2014 summary

Every year I like to read over my daily, handwritten journal and summarize it, so I can have a quick reference for what happened in the year. Here's what 2014 was like:

January - We found out that I was pregnant with a girl, and I started stressing out about baby stuff. I still felt tired all the time and I slept a lot. I usually went to bed around 11 or 12 and woke up after 10am. One night I had a huge plate of nachos with refried beans, sour cream, tomatoes, and olives. I remember enjoying that! I made salad with goat cheese and candied walnuts and I wrote, "I like it with enough vinegar to burn my lips and tongue." I played Radiant Historia and watched Sherlock Holmes.  I got rid of a bunch of t-shirts and shredded a bunch of documents. Adam and I started playing board or video games together every Monday night as an FHE tradition.

February - We saw Swan Lake at BYU. At my cousin's baby shower my grandma told me how she had all of her children naturally, which I thought was interesting. I also found out at her birthday party that she wrote a column for a community paper while she was in Texas. Adam and I ate at the Communal one night and we got to sit at the bar and watch the chef. "He put like a spoonful of butter into all the root veggie sautees." We made pizza, and I wrote that "I always regret not putting more zucchini on my pizza." One day going to the grocery store was my "feat of the day." I scraped a car with my car while trying to park at DI and even though I was able to contact the car owner and get our insurance to pay for it I felt really dumb and rude. We spent a week visiting my parents and Adam worked while we were there. I found the birds and sunshine energizing. I resolved to not procrastinate cleaning the kitchen.

March - I got rid of more stuff, including an old desk, to start making room for the nursery. I played Bravely Default and Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy. I ate some delicious Reuben sandwiches. We bought baby furniture and a new kitchen table at IKEA. I got grumpy when it snowed.

April - We saw the MOA art exhibit with the Bloch paintings. We went to a prenatal class. I got into cleaning the bathrooms every week, at least the mirrors (I haven't kept that up). We made beef bulgogi and pizza with a metal plate (like a pizza stone). My neighbor friends threw me a delightful baby shower. Adam and I played a bit of Netrunner together.

May - My sister-in-law threw me a baby shower, and afterwards some of my college friends came over to hang out. We decided to make hanging out a monthly or bi-monthly tradition. Adam made an airship board game that we started prototyping. I made a butterfly origami mobile. I messed up a Hollandaise sauce. Adam bought an elliptical at the neighborhood yard sale which he sometimes used.

June - Sitting for long periods became uncomfortable. I had to be induced and gave birth to Piper (remember that's my internet name for my daughter?). The labor and delivery part went fine, thanks to my very supportive labor team. She had a little apnea when she fell asleep (i.e., she stopped breathing in deep sleep) and even though she didn't have any infections or any more apnea she had to spend a week in the NICU. It was kind of hard, because we basically just wanted to go home, but I got a lot of support and advice about breastfeeding and getting her on a schedule. I still had to pump milk and give Piper supplemental bottle feedings after each feeding, which I got sick of quickly (luckily we were able to transition to just breastfeeding about a week after she came home).

My mom visited and I got a bit of "baby blues" around 2 weeks after I delivered. I remember just crying over stupid things and being amazed that there were so many PEOPLE in the world, and that each person represented a time that a woman gave birth and successfully took care of a newborn. Adam made beef ribs that he sous-vide-cooked for 72 hours and I remember feeling bad that I didn't appreciate them and crying over beef ribs. I had Adam get me a Kindle for our anniversary, which I still use all the time to read while nursing. I watched TV and played videogames while nursing too.

July - Piper started sleeping 6+ hours a night sometimes, which was a huge relief. I started cloth diapering her. Various people visited me to see the baby. At the end of the month I finally got out to do some errands and I thought I lost my keys at the car wash. After looking everywhere, including the inside of a vacuum, I found them in the key hole of my trunk. I started doing abdominal workouts to help ease my back pain.

August - Two of my friends from high school visited us for 5 days and we took them (and Piper) to Timp caves and Arches national park. In some ways hiking with Piper was empowering, because it helped me realize I could still do stuff with a baby. But I hurt my knee hiking downhill with her, so I had to take it slow afterwards. Adam met with a bunch of builders and picked one to start building our house in Provo. We had lots of family over for a luncheon and Piper's blessing.

September - I tried to go through my religious beliefs and make them rational and logical, but I feel like it failed, because religious epistemology is inherently subjective (i.e., whether or not something is true depends on the feeling of the Holy Ghost, which isn't quantifiable and easily confused in my brain with how I feel about it). I tried out various goals to change my life in little ways, and I proved to myself that I can make myself a hot breakfast in the morning if I want to.

October - I started unfollowing everyone on Facebook. I felt depressed about how my identity is tied to my consumption of goods. I thought Piper had a yeast infection but it turned out I wasn't washing the diapers properly (and she probably got an ammonia rash). My sister and her kids visited us, and my parents also visited for a weekend. I made some weird vegetarian dishes, and threw a party for my little brother's birthday. I remembered that I dislike horror games.

November - I made some pixel art to help Adam with his game (it is still pretty ugly but I want to keep working at it). I voted for like the second time ever. I started a tradition of having a big breakfast on Monday mornings. I started reading scriptures in the morning while I fed Piper. I made cherry JELLO salad for Thanksgiving with my in-laws. We moved Piper and her changing table into the nursery. We watched our neighbor's dog for a few weeks.

December - Adam went on a business trip for 5 days and I somehow managed to keep Piper alive that whole time. I took Piper to IKEA and shopped by myself too. We spent Christmas with my in-laws and it snowed a lot on Christmas day. Then we flew over to California and visited my family.

The whole year we did cub scouts almost every week, and I practiced organ and played monthly until September. We subbed for primary quite a bit. I read quite a bit of epic fantasy as well as some other books (I reviewed them all on goodreads). My in-laws fed us dinner at least once a month. We had friends over and visited friends. We ate lots of sous vide meat. I supported various Kickstarters.

Looking back on last year's summary, it looks like I didn't have very many aspirations for this (2014) year other than to have a baby. Well, I did that! I gave up on learning kanji, which is kind of sad, but I think if I try to learn kanji again I need to include it in a more holistic approach to language learning. This year I'd like to keep up on trying out pixel art, or at least some kind of creative pursuit. I want to continue our family traditions of having a big breakfast on Monday morning and playing a game Monday evening. I want to continue keeping the kitchen clean. I want to go hiking with Piper more in the spring, and maybe try snowshoeing before then (and I definitely want to take her sledding!).

I felt like a pushed myself with learning babywearing and cloth diapering this year, and I want to keep pushing myself to learn new skills (even if it's something as simple as learning how to make pie better or knitting a potholder). I want to build a terrarium in 2015, and I want it to look pretty. I don't feel the need to read more or play more videogames--I probably do enough of that on my own, without making a goal to do so. I want to help my sister with PR/outreach for her/our game, and I'd like to keep spending time with family. More short-term, I hope that I can prepare for our move in March in an organized fashion and not leave anyone with lasting scars or emotional trauma!

Hope you had a happy new year!