Recollections of 2012

For the past few years, we’ve been making annual photo books with the tools from Shutterfly. Around Christmas, we piece together the highlights of the year and print up the books to send around to grandparents. Often times, we give these photo books as Christmas presents, but that did not happen this year. My husband did manage to get most of the photos chosen and pasted in by New Year’s, but I was on caption duty and what with the constant string of deadlines and all, I slacked on my job until this past weekend.

Looking at the photos from the last 12 months reminded me that 2012 was a long and full year.

First, we started the year with a 3-month-old baby. And a 2-year-old and 4-year-old. There has just been a lot of physically carting around small kids. I laughed at a photo of me with the kids at Disney World where I’ve got the older two in a double stroller and the baby strapped to my chest.

I’d hoped to enjoy myself and take some fun vacations in 2012, and that we accomplished. There was Disney World, and San Diego, and a week at the beach. There were weekend excursions to visit cousins and to the PA mountains, and I went to CA for a week for work. This has made me start thinking about 2013. Some trips are already scheduled, but as I dry out from all these deadlines, I should think of more.

We had a photo from my book launch of All the Money in the World. I was like “oh yeah, that came out in 2012.” It kind of got eclipsed by some of the fanfare around What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast. But there was a lot of book writing and book launching in 2012. And writing in general — about 200 blog posts here, 150 for CBS MoneyWatch, several pieces for Fortune.com, several for USA Today, City Journal, Women & Co., a project on digital learning, etc.

I’m happy to report that I look thinner in photos from the end of the year than at the start, so I guess the Gladwyne Diet was a success. Although after hitting my lowest weight in September, I somehow bounced back up a few pounds. I’m not really sure what happened there.

There were swim lessons and soccer practices. There were birthday parties and first days of school (including the start of kindergarten!) There were even a few date nights, though not as many as I would have liked. We now have sitters two evenings a week, which has made it easier to have a casual dinner together one of those nights roughly every two weeks or so. There was a half-marathon (for me). There was strawberry picking and apple picking.

I did the calculation the other day that there are 8760 hours in a year, and 8784 in leap years. All of those hours will be filled with something, in the sense that eventually you will be on the other side of them. The 8784 hours of 2012 are gone, but looking at the photos I think we managed to fill them pretty well. Now on to this year (or at least the 8389 hours left as of this posting…)

How do you feel about the 8784 hours of 2012?

5 thoughts on “Recollections of 2012

  1. Funnily enough, 8784 hours in a year doesn’t seem like that much, especially when you consider how much can change in that amount of time!
    This year I’m tackling a Project Life scrapbook. We don’t have children yet, but I still think it’s important to record the small details.

    1. @Julia – I know. It only took 8784 hours for my newborn to turn into a little girl. In 8784 hours, she learned to walk, eat with a spoon, say her first words, etc. I’m intrigued by scrapbooking (it features in some fiction I’m writing right now) and will have to look into this Project Life concept. I know Anandi (the House of Peanut blogger who goes by “ARC” here) has been posting her Project Life pages every few weeks on her blog.

      1. Sorry, just catching up on blogs now. Feel free to email me via my blog if you have questions re: Project Life – it can be very easy and simple if you’re not crafty, or more complex if you like crafty stuff.

        @Laura – I believe there’s a digital version through Shutterfly that may appeal to you. Let me know if you can’t find the details and I’ll dig it up.

  2. Your year was incredibly impressive! I can’t imagine accomplishing all that and I only have one small child. Do you ever feel exhausted or overwhelmed with your busy life? Do you ever get time to just zone out in front of the TV or would you rather not spend your time that way anyway?
    Thanks for sharing!

    1. @Amy- Hmm… There is plenty of zone out time. Just generally not in front of the TV. I actually think that’s a big part of creating a full life that doesn’t feel too exhausting. Instead of TV, I’ll read a magazine or book at night and then go to sleep. It’s easy to get sucked into more TV than you intended to watch. It’s harder to get more sucked into an issue of The Economist than you intended. Right now the only TV I watch are kids shows if I’m snuggling on the couch with them (but generally I’m doing something else while they watch TV like making dinner) or on the treadmill. Post on that coming!

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