It’s coming up to the end of the year and I’m starting to look back on what I’ve accomplished during 2007, and have I done all that I hoped I would.  Fat chance!  Well there are some areas where I have done really well, especially in the professional field where I’ve now managed to create a nice little freelance niche and finally I’m starting to get paid for my efforts.  Ok, so there’s still some work to do in that area in terms of increasing the financial reward for my work, but it’s coming along nicely. 

My boys are doing well, developing more or less as they should into little people.  Neither of them can read but one knows his alphabet and the other is starting to read short words.  Both of them are verbally bi-lingual and both can count to the age appropriate amounts in both languages.  They can even put their laundry where it needs to go – this is probably one of my major accomplishments of the entire year!  I’m still happily married to my partner so I guess that part of life is also going well!

Where the wheel seems to fall off my achievement wagon is in the self-improvement area, particularly the weight lose and taking care of self bits.  I have lost some weight this year, more than any other year, but still nowhere near what I’d hoped to.  In the rundown to Christmas I have no illusions of losing more weight, instead I’m just going to try and do the best I can not to gain weight and put the weight loss dream on hold until the New Year.  As far as taking care of myself is concerned, I think that’s a pretty big failure and something I must address in the New Year.  All of these self-improvement books and programmes telling parents to put themselves first are all very well, but they do make those of us who try but always seem to manage to still come last when it comes down to how much time is left for how much needs to be done feel like we’re doing a lousy job.  Next year I swear I’m going to find time to put make sure my socks match every morning and start to feel like a professional person should, instead of dragging a comb through my hair as I zip up one jacket and push two kids and a partner out the door every day!