She Likes Purple

On Goals (+ A Hotel Room Winner)

My year to-do list is sad, guys, and I've known this to be true for some time. I don't know if I just had an unexpectedly busy year or if taking off the entire month of February to watch Sons of Anarchy put a bigger wrench in my productivity than I first thought it would, but I will have left a lot undone at the end of 2012.

I think I'm more-or-less okay with this. 

Life is sometimes one task completion after another and sometimes it's just...the absolute opposite of that. I think I'm okay that my 2012 to-do list is basically the latter.

I still plan to write a list for next year and maybe reasses my priorities while doing so and also try to be more realistic about my home improvement time allotment. I just had a lot of ambitions to paint and re-decorate and hang photos and, wow, self, do you know the couch is in the same room as the wall you want to hang photos on? COUCH ALWAYS WINS.

I'm still doing daily goals via Twitter and I like it a lot. I'm also embracing the hell out of my reminders app (Alarmed). Basically everything I ever need to remember goes into that app and my phone beeps nine million times a day. It works for me, though!

A few things I'm considering adding to my to-do list in 2013:

A 60-Day Yoga Challenge (yoga 5x/week for 60 days)
Read all of the books on PW's best of 2012 list
Re-boot my book club
Start a cookbook club
Start Couch 2 5K and Couch 2 10K, so I can get back into the running groove of things

What are you already thinking about doing in 2013?

***

Oh, and we have a Radisson stay giveaway winner!

Congrats to #57, Leigh. I'll be in touch soon! 

Half Full

So, it's July.

I know this to be true because: 1) IT'S STUPID HOT (although not as hot as last year, small miracles); 2) the calendar says so; 3) my internal panic mode was jammed into the "on" position last week--as we hit mid-year--over all the things I have yet to accomplish in 2012. (My internal panic mode basically chants "FAIL" over and over, how about yours?)

I was expanding on my internal panic mode by detailing all the ways in which I've failed so far this year (not skinny enough, house not clean enough, Kyle still doesn't know how to open a champagne bottle for me) and then I told myself to just quit all that, immediately. The world keeps turning no matter how messy my kitchen or how often I have to get my own champagne. Tragically keeps turning on the latter, of course.

Anyway, instead of beating myself up over all I have to do and all I want to do and all I am legally obligated to do (someone remind me to get my car inspected, please), here's what 2012 has included so far, and it's not bad, my friends. Not bad at all.

1. Kept raising that too-awesome kid of ours.
2. Became a vegetarian. (That photo is of these delicious black bean sliders.)
3. Took a much-needed, so-fun girls' trip to Wimberley, TX.
4. Welcomed our new baby niece to the world. She's a keeper.
5. Walked (and snorkeled) the beaches of Culebra, PR.
6. Threw an engagement party for Kristie and Duvain. Congrats again, you two!
7. Finally brunched at Cafe Modern. Something that's been on my to-do list for a bunch of years.
8. Celebrated five (crazy) years of being married to Mike.
9. Kyle's first merry-go-round!
10. Launched a small business (Cherry Jean) with my friend Cherie. We've sold 50+ shirts this year so far. You should buy one!
11. Made a family yearbook.
12. Hung out with wild horses. No bigs.
13. Visited a black sand beach. Something I've always wanted to do, but something I didn't realize I could do outside of Hawaii. (I don't know why I thought this. Perhaps Hawaii is spreading lies.)
14. Dyed Easter eggs with Kyle for the first time.
15. Walked around Old San Juan.
16. Visited Fort Worth's food truck park.
17. Introduced Kyle to the world of track riding. He's already smitten and Mike is already beaming. (That same trip, we also got to spend time with my grandma. Something I didn't get to do at all last year.)
18. Discovered Sons of Anarchy. (Like that wouldn't make the list.)
19. Drove to Austin, to (finally) introduce blog babies to each other.
20. Threw Kristie a bachelorette party where we 1) had so much fun and 2) realized that 30 might be the official age to retire tequila shots.
21. Threw Kyle a pretty kick-ass third birthday party, at least according to the guests who wouldn't leave the balloon room. And according to Kyle, who began planning his fourth birthday party the next day. That's my boy.
22. Visited Vieques.
23. Held my best friend's (of 19 years!) new baby boy. Jack, you're the best.
24. Kayaked in the ocean, right after a beach bonfire.
25. Went to the Dallas premiere, where I wore Target and everyone else did not wear Target.

***

The year is half over. Half full, indeed.

My Very Grand 2012 To-Do List

For some reason I thought tossing the word "grand" into the title might make this the best and most crossed-off list to date. Only time will tell if my optimism is really insanity. (Here are my 2010 and 2011 lists!) 

Anyway, I brought a lot of things over that went untouched in past years but are still very much things I still want to do. If I haven't done these things in two years, you might ask how much I really want them, but to that I say: it's not that I'm in denial, it's just that I'm really, really tired most of the time. I also tried to be much more concrete in my plans this year. It's downright hard to cross something vague-to-define off any list and I really like drawing lines through things. 

So, here we go!

My Very Grand 2012 To-Do List

1. Create a business plan for the 5K I'd like to organize.
2. Finally buy those investment jeans.
3. Get brave with a new hair color.
4. Read all my book club selections.
5. Make Kyle's baby blanket and book of letters.
6. Take at least one yoga class a month.
7. Make a neighborhood friend.
8. Organize the upstairs work space.
9. Go to the Fort Worth Modern Art Museum and eat lunch at Cafe Modern.
10. Write and submit a piece on parenting.
11. PR in every distance (5K, 10K, half-marathon).
12. Get a third tattoo.
13. Throw a baby shower.
14. Take a trip with Mike, to celebrate our fifth anniversary.
15. See a therapist.
16. Update my SS card and passport.
17. Make a general doctor's appointment.
18. Go horseback riding.
19. Decide what to do with my race bibs.
20. Make these envelopes for thank you cards.
21. Create and fill up a magical thinking jar.
22. Paint some mason jars for our kitchen.
23. Do something with the space above our couch.
24. Create a nostalgia wall on the wall by our stairs.
25. Sneak in cans of champagne to a chick flick with friends.
26. Replace our kitchen counters.
27. Have a garage sale and donate half the money to our local food bank.
28. Create an address wreath for our front door.
29. Paint our front door.
30. Run at least 250 miles throughout the year.
31. Find a charity that speaks to me, that I can become a voice for.
32. Say something out loud every day.
33. Go back to College Station.
34. Pose for a boudoir session.
35. Wear pretty new under things on New Year's Day.
36. Enjoy Boston cream pie cupcakes.
37. Host a more organized run at this year's Blathering.
38. Take a family trip, even if it's just a weekend drive somewhere nearby.
39. Hold Natalie's baby boy in the hospital.
40. Create an Activities Advent Calendar for an early month in 2012.
41. Create my Christmas Plan by November 1st.
42. Create a media kit for my Lush sites.
43. Replace our stockings for 2012.
44. Buy a tree skirt.
45. Go to kickboxing, at least five times.
46. Sell 50 shirts through Cherry Jean.
47. Finish the 6-week boot camp class I've already paid for.
48. No phone or computer between 6 pm - Kyle's bedtime.
49. Start marathon prep.
50. Host a champagne-inspired dinner (champagne risotto, champagne cocktails, etc.)
51. Do something with our front porch. 
52. Take Kyle on a night out of town, just us two. 
53. Eat at Salsa Fuego, in Fort Worth,
54. Throw Mike a very rad 35th birthday party.
55. Re-read To Kill a Mockingbird.
56. Post on She Likes Purple at least 3x a week.
57. Play poker.
58. Volunteer at a race.
59. Karaoke, at least once!
60. Regularly work out the month of December.
61. Write a fictional story (here, on paper, submitted, somehow)
62. Hit send on a hard email.
63. Host an outdoor movie night in our yard.
64. Wear a swimsuit.  
65. Put a new pin in our wall map. 
66. Buy a great pair of impractical heels.
67. See Beauty & the Beast in a theater, again.
68. See the Nutcracker, Christmas season 2012.
69. Run 15 miles, at some point.
70. Get a new blender and food processor. 
71. Go to the ballet. 
72. Take professional family photos.
73. Write a letter to Mike once a month.
74. Do 10 real push-ups and one pull-up.
75. Run 3 miles on my 30th birthday.

***

A few more vauge-ish-type things I want to keep in mind this year:

• If I love them, I shouldn't talk badly about them
• Speak calmly and rationally, even if the other person isn't
• Get better and more knowledgable at social media marketing because I love it
• Clean the house regularly or just finally figure out how to afford a housekeeper
• Alwyas be as nice as possible to Mike because there is simply no one else I like more
• Smile more
• When I know what I'm doing, confidence comes easy
• Do the laundry more often
• Cook more often, especially when things get more stressful
• Don't apologize for crying at the One Tree Hill series finale
• Go to bed earlier, get up earlier
• Say yes as often as it feels right to. Same for saying no.

I have a good feeling about 2012. I hope you do too.