2007 Challenges Wrap-Up ...

I joined in a lot of challenges this year ... some I actually finished and some, well, not so well ... but they were all fun none-the-less. Let's look back and see how it all went!

First up, was the 2007 Winter Classics Challenge. The goal was to read:

1. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
2. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
3. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
4. A Room With a View by E. M. Forster
5. A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway

And I did it! Yeah!

Second up was the 2007 TBR Challange. I had decided to read:

1. Devil in the White City
2. The Day the World Came to Town
3. One Thousand White Women
4. Riding the Bus With My Sister: A True Life Journey (did not read)
5. Size 12 is Not Fat - Meg Cabot
6. The Dogs of Babel
7. The Historian
8. The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig (did not read)
9. What Comes After Crazy: A Novel
10. The Nazi’s Officer Wife
11. Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
12. Crewel World by Monica Ferris

I managed to read 10 of these books ... however, the other two I could not find at the library - frustrating yes. I would like to point out I did read at least two other books from my list this year (Total Money Make-over by Dave Ramsey and What Comes After Crazy: A Novel) so I think that maybe I can call it even?

After that, I signed up for the UFO Challenge. The goal was to work on 12 items, but I only hit 9.
1st one * 2nd one * 3rd one> *4th* 5th
6th
7th * 8th * 9th
Oh well - that's over half! And some of them I even managed to finish! =)

After that was the Fall Into Reading Challenge. My books:

1. Must Love Dogs
2. Into the Wilderness by Kim Barnes
3. My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Piccult
4. Night by Elie Wiesel
5. Confession of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire
6. Lucky by Alice Siebold

And I did manage to finish it up!

So to sum it up - 4 challenges joined. 2 completely finished, 1 we'll call finished as long as we swap out two books and the third 75% done. Not too bad. Trust me, there were a lot more I wanted to join but I knew that would be setting myself up for failure.

I think this year will find me light on the challenges. The little guy is a VERY active guy, very energetic, and completely the poster child of the typical "terrible 2's" stage. It's hard to get out with him. It's hard to stay home with him some days as well! LOL But, I do love him. Not to mention 2008 will be a year that is more about penny pinching than shopping (and that includes yarn, fabric, thread, markers, paper, tape, stickers, books, etc). It will be difficult I know. But I also know it will be worth it and the ends will justify this. It will be a few years of tight living, but I hope that within 3 years I will be looking at at year that will be debt free for us. And so really, that is my challenge this year - to live as frugally as possible, and maybe if I do a fabulous job, I will then have some extra money to spend on these nice extras I do enjoy shopping for so much! =)