Ok so 2016 is quickly disappearing and I figured that seeing as I am currently on leave from work… and I have good days and bad days at home…. but thankfully more good days than bad ones… I am going to use the rest of my good days this year doing 3 things…

1. Working out how to remember Joshua when things are good and joyful
2. Getting my Christmas shopping and planning sorted and…
3.  Finishing this year’s list.

This year’s list got a little ignored when I found out I was pregnant, because I was tired, some of the things were no longer possible and lets face it… my priorities had shifted… but now I am no longer pregnant and unfortunately don’t have little Josh to distract me… so the list has been bumped back up the priority list.  And lets face it… it’s supposed to be filled with things I want to achieve/do/try… so crossing things off it should bring me some joy… and I could do with some bonus joy.

So here is a recap of what I have done… and probably more importantly… what I haven’t…

1. Start 2016 somewhere outside of Australia – completed: 01/01/2016
2. Make a summer fruit platter in a watermelon – completed: 19/02/2016
   This one was actually crossed off way back in Feb… and it should have had its own blog because it is glorious… This delicious watermelon bowl of goodness… yep that’s it just on the right hand side there… was made for a girl’s night which I was privileged to lead for youth group… and both the evening and the watermelon bowl were spectacular. 
3. Send 12 hand written cards/letters – completed: 23/04/16
   This one has also been done for a while thanks to my new subscription to ‘Happy mail‘ which I love… It has given me a reason to write more as well as pretty much the perfect card for every occasion.  
4. Make a lolly cake – completed: 31/11/16
   Thanks to my Father-in-law and his trips to NZ this one is done… Turns out Eskimo lollies are harder to get in Australia than I had imagined… but once I got my hands on some of those the lolly cake happened… and I have it on the authority of a NZ local… (my father-in-law)… it was pretty good. 
5. Rearrange a space – completed: 17/02/2016
6. Play my flute
7. Go to Disneyland – completed: 24/01/2016
8. Find out is our house has a legit hidden fireplace
9. Visit something older than colonised Australia – completed: 14/01/2016
10. Have tea in London… Queen optional – completed: 19/01/2016
11. Do a ridiculously cheesy tourist photo with a famous tourist attraction – completed: 22/01/2016
12. Go to a country I have never been to before – completed: 02/01/2016
13. Find a geocache – completed: 06/04/16
14. Hide a geocache – completed: 06/04/16
15. Watch the Prince of Egypt – completed: 18/03/2016
    This probably doesn’t need a lot of explaining… it happened and I enjoyed it… I had probably talked it up too much in my mind, but it was still good… I really love the music from The Prince of Egypt… just in case you were wondering.
16. Go in the 2016 Melbourne Marathon festival somehow… 5, 10, half or full
17. Be a Victorian tourist and go somewhere all the tourists go – completed: 09/07/16
    Dave and I were incredibly blessed by some parents from Dave’s work who spoiled us with a weekend away in the city and it was perfect and wonderful and just so overwhelmingly generous that I haven’t been able to put it down in words and do it justice.  But as part of this weekend we got to hang out in the city and go where all of the tourists go… we visited the National Gallery, hung out at crown, had scones with jam and cream at the Langham and window shopped in Bourke St and the Emporium… just like the tourists.  
18. See my bestie face to face – completed: 18/01/2016
19. Get back in the pool and swim at least 5 times
20. Go to the Zoo – completed: 03/02/2016
21. Make some kind of festive seasonal dish
22. Use the fire pit
23. Go skiing or snowboarding or tobogganing – completed: 03/01/2016
24. Do you want to build a snowman? I do – completed: 04/01/2016
25. Go Camping – completed: 04/04/16
26. See some Northern Hemisphere stars – completed: 06/01/2016
27. Run with at least 3 different people – completed: 27/02/2016
    My running game was strong for the first half of the year… it’s pretty average at the moment which certainly puts some doubt over some of the other list items, but not this one… I have run with more than 3 different friends, but the first three were Parkruns with Amy-Ruth and Annie and a fun run around the zoo with Kev and Suz. 
28. Make a photo book or our Europe Adventures
29. Save money each pocket money
30. Go on a bush walk – completed: 05/04/16
31. Go to a farmers market – completed: 27/03/2016
    Do you know what’s even better than a regular farmers market?  A twilight farmers market ’cause you don’t have to get up super early to be there and get things… you can sleep in and still enjoy all the spoils… it’s almost like you can have your cake and eat it too.    
32. Make some meringues – completed: 03/10/16
    I don’t know why I don’t do this more often… I love meringues! 
33. Learn how to spell meringues without having to check it every time – completed: 03/10/16
    While making my meringues I also learned how to spell the word… M E R I N G U E S… ta da! 
34. Keep my emails under control – no extreme amounts of notifications on my phone
35. Get and keep my photo storage under control
36. Sew something
37. Do some trivia – completed: 05/06/16
    There is not enough trivia in the world… I love it… although I am always disappointed if my team doesn’t win… especially if we don’t win a Disney themed trivia night… but despite my disappointment… the trivia was participated in which means it is off the list.
38. Bake some snacks – completed: 02/10/16
    Being a little food safety paranoid while I was pregnant meant that I made some of my own snacks instead of purchasing them… which is probably just better to do anyway and they are even more delicious that store brought snacks. 
39. See a musical – completed: 13/05/16
    When you work with a dancer extraordinaire who tells you that she is performing in Australia’s first Amateur theater production of Wicked… you get there as quick as you can, you fall in love with Wicked all over again and you celebrate this friend like never before… that’s what happened in May for me at least anyway.   
40. Read 16 books – completed: 20/11/16
    Like I said at the top… I have had a little bit of extra down time… and reading is a good way to get out of your own head and into another land… so my book quota is now achieved, here are this years books:
    – The Revenant, Michael Punke
    – The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins,
    – Cinder, Marissa Meyer
    – The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel
    – Scarlet, Marissa Meyer
    –  The Happiness Project, Gretchen Ruben
    – The BFG, Roald Dahl
    – Cress, Marissa Meyer 
    – Simplicite, Dominique Loreau
    – Winter, Marissa Meyer
    – Jesus Is, Judah Smith
    – The Concrete Blonde, Michael Connelly
    – The Black Echo, Michael Connelly
    – Inferno, Dan Brown
    – The Black Ice, Michael Connelly
    – The Last Coyote, Michael Connelly
41. Do a water aerobics class
42. Do a spin class
43. Have a BBQ Wednesday
44. Go to a state of Australia that I haven’t been to before – completed: 03/04/16
45. Touch my feet to some red dirt – completed: 06/04/16
46. Clean up my iTunes playlists
47. Visit another international thermal pool – completed: 07/01/2016
48. Clean my car more regularly
49. Sort out my 2014 and 2015 scrap books
50. Try at least 2 new park runs – completed: 12/03/2016
    I mentioned before that my running game had been strong in the first half of the year, which made crossing this off easier.  We ran my home away from home Inverloch Parkrun and headed to Westerfolds parkun to celebrate our friend Bram’s 100th parkrun with him.
51. Keep my apple things updated properly
52. Go to Inverloch at least 5 times
53. Swim in the Ocean
54. Have high tea – completed: 09/07/16
    Technically I crossed this one off when I had tea in London – way back with no. 10, but while we were in the city on our little get away we also had a pregnancy friendly high tea at the Langham… well scones with jam and cream and of course tea… that’s pretty much all you need. 
55. Walk to the end of a pier – completed: 30/10/16
    Well it’s not much more exciting than what it says… we walked to the end of the pier in Inverloch… and now it is off the list. 
56. Get some Fro-yo – completed: 11/02/2016
57. Go roller skating
58. Ride a bike – completed: 17/01/2016
59. Have some pasta/ pizza/gelato in Italy – completed: 01/01/2016
60. Have some processed meat in Germany – completed: 05/01/2016
61. See the Myer windows
62. Go to a place I can’t pronounce – completed: 06/01/2016
63. Do some more work as a teacher – completed: 29/02/2016
    This year has also seen the return of Mrs G.  Still just filling in every now and again, but still teaching. 
64. Take a photo with an English Guard – completed: 20/01/2016
65. Take the Eurostar – completed: 22/01/2016
66. See an Emu – completed: 05/04/16
67. Experience the outback – completed: 04/04/16
68. Follow through on the date box again
69. Go to Sherbrook forest – completed: 09/04/16
    Birthdays are a good reason to cross things off the list… and lets face it, you never really need a reason to visit Sherbrook forest because it is beautiful.  We went, we tried out our new little festival chairs and had a birthday picnic… it was perfect. 
70. Be on time… it’s time
71. Have another Star Trek Movie Marathon
72. Make my own dumplings
73. Be confronted by WWII – completed: 11/01/16
74. Go on a Gondola ride – completed: 01/01/2016
75. Visit a real life old time castle…. like one that would inspire Disney – completed: 08/01/16
76. Visit at least 4 museums –  completed: 12/01/16
77. See the Berlin Wall – completed: 14/01/16
78. Taste some dutch cheese – completed: 16/01/16
79. Have a Shakespeare moment – completed: 02/01/2016
80. Do a 3D jigsaw – completed: 21/09/16
    While we were away on our little babymoon in Lakes Entrance I found a little 3D duck puzzle, which if I am honest looked very very lame… which made me think it would be easy… turns out I was wrong, the puzzle was not easy… and it turned out to be pretty cute… but in interest in decluttering our house to make space for baby George we left the little duck for the next guests lucky enough to have our room in Lakes Entrance.
81. Ride a Camel… or at least see one in Uluru – completed: 05/04/16
82. Have one of those epic milkshakes – completed: 09/04/16
    So birthday list days are also a great reason to have an epic milkshake… and I am talking mammoth honeycomb overflowing milkshake that hits that the lactose limit harder than you will ever know
    
83. Have a Random Acts of Kindness week
84. Go on  a Road Trip – completed: 06/05
    A road trip to Mount Gambier in SA, with 20ish of our closest student friends from the Jazz Band and Jazz Choir.  Sometimes it’s fun to be a music teachers wife and to go on band trips, especially when the kids are so much fun, incredibly talented and you get to stay at the most amazing homestead in which homemade treats appearing every time you look around.   
85. Have a wardrobe purge – completed: 29/01/2016
    I started the year with a massive wardrobe purge and then since then I have had another couple, each time clearing out more bags of stuff than I care to admit I had… At first it was just for me to make space to appreciate what I had and to stop feeling guilty about the things I had that I didn’t want or use.  Then the task expanded from my wardrobe to every cupboard and every other room as we tried to clear out space to make way for Baby George… 
86. Do another Pinterest project
87. Help change something at home – completed: 20/11/16
    So this was going to be the almost finished nursery… but it didn’t really happen, the nursery is still a junk room and currently not required… so instead, we just built the new bed we brought at the same time as some of the nursery furniture and ‘changed’ the bedroom
88. See some carols by candle light
89. Get a massage – completed: 23/11/16
90. Keep getting closer again
91. Make the most of my gym membership
92. Get my menu planning and home cooking game on
93. Spend some time in the Old testament (Study at least 2 OT books)
94. Eat something from out veggie garden – completed: 22/02/2016
95. Play some badminton
96. Make sure I remember my secret list
97. Run 5km without walking
98. Have the parentals over for dinner… all of them… separately
99. Be more domestic
100. Take Dex on a Doggy Adventure – completed: 07/10/16
     So the photo isn’t great but we took Dex to visit his friend Abe when we went to visit our friends Dust and Jess… he had a great time.  

So there you go… still a lot to go… at the moment we are sitting on 61% complete… which is pretty good… but it’s going to be a big run home… some may say impossible… but not me… bring it on… hopefully with lots of ‘good’ days… oh and if you want to help with the things that are left… I would really appreciate it…