January Try

So, we got through January in the Year of the Try, and well, we did try a number of things.

• We tried several new restaurants.
• We tried a new nail salon.
• Hope did her own hair (and now is flat twisting like a champ and I am nearly hair-doing-free).
• I tried a new way of managing Hope’s chore situation with moderate success.
• Hope tried Grammerly and wrote a *boss* essay for school that had NO grammatical errors.
• I tried—with some success—to cut Yappy’s nails.
• Hope tried her fingers at composing some electronica on her tablet thanks to apps.
• She also tried to color a bit more and found it soothing.
• I tried to get snazzier with my own coloring efforts, broadening my portfolio of pencils to include markers and gel pens.
• I actually tried to win more of my Fitbit weekly challenges.
• I got our meals mostly meat free.
• I tried a lot of new recipes.
• I took Hope to a Dominican salon for the first time.
• We tried to spend more quality time together exercising.
• We tried to cook together more.
• Hope tried to cook solo a few times.
• We tried to establish a regular meditation schedule—still really working on this one.
• I really tried to get into the Unitarian thing since it seems like we’ll be at this church for a while.
• We started trying to “family date” other adoptive families in hopes of building our own community of similar families.
• Thanks to Groupon we tried some new activities in the area.
• I tried to be in bed by 10pm (more realistically 10:30…).
• Hope is trying to read for at least 30 minutes most days of week.
• Hope tried to learn how to play checkers.

We did make progress last month. I see that Hope is already more willing to try new foods. The fact that she’s doing her own hair is a huge win. Our flexitarian lifestyle has been easier to embrace and maintain since we’re committed to hunting for new recipes. Being meat “light” has made me feel better and has moderated Hope’s hyperactivity—as has adding a day or two of deliberate exercise with me. I saved some money doing Yappy’s nails. Hope is searching for tools to independently help with school. She is reading at least a few pages a day of grade level reading.

It was a successful effort. We’re halfway through February and it’s been a bit slower because of the weather and the various life activities we’ve got going on, but I do plan to finish off strong this month. It’s been good for us and I only see us going up from here!