goodbye 2013

photo credit: Eva Kolenko 

Goodbye 2013. You were a year filled with growth and discovery. Here were my tangible goals I made for this past year and how I did at accomplishing them:

Continue reading the Bible through in a year. I didn't get this finished, with a crazy summer schedule and lets be honest a good dose of laziness, it was hard. I am really proud though, I made it about 3/4 of the way through which easily lets me finish in a year and a half. For something I have always wanted to do, I am pretty pumped.

Try 6 new restaurants. I did this more easily than I thought I would. Once you open yourself up to new  things, they just start rolling in! Here is where I ended up, all great places to check out (even the ones I forgot to take pictures!)

1. Yia Yia Mary's
2. Down House
3. Yard House
4. Mainely Sandwiches
5. Zelko Bistro
6. Liberty Kitchen
7. Narin's Bombay Brasserie

Wear more hats. Okay, so although I am wearing a hat in the last post, I terribly failed at this one! Now from looking on instagram, it may seem like I wore a lot of hats:

But on closer inspection, two of them are for safety and the third is...yes, a baseball hat at a baseball game. I want to be a person that wears hats, but I don't feel like myself when I put one on.

Read 12 books. When I made this goal, I was thinking of reading classic literature and informative nonfiction, but that just didn't happen. I started reading The Count of Monte Cristo (one of my favorite movies) and even with a great translation, after 50 pages in and realizing there were still over a thousand more to go - all the French names did me in! Here is what I ended up reading:

1. The Handmade Marketplace by Kari Chapin
2. 7 & The 7 Experiment by Jen Hatmaker
3. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
4. Reason for God by Tim Keller*
5. Divergent by Veronica Roth*
6. Insurgent by Veronica Roth*
7. Allegiant by Veronica Roth*
8. The Maze Runner by James Dashner
9. The Raphael Affair by Iain Pears
10. White Cat by Holly Black
11. Red Glove by Holly Black
12. Black Heart by Holly Black

*A++ rating. Highly recommend these! If you liked Hunger Games and haven't read the Divergent series, you should!

Go to 2 training programs for the business (ie class/workshop/conference.) I went to Circles 2013 and it was absolutely amazing! After that the year kind of ran downhill and I didn't go to another training program. This is something I want to be more intentional about doing next year, going to circles really encouraged me and gave me a fresh perspective.

Happy New Year, hope your 2013 was great!