Last updated on December 30, 2013 by Liza Hawkins

It’s that time of year again. The time where we sit back and reflect upon how the year has gone, what resolutions we may or may not have kept, and what we suppose our goals should be for the next 12 months.

December marks this blog’s 3-1/2 year anniversary. THREE AND A HALF YEARS. That’s a long time. It’s kind of like my third child, what with all the maintenance, thought, growth and promotion that goes into it on a daily basis. It’s exhausting, but also rewarding – just like my human kids. Heh.

Speaking of blogs, a friend of mine directed me to Wordle at the beginning of 2013 when we were talking about our 2013 goals. It’s a neat little website that allows you to either throw a bunch of words together and make them look all pretty and graphic OR give it a URL and let it compose a graphic out of the words it finds within the pages.

2013 Reflection

I decided a great way to reflect upon my most mentioned blog topics and subjects would be to let Wordle scrape my blog. And so I did.

Notice a few themes here?

It actually makes me giddy to see the things that I’ve tried to focus on in 2013 show themselves in the graphic.

Organic. Farmers. Foodie. Real.

If I had to reflect upon the biggest change for me in 2013 it would be a movement to not only eat more organic and local as possible, but to also advocate for and educate about those things.

Check and CHECK.

I want to continue expanding on our family’s well-being. My diabetic husband is “perfect” according to his doctor. When he was diagnosed this time last year, I didn’t know what to expect. The only diabetics I knew cut out carbs and substituted things made with aspartame (and other chemicals I have trouble pronouncing) in place of real sugar.

“It’s sugar free,” they say. “It’s a healthier option.” Blech.

Fortunately, I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to researching things. Turns out, we didn’t have to eliminate anything. Turns out, eating normal portions, real food instead of manufactured substitutes, and having moderation in mind when it comes to sweets, keeps a perfect insulin balance. Imagine that.

He will always be on insulin, because the doctors suspect he has late onset Type 1 diabetes; however, my husband eats normal. Normal as in, real sugar and none of the chemical substitutes many diabetics think are healthier options. (Except for his one vice – Diet Coke. Dagger!) He eats the food I cook for this blog.

2014 Goals

Which brings me to 2014. I have a few health-minded foodie goals planned:

• Exercise! Shame on me. I stopped running this summer and haven’t exercised since. Weight aside (I’m actually a healthy weight for my height), I need to get back in shape. I walked up a couple flights of stairs the other day and found myself OUT OF BREATH. Awful. I signed up for the next 2 Week Challenge with Mr. Bookieboo and Mamavation, which starts in a couple weeks. Between now and then, I’d like to hit the pavement twice a week for a walk/jog, and continue to do so every week in 2014.
• Whole Foods! No, not the grocery store. We’ve done a nice job of cutting out a lot of our processed foods, but I’d like to eat even cleaner. Not all the time, mind you, but a lot of the time. More things made from scratch – like cheese! I plan to try my hand at making ricotta and mozzarella cheeses in early 2014. Pizza dough was a raging success, so much so that it’s become a family favorite. I think it would be nice to also make the cheese to go with it!
• Container Gardening! I mean for real food this time, not just flowers. We live in a townhouse, so garden space is limited. We also have a dog that likes to mark his territory on anything that sits on the ground outside. My vision is to have a few large containers that sit well above knee height (and subsequently dog marking height) where I can grow things like tomatoes, peppers and a few of my favorite herbs. Admittedly, I’m not the green thumb in the family – I usually leave that to my master gardener mother and my farmer sister. But I’m determined to make a few containers work!

What are your 2014 goals?