let's try this again.

At the beginning of this year, I was inspired by my cousin Tara to create a list of ten things I wanted to achieve in 2011. I was able to think of four and only managed to achieve .... one. I read 3-5 books (double that, if you count the fact that I read The Little House series for the zillionth time as well as a few Nancy Drew books):

I know it's not quite the end of the year and I still technically have time to achieve the other three goals, but the chances of me "writing a song on the guitar" or "starting and finishing a knitting project" are slim to none - mostly none. The Etsy shop thing is also too far beyond my current priorities to bother with at the moment. {Guess which one (the only one) of Tim's goals he clearly achieved for the year}.

Although 2011's list might have been a complete fail, I'm undeterred and already thinking about a list for 2012. I'd like to try and put down ten this time, though number one might just have to be "Getting through 2012" since I'll be conquering the world of 2 kids under 2 (please say a pray for me that Tim does NOT set the same goal #3 as he did last year).  So far, this is what I've got:

{1} Learn to use my Canon camera on manual and take the next step up with my photography.
{2} Get back in shape after having baby (i.e. dust off the elliptical).
{3} Start or join a home group.
{4} Learn how to make two household products (i.e. laundry detergent).

This time I'm not stopping at four - I will get five* more things down on that list before January 2012. And hopefully in a year's time I'll be able to claim victory over more than just one of them.

* wow can you tell I'm bad at math? It took me about three proof reads before I noticed that 4 + 5 does not = 10. Thankfully I already thought of a fifth anyways:

{5} Finish reading all three of Francis Chan's books (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God, Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit, and Erasing Hell: What God Said About Eternity, and The Things We Made Up)