31st Year List: How I Did

For my 30th birthday I made a list of 30 things I wanted to accomplish. I enjoyed doing it so much I decided to make a list of things to accomplish during my 31st year, although not 31 things! I wanted to read 31 books and far surpassed that with 107 books! That includes audiobooks which I listen to on runs or when doing chores. I was actually quite surprised when I counted it up and realized I'd read over 100 books this year. I was thinking it would be more like 50. But when I looked back I realized I averaged 9 books per month.

1. Read at least one book each month. 

• August- Mrs. Kennedy and Me by Clint Hill, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Making of the President 1960 by Theodore H. White, The Carrie Diaries: Summer and the City by Candace Bushnell, Camino Island by John Grisham
• September- The Dog Stars by Peter Heller, Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, George and Lizzie by Nancy Pearl, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey, Bridget Jones's Baby: The Diaries by Helen Fielding
• October- Common Sense by Thomas Paine, Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance, RFK: A Candid Biography of Robert F. Kennedy by C. David Heymann, Something Like Happy by Eva Woods, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A. Flynn, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate by Naomi Klein, Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
• November- Black Flags: The Rise of Isis by Joby Warrick, Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick, Make it Zero: The Movement to Safeguard Every Child by Mary Frances Bowley with Jennifer Bradley Franklin, A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign by Edward J. Larson, Yes Please by Amy Poehler, Hello, Sunshine by Laura Dave, Bossypants by Tina Fey, What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton
• December- Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, Mean Girls by Micol Ostow (based on the screenplay by Tina Fey), A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Reading People: How Seeing the World through the Lens of Personality Changes Everything by Anne Bogel, Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen E. Ambrose, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann, Pride and Prejudice and Misteltoe by Melissa de la Cruz, A Dog Named Christmas by Greg Kincaid, Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, Christmas Jars by Jason F. Wright
• January- A list of the books I read can be found here.
• February- A list of the books I read can be found here.
• March- A list of the books I read can be found here. 
• April- A list of the books I read can be found here.
• May- A list of the books I read can be found here.
• June- A list of the books I read can be found here.
• July- A list of the books I read can be found here.

2. Stick with strength training.
I am really proud of myself with this one. I've always really struggled with strength training. I typically get in a good habit of doing it for a couple months and then give up. I did really well with it before the marathon in November and then took a couple weeks off afterward. I've been going strong at 2 strength workouts a week since December. I know it will get harder to get them in once I start working again but I know already having a good habit with them will help!

3. Get professional family photos done.
I was so excited that we actually did this. It can be stressful trying to get the kids to smile and look at the camera for pictures but it is so worth it!

My favorite picture from our session.

4. Send out a Christmas card this year.

5. Work on Elise's baby book.
I got it updated until about 5 months old. Obviously I still have a lot of work to do, but I did work on it!

6. Finish my Belly Book from Elise's pregnancy, I just need to order and add pictures.
This would have been one of the easiest ones to get done but every time I tried to work on it, I had trouble with Shutterfly's website so I just gave up! I should have just used Wal-Mart. Now that will be on my list of things to do!

7. Finish Carter's baby book.
So I tried to do this one but I can't find Carter's baby book anywhere! My new goal is to find his baby book!

8. Last year I had make a photo book from Elise's birth and newborn photos on my list. I completed it and now I want to make photo books for her first 6 months and then 7-12 months so she has the same photobooks Carter has.
Didn't get this one done either due to the issues I had with Shutterfly. I'd pick out a bunch of pictures and then get kicked off the site as I downloaded them. It was way too much work to attempt more than once and I tried 3 different times!

9. Paint the outside of our house.
We got this one done, thanks to the help of my parents and I love it! Ty later pained the door and I can't stop staring every time I pull into the driveway. It looks so good!

Dad helping paint our house.