I was debating whether to write a reflection of 2013 or not. And obviously from the title of this post, I decided in favor of it. But first, here's a short month-by-month recap of our year:
- January - I was promoted from Senior to Staff Engineer. *cheers*
- Feburary - We bought the new cafe rug.
- March - We got a raised bed for our garden (and it has been so rewarding!).
- April - We got bikes and fell in love with Stevens Creek Trail.
- May - We visited my family in Seattle & gave our master bedroom an accent wall.
- June - I went to my first ever baseball game and fell in love with a baby named Quinlin.
- July - I painted my first ever watercolor, we went to Alaska and we had our biggest tomato harvest of the season! Oh, we also went to Renegade Crafts Fair!
- August - David's parents visited and I put together a gallery wall for our cafe.
- September - We went to Petaluma to celebrate our 4th anniversary!
- October - I busted out the iron and finally ironed my clothes. First (and only) occurrence of the year. :D
- November - My sister visited and we went to Yosemite! We also celebrated Thanksgiving at our house with friends.
- December - We went to NY/NJ to celebrate with Daniel & Ruth! I also met David's cousins and met up with an old High School friend. We also saved 25% of our income this year (though I really need to pull the plug on my retail therapy.)
Thank goodness for facebook and the blog for documenting these events so I remember. :) I remember mentioning in my review of 2012, that I'd feel blessed to have another another year just like it. And thank God, 2013 was another peaceful and happy year for us. I believe I'd look back on this period of my life with great fondness. We have health, wealth and peace. What more can anyone ask for?
I think 2014 will be an interesting year. I will finish my term on the council in September. I may have to go to Mexico a lot for business. And we look foward to whatever God may bring to our lives this year.
In general, though, I have these hopes for 2014:
- Make better use of my time. I find I let days and weekends pass by with no purpose. A lazy day or weekend here and there is okay, but I need to redeem more time.
- This is connected to the one above, but I need to find new inspiration and motivation. I think the greatest danger of a peaceful life is life goes on just fine when you do the bare minimum. There are no external circumstances to push me to do more, be better and learn new things.
- Cook more. The 2013 food diary kind of fell off by mid year.
- Go outside more. I think I'm becoming more and more of a homebody. Pretty soon I'm going to become the mystery lady at home with 100 cats. Except, I don't have any cats.
Alright, my friends, I really hope God blesses all of you and walks with all of you in this new year. Happy New Year!