December update for 52 in 52

I just went to look at when I last posted an update on my 52 list, and it was March! Whaaat? Then I realised that I had a post from August in my drafts, oops. Guess there’s no point posting that one. Needless to say I’m extremely overdue in posting an update.

There’s only one month left to go in the year so it’s a final sprint to finish the list, but I’m really excited at how things are looking right now. Let’s take a look!

What’s left to go:

There’s only 10 (!!!) items left on the list to complete this year. Of that, 4 of them are underway and nearly complete, and the others shouldn’t be too hard to complete. It’s just a matter of making the time!

1. Write a blog letter to baby each month (this is my “Luca Letter” series) – I’ve got 2 letters to write, his 11 and 12 month letters.
2. Make a photo book for Luca’s first year – this is also underway, hoping to get it finished this weekend.
3. Take a family photo – we have photos of us all together, but I have something specific in mind. I want something nice, I don’t want a selfie.
4. Accept help when offered as often as possible – this is something that doesn’t have a definite value for which I can measure whether it’s completed or not. I could say that it’s completed because I’ve been working on accepting help, and I have quite a few examples of that throughout the year. But I want to keep reminding myself of this right up until the year is over.
5. See a doctor about my veins – booked in for a fortnight away. Recently my friend saw the veins in my ankle and was shocked at how bad they were. It will be interesting to see what the doc has to say.
6. Frame/print a photo I’ve taken – still yet to do but quite a few that I want to print. The photo book also technically qualifies for this too.
7. Learn how to do makeup – I’ve had a friend show me some techniques briefly, but I’d like to spend just a little bit of time trying out some techniques from online and just improve a bit more (if anyone out there is wonderful with makeup and wants to do a hard lesson with me I’d love it).
8. 30 day declutter challenge – I went a bit easier on myself with this one in that it didn’t have to be 30 days in a row. It’s underway though, about 50% of the way through.
9. Meditate for 5mins every day for a week – I’ve started this one so many times, and ultimately end up going to bed and forgetting to do it for a night. Going to make time for it this week.
10. Have a date night with the husband 12 times (take turns to organise) – we’ve had 11 dedicated date nights for the year already, and the last one is coming up this week. To be clear, this is stuff that’s not just the usual “sit on the couch and watch tv”, it has to be where effort was made to make it feel like a date.

Highlights from what I’ve accomplished this year

There’s been so much that I’ve done this year, and I’ll post a full list at the end of the year, but I wanted to share some highlights.

• Eat from a small plate every night for a week/pre-make a week’s worth of lunches: these ones were about portion control and controlling temptation. I ended up subscribing to Lite n Easy this year, which in my opinion has fulfilled both of these items. It’s been incredibly successful too, and as of the moment I’m 16kg down for the year, 26kg since I gave birth.
• Go to a sporting event: I went to the Commonwealth Games this year – lifetime bucket list complete. It was amazing! I went to the swimming and cycling finals with my family (awesome), and the Closing Ceremony (not so awesome).
• Run 5km: I did the 5km Sunshine Coast Marathon event with friends, and even this morning I did a 5km park run. Stay tuned for improvements on this task next year – I’ve signed up for my first ever half marathon!
• Host a birthday party: We held a party for our son’s 1st birthday, which was amazing and went way too quickly. But it was so unbelievably fun and I can’t wait to plan his next one (but maybe don’t come too soon, I don’t want him growing up that fast!)

There’s been lots of other great moments this year, and I can’t wait to do a full recap of all of them.

As for now the brain is already ticking over trying to come up with a list for next year. If anyone has any suggestions please fire away!