The past few days, I’ve had this grand list in my head of everything I wanted to accomplish before 2015.

I wanted the chicken coop to be DONE. (Hah.)

I wanted the kitchen to be cleaned – I don’t think I’ve mopped in there for six months. It’s getting kind of awful.

I wanted to have written something fiction – or revised something – since the end of NaNoWriMo. Mmhmm, sure.

I wanted the bedroom to be vacuumed, the clothes folded, the office cleaned… a revised monthly budget figured out. To complete my GoodReads challenge.

But we can’t have everything we want. This is a lesson I’m learning to embrace these days.

But I’m also learning which things I want that are worth fighting for, and a clean house isn’t always it.

Overall, 2014 has been an infinitely better year than 2013 was, by a long shot.

There were some rocky moments – like when Winnie was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, especially so soon after Tabby’s passing. (I say soon, but it was really about 8-9 months after that. It just felt soon.) But we were able to financially manage getting radiation therapy for her, and her thyroid levels are now back to normal! (We had her one-month post-radiation follow-up check last week.)

I had some extreme moments of frustration with the car, and somehow we have to start saving for a new vehicle. We are just about to cross 130k miles on the car, and we honestly need either an SUV or a truck. But the car still runs, and hopefully the only major thing left to go repair-wise on it is the windshield. (Some kid shot it with a BB gun a few years back, and it really just hasn’t been high on the priority list of repairs. Not when we needed new brakes and such.)

But… there were some good times. Some really good times. I had an awesome birthday party. I completed the A-Z Challenge, without going insane. I wrote 14,000 words in a single day to win NaNoWriMo for the 5th year in a row.

Yes, you read that right. 14,000 words. In a single day.

My hands ached so bad for nearly a week after that.
Not only was that my closest NaNo win ever, but it is also the most words I have written in a single day ever.

Oh, and we got a dog. A crazy-intelligent dog that I have a hard time staying ahead of, but he’s precious either way. I’m just considering him future-obnoxious-child-training.

And while the chicken coop isn’t done, I mean, c’mon! We built a friggin chicken coop from the imagination up this year! There were (are) many frustrating moments entwined, but STILL. It’s kind of amazing.

It was a good year.

And yet, as I sit and look back at it right now, I feel like… I lost so much time. Where did it go?

I have some specific goals for 2015 that I will share at some point this weekend (the weekend totally starts tomorrow, right?), but the major resolution I have for 2015 is to live more deliberately.

I want to look back on 2015 and know where my time went, instead of feeling like life zipped right by me.

I want more memories with loved ones, and of moments spent quietly. Not just doing what I have to for getting through the day.

So, as 2014 wraps up (in about three more hours for me), I’m going to spend some time with people I love.

G’night, everyone! I’ll see you in 2015!