On New Year's Day

So at the beginning of last year I made a few lists of things I'd like to accomplish in 2014.  Reading back now, it's interesting to see which things got done and which are still hanging over me.

Home

• Finish decorating the nursery
• Replace bathroom
• Decorate hallway and staircase
• Mammoth decluttering project!

So the nursery and bathrrom are done and I love them both so much.  Unfortunately, I must have forgotten to specify that the bathroom should be self-cleaning.....  The hallway/staircase and living room are on the agenda for this year; maybe one major renovation project a year is enough for us!  As for the decluttering, I think that's a bit of a pipe dream.  I have been better at getting rid of stuff this year, so this is definitely a work in progress.

Craft

• Rationalise yarn projects
• Project Life 2014
• Scrapbooking
• Finish kitchen blind
• Make patchwork quilt.

Ummmm.... I did plenty of crafty things this year, including winding my own yarn from a skein.  I did manage to get my WIPs under control and I've been finishing things all year.  Project Life is about 8 weeks behind, but that's totally fixable!  I did scrapbook but maybe not as much as I'd hoped.  As for the blind and the quilt?  Let's not talk about them today.

Family

• Continue to build a strong and long-lasting marriage; regular time together, without the children!
• Continue to consider the children's temperaments, developmental stages and natural tendencies 
• Continue with our daily and weekly routines
• Provide consistent discipline for the children
• Go on a family holiday
• Spend time with our extended families.

This was the year of the tent for us.  We took several holidays together, including one with my parents and siblings so that's two big check marks right there!  I've loved seeing all the children develop this year and how their personalities are changing as they grow.  Routines continue to be important but also flexible.  The only thing I'm not happy about on this list is making time to spend with Andy apart from the children.  We recently went out for the day together for the first time since Samuel was born.  That said, while we don't leave the house very often, we do spend most evenings in together and do family things at the weekends.

Work

• Attend trainees committee meetings
• Read Archives monthly
• Complete allergy data project

Being off work for an entire calendar year has been both wonderful and really really strange.  I've seen quite a few friends from work over the course of the year and so I've kept up with the news and gossip from the department.  I've also attended all but one of the committee meetings over the year and done a few bits and pieces between meetings for that.  I didn't read even one full issue of Archives and I didn't do that data analysiis project but I did enrol in a Masters in Medical Education and I've been pleasantly surprised how engaging the work has been so far.

Self

• Use an anti-ageing moisturiser and consider an eye cream
• Moderate my expectations to fit the season.

This is a really really interesting one!  I did use an anti-ageing moisturiser for part of the year but to be honest, I didn't see enough of a benefit to justify the cost and it was so much more convenient to use my general moisturiser for my face.  I think my biggest achievement of the year, apart from having a baby obviously, was losing 2 stone and 8 pounds!  I'm the lightest I've ever been in my adult life (and probably most of my teenage years too!) and I feel amazing.  I buy clothes a size smaller than I thought I'd ever get back into.  The thing I'm most proud of is that I stuck in there to the finish line, I didn't bail out with half a stone to go and say 'that's good enough'.  I found it in myself to be kind and tolerant of my habits and my needs.  I actually started to believe that 'tomorrow is another day' and that one mistake doesn't ruin an entire day's work.

I'd forgotten that my take-home message last year was to moderate my expectations to fit the season.  I was discussing this with friends yesterday and one of them commented that I was good at deciding when to let things go and just accept what was possible.  Looking back over the year, of course there have been times when I've sat on the floor and cried, but for the most part, I've made my priorities and put them into practise.  I think I must have said a million times this year 'how do I do it all?  I don't, my house is untidy and unclean.'  It's the truth, and I'm satisfied with that.

So looking ahead to 2015?  This year is going to be crazy-busy.  One thing I've learned this year is exactly how much work three children, a husband and a house create.  I'm really not sure how things are going to work once I'm also trying to do my job at the same time.  So my word for 2015 is SEASON; there's a time for everything and a season for every purpose under the sun (Ecc 3 v.1, The Holy Bible).  I have a list of goals for the year, including that decorating project and my Masters degree, but over all of it, I know that I am here, in this time of my life, with these people, for a specific purpose.

From a smaller perspective

I take a lot of photos.  A.  Lot.  But other than the occasional selfie, they're pretty much all of other people.  My hubby's pretty good though, when I hand him the camera, he takes great photos for me.  Earlier this year, at Isaac's birthday party, I did just that but boy was I not pleased with the results.  Don't get me wrong, Andy took some lovely shots that captured the day and all the things we got up to.  It was that cuddly mummy I saw wearing my clothes.  I knew that I'd put on weight after my babies; I managed to lose some of it after Anna and then put it back on again once she was breast-feeding less often, and then some more when I was pregnant with Sam.  Something about those photos really brought home to me how much I didn't look like myself and this time, I was going to do something about it.  I was determined that I would take Isaac to school and meet all his new classmates at a weight that felt like me.  Plus, I've always hoped for four children and there was no way I was accumulating more weight with another pregnancy.  I struggled more with Samuel than with the others and I knew that I wouldn't manage all my reponsibilities during a fourth pregnancy without getting healthier.

I started off with an exercise routine that a few of my friends were doing but to be honest, I was in denial about the main cause of my weight; our diet.  A friend had recently posted some amazing photos of her weight loss through Slimming World and I was inspired.   I knew she had a busy family life and worked as well so I thought this might be the way for me.  I do really well when I've got a structure to follow and some accountability.  I've been a member of Weight Watchers in the past and I knew that their point-counting plan wouldn't work with our family routines and meals.

I joined a great group nearby on a Tuesday morning and stood on the scales that first day to find out that I was the largest I have ever been.  I had just been out to buy some size 16 trousers because I had nothing that would fit me.  I dutifully took my measurements and wrote it all down.  I had a dream weight; a number that has always been in my head, that I've never thought I could get back to, based on a photograph when my arms and my face are skinny.

Fast forward 17 weeks and I've done it.  I've hit that target weight and I feel fantastic.  I've been shopping and bought everything in a size 10, knowing that it would fit me when I tried it on.  I own skinny jeans, elegant boat-neck jumpers and clingy t-shirts.  I feel like myself again.  It is awesome.

I can't pretend it's been easy but it hasn't been amazingly hard either.  I just followed the Slimming World plan; loads of fruit and vegetables, lean protein and starchy carbs with enough treats to keep me sane.  I didn't eat white bread for 3 months.  I stopped adding oil to food.  I grill instead of frying.  I bought fun size Milky Ways and sugar free squash.  I rediscovered yoghurt.  The nice thing about the plan for me is that I can see the sound nutritional principles behind it and that it's flexible enough to deal sensibly with breast-feeding (increasing your calcium-rich dairy foods).  I'm trying to find a new balance now, where I can maintain this healthy weight as I adapt to feeding Sam less often and eventually stopping.

I'm so proud of myself for sticking with it and for achieving my goal.  And now, when I hand Andy the camera, I get photos I like looking at!