Reflection 2012

apple juice toast

midnight 2012-13

[I wrote this in early January and forgot about it!]

It’s time for my second annual reflection based on Simple Mom’s “20 Questions for a New Year’s Reflection”. I copied the exact questions here, but go get the free printable from Simple Mom.

These are all answered from my perspective, but I made Matthieu jump in on questions 5, 6, and 7.

1.    What was the single best thing that happened this past year?

telling my husband that I am pregnant

2.    What was the single most challenging thing that happened?

financial fall-out as a result of moving and under-employment

3.    What was an unexpected joy this past year?

forming new friendships, growing others, and reuniting with old friends

4.    What was an unexpected obstacle?

hormonal imbalance causing months of emotional and physical challenges

5.    Pick three words to describe this past year.

Anna: transitions, toddler, compromise

Matthieu:transition, toddler, poor
(Uncanny!)

6.    Pick three words your spouse would use to describe your past year—don’t ask them; guess based on how you think your spouse sees you. (If you’re not married, have fun guessing the answers from other friends and family, or just skip this question.)

Anna: I think Matthieu would describe my 2012 as: fun, discouraging, changes

Matthieu: I think Anna would describe my 2012 as:graduation, career, sexy

7.    Pick three words your spouse would use to describe their past year—again, without asking.

Anna: I think Matthieu would describe his 2012 as: exhausting, exciting, milestones

Matthieu: I think Anna would describe her 2012 as:bootylicious,difficult, delayed

8. What were the best books you read this year?

The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne (translated into Finnish), Scripture Stories for Children (LDS from the early 90s), Ten Little Goblins by Pamela Jane Manning, The History of Love by Nicole Krauss, Bossypants by Tina Fey, Grandpa Green by Lane Smith, Jade by Taru Mäkinen

9. With whom were your most valuable relationships?

I don’t like to name friends for fear of leaving someone out, but my Utah County girls know who they are. I always value my relationships with my parents and brothers and sister and all my in-laws. My husband and daughter are sacred to me, and I spent more time (quantity and quality) with Alexandra than anyone this year, lucky me.

10. What was your biggest personal change from January to December of this past year?

I started reading more.

11. In what way(s) did you grow emotionally?

I became more empathetic in some ways.

12. In what way(s) did you grow spiritually?

I allowed myself to self-evaluate my spiritual state candidly.

13. In what way(s) did you grow physically?

I grew an avocado-sized baby!

14. In what way(s) did you grow in your relationships with others?

I got two more nieces; yay!

15. What was the most enjoyable part of your work (both professionally and at home)?

I learned a lot about editing, writing, networking, and blogging, and about my strengths/areas needing improvement in my freelance editing/writing/translating work. I get satisfaction out of organizing my home.

16. What was the most challenging part of your work (both professionally and at home)?

I would like to work more (work with more clients and write a good, monetized blog), but my progress is slow and I feel frustrated. I resent, procrastinate, and feel guilty about procrastinating housework.

17. What was your single biggest time waster in your life this past year?

Lazy escapism via the interweb.

18. What was the best way you used your time this past year?

reading to Alexandra

19. What was biggest thing you learned this past year?

You can feel joy and sorrow at the same time, and probably will the rest of your life. Fight for the joy to dominate.

20. Create a phrase or statement that describes this past year for you.

The ebbs and flows are frustrating, but the river is still moving forward.

I made up an abbreviated version for Alexandra and answered on her behalf.

1. What skills did you practice most this year?

complex sentences, vocabulary, and narration; praying; climbing; hurrying; group play; persuasion; eating with fork and spoon and drinking from regular cups; dressing and undressing self (with a little assistance); all pottying skills (but refusing to use it); beautiful singing voice; memorizing songs and books and sayings; making up words, copying/being copied, tickling and other silliness for humor

2. How big are you?

36” [91.4 cm] (tall enough to ride some “real” rides at the Mall of America amusement park); 30 pounds [13.6 kgs]; hair halfway down back

3. In what ways are you more mature emotionally?

participatory (social) play; expressing frustration, sadness, anticipation, regret, and gratitude; empathy and comforting others; taking/giving/waiting for turns

4. What did you enjoy most about daily life?

reading; watching shows; going to the playground; playing with grandparents, aunts/uncles/relatives, peer-friends and cousin-friends

5. What was most challenging about daily life?

when mom is on the computer for long stretches of time and when dad is at work/school for long hours; trying really hard to do something but not mastering it quickly enough for own high standards

6. What are your catch phrases?

“I’m Woody!” “I’m a princess!” “Give me [  ].” “Can you read it, please?” “I want to [whatever someone else just mentioned]!”and endless talking about anything from goats to commanding dogs to colors to categories of vehicles, etc.


April 2012:

moving out of our apartment of 3 years (we were sad)

October 2012:

Matthieu's 30th birthday party (Big Bang Theory theme)

2011 reflection

Goodbye, Utah. Hello, Minnesota.

 Visiting family and friends the last few weeks:

 

 

Alexandra and I fly out on August 14th. (Matthieu drives the moving truck out with Grandpa 2 weeks later.)

Alexandra handles her own luggage. Here, she boards the plane.

She plays with this foam alphabet puzzle my mom got her from the dollar store for most of the flight. She also takes a nap. Easiest trip ever.

Grandma and Grandpa pick us up from the airport and we stay with them for one month.

 

15 Things I Miss About Utah

We moved from Utah to Minnesota four and a half months ago. In many ways, it was an easy move. We have family and friends here already, and we had been intending to move here for years. I never thought I would stay in Utah forever. Of course, I miss my family and friends in Utah. I am still in touch and feel that many of the relationships I have there are lasting, but it is difficult to shift the dynamic of the relationship.

Though I lived in Minnesota for 15 months as a live-in nanny for good friends, it's a completely different lifestyle for me to be a married mom of a toddler. It was hard to let go of the routines I had in Utah. This could also be re-framed as "Things I Appreciated About Utah" or "Family-Friendly Activities in Utah" but I kept it personal to me.

These are some things I miss about the Beehive State, and Utah Valley in particular:

1. Breathing very little second-hand cigarette smoke. Fewer people smoke in Utah than most other places.

 

toddler bowling at Provo Beach Resort

pony ride at Farm Country

2. The Riverwoods--particularly Provo Beach Resort (which Alexandra asked to go to a hundred times after we moved), and also Blickenstaff's. Less often, but still regularly, we enjoyed visiting The Museum of Ancient Life and Farm Country, both part of Thanksgiving Point.


3. The not-great, but convenient playground at the shopping mall 3 minutes from my apartment

4. Never driving more than 10 minutes to a restaurant, and having almost all weekly activities or errands within 15 minutes of home

5. Cafe Rio

6. Not getting lost quite as frequently, as there is basically one freeway running through the whole state, and the streets are usually grid (so you know that if you are on 100 South and you need to get to 200 North, you drive 3 blocks north)

7. Knowing which way was north based on the Wasatch mountains

4th of July carnival, in a 1912 fire truck, Provo

 8. A culture that catered to young families: a plethora of maternity and child shopping, year-round (especially summertime) affordable and/or free family-friendly activities just around the corner; large network of friends in the same phase of life (with whom to chat at the playground, empathize, commiserate, and share clothes and gear). We liked living across the street from the Scera Shell, which had outdoor musicals in the summertime.

9. Handmade vendors and local artists with affordable goods, like at Bijou Market.

Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum at BYU

UVU basketball game (see her UVU onesie?)

 10. Accessible university campuses; Utah Valley University and Brigham Young University (and Utah State University and University of Utah and others...) have lovely museums, exhibits, guest lecturers, concerts, and events, often free to the public.

11. I thought parking in downtown Salt Lake City was a hassle. Then I tried to park in downtown Minneapolis. Silly me.

12. Not needing to drive the freeway during rush hour very often. There were lots of places to shop or eat (like Barnes & Noble, Rubio's, University Mall...) that I could get to without fighting traffic if I wanted to get out of the house in the evening.

Mt. Timpanogos LDS Temple

"The Christus" at Temple Square, Salt Lake City

 13. Easy access to services and goods particular to my religion (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). While many aspects of the cultural permeation, homogeneity, and commercialization of my faith annoyed me, it was comforting, convenient, and inspiring to easily buy board books with beautiful paintings of Jesus or an issue of the Friend, to buy supplemental materials for religious instruction or practice, to have my congregation in my neighborhood, to visit historical sites of my church, and, I'll admit it, to feel "normal".


14. Relatively close proximity to hot springs, national/state parks, including Bryce Canyon, Zion, and Yellowstone

 15. Breathtaking mountain/canyon views every single day

Playing Outside

I sweep hair out her face a thousand times a day. She rips out clips and yells when I force hair twisties.

This girl loves to climb.

July 2012

Guess who we saw at Riverwoods?

Donny Osmond!

And his son, whose name I can't remember, but who sang a song at the open mic on a whim while waiting for a table at The Happy Sumo.

We were there listening to music while Alexandra splashed.

 

Alexandra has loved picnics, real and imaginary, ever since she read Pooh and Piglet Catch a Heffalump. One evening we brought a pizza, a banana and honey to the park and had a family picnic.

I finally made it to my high school friend Szilvia's house. Her second child turned 2 and we enjoyed the party.

 Mummi visited and we went to the duck pond. 

 She's just so cute napping on the couch. I thought she was trying to trick me when she said she'd nap there, but she followed through.

Matthieu lost a bet to Grampa, but Grampa donated his $5 winning to our ice cream fund. Alexandra loved the dry ice effect at Sub Zero.

 I got that hedgehog for Shelley's baby at IKEA, but Alex attached to it and calls it her baby, feeding it milk and playing with it all the time.

We met my parents in Sandy for dinner and hung out at the B&N.

 Alisha's baby shower

 She loves to smell flowers. She blows out of her nose to "sniff".