I love paper. I like writing things down.
I like writing list after list, and then losing them or sticking them in pockets all over the place.
Last year at Christmas, I was gifted a beautiful paper planner. I wanted to write all the things in it.
But I also love my husband, and he really loves those online, syncing calendars that we can share. He can always read the handwriting. He always knows where to find it. He runs out of patience my list-writing and list-losing habits. (Which if you know his patience, is saying quite a lot.)
So, I turned this lovely planner into something of a record. I set a few goals and just started keeping track. I wanted to run, swim, and bike through the year. I wanted to read 52 books. I wanted to study Burmese, and I wanted to practice my violin again.
I bailed on violin.
I did study Burmese faithfully through the year. (Still.)
I read 54 books.
My favorite author of the year: Fredrick Backman. He’s followed by Jim Wallis, for what he believes and how he presents it so well; and Rainbow Rowell, for writing truly fun fiction.
My favorite autobiographies: Madeline Albright & Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Most terrifying read: Fascism: A Warning by Madeline Albright. Even more terrifying, actually, than Night, a memoir of the Holocaust by Elie Wiesel.
Most surprisingly genius: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. And all of Fredrick Backman’s work. Every single one is charming, even if you at first think its horrifying.
I ran 405 kilometers.
I swam 77 kilometers. (Most of those were in an 18-meter pool, so that’s about 4,277 laps!)
I bicycled 773 kilometers.
And thanks to Stephen’s great ideas to keep records of other things (on the computer, in organized charts and graphs), we know other things about 2018.
The Breakfast Club served 8,791 meals!
Flour & Flowers—just from January to September—baked 815 loaves of bread and rolled out 5,170 tortillas. They sold 248 pans of cinnamon rolls. At the end of the year, they each took home 5,000 baht (about $158) in savings, in addition to their weekly salaries.
For all my railing on paper and records, it’s pretty cool to see! I love seeing the books I read, remembering all I learned. It’s good to know that I could run across Arkansas on I-40 in a year if I needed to. It’s good to know that I could swim across Lake Balaton—in Hungary, in a year—if I needed to! I like seeing how all those crazy Fridays played became huge amounts of bread and savings accounts. I like seeing how all those 5:30am wake ups fed oh-so-many kiddos.
Here’s to 2019.
52 more books.
52 verses memorized with Stephen.
Hopefully 104 more runs, 156 more swims, and 52 more bike rides!
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