My 12 Tasks Update

Hi everyone… I’m BACK from my self-imposed partial technology ban (and 12 straight days off of work, hot diggity)! I feel refreshed, rejuvenated and ready to conquer the WORLD! Okay, well maybe not the world but I’m totally ready to start blogging again.

Before I move forward, I need to take a minute to look back and give you little update on how I did on my 12 Tasks of Christmas.

All in all, I did… um, pretty well. I didn’t complete everything on my list, but I feel pretty good about what did actually get done:

#1. Take a quick trip through the house and fix random stuff  – WIN!
I finally tightened the towel bar that jiggled every time I ripped my bath towel off the wall. I also did a little more childproofing now that Jack is crawling around the house like crazy and pulling himself up on everything that sits still for more than a minute or two. I velcroed the exhaust fan to the ceiling in my master bathroom (a quick fix because I’m afraid of the attic) and, well, it didn’t work so well. Half the fan is drooping back out of the hole in the ceiling, so that task went right back onto my ongoing To Do list.

#2. Refinish nightstand – (sort of) WIN!
So I bought a nightstand at a thrift store for $35 with the intention to paint it a dark charcoal gray or navy blue. However, it sat in my front foyer a little too long and I started to like the wood tones that it already had goin’ on. I ripped out the drawer liner and polished up the wood with a generous coat of Orange Clean Oil and it looks awesome. Well, my husband thinks it looks like something from grandma’s house but I told him to SHUT HIS FACE because I like it. So I didn’t actually refinish the nightstand, but I’m checking this off the list anyways because it’s done (until I change my mind again and decide to paint it).

#3. Try 3 new recipes – FAILED!
We pretty much survived off cookies, holiday dinner leftovers and more cookies for the entire time I was home. I actually did cook once or twice, but I can’t say I tried anything new unless you count making enchiladas from a box as new and exciting. Oh, I rocked the crap out of some chocolate chip pancakes… but that recipe wasn’t new either.

#4. Do 1 hour of cardio every day – PARTIAL WIN!
I was hoping to do 12 straight days of cardio to get my butt into the routine of regular exercise. While I didn’t do the entire 12 days, I still am pretty proud to have done an hour on the elliptical for 7 of those days. It helped me realize it wasn’t as bad as I feared and my goal for 2013 is to do 4 days a week.

#5. NO soda for 12 days – WIN!
Yeah, that’s right I went TWELVE days without soda. I drank water every single day and even skipped my beloved Starbucks for the entire vacation. I’m hoping to stick with the more water/less soda goal for this year and maybe I can get rid of a few of those after-baby pounds that have snuck up on me!

#6. Go through the house and donate unneeded/unwanted items to Goodwill – FAILED!
The trash bags full of clothes are still sitting in my spare room and I never went through my miscellaneous décor to add to the pile. I will probably throw the clothes in my trunk to donate within the next few weeks, but the rest of the cleaning out process probably won’t happen until spring. I also didn’t do a darn thing about getting Jack’s old clothes ready for a consignment sale, so I guess that will be added onto the list for this weekend, or next.

#7. Organize my pantry – STARTED…
One of the things that I really, REALLY wanted to do was to organize my messy pantry. Especially because every time I made pancakes, or waffles, or cookies the flour bag exploded all over the front of me. I’m marking this one down as “started” because I went on The Container Store website and ordered a bunch of awesome organizing things… but they haven’t been delivered yet. I am expecting them this week though, so break out the dance music because there is going to be a pantry organizing party up on my hizhouse this weekend! BOOYA. Wait, is hizhouse how you spell that? Whatevs, that’s obviously what the cool kids are saying, so I’m going with that.

#8. Clean my SUV – WIN!
Okay, I could be all sneaky and take credit for this one but I totally didn’t do it. My husband spent some time on my SUV yesterday and along with doing my brake job, he changed my windshield wiper, shined up my wheels and vacuumed out the inside. SO much better and I’m sure it will totally stay clean for like a week or two!

#9. Upload all our pictures to Amazon Cloud – WIN!
It took FOREVER, but all of our pictures from 2005 to 2012 have been uploaded onto our Amazon Cloud account! I can’t wait to buy a new computer (once we find out our tax refund amount) and will be packing away this old one as soon as it arrives. I’m also thinking of switching our office and guest rooms, so that should be a fun little ‘design on a dime’ post in the next few months.

#10. Make some meals to stock up freezer – Win(ish)!
I really wanted to schedule another Let’s Dish session so that I could stock up our fridge, but I wasn’t a fan of any of their December meals.  I DID make a bunch of homemade quesadillas though, so our freezer is kind of stocked up for the time being. I’m also planning to make a Trader Joe’s run this week so that I can get some more of their super quick cooking risotto and yummy frozen fish meals.

 #11. Find a babysitter/nanny to watch Jack 1 day a week – WIN!
I found a nanny – YAY! I placed an advertisement on care.com and was lucky enough to find a super sweet lady named Megan to take care of Jack on Friday’s. She seems really nice and Jack crawled over to her and sat in her lap within a couple minutes of her arriving at our house. She’s starting next Friday, so let’s cross our fingers that she is as wonderful as she seems!

#12. Curl up in the den and read at least one book – FAILED!
Okay, I never actually got the chance to curl up with a book over the break, but I did get a lot of lazy time. I FINALLY watched the latest Batman movie (LOVED it) and also saw Magic Mike (Eh, thought I would like it more). I also started watching The Mindy Project and enjoyed it so much that it’s been added to our TiVo’s Favorites List. Add all that to some impromptu naps on the couch with my boys and it was a fantastic break!

So there you go – I feel like I did a pretty good job on getting things done over break, but I also feel incredibly well rested after getting 10 hours of sleep pretty much every night!

How about you – did you take a break from work or technology? Do you have any resolutions for the coming year?