Well happy new year to ya! I must say: 2014 looks really good on you.
I mostly took a break from doing anything remotely productive since Christmas, and am suddenly looking up to find we’re four days into the new year and I’ve hardly been out of my pajamas. Which of course means this year is shaping up perfectly! (I did start the Whole30, which is kind of like a more restrictive Paleo diet for 30 days, in an effort to kick my sugar cravings and jumpstart some healthy eating again. My expectation is that by February 1, I will be able to leap tall buildings, run marathons and resist cookies… all three of which sound equally daunting.)
It’s New Year’s Resolution season, so I thought we could take a look at last year’s goals and see how we almost definitely rocked them SO HARD. Almost definitely, right?
Except not.
Really, really not.
Check this out. Here were my home goals from 2013:
Goal #1: Finish the laundry room.
Okay, we did do this. But in complete honesty, when I told you that was my goal last January, we’d already done the hardest parts and just needed to do a little sprucing and photographing. I basically put it on my list so I could cross it off.
(Here are the details on that makeover.)
Completely subjective random score: Success. Grade of A. It is finished as planned.
Goal #2: the Guest Room.
My goal here was to punch it up with more accessories, patterns and new bedding. This is how it looked when I made that goal last year:
And this is how it looks right this second:
Yep.
Soooo. *cough.*
OHHH! But I DID buy one thing for it, that I’m hoping will influence the whole room makeover. So I have successfully THOUGHT about this room.
Completely subjective random score: One overnight guest out of a possible four.
Goal #3: the Master Bedroom
Here were my goals last year:
Find new nightstands, lamps, dressers (The lamps and accessories in that photo were stolen from the guest room for this inside exposé of home blogging.)
Finally add some art and accessories!
Begin to furnish the sitting room area
Get a new chandelier
Here is what I have done:
Zero things.
In my defense, 2013 was an exceptionally fast year.
Completely subjective random score: Banana. (I like to keep the rating system meaningless when I don’t like how I performed.)
Goal #4: Weston’s Bedroom
Last year, my goals for this tragic little space were:
Reconfigure the room so the layout makes more sense for how we use the room.
Get the kid a new bed, bedding and window treatments
Design a fun play/creative space so he uses it more during the day.
This is what I have done:
Installed blackout blinds. (Out of NECESSITY.)
Bought him a new full-size bed. (Also out of necessity.)
And when I say “bed,” I mean, “mattress on the floor.” I still haven’t bought an actual bed, or any bedding beyond sheets. There are some parenting schools of thought that say it’s good for kids to have mattresses directly on the floor. We’re going with that, for now.
Completely subjective random score: 4 great naps out of a possible Q.
General home goal
For the last two years, I’ve had a general goal of this:
Be grateful for my home, for shelter, for comforts. Even if it’s not perfect, even if it’ll never be in a magazine, even if it’s covered in tiny grubby fingerprints. Especially then.
Oh my gosh you guys. I just teared up a little reading this. I didn’t realize that I had said that about the magazines. I wrote that goal last year just about six weeks before Better Homes & Gardens emailed me. (There have been a couple other magazines since.)
I just had no idea what was in store. Sitting here right now in this moment, I am blown away.
Going off-topic for a second, but that’s how last year went for us. God opening doors whose knobs we never even thought to turn… creating space for blessings we hadn’t even considered requesting. (I’ll tell you about one of them in a week or so.) I didn’t even think to ask for some of the amazing things He did for us in 2013, and I can’t stop being thankful for His favor, of which we are supremely undeserving.
* * *
So while the laundry room kicked off our goal-reaching with bang, the rest of the year we seemed to completely disregard our goals and run willy-nilly through the house, working on rooms (like the foyer) which we never even planned to tackle, and ignoring spaces that truly needed help urgently.
Welcome to the way my brain works!
Here’s to a more productive 2014! How’d you fare on your resolutions last year?
The post Rating last year’s home goals: in which I prove that goals do not motivate me. appeared first on * View Along the Way *.