Feathers in My Hat - Victory Jar

As 2012 slides to a close, I take out my "Victories" jar and sift through the slips of paper. This is the first year I've kept the jar so I'm excited to relive and remember the great moments of 2012 before shifting my focus in excitement to 2013. The reason I started this is because I tend to focus on the negative much more than the positive. On any given day if you were to ask me how my day was all the things that go wrong tend to pop into my mind. So I'm trying to change my mental habits and this is one way I'm repenting. There are over 60 pieces of paper so here are just some highlights below. You can select anything bold and in italics to go to a post about it.

• Completed a cheetah adventure!
• 864+ mile solo road trip in Oregon & Washington
• Began sponsoring 2 children & writing 2 correspondent children
• Figured out what was causing my extreme hypersomnia
• Planned girl's trip to my hometown & went on travel adventures with friends
• God blessed me with a new, free fence
• God protected my dad and I when we cut down a huge tree in my backyard
• I was featured on "Owning Single" - a website for single women who decide to buy their own home.
• Got my first credit card. What a success to not get one until I'm 38 yrs old. And there is no debt on it! woo-hoo :) Thanks to God.
• Had a great review at work and got a merit bonus beyond what I would have ever imagined
• Taught a "Dream List" devotional lesson to many women trying to inspire them to dream with God about adventures to have in their personal life.
• Finished a 5 day decluttering challenge
• Resisted purchase of expensive ring and other items I didn't "need" - yes!
• Switched to average billing and that's helping my monthly budget
• Bought my first two real appliances: new stove/oven & microwave
• Was brave and had acupuncture for the first time :)
• Organized two simple donation drives: to help needy family & victims of domestic violence
• Made cute, brick path in my garden
• Had a successful year update for my job in donor relations
• Made at least 6th wreaths for my front door.
• Completed a large stewardship event (included the press)
• Had special vacations each with my mom and dad
• Spent a night praying and surrendering my worries to God
• Had no sick days last January (hey, that's huge for me and always my goal each month)
• Offered and helped coworkers with some major projects at work
• Overcame my apprehension on meeting million dollar donors
• Fought hard most of the year to not be discouraged about the lack of answers to my hypersomnia
• Got back to a place of surrender that God is the one that must take care of me and my life
• Saved $50 by paying for work parking in advance
• Started a new thank you calling project at work
• Made a "Holistic Me" binder to simplify my magazines
• Got rid of some services I was paying for to lighten my financial load

Some items are big while some are so small I didn't even include them here but the point is to bring my mind to a better, healthy place for both perspective and praises to God. :)