Rewind, Rehash, Reflect, Renew

I was doing the dishes earlier, amid the noise of two televisions, one turned to Lilo and Stitch, the other to the local news, with one sick kid, a barking dog, all of us still in pj's, and thought how I haven't had a time to reflect on the past year, much less set goals for the new one rapidly approaching.

Then out of nowhere, I heard Joni Mitchell's River, which is the type of song that perfectly fit my mood. I located it's source, an ipod sitting under a book on the kitchen table that someone forgot to turn off, listened for a bit, took down the calendar, then sat down to think about 2013.

I feel like we've come a long way since last January, Mike and I were both unemployed, but happily, we are ending the year in jobs that we both enjoy, and hope to stay in for a long time.

I got out of the habit of writing down how many miles I run on my daily calendar, it seemed like since I had different races going on throughout the year, I didn't need to keep doing it. But now I'm curious as to what the final total was, so I'm going to start keeping track again.

There was the Shamrock Run:

Then I fell down some stairs and wrecked my ankle.

During the summer, I made some great new friends and we ran in the early morning, training for The Boilermaker.

Then came the Empire Half:

I tried Cross-Fit, and my arms blew up.

My fitness goal for 2014 is to get planking again, and I want to add more half's to my schedule. I really like that distance, the training is manageable, and it's long enough to feel accomplished at the end.


We spent lots of time in the Adirondacks, a place we truly feel like we can escape to.

Although there is a bench on the lake where you can get WiFi, just for a minute or two.

We were reminded again of how life can change in an instant, and how fortunate we are in so many ways.

Although I got tired of picking rubber bands up from every corner of the house.

I loved watching the kids challenge themselves in different ways this year.

Luke flipping off the high board:

Frank thinks he's the third child.

Every night at 7:00 he brings his bone into the kitchen, and drops it at my feet, which means he wants me to put peanut butter in it.  Every. Night.

Speaking of the kitchen, I once again cooked Thanksgiving dinner, and Mike mastered the art of deep fried turkey.

In 2014 I want to finally master marinara sauce.
                                                                           ~

I really can't ask for a better ending to 2013.

I haven't made any major resolutions, aside from dropping some more un-wanted pounds before our next trip to Disney.

I'm going to keep moving forward, staying positive, hopeful, and grateful.

Wishing you a happy, healthy 2014.....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!