Looking Back

Favorite memories:

• February trip to Disney World with our good friends! Not sure when we'll be going back with them, but that was our second trip together and everything went so smoothly. It's amazing that our entire family and their entire family get along so well!
• Christmas with my family - this year was definitely one of the best and I have so many happy memories from that day!

Best finds:

• I started drinking tea at home instead of coffee. I used to have to add a ton of sugar and milk to my coffee. I can drink my tea "black". I really love Stash's Spicy Chai tea in the morning. And then Stash's green tea during the day. Right now, I'm enjoying an herbal bedtime story mix by Lipton. I can drink my tea iced or hot.
• Yoga. My goodness. It took me years to figure this out. First, "yoga isn't about being good at it," is what a good friend of mine told me once while I was complaining about not being "good at it or flexible enough." But that's not all, I found a teacher that holds that same philosophy. As she says, "Let go of your ego and honor your body for where it's at in the pose." She has so many great phrases, one of my favorites being, "smile!" Since I've let go of my ego I've come to really enjoy my yoga time and I've been able to go deeper into most of the poses. Now I feel as if I'm a yoga pusher - anyone that shows any slight interest in yoga I can't help but encourage them and encourage them and then ask if they've tried it out yet! I've learned what yoga classes to avoid at the gym (fitness yoga or warrier sculpt) and which ones I enjoy (vinyasa or hatha).

Things I wouldn't mind not doing again:

• Quinn's surgery and recovery.
• Dealing with the budget cuts at work. (This, I'm afraid will be rearing it's ugly head early in 2011.)

I said I would (and what I actually did):

• read more news magazines and books - I've read quite a few books this past year. I tried a few news magazines, but didn't really enjoy reading them at all!
• read less blogs - I feel sort of guilty, I rarely check my google reader. If a friend posts a link to a blog post via facebook, I'll check it out.
• eat less McDonald's - Did it! Not only that, we very rarely get any fast food now. I can cound on one hand the number of times I either ate McDonald's or got it for my kids. I'm planning on zero trips for 2011.
• try cooking more often - Ugh. Still can't get into the cooking thing. I think I tried one meal in January. If I do cook, it's the old stand by of spaghetti.
• buy less stuff - Hmmm... after the shopping spree I was on today I'm not too sure. I will say, our Christmas was scaled way down. The kids don't need so much and when I'm shopping I find myself putting back a lot of the things I pick up. I've still go to work on this, but I have gotten better.
• donate more - yup! I'm constantly going thru our toys and clothes and packing bags up to donate.