I was thinking aobut all the stuff I have done in the last year and thought I would share...

Learned how to knit.
Learned how to needle/wet felt.
Switched from white to brown rice.
Bought the books circle round, nourishing traditions.
Made a "crunchy" ginger bread house w/o candy!
Shopped primarily at Vallue Village rather than Goodwill
Switched to grocery shopping at New Seasons instead of Fred Meyer
Dyed Easter/Ostara eggs with vegetables
Started a Nature Table
Found Amity's
Supported a lot of WAHM's
Suggested a WAHM product to people in the grocery store
Went back to school
Sent Max to Waldorf Kindergarten
Started using all natural cleaners at home/ Made my own cleaners
Switched Maixy to cloth diapers
Planted my first real garden
Tried to buy mostly organic
Started a compost bin
Switched to Natural menstrual products
Took an eye-opening Women's Studies class
Learned about geography of the world
Overcame my fear of math
Supported local businesses as much as possible
Lost 22 pounds
Gave natural gifts
Got rid of plastic/unwanted/unused toys
Went to the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival
Bought natural medicine
Made cloth napkins and placemats
**Adding more**
Bought organic free-range meat as much as possible
Made lots of new friends
Went to the Oregon Country Fair


Now on the other side:
Went to Walmart 2x. (Received Walmart gift cards for x-mas)
Ate at fast-food place about 5 times
Ate awful cafeteria food served on polystyrene way too many times
Drove car too much
Didn't ride bike enough
Gained back 10 pounds
**Addition**
Yelled like my mother way too much

It's interesting to look back. Add your list if you would like.

Don't think I can remember all that, but here goes:

Biggest, Kalki became diabetic

moved to Australia with one weeks notice

put on 25 lbs

cleaned up our diet

had our first vacation in 6 years

saw friends I hadn't seen in 8 years

wore pink(!)

and floral(!)


Can't remember much else. My life was pretty uneventful, and then here we just concentrate on diabetes.

Murali

PS I LOVE Max's name. Angel is one of my alltime favorite guys names. Too bad dh doesn't think so, or Kalki might have ended up with it, too! LOL (for girls I feel like it is a bit twee)

Yeah, I was going for first name Angel, dh wasn't too thrilled. I do not care for Angel for girls, that whole name association thing, I've known too many snobbly spoiled Angels.

DH has been diabetic since he was 22 mos. old. We have had more than our fair share of diabetic lows this year too.

Ohhh, don't forget:

Took many (hopefully, lol) baths in luxurious, old fashioned awesome tub

:happy:

Cool list. You should be very proud.

May I ask, why Value Village over Goodwill? Aren't they both the same, in terms of being a thrift store?

No ggodwill b/c of the outrageous pay they ceo recieves. Something like $500k/yr. I mean it's supposed to be a non-profit!

Not enough baths!

LOL on the baths! More, more, more!!!! :)

Ohhh, that IS crazy!!! ;pop: I heard some weird things about StV's (St. Vincent dePaul I think it is) and Goodwill and Salvation Army in regards to being biased, anti-gay, tolerating only certain types of people or religion, etc. Things like that. Don't know how true, but some of it came from people working for them, or used to be. LOL.

Yeah, I'm not too into the Salvation Army either b/c of Christian roots.

Where's your list Denise? :p

I was thinking aobut all the stuff I have done in the last year and thought I would share...



What a great idea---I'll have to sit down and compile a list.
:)

OK, I'll admit, I came up with this idea in the bathtub! :)

What a great idea! And what a great year you have had! Holey moley!

I have:

worked intensively with ds to help him recover from autism
potty trained ds (a huge accomplishment, most 4 yo's with autism are far from potty trained, and plenty of 4 yo boys without it, too)
got him wearing cloth diapers and wool pants at night again
got dd mostly dry at night
started us all on a GFCF (gluten and casein free) diet (we have backed off recently, but are gearing up to going back to strict GFCF as we are seeing things like increased bedwetting, increased behavior issues, etc)
started classical homeopathy with ds
read a ton on autism, diet, food allergies, supplements, homeopathy
finished my massage therapy schooling, took the national boards, have my massage therapy license
found two part time jobs doing massage
found a wild Alaskan salmon co-op and found money in the budget to afford it for our main meat
decluttered my house massively, giving away about 1/2 of what I previously owned, I am still going and should reach 2/3 soon
sewed clothes for my kids
simplified my life by selling my diaper cover biz
applied to an MFA in writing program
stopped eating at McD's entirely
took plenty of baths in my Roman tub ;)
made my own soap
learned how to make bendy fairies
taught my dd how to sew

The bad:
drove WAY too much (30-60 mi/day for my son's special needs preschool)
ate at Checkers (fast food) twice - no other fast food
got too much Thai food takeout lately ;)
went into credit card debt
and probably much more

Good idea, odd timing. I usually do it at the start of the pagan year or the traditional new year.

Me, hmm.

cared for my MIL during her last days while she lived with us
visited two ICUs at two different hospitals way too many times to be with both ILs in their final days
made arrangments for two funerals within a week of each other
in the process of probating two wills in three states
learned to knit
teaching Beth and Samantha to knit
knit Easter eggs and avoided SOME candy (not all)
knit sweet little neck bags for the bendies the girls got for Spring Equinox from Danielle
celebrated 2 years gluten free (the girls), longer dairy free
eating more and more organic
paying off debt
going to see my best friend (by plane[yikes]) for the first time in 2 years
decluttering massively
saved a puppy from the shelter
crate trained that puppy
whistle trained that puppy

The bad:
ate way way too much junk during ordeal with in-laws
put on some more debt while on unpaid leave
I am not gluten-free yet
my truck drinks way too much gas but I can't get anything better
over-critical of certain people in my life

We became foster parents, and have made an impact in the lives of the children placed w/us

We paid off lots of debt

We moved from a very small town to an even more small town (LOL) to cut our cost of living and gas usage

Lost weight

Our family is GFCF and we all feel much healthier!

Discovered "Nourishing Traditions" and eat that way most of the time

We're discovering a new culture and their ways of life (we live on the Apache reservation)

Discovered more about myself and who I am; who I want to be

DH and I have grown much closer, and are in tune with each other, we want the same things out of life....

Joined a natural food co-op so I can afford the healthy stuff

Found a doctor who will take patients that don't vax and is also competent and open minded( a feat around here!); AND takes our insurance :)

I've become much more confident in the body's ability to heal itself without medical intervention (like letting a fever run it's course)

Went back to homeschooling ds1

I'm learning not to be so judgemental, and I'm trying to be more calm and relaxed about things I can't control.


~Kristi

This is a really great thread. I loved reading everyone else's lists. Here's what I can remember:

finished my first article for publication
played with my little man and had a blast
survived several months with my ILs
took my DS on a 5 week trip overseas
held a lesser panda
saw my mom hold a giant panda while my DS sat next to her
gave my first conference presentation
switched to all organic food
started buying in bulk
got canvas shopping bags
supported WAHMs by buying clothes, etc from them
sold and bought a house
found DS a wonderful Montessori preschool
nurtured my dog back to health after a back injury
furnished and decorated my whole house
began decluttering the house
replaced plastic toys we'd received as gifts with a few nice wood ones

things I need to work on:
drive less
finish decluttering
eat out less

Here's what we've done (not as impressive as some of ya'lls lists but it took me the major part of the year to sell our house, it was on the market for a year and a half):

*Sold our house so we could move into a smaller one on land
*In the process of closing on a house with 2 acres
*started downsizing our possessions (though most in storage so I really won't be able to do this well until we move)
*tried to get the boys plastic toys down to less than 25% (think I accomplished that)
*eating out less (we were doing this once - twice a week)
*made several of the boys Easter basket items and didn't put any candy in eggs, they only had a very small container of Jelly Bellys
*have started confessing to family our beliefs on the environment and trying to get them to understand our perspective about our house, the boys toys, etc (boy that's a whole can of worms, nobody understands)
*using more homemade cleaners

What I need to work on:
*developed an anxiety disorder gotta get rid of it because I refuse to be placed on meds because of it
*eat out even less
*buy more organic and local
*declutter more, My husband and I are pack rats and I want to try to get over that a bit
*make more gifts this year, I had a whole list last year but selling our house threw me off

What a great thread. You all have made great progress in you lives.

Here's mine off the top of my head:

Started nursing school

switched the boys to organic milk

sold our house

got out of debt

let go of some of the anger I have toward my mother

reading for pleasure

started knitting again

stopped fretting over an untidy house

have way more patience with the boys


What I want to work on in the next year:

stop being so critical of everyone and everything, just let some things be

lose some weight by eating better foods and exercising regularly

eat more organic fruits/veggies

sew

shop at garage sales/thift shops more

declutter (which will be hard if I do the above, lol)

practice yoga

start meditating

switch to reuseable grocery bags

laugh more

finish nursing school

This is great:
Accomplishments:
Continued to eat many organic natural foods
Still cloth diapering and the little one is just about one year
Buy mostly seocond hand or earth friendly clothes
Buying fair trade coffee
Continued paying off debt and will be in a position to buy our land this spring!

Need to:
Get kids to eat healthier!

Warm wishes,
Tonya
Home Educating, Simple Living, Mom of 5
Come see our New and Improved Store featuring Hand Crafted Natural Living Goods!
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