How'd I Do?

Now that we are nearing the end of 2012, I have started to look back at the resolutions I made at this time last year to see how I did.

1. Maintain my weight - I felt like I did really well with this up until I got pregnant over the summer. It has been a struggle coming to terms with gaining weight, even though I know it is necessary for a healthy pregnancy.

2. Exercise more regularly - I was hoping to be able to exercise 3 or 4 times a week, even for short amounts of time, but I did discover some new things with regards to exercise. Eric and I started going to power yoga once a week in April and we loved it. I have had to take some time away from it since then because of the heat involved in power yoga (not good for pregnancy!), but I am looking forward to starting back up again next year. I also tried Jazzercise after I got a groupon to try it. It's not bad, though I think I still prefer Zumba.

3. Make music for myself.

a. Start every day with music - This happened some of the time....

b. Be more comfortable playing the guitar - After putting guitar lessons off, I finally started them in December. I plan to take lessons every other week for a couple more months until the baby is born and hopefully that will help increase my guitar skills.

c. Write more songs - Time really got away with me on this one. I wrote one song this year, as opposed to the minimum of 3 I was hoping for. There's always next year!

4. Continue to read more - I far surpassed my goal on this one! I was hoping to read 12 to 15 books but actually read 32 as of right now. I read several different series this year including the Hunger Games trilogy, the Mazerunner trilogy and prequel, the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. I am also currently in the middle of the Harry Potter books and the Tudor series written by Philippa Gregory that chronicles court life during the times of the Tudor reign in England. 

5. Write more - This was a total fail on my part and I just couldn't keep up....

6. Have more deep, in-depth discussions in my life - Same for this one, though the posts on FB were interesting to read when I did actually do it.

7. Develop my Music Therapy business

a. Get my website up and running - This I kind of met halfway. I wrote one blog post on my website, which is more than I did before but it still needs a lot more work.

b. Finish designing my Music for Wellness and Self-Discovery course and teach at least one section of this course this year - I finished designing the course and actually offered it at St. Mary's Women's Wellness Center but did not get enough participants to actually teach the course. I have plans to offer it again in 2013 at a different time that might work better for people.

c. Present at conference - This one actually happened! I applied in March to present about interventions with children and adolescents in inpatient psychiatric facilities. I designed it to be an interactive presentation because they tend to be more popular. I was chosen to give my presentation and it went really well. I had over 100 people in attendance (I know because I ran out of handouts) and people were sitting on the floor and out the door.

8. House projects

a. Install new carpet in the other 3 bedrooms. We are hoping to do this in January/February - Check!
b. Install new kitchen counter - Check!
c. Install new kitchen floor - Check!
d. Organize closets and drawers - I got a lot of this done but not everything...
e. Paint the barn - Check!
f. Paint the fence - Didn't happen but I'm sure it'll be back on the list for a later date....

9. Things to look forward to - All of these things happened:)
a. Our 3rd trip to Europe
b. A weekend trip to Cincinnati to go to the zoo
c. More than likely a weekend trip in October to celebrate our 6th anniversary
d. American Music Therapy Association conference again this year

So yeah...not everything happened but I still feel like I improved in a lot of areas, so I'm calling it a success! If anything, it has made me more mindful about things.

Stay tuned for my 2013 resolutions!