Bye Bye 2013

This year, my year-end Bye-Bye post will serve only to revisit my post from last year at this time and see how I did with my goals.  This is my first time looking at the list since I wrote it.  I had kept a mental note of most of it throughout the year and did find myself motivated by it... sometimes.

Here's the list and how I did with each goal:

1. Introduce monthly goals back into life.  I will start January as no-pop month.  I think I made it through the end of April and made the weakest possible attempt to do a gluten-free May, failed at that one and just never picked it up again.  My monthly goals included no-pop January, no-caffeine February, 80-ounces-of-water-a-day March and... hmmm... what was April?  I know I did it but can't recall.  Weak, just weak.
2. Make 100 blog entries for the year.  Admirable goal.  I remember my thinking - just average 2 per week.  I didn't.  In the end, I had about 80... maybe exactly 80 if I count this one.  It was a respectable performance, I think.
3. Read 6 books.  Criminy.  I didn't even read one.  Not one book.  I did watch significantly more Lifetime movies, though, if that counts for anything.
4. Run the ½ Marathon in Naperville… whenever it is.  I tried to sign up for this one the same day registration opened for it; however, it closed quickly.  So I signed up for and ran the Oak Brook Half Marathon.  Despite having done all of the training runs, I it was a bad race for me, one that I left vowing never to do a half marathon again.
5. Run at least 9 miles per week.  If I average my runs out over the full year, I did achieve this one.  The intention of it was to just keep me running, though, which I failed to do after mid-November.  November was a pretty rough month for me, and my commitment to running suffered.  I didn't run once in December, unless I count the time we had to run from the train to our car to get out of the lot in time to pick up the kids before school closed.
6. Work out at least 4 times per week.  Umm... nope.  I did have a pretty good run of Body-for-Life workouts in September/October, if that counts for anything.
7. Sign Cal up for swimming lessons.  Done!  We started Cal with lessons in March or April, and he's still going.
8. Wrap for-sure-not-to-be-returned Christmas presents as they are bought (within 2 days of buying them).  I forgot about this one.  I didn't do this, but I did have most gifts wrapped and didn't feel overwhelmed doing so a couple of days before Christmas.  That was the intent, so I'm okay with failing to achieve this goal.
9. Put up more Christmas lights next year – currently thinking on bedroom windows, on all bushes in the front of our house and draped across entertainment center and at landing. We had some issues with lights (i.e. they didn't work), so we had to replace the ones we had.  I did buy some colorful light sets for the window in each of the kid's rooms, so I think this goal could be said to have been achieved.
10. Sign up for and attend full set of yoga classes. (Note: class would count as a workout day.)  Dan bought me a gift card to a local yoga place for my birthday (in March), and all I needed to do was pick a class and time to go.  Never did.

That was it.  Tomorrow I will compile a "Hello" post which will contain a new list of goals, ten sounds good.  I don't know what they'll be yet - at this point, the only ones I can come up with are "Don't let the kids drive me to yell" or "Don't let the kids walk all over me."  Yes, it was that kind of day.  These two seemingly sweet, adorable, lovable kids are finishing the year having defeated me (blog-worthy, not gonna make it, though).

Bye bye, 2013!  I'll probably miss you someday, but I'm not going to miss you tomorrow!