2011 was a fantastic year!

I've read several blogs about this and have been meaning to do it too so here goes. Instead of writing a bunch of resolutions which will then get forgotten by the end of the first month or two of the new year, I'm going to write how great the year was and get my brain to think that it has happened and therefore will happen. That whole weird psychological thing. I figure what the hey, it can't hurt to try!

So let me tell you about my great 2011. It was a year of some major changes for us, the first being our change of address. It took a ton of effort to get our old house ready to sell with all the painting and new floors, counters, and cabinets but it was well worth it when we finally moved into a new house that was twice the size with a gorgeous open floor plan, fabulous kitchen, good sized backyard, and lovely neighbors....all for a price we could actually afford!

Needless to say, moving kept us very busy but it was wonderful that we took our time to look at every item before we packed it to see if we really wanted to move it and lots of stuff didn't make the cut so we moved much less than we had crammed into our old house. It was so freeing and made us all feel so much lighter to let stuff go so our new house would not start by being cluttered with things we didn't love. Everything has come to have a home where it can easily be put away without a lot of wrangling and for the most part, stuff is.

One of the things I was very happy with was that we managed to keep our studies going forward despite all the craziness and I've gotten some systems in place for keeping the paperwork a bit more steamlined which helps my stress levels tons. All of that has freed up more time for me to exercise (which is so much easier with more space) and get to KSW. Speaking of KSW, Mark and I are finally Dan Bo Nims! Nicholas graduated Little Ninjas and is now participating in the regular classes with his big brothers and has finally gotten his much coveted blue belt. Speaking of big brothers, we were extremely proud to watch them get promoted at the tournament in October to Black Belt! Not like it means they get more respect around the house tho. LOL

With the bigger backyard we have finally started getting some gardening in and can't wait for our first harvest. We have continued to work on eating healthier and less processed and it has been showing with our weight going down and our health being so much better.

And in spite of all the craziness of this wonderful year, I did manage to read 104 books and read 40 new authors! I still have tons of wonderful books waiting for me in our huge library (did I mention how much I love having room for things like bookshelves?! *content sigh*) and I look forward to being able to read more now that this move is out of the way. Now that it is Christmas, there may not be many presents under our tree but we have a lovely tree in a warm and inviting house that we are blessed to call home.