2018 Year in Review

I hope everyone had a great week and a very merry Christmas. Usually on Fridays I do my weekly series, Week in Review. Since this is the last Friday of the year though I thought it would be fun to change it up and do a Year in Review instead. So enjoy a recap of the year and share thoughts about yours. 

Favorite books

My favorite book I read this year would probably have to be This is Just my Face Try not to Stare by Gabourey Sidibe. It was a delightful gem of a book that had me laughing throughout.

Runner up is Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann. It’s been about 6 months since I’ve read it, but I’m still shocked about what I learned.

Favorite movies

A Quiet Place. I thought I was tired of all the post-apocalyptic stories, but this ended up being a movie that stood out for my both my husband and me. It follows a family trying to survive from monsters that track by sound. So suspense it built by executing the story without dialogue.

Uhhh this came out in 2017, but I didn’t see it till recently, Downsizing. The premise is completely original. In an attempt to reserve dwindling resources science has figured out a way to shrink humans to be 5 inches tall. People can live smaller but more luxurious lifestyles, creating brand new sets of social issues to explore.

Favorite TV shows

Schitt’s Creek Season 4. Guys, I have a weird sense of humor that I feel like this show is tailor made for. It’s a Canadian series, but we watch it on Netflix. A wealthy family loses everything and is forced to live in a town they purchased as a joke, Schitt’s Creek. You watch this spoiled family adjust and grow while living out of adjoining motel rooms.

We’ve been on board with Netflix for so long at our house that we hadn’t really given any of the Amazon Prime original series a chance. This year we checked out Goliath and Homecoming though. Both my husband and I wanted to binge each one. So I am sure we will be giving more Prime shows a chance in 2019.

Favorite Blog Posts

This is actually a plug! I am going to be hosting a blog meet and greet starting January 7th asking people to leave a link to their own favorite blog post of 2018. So be thinking about what you have put out on your blog and would want to share. I’ll be highlighting those posts in my 2019 Week in Reviews.

Best New Discovery

Home Depot’s Free Kids Workshops. The first Saturday of the month Home Depot hosts building workshops for kids. They give each child an apron and for every workshop they complete the kids earn a pin to add to their apron and a certificate of completion. So far we’ve only built helicopters and gingerbread ornaments, but we will be trying to hit every one we can in 2019. The kids love it.

Cafe Kacao, my new favorite brunch spot introduced to me by my good friend, Dusti. It’s Guatemalan food, and if you look at the menu it might not seem like anything out of the ordinary. Everything done there is done right though. It’s so fresh and delicious that I might have to go there this weekend since I won’t be able to stop thinking about it now. . . Also, I have no pictures to share because any time I have been there I have been too excited. So I only thought to get a picture of the food after I devoured my entire plate.

Biggest struggle

Being pregnant. I spent most of the year pregnant, and this time around it was HARD. Worth it, but hard.

Biggest achievement

Bringing Baby Delta into this world. For the last few years I’ve had dreams about a third child in our family. I did this so much that I swear I already knew this kid. Our family feels complete with the addition of this sweet girl.

One word to describe the year

Someone asked me at the end of last year what one word I would use to describe my entire year. The question resonated with me. After giving it some thought, my answer last year was the word “acceptance”. The years prior we had hit a spot where we struggled financially and in 2017 we had gotten my son’s autism diagnosis. By the end of last year we had taken a deep breathe, accepted everything, and began to move forward.

This leads to my word for 2018, which I have decided is “progress”.  In 2018 we have in fact moved forward. My son and daughter are doing fantastic in school. Baby Delta brings a calm to everyone. I got a promotion. I feel like we are all breathing a little easier these days. So 2018 has been a year of progress, thank the lord!

Hopes for 2019

I hope my word to describe 2019 is balance. I would like to be able to give each member of my family the individual attention and support they need, heck that even includes the dogs! I want to find balance and excel in my new(ish) position at work. I want to be able to still figure out how to do all of this without giving up blogging or book club. In 2019 I want to learn how to balance being a working wife and mother of 3 better than I do today. Balance. My hope for 2019 is balance.

Thank you to everyone and anyone who has taken a moment out of their day to read anything on BigAndPinkyToes this year. I appreciate your time and comments and our friendships.

If you are willing to share, I would love to hear what word describes 2018 for you? Happy New Year, friends!