It's only 10 weeks (or 70 days) to go until I enter a new decade! So, time for an update on how I'm doing so far...
Completed
Read 40 books - At the end of 2018 I have read over 100 books (final number to be confirmed in two days time), so this challenge has been well and truly achieved! Here's a link to my reading blog if you are interested!Join a book club - At the beginning of the year I joined Bookish Mamas, which is a Facebook-based book club. It was originally aimed at mums, but lots of people on there aren't mums now. It's exposing me to books that I wouldn't naturally read, and gives the pleasure of a monthly discussion about the book.
Go to a weekend Bible Conference - In April I attended the Hillsong Colour Conference in Wembley, London, with my sisters, cousin and friend. It was an amazing weekend, with great singing, Bible teaching and time to be me. It was just so refreshing! I have already booked to go again next year and am looking forward to it!
Cook on a fire pit - We got a fire pit as a Christmas present and have been looking forward to some warmer weather to use it. I know that a true 'forest school' family would have been sitting around it in the January snow, but we wanted warmer weather to try it out for the first time!! Last weekend gave us that opportunity and we enjoyed sausages and marshmallows cooked on it. Looking forward to a summer of fire-cooked food!
Visit a new place - On 6th May we visited Coventry; we attended the 50th anniversary of Tearfund at the cathedral. Before having children I worked for Tearfund for seven years. It is a great charity and does amazing work. Back to Coventry... what a beautiful pair of cathedrals; the old derelict building which was destroyed in the war and the new striking building built overlooking the old. Coventry as a city seems to be pretty normal, but the area around the cathedrals is very pretty.
Learn a new craft skill - I started doing modern calligraphy last year, but I am now learning the more formal 'Classic Copperplate' calligraphy. This is much harder work than I had imagined, but the lettering is beautiful! Must keep practising!
Volunteer for something - I am currently volunteering at my children's school and am going in a reading with a class of children each week. This is one of the highlights of my week and such a great opportunity to keep children reading!
Grow something from scratch - Caleb and I attended an allotment playgroup during the summer and we did planting and digging and watering and weeding. We planted a bean seed in a cup which was then transferred into a trough in the garden: we enjoyed one meal's worth of beans! I also planted some tomato and strawberry seeds in hanging baskets; the strawberry seeds didn't sprout, but the tomatoes did and had a lovely sweet flavour. They didn't get very big though!!
Go glamping - In the October half term we had a lovely week in Somerset in a log cabin. This cabin had no power, so we cooked and heated the cabin using the log stove, and used candles for lights. The best day was when we cooked our chicken casserole on the fire pit and ate outside! It was an amazing week and we have already planned to do it again next year.
Walk 400 miles - So far I have walked 1,074 miles in 2018! I have now signed up to Race at Your Pace for January and I am aiming to walk 125 miles; my plan is to achieve that each month and hit 1,500 miles in 2019!
Go for afternoon high tea - Well, I managed this twice this year! The first was whilst we were on holiday in Cheddar, and I enjoyed an 'Afternoon Tea' for my lunch; Caleb had the children's version, and we both struggled to finish it! The second was a few weeks ago as part of my Christmas celebrations; this one was lovely as it included some christmassy treats!
Go to a Christmas Market - I had a lovely day out at the Birmingham's Frankfurt Christmas Market with my friend Beth. We enjoyed wandering around the stalls, enjoying the festive aromas of gluhwein, sausages and sweet treats (especially the heiße Schokolade in our special mugs!) and some shopping!
Cook a new recipe every month - I have enjoyed this challenge, but I wish I had kept a list of what we have tried! One thing we have enjoyed as a family are Daddy's Travel Meals - each time Steve travels for work we try something from that country. We have tried food from India, Italy, Hungary, Germany and Mexico; this has been a great way of getting the children interested in food from other countries.
Do something I loved as a child - As a child I loved swimming and was actually quite good at it; I even swum for my town a couple of times. Back in the summer I started swimming regularly and really enjoyed it, but last term it slipped (which is silly as I had more time with both children being at school). In the New Year I will restart this as it is something that I definitely loved as a child, and still love now!
Share meals with 40 different friends - I have completely forgotten to count the number of people we have shared meals with! But I have learnt that hospitality doesn't have to be perfect; I don't need to serve a michelin starred meal with an immaculate house! My house can be messy and friends can just come and share food. Bring on the hygge!
In Progress
Read the whole Bible cover to cover - I am continuing to read through the Bible, and know that I need to put more effort into it; not only for this challenge but also as a Christian I should be reading my Bible more! I have just bought the first part of the Bible on Audible (read by David Suchet - amazing voice!) which I am looking forward to listening too - only 45 hours to listen to!!40 dates with Steve - We have had a few but need to up our game and be much more intentional!
Find 40 geocaches - Oh dear, only 11 found in 2018! That means I have 73 days to find 29 caches... Game on...
Send 40 letters/postcards - Do Christmas cards count??!
Finish a cross stitch - I am still working on a Little Miss and Mr Men cross stitch that I started about 7 years ago before our Little Miss was born! I am determined to get it finished now...
Learn to play Clair de Lune on the piano - hmm... this is not an easy piece! And I need to practise more, as well as getting the piano tuned so it doesn't sound as bad as it currently does!
Do 40 Random Acts Of Kindness - I signed up to do #40acts during Lent and this was a great challenge. Due to ill health I didn't manage to do all 40 acts during the season so I will continue and get them done this year.
Complete couch to 5k - I have done two weeks of this and am actually getting excited about getting back to it next week. It'll be tight to get it completed but I will do my best!
Get my bmi into healthy zone - On 18th April I bravely walked into my first Weight Watchers meeting having decided that I needed some help to achieve this challenge. I have now lost over a stone in weight and my BMI is in the middle of the overweight range so things are definitely moving in the right direction. Another stone and a bit will see me into the healthy range...
Raise £400 for charity - So far I have raised £294.56 for the British Heart Foundation and £20 for Heart Failure Aware (£314.56 total). £85.44 left to raise!
Complete 40 calligraphy pieces - Over the year so far I have done 17 paid pieces of work; I also took part in #30daysofbiblelettering in October and managed 16 pieces. So 33 in total. 7 pieces left to complete over the next 10 weeks! (Check out my Facebook page for my work: https://www.facebook.com/meandmyinkpot/)
Learn to take a decent photograph with my camera - My old faithful camera has slowly died in the last few months due to a scratch on the lens, so I am getting a new one with my Christmas money. I am looking forward to getting used to a new camera and all it can do.
See a musical on stage - Not quite a musical, but Zoë and I have booked to go and see The Nutcracker ballet on stage in February. I'm so excited about this.
To Do
Decorate our bedroom - I am looking forward to getting started on this once the children are back at school! It have started our room a little later than planned as Zoë asked for her room to be done as part of her birthday present. I have come up with a colour scheme and some decor ideas...Plant a tree - My parents have said that they would like to buy me a tree for my 40th birthday present, so I am looking forward to planting that in our garden in the spring. We need to decide what size tree will be best!
Have a 40th birthday party - Planned for March 2019! Though I do need to actually decide what I want to do... any ideas?
Eat a meal in a Michelin star restaurant - Steve has booked a day off near my birthday; do you think I can convince him that we need to have lunch out??
Try a new food - Hoping to combine this one with my Michelin Star restaurant visit!!
Make bread from scratch - Not too difficult, but I just need to do it! Maybe next week whilst the children are still off school!
Learn a new cookery skill - I need to decide what to do for this - any ideas?
Revisit a favourite city/place - I don't know where to go!
Not done
Have a family portrait done - I've decided not to prioritise this, but we've enjoyed getting some professional photos printed for our wall.
Sleep under the stars - I can't believe I missed completing this challenge in the summer months! I will make sure that it is ticked off next summer.Climb a mountain - I had hoped to get this one ticked off, but I have run out of time. Hopefully I can get it completed in 2019.
See the Northern Lights - This was always going to be the least likely one to achieve, but it was nice to dream!
