Last year, I blogged about five of my goals for 2012, and I’m happy to report that I successfully achieved at least part of three of them. I did a terrible job of routinely making meal plans and sticking to them. I need to find a better system. Or not try to work around two people with crazy, often unpredictable schedules. And I didn’t make it down to my goal weight and stay there, in part due to goal number one: Train for and complete a marathon.
I finished Flying Pig Marathon in May, Southern Tennessee Plunge and Marine Corps Marathons in October, and Rocket City Marathon in December. Four marathons in 2012. Crazy town. Training for Flying Pig was tough since I had to work around my on-call weekends, and I probably did not consistently run at a high enough mileage to do that well there, compounded by the very warm weather and my stomach issues. However, it did set me up to lower my times in each successive marathon. I also ran my best friend’s first half marathon with her in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and we had a great time. Joe also completed two half marathons – one at Flying Pig and one at Southern Tennessee Plunge. We’re hoping to do more running together this year.
Goal #2: Do more leisure reading
In my mind, my goal was to read 20 books this year, which I keep track of on Goodreads. By the end of December, I had completed 33 books. Some of my favorites from this year: Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers; Jana Riess’ Flunking Sainthood: A Year of Breaking the Sabbath, Forgetting to Pray, and Still Loving My Neighbor; Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl; Lauren Winner’s Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis; Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones; and Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run.
Goal #3: Work on our house
We didn’t end up doing any major renovations or anything, but we finally tackled some of the closets and cabinets that had gotten out of control. I’ve tried to cull things from my closet that I don’t wear anymore. All of those running shoes can really add up!
Not on the goal list:
I was ordained as an Episcopal priest in April! It was a great weekend full of friends and family and celebration.
I finished my CPE residency at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. I was sad to leave my stint as a chaplain there since it’s such a wonderful place. I learned so much about myself and my ministry and who and where God is calling me to be between August 2011 and August 2012, and I am immensely thankful for that experience.
Joe and I traveled to Portland and the Willamette Valley in April and Hawaii in November, not to mention the trips to Washington D.C., Fort Wayne, Huntsville, Cincinnati, and Fort Myers. A big travel year!
This beautiful big boy joined our family in March. I wasn’t sure how our other cats would do, but now I can’t imagine our house without Stitch.
And I was appointed as priest-in-charge of Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in Lebanon, TN. It’s scary and wonderful, and I love the congregation. I couldn’t be in a better place.
Those are definitely the highlights. It’s also been a rough and tough year in a lot of ways. Joe was out of the country for an entire month and then started a very demanding fellowship in July. There have been some growing pains in our marriage as we’ve worked out together where our lives are right now, but it hasn’t been easy.
Here’s hoping 2013 has fewer major life changes!
