15 in 2015 Review

Well, it's time to wrap up another year of goals for me and I'm feeling pretty good about my results this year. I'm still working on my 2016 goals, so I'll get those posted soon.

I ended up completing 10 out of 15 goals, so that's a win in my book.

I started 2015 with a tiny, cuddly newborn.

1. Write at least 2 blog posts per month.
This didn't happen. I had 19 blog posts in 2015, most of which were Peter's monthly updates. 

2. Read 5 books.
Check! I completed 5 and started probably 3 more that I still haven't finished.

3. Eat more whole foods.
I realize now that it's pretty hard to decide if I accomplished something like this that is pretty subjective, (aren't goals supposed to be measurable?) but I do think I ended the year better than I started. I still love junk food way too much, but I also really like a good variety of vegetables now, so there's more balance than there was before. 

4. Spend less time on my phone.
Again, this is hard to quantify, but I made some real progress in taking time away from my phone this year and prioritizing face-to-face time with others. 

5. Find creative ways to save and/or earn money for our family.
I think my real goal here was to live on one paycheck and not dip into savings. We did it! In fact, we even continued contributing to our savings account each month (although it was a fairly small amount). 

6. Keep up with my One Line A Day journal.
I don't always write in it every single day, but I am able to catch up on the past several days enough to still be going with this. It's already fun to read the entries from last year and remember what happened on that day. 

7. Purge our home of 300 unnecessary items. 
Huge win!! I stopped counting at 500 items, but I donated or sold at least 10 more garbage bags of stuff after that. I actually found and used an organizing/cleaning method called KonMari which I'll post more about in my 2016 goals. 

8. Spend time outside.
Staying home with Peter has made me much more of a home-body than I was before. Too many days go by without us leaving the house. I wish I had done better on this one.

9. Learn how to use our new camera. 
I'm still trying to figure out how we have such an awesome camera and many of our pictures turn out blurry or have weird lighting. I know the problem is the user so I'd still really like to work on this. 

10. Run a 5k.
I completed the Run for Ohm in June and that was pretty much it as far as running goes. I really am only motivated by a race it seems. 

11. Complete 6 crafty/house/Pinterest projects.
I made a doll carrier, pretend tea bags, a drawing pad/crayon roll, a Father's Day framed handprint of Peter's, several mason jar plant containers, quite a few decorations for Peter's birthday party, a Christmas fabric garland, and Frozen-themed hooded towels for my nieces and nephew.

12. Try 12 new recipes.
I did a really bad job tracking the new recipes I tried. I'm thinking I probably tried 12, but since I didn't keep track of what they were, I'm not going to count this one.  

13. Lose 20 pounds.
I'm not 100% sure what I weighed when I made this goal, but I think I was trying to get down to my pre-baby weight and that didn't quite happen. I am 5 pounds away, or at least I was before the holidays. I didn't actually make too much of a concerted effort to lose the weight, so I'm not really upset about not reaching it. 

14. Organize and file our stacks of paperwork.
All the paperwork in our house is neatly filed away or in the trash. I've got one small bin that I keep bills and mail in that needs to be dealt with, and I try to empty it fairly often.

15. Plant a garden.
I planted quite a bit, but the things that actually grew were basil, strawberries, zucchini, tomatoes, lemon cucumbers and jalapeños.

We ended 2015 with a climbing, running, very active toddler. 

15 in 2015 Update

It's been a while since I did an update on my 15 in 2015 goals for the year. I feel pretty good about my progress so far, especially considering that I forgot about these goals for a few months...oops! :)

1. Write at least 2 blog posts per month. 

Not exactly. BUT this is post #16 in 8 months, so it averages out, right?

2. Read 5 books.

Check!

1. American Sniper by Chris Kyle
2. So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore by Jake Colsen
3. His Needs, Her Needs by Willard F. Harley, Jr.
4. The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
5. Interrupted by Jen Hatmaker

3. Eat more whole foods.

We've done better than last year overall. My motivation comes in waves and largely depends on my energy and motivation to cook.

4. Spend less time on my phone.

This really depends on the day. Lately, I've made a "rule" that I can only be on my phone (specifically, social media) first thing in the morning when I wake up and then at night after Peter is in bed. It's going pretty well, but it's hard to break the habit of picking up my phone when I'm bored or avoiding work.


5. Find creative ways to save and/or earn money for our family.

A few months ago, I started watching a little girl one day a week while her mom (a dear friend) works at our church. She's 11 months older than Peter and it's given me a glimpse into how fun and completely exhausting it is to have two babies close together.

6. Keep up with my One Line A Day journal.

Success. I'm up-to-date on this one.

7. Purge our home of 300 unnecessary items. 

I quit counting at 500 items, but I've donated/sold 5 trash bags full of stuff since then. I'm on a purging binge right now and am getting rid of SO much unnecessary junk in our house. It's kind of addicting actually.

8. Spend time outside.

Well, we've had the hottest summer on record this year, so that hasn't helped much. I was running in the Spring/early Summer so that helped. We've definitely spent some time outside swimming, picking fruit, laying in the hammock, and going for walks, but we still spent more time indoors than I would like. Once I'm outside, I always enjoy it, but sometimes I have a hard time motivating myself to actually get out the door.

9. Learn how to use our new camera. 

I would say this is mostly a fail. I still haven't read the manual and I am not that much better than I was in January. I have practiced taking photos a fair amount this year, but I don't know much more about technique or lighting or anything to help me take better pictures. Thankfully I have a cute subject, so that makes up for my lack of knowledge/skill.

10. Run a 5k.

Check! I did the Run for Ohm in June. I haven't really run at all since then, but that's beside the point. I don't remember what my time was (slow! 38 minutes maybe?), but my goal was still met.

11. Complete 6 crafty/house/Pinterest projects.

I've made four projects so far. The first two were for my niece, Lucy.

I sewed a set of tea bags to use at a (pretend) tea party. This was, of course, a find on Pinterest that I made my own.

The Merenesses are really into drawing (and good at it! let's hope Peter got Kory's artistic skills and not mine). I made this little drawing pad/crayon roll for Lucy to use at church or in the car (or anywhere else she wants).

The next item I made was for my dad for Father's Day. He loved it and the message couldn't be more true!  

These twine-wrapped jars were pretty simple to make. I also wrapped a few in burlap. I'm using most of them to grew herbs in and the others are currently holding flowers left over from a baby shower I hosted a couple weeks ago.

12. Try 12 new recipes.

I should have kept track of this better. I know I've tried several new recipes, but I can't remember what they were. One that I do remember was Pork Carnitas from Alisa at Family Meal Blog. They are SO delicious and seriously easy. I'm talking "put salt on the meat and put it in the oven and then eat it" easy. You've gotta try it!

13. Lose 20 pounds.

So it would help if I actually remembered what I weighed when I made this goal. haha I'm pretty sure I am down 10 pounds since then, which means I have about 10 pounds left until I'm at my pre-baby weight.

14. Organize and file our stacks of paperwork.

Winning! This is one area where I'm succeeding big time. I've actually combined this goal and the one to get rid of 300 items and am organizing our entire house...and I do mean EVERYthing. The only paperwork I have left is keepsakes/greeting cards and that's going to take a while to sort through.

http://koryandmandymereness.blogspot.com/2015/03/junk-drawer.html

The bags on the right are papers I'm getting rid of and the file box contains the only papers we're keeping.

15. Plant a garden.

Check! This year I've grown zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers (lemon and regular), jalapeños, broccoli, and cauliflower.

Junk Drawer

As a part of my 15 in 2015 goals for this year, I'm organizing all the cluttered drawers, cabinets, and other spaces in our home. I just completed one of the worst offenders: our kitchen junk drawer. Here's the before picture:

Not surprisingly, I found many items you might expect to be in a junk drawer: paper clips, tape, rubber bands, a flashlight, thank you cards, etc. However, since this drawer has been collecting treasures for the past three years, I also found many more interesting items, which included the following:

• 1 popsicle stick
• 2 expired airline vouchers
• 1 pocket knife
• 1 digital camera
• 2 garage door openers (that do not operate our garage door)
• 4 handmade soap samples
• 1 DVD remote (to a player that we haven't owned since we moved in this house)
• 1 pack of Greek flash cards
• 19 writing pens (which is appalling because we NEVER have any pens around this house...or so I thought)
• 1 iPhone 3GS
• 6 Sharpies
• 1 Canadian flag patch
• 3 Christmas light bulbs
• 1 tube vampire blood Halloween make-up
• 1 tool to break out a car window or cut a seatbelt (which is supposed to be used when you get trapped inside the car...not helping much to store it in our house)

And the MOST unbelievable find of all...

• a grand total of 87 NEW batteries! Again, I feel like we never have batteries around here. Apparently, we buy a pack every time we go to the store thinking we are out. If our power goes out and we need to live by battery-operated devices only, we should be set for about 5 years. 

Most of the items in this drawer belonged in a different room (thank you cards, hand sanitizer, safety pins) or in the trash, so I ended up without very much left in the drawer. Don't you just love seeing organized spaces like this? I keep opening the drawer just to look inside.  

15 in 2015: February Update

1. Write at least 2 blog posts per month. 

Check! 2 posts in February.

2. Read 5 books.

I have read 2 books so far in 2015. I just finished So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore. I read it several years ago, but didn't remember much of it (except that I really liked it the first time) so I decided to read it again. Before you dismiss the book, think of the premise more as being the church rather than going to church. It is a fairly easy read and really challenges our modern day notions of "church" in really positive and meaningful ways.

3. Eat more whole foods.

I did really well at the beginning of the month and then about Valentine's Day I discovered that Reese's eggs were in stores and I gave in to temptation and had a lot of them! However, I've still been doing pretty well in this area. I've cooked dinner at least 4 times a week each week, and we've had leftovers most other nights. We're having vegetables with just about every meal and I feel really positive about the changes we're making to our diet.

4. Spend less time on my phone.

I had a realization when I read this blog recently: my phone isn't really the problem for me. My addiction to social media is the issue (and my phone is just how I access social media most of the time). This post resonated with me SO much. I'm working on figuring out how I will "detox" from social media now.

5. Find creative ways to save and/or earn money for our family.

I got my first payment from Ebates this month for $14.81, which was deposited to my bank account.

I've received two payments from the Walmart Savings Catcher this month. I've been going there once a week for my grocery shopping and so far I've received $9.21 back in reward dollars (which go onto a Walmart gift card).

It's easier to save money on groceries when you have limited room in your cart!

I also contacted a Dave Ramsey Endorsed Local Provider (ELP) to find out if we could get a better deal on our home and auto insurance. We got new policies which saved us almost $400 per year combined (with a few other discounts included like paying for the whole year at once, multiple vehicles, combining auto and home, and a low mileage discount for our vehicles).

6. Keep up with my One Line A Day journal.

I wish I could say I was better about filling this out every day. However, I've done well to never get more than a week behind so I can still remember what happened each day and fill out several days at once.

7. Purge our home of 300 unnecessary items. 

I'm up to 170 items so far (and it's only February), so I'm feeling really positive about this goal. Our guest bedroom has been the "catch-all" room for a while now, especially since we cleaned out the other bedroom to make it Peter's nursery, so I imagine I can probably get the other 130 items from this room alone.

8. Spend time outside.

I've been going for a walk or jog outside 2-3 times a week all month now, so that's a start. We've also had a stretch of beautiful sunny days, which helps a lot. I'm excited to be able to go hiking on the weekends soon.

9. Learn how to use our new camera. 

I've been playing around with our camera a lot more recently but that's about it. I asked a photographer friend for some tips and she recommended I read the manual and gave me a few specific things to pay attention to when learning about the camera.

10. Run a 5k.

I'm jogging a couple times per week now. The 5k I plan to run is held the last weekend of May, so I'm working now to get into shape for that. Running has never really been easy for me, so adding the weight of a stroller/car seat/baby that I'm pushing and a dog on a leash around my waist and the hills in my neighborhood...let's just say it's sloooooow going.

11. Complete 6 crafty/house/Pinterest projects.

Nothing completed here yet, but I've got a couple ideas for what projects I'd like to tackle and I'm looking at how to budget for them and when I can realistically get them done.

12. Try 12 new recipes.

I tried three new recipes this month:

Healthy Mexican Enchilada Casserole
PF Chang's Lettuce Wraps
Pulled Pork

I liked all three of them, but Kory wasn't really a fan of the Enchilada Casserole. I would HIGHLY recommend the pulled pork. It was delicious and really easy!

13. Lose 20 pounds.

I've been working on this goal this month but progress is pretty slow. I really feel like nursing is a big part of that. I require so many more calories because I'm feeding Peter also, and I know that's a calorie burner as well, but it just seems like my body hangs on to extra weight more than it ever has before. I'm sure it's a survival mechanism so I can nourish he and I both, and I'm really not worried about a number on a scale, but I do want my clothes to fit better and for me to feel healthier and more energized. I'm going to keep working on being healthier and we'll see where the body changes come in.

14. Organize and file our stacks of paperwork.

I got our taxes done this month, but somehow that means I pulled a lot of papers out of our file box and ended up less organized than in January. Fail. I'll get back on this stat. I've also decided to tackle several other stacks of "stuff" around our house in an effort to get better organized. Before and after pictures will be posted as I get those areas cleaned up.

15. Plant a garden.

Seeds are planted and growing! I am not sure why, but several of these seeds never took, so I'm having to replant several weeks later. I do have broccoli and tomatoes growing really well for now.

Peter Pictures

In an attempt to learn how to use our camera better, I spent this morning's "play time" taking pictures of Peter in his nursery.

I want to remember so much about what he looked like at this age. The small amount of fuzz on his head. His tiny, ears that look so much like mine. Those chins! 

His cute belly button that's sometimes an outie.

The way he throws up a rock fist at just the right time.

The tongue he's just now discovering. 

Those tiny toes that are always curled so tightly.

And the way he turns to find me when he hears my voice. Melt. My. Heart. 

 He's so expressive and it just cracks me up!

He got this Ninja Turtles onesie a couple months ago but this is the first time I've been able to get a picture of him in it. I think he's cute in anything, of course, but I am really digging this outfit! His dad was a BIG TMNT fan back in his childhood so this is particularly fun for him.

Baby thighs are just THE BEST.

When he shoved his fist in his mouth, he immediately spit up everywhere. The next picture shows his reaction when I told him he might need more milk since he just lost it all. 

His stuffed lamb was sitting in the car seat behind this chair and I think he was checking it out. This kid LOVES to stand and tries to walk if you'll hold him up.  

We just recently started a bedtime routine which includes reading from this Jesus Storybook Bible and it makes my heart happy to see him "reaching" for it.  I hope and pray that he really does grow up longing to hear these stories and to know the God who wrote them.

15 in 2015: January Update

1. Write at least 2 blog posts per month. 

Success! This will actually make post number 4 for January. Granted, if I do a post for Peter's month-by-month growth and a 15 in 2015 monthly review, I'll meet this goal every time.

2. Read 5 books.

Book #1: After seeing the movie, I read American Sniper by Chris Kyle. I have a lot of thoughts about this book, but I'd rather discuss them in person than via a blog post. There is too much controversy and debate surrounding this story already and I'd rather not add to it without the benefit of human conversation and dialogue.

3. Eat more whole foods.

We're doing really good here! I have probably consumed more vegetables in the past two weeks that I did in all of 2013. My recent grocery store trip was 85% produce (which annoyed the cashier who had to ring it up...yes, he was annoyed he had to do his job) and we've been doing a lot more cooking than eating "convenience foods". I took this picture half-way through dinner one night to send to my mom. There's nothing really good about the photography, but I just needed her to see I am FINALLY eating and enjoying my veggies, 29 years later. I'm really determined to help Peter learn to like them much earlier in life.

4. Spend less time on my phone.

I've had some really good days and some really bad days on this one. I have allowed my battery to run down a time or two which has been really good because then it's not even a temptation to pick up my phone and mindlessly scroll through app after app. I'm trying now to leave my phone on the kitchen counter instead of carrying it with me throughout the house. It's still centrally located so I can hear it if it rings, but allows me to do other things with my time without it in my hand all the time.

5. Find creative ways to save and/or earn money for our family.

I've heard of Ebates a few times before but I finally signed up for the first time this month. It's a great website which pays you cash back for shopping online through selected merchants that have contracted through them. I do a fair amount of online shopping since we live in a small town without many of my favorite stores, so it's great to get some money back for purchases I would make anyway. You get $5 just for signing up, so if you do any online shopping, I'd encourage you to click the link above and it will take you to the website to register. I've earned $7.76 so far in 2015.

I also downloaded the Walmart Savings Catcher app which allows you to scan your Walmart receipts and then it searches local stores to determine if anything you bought is advertised for a lower price elsewhere (just like price matching they do in store). If it is lower at another store, they send you the difference on a gift card. I've only done this once and it takes 3 days to get your results so I don't know if I'll get anything back yet, but I know people who receive a couple dollars a month this way. It all adds up!

6. Keep up with my One Line A Day journal.

There have been a few times I get behind by a few days, but I can always catch up quickly. I'm caught up as of today.

7. Purge our home of 300 unnecessary items. 

I got a really good start on this goal in January. So far, I've donated, trashed, or sold 136 items from our home. I'm keeping the bag pictured below but donating the contents. I'm not really showing the items in these bags because some of them are possibly gifts (but not necessarily!) and I don't want any feelings hurt because I'm getting rid of something I was given. If you are wondering if I'm donating something you gave me, I'm not. It's all stuff someone else gave me. :)

8. Spend time outside.

I've done ok, but not great at this goal. However, it is January, so that's my excuse for now. We've been on long walks several times this week when it was sunny and mid-60s, but now that it's back in the 40s and low 50s, I haven't done as well to get out of the house besides running errands.

9. Learn how to use our new camera. 

I haven't really messed with the camera much this month, so I'll try to focus on that more in February.

10. Run a 5k.

I haven't started running yet but I did download the Nike+ app again to start recording my workouts.

11. Complete 6 crafty/house/Pinterest projects.

I didn't complete any projects this month.

12. Try 12 new recipes.

Well, I was doing really well at the start of this list, but I'm not doing so hot anymore. Truth be told, I forgot I was supposed to be finding new recipes to try. I have been doing some cooking lately, but it's all been tried and true recipes I already knew we liked.

13. Lose 20 pounds.

I'm working on it. So far, it's mainly been a change in my diet but the exercise part will come also.

14. Organize and file our stacks of paperwork.

I got all of the paperwork on my computer desk filed last week. Now, I need to go through the files themselves and purge some old paperwork that we no longer need to keep as the file box hardly has room for any more papers.

15. Plant a garden.

I made little newspaper seed pots which I will use to grow plants from seeds indoors next month. We have a perfect window for this in our master bathroom so that's where the vegetables start out. This picture is a cuter version of mine from HGTV.

15 in 2015

I'm a little late in getting my 2015 goals posted because we left for a two week trip to Texas and New Mexico right at the start of January. (I'm actually still in NM with my family now.) I'm excited to work on these goals this year. I feel like they're challenging but not impossible. Here's what I'm shooting for this year:

1. Write at least 2 blog posts per month.
When I looked at my blog posts for 2014, I noticed that I posted every single month of the year. This was probably the first time that has happened since this blog was born in 2009. I realize that my pregnancy updates were the reason for my constant posting, but I hope to continue that trend with keeping up with Peter's monthly developments this year. I plan for this to be his digital "baby book" of sorts, so I want to stay updated on those posts. Additionally, I want to post one entry each month about something non-baby-related in an effort to have some interests and hobbies outside of my life as Mommy.

2. Read 5 books.
I love reading, but my time is much more limited in this season of life and reading a book has become a luxury. I don't particularly care if the books are long, short, fiction, non-fiction, inspirational, or just plain silly. I want to read 5 books cover to cover in 2015.

3. Eat more whole foods.
I like junk food way too much. I've been researching the Whole 30 plan a lot lately and am toying with the idea of doing a modified Whole 30. As long as I'm nursing, I just don't see that I'm going to follow the plan perfectly, but I've got a lot of room for improvement. My goals last year included a couple related to eating more vegetables and cutting out processed food, so I'm just continuing those into this year.

4. Spend less time on my phone.
This was one of my goals in 2013 and I don't think I really achieved it. However, I have a renewed motivation now as I want to be present in Peter's life. I don't want him to see his mom valuing time on her phone over time with him. I want to live my life more than I post about it. I will be staying home with Peter instead of returning to work, so I know the temptation to be on my phone all day long will be great. This might be one of my hardest goals this year but I am bound and determined to make it happen!

5. Find creative ways to save and/or earn money for our family.
Since we'll be going from two incomes to one in February, I want to find some ways to help ease the financial burden on our family. I don't have any concrete ideas but I feel confident I can make things work in the next year.

6. Keep up with my One Line A Day journal.
My sister-in-law, Brynn, and I got these journals for each other for Christmas. I really want to update it regularly and post in it daily. It's not a huge time commitment but it will take a while to get in the habit.

7. Purge our home of 300 unnecessary items.
I LOVE getting rid of stuff. Cleaning out closets and trashing/donating bags gives me some sort of weird purging high. A few years back, I set a goal to get rid of 150 things because I was about to get married and knew I would be adding a lot more "stuff" to my household. Now that I've got a baby, I'm feeling the same need to simplify. Last time, I lived by myself in an apartment. This time, I've got a house with two other humans in it, so I feel confident I can double that number. For this goal, any item counts. A shirt or a bag or a trinket or a pen all count as one item--size doesn't matter. I will donate some items, sell others and then trash some that have no future life with anyone (think clothes with stains or holes in them).

8. Spend time outside.
I can already tell that it's really easy for me to spend days at a time inside with Peter and never step outside our house. I want to go for walks with him and spend weekends hiking with Kory and play in the backyard with Sky. I live in a beautiful place and I want to take advantage of that and enjoy time outside!

9. Learn how to use our new camera.
Our family Christmas gift this year was a new camera (Canon Rebel T5i). I really wanted to have good pictures of Peter that weren't just taken on our iPhones. I know it has a lot of really cool features, but I don't know how to do much other than use the Automatic setting. I hope to improve my photography skills this year and I have no doubt I'll have plenty of opportunities to take photos of my cute kid.

10. Run a 5k.
I've run two 5k's and I loved the way I felt when I was training as well as the feeling of accomplishment after the race. I haven't exercised in far too long, so this will take a good while for me to get back in good enough shape to run 3 miles, but I really want to make it happen this year.

11. Complete 6 crafty/house/Pinterest projects.
I don't have anything specific in mind here, but I love doing projects and want to make our house feel a little more homey. Decorating is not my strong suit, but I can copy a Pinterest idea pretty well, so I'm going to try to do a few of those this year. I feel so much better when I spend my time doing something productive rather than watching hours of TV or playing on Facebook, so this will help me use my time better I hope.

12. Try 12 new recipes.
I think one new recipe per month is very reasonable. If I had fewer than 15 goals, I might try to do more, but I want to be successful, so I'm going to stick with 12 new recipes. We have quite a few cookbooks that we've never used, so I'd like to go through them and find some inspiration for new dishes.

13. Lose 20 pounds.
I've got about 20 pounds of baby weight still hanging on (which is totally reasonable since it's only been two months) but I'd love to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight by the end of 2015. Goals number 3 and 10 should help with this one.

14. Organize and file our stacks of paperwork.
I used to be really organized and have all of our bills/receipts/invoices/household paperwork filed away neatly. Then, I got pregnant/had a baby and I started stacking them all on our desk because I was exhausted and didn't want to take the time to think about it. Every time I look at this stack of papers, I feel a little bit of anxiety. I really want to get back in the habit of filing what needs to be filed and trashing the rest.

15. Plant a garden.
Few things in life (besides having a baby) have given me the immense satisfaction and pride that I get from growing a garden. I kind of let it slip this past year, mainly because I had a giant belly that prevented me from bending over, so I want to do a better job of tending to the garden this year. The thought of a garden fresh tomato makes me salivate right now.


I've certainly got my work cut out for me this year. I'm excited that I'll have time to focus on more of these things this year since I won't be working outside the home. Caring for Peter will take a large chunk of my time, but I want to work towards finding a balance between being Mandy and being Mom. Here's to a fun, productive, and meaningful 2015!