This marks my 8th year making one of these lists. I do not know how I struggled to come up with 18 or 19 items in the beginning because now I can easily get over 20 (not really going great on last year's list certainly helped fill this one) but there are usually 1-2 at the end I get stuck filling. But
20 in 2020 | How I Did (85.75%)
21 in 2021 | How I Did (89.5%)
22 in 2022 | How I Did (86.4%)
23 in 2023 | How I Did (79.5%)
Home Things
1) Make a step on home addition
This has been the plan for some time but we were waiting for Matt to get through school; we could not have handled an addition on top of the school stress last year. So now we need to at least figure out if what we have in mind is even feasible.
2) Get rid of 500 things
I did a "get rid of 1000 things" challenge with two of my sisters in 2023 and I made it with just hours to spare on New Years Eve. It cleared out so much extra stuff from our house! I kinda tracked last year but fell off about April even though we'd occasionally get rid of things through the rest of the year. Already in 2025 Matt & I have been a bit ruthless going through boxes, especially in the basement (is this the year the basement finally stops being a problem?!?!?). 500 feels like a good number to aim for.
3) Hang boys' jr ranger badges in their room
This is a much cheaper option than #1 and yet crossing off either gets me the same number of "points". The boys have accumulated 4-5 junior ranger badges each and I'd like to hang them up in their room instead of leaving them to languish in a box. Basically I need to go to a craft store to buy ribbon but it's something I've been meaning to do for months.
4) Homeschool for at least a semester
You know what, this is a new thing this year but it is taking up a significant amount of my time and even more brain space so I am giving myself an easy one to cross off...since I've already been doing it for 3 weeks, not a full semester yet! I'm sure I'll write more about it in May or June, when we've survived it, but already it's going much better than the beginning. I haven't cried in over a week so BIG PROGRESS. (This, for obvious reasons, counts as a "home thing".)
5) Host 6 Cookouts
We hit 7 last year which was an all time best for us but I do not know if we are ambitious enough to get to 8. Six as a minimum feels good.
This might be one of the few items that is on the list every year but I also think I've hit it every year?!?!? Mostly on our dates but we have a local pizza place and a local Chinese place we pick-up from with the boys as well as many ice cream places and a sno-cone one.
7) Make something from Mel Kitchen Cafe cookbook once a month
I've been following the Mel's Kitchen Cafe blog for many years and not a single one of her recipes has ever steered me wrong (my kids might not like them all but I've been pleased with them). She released a cookbook in early 2024 I believe and I just got it for Christmas. I haven't gone through the whole thing but have flipped through it quite a bit. It's been a LONG time since I bought a cookbook that wasn't ice cream specific (those might be the only ones I've specifically gotten) and thought would be a good challenge to cook at least one thing a month from it. I've done a "once a month" for a different food project for a few years now, this one might be the easiest since it's so specific? We'll see (January has already been a success!).
8) Make a standard fall/winter and spring/summer menu plan with grocery list
As I said a few days ago, I'm very close on this one, would really like to have it finally done and then start using it! Menu planning is a stressor for me, even though I very much see it's usefulness.
9) Make a treatza-pizza
Does anyone remember these from Dairy Queen around 30 years ago?? I was recently reminded of them and decided I need to make one. So I will try. I really don't think I can go wrong (from what I remember, it was like an crushed oreo crust, ice cream, and toppings...but more pizza form than ice cream cake).
10) Go on 10 dates
Years ago we struggled to hit 4 in a year but as the boys have grown, and especially aided by Matt's 4 years of working 4-10s, we've gotten much better at getting these in. It really helps that they boys are ages where we can leave them alone, at least long enough to go out to eat.
11) Try 4 new date ideas
Shamelessly stealing this from Kelsey at Rising*Shining. Our dates are fairly typical going out to eat so I want to try at least 4 new things, even a new restaurant might count, maybe we'll find some new favorites!
12) Finish 5 photobooks (OBX, 2024, Luke, Sam, summer 2025 vacation)
Three of those I do every year, OBX it last year's trip, and then ideally we'll go somewhere this summer but since my husband is imminently switching jobs, he doesn't have any time off planned for the summer and so nothing planned. I'm hoping we can get in at least two trips this year but all depends on that job...
13) Buy 3 books I'm excited about
Two of these are from two of my very favorite internet follows, the first being Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Staying Put by Annie B. Jones. She is the owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful Thomasville, Georgia. She also is the host of From the Front Porch, a podcast about books, small business, and life in the south, that I've been listening to for 8+ years. And I've convinced Matt to make a detour to Thomasville TWICE when driving to/from Florida (the second time I got to meet Annie which truly was a delight). So very excited to read her debut book (I have already preordered it from her bookstore). Next is I've Never Been Here Before: Our Family's Year of Budget Travel, Wandering the World, and Finding the Sacred by Ashley Campbell. I've been following Ashley on Instagram for over a decade, I started when Luke was pretty little (I wrote about it here, 11 years ago, almost exactly!). She homeschools, adopted her youngest, and has beautiful photography. From June 2022-June 2023 she and her husband took their 5 kids on a trip around the world and her IG content was one of the best things on the internet those whole 12 months. I LOVED following along and am so glad she wrote a book on it. Very excited to read this. And, finally, How to Be Busy: Unhurried Living Even When Your Calendar is Chaotic by Rachelle Crawford. Her Messy Minimalism was one of my favorite reads of 2022 and she has been a delightful Instagram follower since. Just a very relatable writing style but also practical advice. I was very excited to hear she was writing another one. Affiliate links to Amazon on the last two but I'm going to try to buy them from The Bookshelf, even if I have to ask them to special order (which I have done many times!).
I was a bit shocked that I managed to hit this last year, the first year I had ever run outside every single month of the year (even though January, February, and December were each a single 2 mile run). I have been watching the forecast carefully to see if January looked possible before I committed, I wasn't going to be running when our windchill was -16° a few days ago! But January looks doable and it's one of the two worst months (with December). February has a better chance of being decent by the end that I often have run at least once in February even before this challenge.
Matt actually helped me come up with this one! We have a decent local park system and there are 5 we visit with some regularity but many I've never been to. So we decided that we'd visit 10 and do at least SOME activity at each one. If they have a playground, that counts. If they do not, we'll have to come up with something else. These will probably mostly happen between April and October but I'm excited to try some new to us places.
16) Take boys to a movie at the theater
I think Luke has been twice and Sam just once, as a baby which is partially the reason I haven't tried again (it was one of those summer kid movie afternoons where there were many babies and MANY little kids). But it would just be fun to do this with them. I don't even remember the last time Matt & I were at a theater (maybe 3 years ago??). The biggest problem might be finding something decent for the kids to see...
There was a year when we went 11 times. That was before kids. The last many years we've gone one single time, for our wedding anniversary. And we love it but it'd really be nice to go more than once. We haven't taken the kids in a few years so that's a big possibility. Before COVID we'd take them at least once a summer.
18) Watch Little Women
The newest one, from 2019. I've heard good things about it and I've even owned the DVD for over a year (it was $1 at the school Christmas market). I should actually watch it.
Six feels like a good number. We maybe only went once before I started putting it on our list and now we are people who go to the Farmers Market! It's fun but I also have to be in the mood to spend money. That's not always true but we can usually at least find some food to get.
Just Get These Things DONE or Take Them Off the List
20) Finish our will
Yes, this needs done. Done. Done. Done. It needs to be finish. Stop putting this off, SELF.
21) Art books
SAME. We're getting to poop or get off the pot territory here. Commit or give up. COMMIT.
22) Sell a Lego Millennium Falcon
We've been meaning to sell this for 2 years but, I'll admit, I am very nervous about selling it online and then someone having a problem with the quality (the box is in excellent quality) but adult Lego people are SERIOUS. But we need one less one in the house.
23) Figure out how to use Gmail better (clear-up inboxes)
Should I have done this 20 years ago when I set-up the account??? Maybe. But also, I need a better system. I want to hold on to some e-mails but I haven't had inbox zero since I first set it up...like I said last year...I have e-mails from around the time we got married in there and that was nearly 19 years ago....
24) Fix tags
I did this partially last year but need to commit to finishing. This isn't as terrible as some other long lingering items on the list but it's still one I'd like to wrap up.
25) Do a special collection at school
I have two in mind, really two that I've done in the past, but I wasn't able to do either last year and it would be nice to try again this year. Ideally I'd like to do more with this project BUT homeschool is really cramping my time for many things (this blog among them).
The first goal is to do better than last year (68.33%). The second goal is to get an A (90%). I need to come up with some sort of reward/incentive if I do hit an A...now I need to think about that...
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