2013 Year in Review

This year has been pretty busy... Here are some new things I tried in 2013.

365 Photos: For many people, the challenge is to actually take a picture every day of the year. For me, the challenge was to choose the best picture of the hundreds I take each day. What a wonderful exercise in restraint! Amazing how each picture evokes emotions from particular days and events, no matter how mundane I thought them to be at first.
Check out my 365 Project!

Community Choir: I missed singing with a group; a Google search this summer brought me to this family. My expectations were extremely exceeded because this is NOT your average community choir! Making music with these 300+ strangers-turned-family for the benefit of our community has definitely been a highlight of my year.

750 Words: I’ve already written on here about my goal to write at least 750 words every day with the help of this brilliant site. Twelve months later I am still going strong – this year I’ve written 303,387 words. That is crazy! I didn’t make it every day, but when I can, writing brings clarity and calm.

Full Time Job: In February, an opportunity fell into my lap, and I was hired on the spot. I continued in my original part-time job until the school year was over, then took the 40-hour-a-week plunge this summer. It’s not perfect (what is?), but I am so thankful for the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of children.

Baking: In addition to my hobby of creating delectable confections (pie of the month, anyone?), my sister and I also took a cake decorating class this fall! I’ve been wanting to do that for several years, and while I’m no expert, I feel a lot more confident in my cake-making and decorating skills.

Transportation Changes: For the first 7 months of this year, I took the city bus. In August, my sister and I co-bought our very first car! Her name is Jules, and she is so cute! She gets great gas mileage too. I know, first car at age 27… but then that’s what I get for not getting my driver’s license until age 25.

LOST: Behind the times as usual (last year’s obsession was Harry Potter)… I saw all 6 seasons of this brilliant TV show in 5 months. This incredible story has evoked laughter, tears, anger, excitement, anxiety, frustration, relief, and more. Although it was mostly anxiety and frustration until I watched the 2 hour finale on New Year’s Eve.

Blogging: I can’t believe I’ve already passed my 1-year anniversary of blogging! Pie recipes (and lots of other recipes too), our family princess days, lots of toddler and preschool ideas, and just random miscellany have been posted here, and I have so many other things I can’t wait to blog about. 

We’ll see where this year takes me. I am planning to continue with all these endeavors in 2014…