I put a whole bunch of things on my 2011 to-do list didn't I? Lets take a look at that list and see how I did!
Keep going with the regular workouts. Weights/elliptical/stationary bike during the week, and yoga on the weekend.
Yup. Been keeping up with this one just fine. Well, been keeping up with most of it anyway… I get plenty of cardio with the elliptical/stationary bike, and plenty of stretching with the yoga, but I wasn't able to work weights into my workouts very consistently.
Garden 3.0! We should be able to get raspberries and blackberries this summer, since the bushes will have had a year to establish themselves. Also, I would like some squash.
All of the blackberries and raspberries (the ones that the birds left us) got eaten straight off of the vine rather then saved for a pie or some jam. We didn't plant any squash either… after careful consideration, we decided that we didn't want to devote that much space (squash spreads) to squash. We did enlarge the garden again, and we planted pretty much the same things that we planted last year, only in greater quantities. The jalapeno peppers were the surprise standouts of the growing season, and we had many many meals of poppers out of them. The zucchini once again succumbed to the scourge of the root borers. The tomatoes did not do as well as last year either. We had a very hot summer, with a record number of days above 90 degrees, and it turns out that tomato pollen dies when the temperature goes over 90, so there went our tomato crop.
I want to be able to actually catch stuff when I go fishing.
I did catch fish! And l cleaned those fish and ate them as well. (They were very tasty.) One time we went out I caught three good-sized fish! Catching fish is, however, mostly luck, so I wasn't able to catch fish every single time that we went out, though I was luckier at fishing last summer then I was the year before.
Finish the boat and learn how to sail.
Yes. Oh yes. We finished the boat. It sails like a dream. Once we finally finished it, we spent most weekends out on the lake.
Yes! Done! Finally! It took the better part of a week from start to finish, but we got it done. And it looks great. I wish that we had done it long ago.
We went to Yellowstone with them in early September, and then we went to Grand Teton National Park and hiked around (literally, we hiked around a mountain) it. We covered over 50 miles in five days, most of it uphill. I don't think that I will ever do something quite so extreme again, but as my Mom put it, I "did something that most people won't ever do" and now I have "bragging rights".
Start to weed down my part of the library. Do I really need all of those textbooks from college and grad school still? I think not.
Kind of, but not really. I weeded out the books in my office… but the books that are taking over the rest of the house remained untouched. It is really, really, really hard for me to get rid of books.
Yes, I did clean and reorganize my office. And I have (mostly) been able to keep it that way… I do occasionally start to backslide into clutter again, but I try to keep that under control as much as possible.
Mix up my wardrobe a little bit more. I don't think that I will magically turn into a fashion plate, and I don't really want to, but I do need to broaden my go-to clothing beyond jeans and a t-shirt all of the time. Also, maybe I should add color to my wardrobe beyond black, grey, and blue.
I definitely did this with my summer wardrobe. I think that I wore dresses and skirts most of the summer. I am still trying to beef up my winter wardrobe a bit. I am also getting more comfortable with the concept of layering, and how leggings and sweaters can take a lot of stuff from summer wear through the cooler fall and early winter days. However, I learned that I am essentially lazy when it comes to my wardrobe, and I tend to do what is easiest. So if dresses and skirts are easiest, then I will wear dresses and skirts. If jeans and t-shirts are easiest, then I will wear jeans and t-shirts. I also learned that I do not have a lot of patience with clothes that require special care. If an item of clothing is not hardy enough to at least go through the wash on the "delicate" cycle and then go on a rack to dry, the I probably shouldn't bother with it.
Learn how to do my hair. I have great, short, easy-to-take-care-of hair, and all I really do with it is wash and comb it.
Kind of. I figured out what product is best to use when I want to blow-dry my hair straight, and I figured out what product is best to scrunch through my hair when I want it to be really curly, and I figured out some things to do with hairclips and headbands, and I figured out how to flat-iron my hair, but mostly I figured out that I am essentially lazy. I can do a lot of things with my hair, and now I am better at doing them, but I just don't really want to take the time. So mostly I use the product to make my hair curlier (and a lot of time I also use the product that I figured out is best to keep down the static) and leave it at that. I am pretty much just a wash-and-go kinda girl.
Do regular training on longsword techniques outside of the group fencing practice.
Eh… this one kind of fell by the wayside. John and I were pretty busy last year. So some of the extracurricular activities, like this one, just went undone.
Well. That's it for 2011. I think that I did pretty well, overall.
Now I need to come up with a plan for 2012.
I've actually had luck growing zucchini and summer squash up a trellis. I was inspired by a friend who once trained pumpkins up a trellis and actually grew pumpkins on her garage roof, to be harvested by climbing out a second-story window.
A trellis? Really? How did you manage that? I have always thought that the zucchini vines were too heavy and would just pull a trellis down… Also, our house is 2 stories (we have rooms above the garage as well) and that is a little high to have to climb in order to harvest stuff!