A reflection on 2011

I have been doing a bit of reflecting over the past month or so about 2011 and what I have achieved, what I haven't achieved, what I've done and learnt. 

It's been a busy year!!!

We started the year with a flood.  Between 1 December 2010 and mid January 2011, our house had recorded more than 1 metre of rain in our gauge.  Everything was soggy!!!  Brisbane also flooded - Mum & Graham went away on a cruise the day that Grantham was decimated.  His cousins live up there and their lives were saved by them diving into their garage which was under the house and built into the hill.  Other friends who's house wasn't even finished yet went under at Wivenhoe Pocket.  Quite surreal - we sat at home, flooded in, watching it on the news. 

We then headed off on a quick trip to Adelaide for my brother and I.  Dad has diabetes, which he was not looking after, and all of a sudden couldn't feel his feet and legs.  He got the bus home from Kangaroo Island and was diagnosed with Diabetes Neuropathy.  Saw a heart specialist who put him straight onto a Neurosurgeon who whacked him into hospital and diagnosed Guillian Barre syndrome.  12 weeks in hospital and 9 months later, he's a lot better than he was!

Come April, mum is put in hospital with a racing heart.  Her normally ~50 bpm heart rate had gone to ~190 bpm.  She spent nearly 2 weeks in the Mater Private and wound up with the heart specialist stopping and restarting her heart to get it to return to normal.  She now has a heart rate of ~40 bpm!!!

End of April Miss Michelle and I headed off on a road trip to Sydney with Sue.  We dropped Sue off at Gosford, and headed out to Millthorpe.  After Millthorpe, we went to Sydney for ANZAC day, and then left to go up to Glen Innes for the Australian Celtic Festival.  Ok, so we nearly got blown away, but we had a good time!

June came along and we had some time at home, recarpeting and re-timbering the floors... what a job!

July came along and Henrik arrived from Norway for 10 months through YFU.  He's a teenager - what more can I say.  He knows everything, and goes nowhere without headphones on his ears.

August - MUSTER TIME!!!

September - we headed off to learn about Red Claw fishing from Bert.  Went out to Borumba Dam, and over the course of the weekend, we managed 360 + of the little blighters!  Yummmmm...

October we also went camping out at Boondooma Dam.  That's where I decided I wanted to camp in more style - so a week later we were the proud owners of a Jayco Flite Campervan... with a quick trip to Mooranbah thrown in for good measure!

November, Gai and I headed off on our cruise from Singapore to Thailand, Vietnam, Bali, Darwin, Port Douglas and Airlie Beach.  You can read all about that in other entries on my blog...

And now it's December.....  Christmas is gone, and tomorrow is New Years Eve.

This year I've re-learnt to crochet, have continued my sewing journey, sorted a lot of my house out, and started spending quality time with myself.  I think I'm pretty happy about 2011...

The things that didn't go so well is my finances - I need to take them in hand.  That will be my main focus for 2012.  I am not going away on holidays this year as we are heading off in 2013 on a cruise with Chris and Lorraine out to Hawaii, and I want to take some good time off then. 

My goals for 2012 include:

• Save $1.00 per day.  This is for Christmas next years' expenses.  I've already set this up - and it will be more like $3.00 per day as I have 3 accounts that always seem to have money in them.  I've also started transferring piddly little amounts over too - it will be a nice experiment to see how much winds up in the account!
• Pay down debt.  This is a serious budget year, and I haven't yet refined what the actual goal will be.
• Spend time doing gentle things.  Sewing, crochet, knitting etc. 
• Work on ensuring my relationship with Ken stays as good as it is now!
• Slow down, focus on what I am doing and finish things!  Don't try and do 10 things at once!!!
• Take my health into my own hands.  Eat more fresh food, drink less alcohol, get more exercise.

On top of that, I will continue my decluttering journey to rid my life of what I don't want in it.  I'm certainly closer than I was, but I'm not there yet. 

I wish you all a wonderful new year and look forward to sharing some of my 2012 with you!