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Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Goals: looking back and looking forward

We did fairly well on our bucket list for 2014, though we didn't manage to complete all of our goals. That's okay because we have 2015 to look forward to!


Family walks

We went on 100 walks/swims, easy. But we failed on family bike rides and we only had a goal to go on three of those. We went on one. One solitary bike ride.

We renewed our 100 walks goal for 2015. We did not renew the bike ride goal because I'll be pregnant for the first half of the year and we'll have a new baby for the second half of the year and being in those conditions limits the ability of our entire family to go on a bike ride together.

Friends over for dinner

We trimmed our goal for 2014 from 12 down to 8. We managed to invite 6 families over before leaving for Utah so we counted some family dinners as one and having the missionaries over as another. So that totally counts as 8.

We pared it down a bit more this year. We're aiming for 6. I'm just not feeling that social. And I don't think I'll be feeling much like inviting people over in the May through August range. So there.

FHE lessons of family history

Our goal was twelve. We officially did seven. But we did a lot of family-story-sharing at Christmas time so I counted some of those as well. I'm trying to collect an advent of family Christmas tales. This year I get to add Grandpa Frank's chilling rendition of the story of Krampus (which some of us still haven't gotten over).

We decided to go for twelve lessons again. I think we originally arbitrarily decided "the third Monday" of every month but that was today and we accidentally did The Tree of Life instead, so...maybe the fourth Monday will be our FHE officially dedicated to family history.

Scripture memorization

We all (excluding Benjamin who can only do a few fill-in-the-blanks) memorized twelve scriptures from the Old Testament (and Pearl of Great Price):

Moses 1:39
Moses 7:18
Genesis 2:24
Joshua 24:15
1 Samuel 16:7
Psalm 119:105
Psalm 127:3
Proverbs 3:5–6
Isaiah 1:18
Isaiah 5:20
Isaiah 35:8–9
Amos 3:7

Typically when we study the Old Testament in church we also study The Pearl of Great Price at the same time. We chose these scriptures from the scripture mastery list based on length. Yes, we chose the shortest ones.

This year we're studying the New Testament at church and so we chose twelve scriptures from the New Testament scripture mastery list. And, yes, we chose the shortest ones again. We've already memorized two and we've been reading the Book of Mormon a whole chapter at a time because the girls are old enough to sit still that long now so it's only Benjamin bouncing off the walls. We're cruising (though I expect we'll be derailed sometime before the year is out).

North Carolina adventures

Last year we set out to do 24 adventures. We managed to squeeze in 17 before we went to Utah so we counted some Utah adventures. Here's what we did in North Carolina:

  • Natural History Museum in Raleigh
  • Art Museum in Raleigh
  • Hiked at The Quarry
  • Durham History Hub
  • Hiked to the bridge behind our neighbourhood
  • Historic Hillsborough
  • That train place Grandma took us to...
  • Splash pad
  • Picked strawberries
  • Topsail Island
  • Camping at Falls Lake
  • Topsail Island...but with friends (so different)
  • Bronto Trail
  • Got ice cream at that dairy...
  • Hiked Mt. Occoneechee
  • Stagville
  • Christmas at Stagville (so different)

Here's what we did in Utah:

  • Tree of Life in Draper
  • Lights at Temple Square
  • Bean Museum
  • BYU tour (different day)
  • Discovery Gateway 
  • Museum of Ancient Life
  • Noon Year's Eve (that was stretching it, I guess)

This year we also put down a goal for 24 adventures. We've done 0 so far. We'll see how we do. Does anyone have any brilliant (and, uh, free) ideas?

Non-NC adventures

Last year we said we'd do three:

  • Georgia
  • Palmyra
  • Washington, DC

This year? Maybe we'll do two.

Beach trips

We thought we'd do four but we ended up only going twice (twice?!). As much of a shame as that is, our goal for this coming year is to go...twice. We're planning on having a new baby and going to Utah this summer, so...

2006 blog book

I did the initial layout and the months of April and May. So I just have June through December left. Andrew didn't inform me that this was my goal when we made this goal. "You didn't make much progress," he said. "I didn't know I'd be doing it alone," I said. Eventually we will get one of these books finished. And it will be grand.

I didn't renew this goal for this year. Instead I said that I'd make Benjamin his birthday poster before the next baby is born. Because I figure that also needs to be finished.

Biking from DC to San Francisco

This is on a stationary bike, mind you, so we weren't actually riding coast to coast. We ended up getting hypothetically stranded somewhere around...Price, Utah.

Our goal was 2438 miles (the approximate distance from DC to San Francisco). We biked a combined total of 1752 miles (71.86% of our goal).

I biked 606 miles in 62 rides before I stopped biking because I got pregnant.

Andrew biked 1146 miles in 63 rides (he's about twice as fast as me) before he stopped biking because of comprehensive exams (and then because of picking up all the slack I left him while I was experiencing the joy of the first trimester).

We didn't renew this goal for the coming year because I'm pregnant and I'm supposed to "conserve calories" and "not go into preterm labour" and other such nonsense. But I think Andrew has some fitness goals he's working on on his own.

Maybe we'll try this again another time.

The kids

Rachel read well over 365 books in 2014 (but there's a whole post dedicated to that already so I won't go into much detail here). This year her goal is either 80000 pages or 400 books, whichever comes first.

Miriam finished reading lessons last year and this year she is going to try to read 50 chapter books.

They have a number of miscellaneous goals (climb a tree, draw x-number of pictures, stop biting nails, etc).

Andrew's also planning on taking over piano lessons. Hallelujah!—because I've been teaching Rachel and I have no idea what I'm doing. So far she can label the keys A–G, locate middle C, and play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Hopefully he can improve on that.

The girls are also going to try to master seven chords on the ukulele—so I can call them out and their little fingers will just automatically know where to go. Hopefully I can get them to practice that much.

Wish us luck!

3 comments:

  1. I always like reading your goals. :)

    Have you visited any of the free museums in downtown Raleigh? I think you'd only have to pay for parking, and I don't think that's too much.

    Also every October, Alamance Battleground has Colonial Living Week. It may be too similar to things you've already done, but I figure I'd mention it just in case.

    https://nccultureblogger.wordpress.com/2013/10/26/colonial-living-week-enjoys-the-largest-attendance-ever-at-alamance-battleground/


    Andrew and I enjoy going to Southport. It's a doable day trip although more fun if you can stay overnight somewhere near Wilmington. You can sit along the Cape Fear River and watch the boats. We try to go there a few times every year since it's a fairly easy weekend trip for us.

    http://www.southport-nc.com/

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Susanne! We've hit up a few of the Raleigh Museums but we can always do them again. :) I'll look into your other suggestions as well!

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  2. I like all your goals. I think I should set a few.

    ReplyDelete