The girls and I decided that one goal that we are striving for this year is to bake 52 different kinds of cookies! I'm going to keep just this one post and update it periodically with our status. I may or may not include pictures depending on the success (or utter failure!) of the different recipes.
January
- Mexican Wedding Cookies (America's Test Kitchen Kids - No recipe since the girls are recipe testers and are unable to share at this time!)
- Almond Poppy Seed Cookies
- Almond Biscotti
- Chocolate Chip Cookies (Nestle Tollhouse Recipe from the back of the chocolate chips - substituted 1/2 c Shortening for one of the sticks of butter; used dark brown sugar)
February
- Frosted Sugar Cookies
- French Macarons (Used Tasty tutorial/recipe and PopSugar for tips, etc)
Well, let's just say 2018 never happened, right? I obviously failed to set any goals for last year and could definitely 'feel' the difference. Here are some highlights from 2018:
Well-being:
- Participated in a wellness group at work
- Took Peanut for lots of walks!
- Ran two 5ks.
- One with my bestie in the bitter cold and snow. Thank goodness for friends! I would have bailed if it weren't for her!
- The other with Girls on the Run--so much fun!
- Swam--a lot!
- Completed a six-week mindfulness group
- Line-danced
- Went rollerskating
- Visited a few trampoline parks
- Played softball
- Competed in Redneck Ninja Warrior (twice!)
- Learned how to play shuffleboard
- Competed in/completed the Step It Up! Challenge in my county
Travel:
- Took a family road trip to Phoenix, AZ! We all added a few states to our lists and hit some great Route 66 sites along the way. We had bigger plans to continue on to Utah and Colorado (and see the Grand Canyon), but the travels proved too much and we headed home a few days early.
- Took a sister trip to visit the grandparents in Florida for a long weekend!
- Traveled to the UP (Marquette) for work--experienced the 'first' snowfall--in OCTOBER!
- Went to Mackinac Island with our Girl Scouts troop
- Was airport shuttle to and from Detroit a few times (and Grand Rapids, too)
Connection:
- We fostered three kittens and three dogs this year! We still miss them :(
- Went to middle school orientation - gasp!
- Picked cherries and blueberries (with extended family)
- Had a half-birthday party for four little cuties
- Went on the 5th grade trip to Michigan's Adventure
- Instituted weekly "Sibling Lunch"
- Said "hello" and "goodbye" to sisters and brother (to and from Denver, Uganda, and our house)
- Became a soccer (and volleyball) mom (and dance mom)
- Had one-on-one time with my girls
- Cheered on dad at his softball games
- Went to a Michigan State University Men's Soccer game
Inspiration:
- Baked (like, a lot)
- Drew lots of derpy drawings
- Visited the beach
- Had theme dinner weeks: taco week was tops!
- Walked in the Memorial Day Parade with Girl Scouts
Growth:
- Still need to work on de-cluttering. It seems to just build up again shortly after it's been cleared. Definitely want to focus on this in 2019 to minimize the amount of "things" we have.
- Fell off the eating well wagon over the holidays and need to get back to it. Going to try to eat more veggies and drink more water.
- Really have done well getting our finances on track. I love to be generous, but have not been able to be quite as generous as I'd like because we have financial responsibilities that prevent me from doing so.
