasons.

So, stay tuned on this one.  I’m on it.
4. Incorporate more vegetables into the family diet.

Working on it.

Think I’m doing a pretty good job with this one.
5. Make $1,000 by selling on eBay.

I was starting like gangbusters in January, but then things slowed down.

When summer starts again, I hope to get going again on this one.
6. Get blog readership to 200 per day average.

I’m not averaging 200 per day, yet, but there are more days where I hit 200 than I used to.

I have, however, doubled my Facebook subscribers to the My Real Life page, and I think that is a very good thing, so I’m feeling happy on this count.
7. Make home office neat, organized, and functional.

Oh, baby…we are kicking butt on this one.

We cleaned it out before setting up my writing nook, and just this weekend, hung up some pictures and diplomas and we are 3/4 of the way to perfection in there.
8. Read 50 books (and keep track!)

Halfway through the year and I am at 31 books.

Summer is always my busiest book reading time, so I have no worries that this one will be complete by August.
9. Get pictures hung. We’ve been here a year and a half and haven’t hung up our pictures yet. Drives me nuts.

This weekend, Real Man and I took hammer, nails, picture hangers and got to work.

I LOVE the results.

It just feels so much more complete.
10. Have family photo taken.

I don’t feel picture ready.

Real Man doesn’t feel picture ready.

This one is a no.
11. Really go through my closet and be ruthless with getting rid of what I don’t wear.

This is a summer project.
12. Play piano at least once a week. I teach piano lessons, so I am always at the piano, but I rarely carve out the time to play for myself. I went to college as a vocal and piano performance major and I feel like I’m neglecting that part of myself.

Nope.

I just can’t seem to find the time to do this, and when I do, Tiny wants to sit right next to me and “play” along and it’s not inspiring.
13. Only eat out once a week, if at all.

Some weeks are better than others.

Wednesdays are tough days for us because everyone needs to be in different places all at the same time and we wind up eating out on Wednesdays.

Things are about to slow down, so that will be good, and I want to get in some good practice over the summer so we don’t fall back into bad habits when school and activities start up again in the fall.
14. Write in my journal more often. I only wrote in it twice in 2012, so anything would be an improvement! I think keeping the blog up every day takes it’s place, but they have different purposes and I don’t want to neglect my journal writing.

Yes.

My writing nook has gotten me back to journaling and I love it.

Now that I’m doing it again, I realize how much I missed it.
15. Really learn about self-publishing to see if it is an option for my novel.

I am still learning much about self-publishing, but I’m not quite there, yet.

So, this is a work in progress.
16. Re-edit my novel.

I have joined several online writing groups and have joined a group that is physically going to begin meeting in July and will be working through the novel, as well as other pieces of writing of mine, through those groups.

It’s nerve-wracking but exciting.
17. Shred and pare down all of our files.

Summer project.
18. Sell the van.

DONE!!!

I cannot tell you what a relief that was.

That van was sold and that money was put away and this makes me insanely happy.
19. Take more pictures.

I’ve taken so many pictures that I have no more memory on my phone.

I don’t exactly know what to do with all of my photos.

I’ve deleted the fuzzy ones and the no-so-great ones, but I still have too many.

I’m not sure if I should save them to a DVD or have them printed out.

I just don’t know what to do with them.

However, I guess it’s a good thing that I have so many, because it shows that I’m following through on this one!
20. Be outside more.

We are outside fairly consistently these days.

Playing with sidewalk chalk, playing horse, shooting hoops, playing hockey, badminton, croquet, kicking a ball around, playing four square, volleyball…you name it, we’re doing it.

So, big yes on this one.

 

So, there you have it.  My update.

I think I’m doing pretty darn well and am proud of myself.

It’s a good feeling.