My friend Sophia does this descending list thing on her blog quite often. I can't manage it very often, though, as I tend to get lost in all the details and start rambling. But, I thought it would be a good way to sum up 2014. (I know...it's January 15. I need to move past last year, but I still need a summary, even if it's late.) So! 2014 in review:

12 Favorite Photos:
I took the least amount of pictures this year that I ever have since going digital. I let myself get discouraged over the Teenage Resistance (one kid in particular hates getting his picture taken) and I just didn't feel excited about much photography. Then my camera started being wonky, so it was gone for repairs for more than a month (it still isn't working right. Sigh.) But I did take some good pictures:

1. My Mom and Nathan. This was at Jake's 16th birthday party. I love them working together.

2. Kaleb Reading. He discovered the Jedi Academy series and fell in love. He also read Coraline this year, along with miscellaneous other books he didn't love. He still doesn't love reading, but is liking it more. (Also: the bandaid on his toe is covering up an enormous wart he had removed last December. It was a huge wound and took forever to heal.)

3. Easter at My Mom's.  I love this for a lot of reasons. You can't see him, but my dad is in this picture! Also, that black "trellis" behind us? It is actually the old stair railing. When they replaced it twenty years ago, Dad just put it outside for flowers to grow around.

4. Our Family with Five. It is still so weird to me not to have Haley with us all the time. She is always in our family but not always in our family pictures! This was taken at my niece Torri's wedding.

5. All of the Kids. This is on Kaleb's 9th birthday. It captures so much about who they all are right now.

6. Haley at Chileno Bay. This is our third time in Cabo but our first time to go to this beach. It is the best one there! SO pretty!

7. Ragnar 2014. Just a few hours before one of the worst runs of my life. But...I love this picture.

8. Talking to Kaleb. I was outside taking pictures of flowers, and he wanted to tell me a story about something that happened at school. I took this right when I sat down across from him, and then we talked about our day. It was a sweet, good moment.

9. On Top of Half Dome. I didn't hike Half Dome just so I could take this picture. But it is the picture I most wanted. 

10. My four kids. Haley was home for a quick visit. I have this in a frame in my kitchen. 

11. So many boys! Jake playing soccer with all the little boys, at my mom's house for our autumn family meal.

12. Men at Madi's Wedding. My sister Suzette asked me to take some pictures at her daughter's wedding (forgetting that I don't photograph weddings). They turned out OK, but this is my favorite candid. Trying to get all of the men to smile.

11 Food-Related Memories:

1. May Lunch at Zupas. When Haley was at home for Kaleb’s baptism, we went to lunch with my mom and my sisters Becky and Suzette to celebrate my and Haley's birthdays. While I love Zupas (their mushroom bisque is an especial favorite), what I really loved about that meal was the people I ate with.
2. Eating in Mexico. Actually, there are quite a few good food memories from Mexico, and I still thoroughly intend to write about the three restaurants we love there. But the most Cabo-evocative food is the bag of mixed nuts I bought at Costco the first day we were there. It had pecans, almonds, and cashews mixed with dried apples and dried cranberries and a strong cinnamon flavor mixed with vanilla and something just a little bit spicy-hot. I'd eat a handful every morning when I came in from running and then, just a few weeks ago, they were a sample at my Costco. When I tasted them they took me right back to how those days felt: the freedom of running on the beach, the lovely, long lazy days, the scent and sound of the ocean just outside our door
3. Spiced pumpkin cookies with browned-butter frosting. I made this recipe four (or maybe) five times during the fall. We always love pumpkin anything, but these cookies. Oh my. The frosting takes them into cookie nirvana.
4. Watermelon in Yosemite. On our first day in Yosemite, we took what we thought would be a quick little hike to Lembert Dome. It was beautiful, but the trail was way longer than my guidebook said, and I didn’t realize there are two different spots you can start at. Which means that to make it into a loop, we had to walk right down the road from one parking spot and past a second before we got back to our car. It was hot and we were both thirsty (and Kendell was freaking out that we had just zapped every ounce of our energy that we might need for the next day’s neither quick nor little hike), so we drank some cold Propels while we drove along Tioga Pass road until we found a shady spot to pull over. Where we ate, with great delight, the cold, cubed watermelon I’d cut the day before. We took our hiking boots off and stretched out our legs and ate watermelon underneath some enormous lodge pole pines. It was so refreshing!
5. Midnight spaghetti. On principle, I can’t stand Ina Garten. (She’s just oh so very casual about her immense wealth and privilege.) But damn her, she makes some good food. This midnight spaghetti is easy and fast and delicious and everyone in my family but Nathan loves it. (Nathan will tolerate it, though.)
6. Anniversary dinner. We celebrated our 22^nd anniversary by pulling out all the stops and going to…Thai Village. OK, yes, totally not fancy. But it’s an us sort of place, and it makes us both happy, so who needs fancy when you can just have delicious?
7. Lunch with Chris. She is my very best, oldest friend and she understands almost everything about me. We know each other’s deepest, darkest secrets and also the funny stories. But we don’t see each other very often. I was determined to see her this year! We went to lunch one day during the Christmas break, at Los Hermanos in Pleasant Grove. The food was actually just sort of ehhh, but the conversation and the laughter and the soul-lifting was perfect!
8. Lunch at Texas Roadhouse in Logan. This fall, we needed to get some things up to Haley, and instead of mailing them we drove up to Logan. Everyone went, and we ate lunch together at Texas Roadhouse. My boys love this restaurant, Kaleb especially. They all got ribs, I got my usual chicken mushroom dish, Kendell got road kill, and Haley (who is a vegetarian) got a big salad. Again…the food was fine, but the company was perfect! Everyone was happy, talking and laughing together.
9. Dinner at Mi Ranchito. This is our favorite Mexican restaurant, but I had no idea that Becky and Shane also love it. In December, after we all met at the cemetery to decorate my dad’s grave, we went to dinner there: my family, Becky’s family, Suzette, and my mom. Delicious food, good conversations (my mom and Suzette are puzzled by Becky’s and my fear of traditional burial techniques, so we talked about it for quite a while), everyone happy. I loved that meal.
10. Summer breakfasts with Kaleb. We’d make hash browns and scrambled eggs (and sometimes hot chocolate), then eat together on the patio.
11. Candy cane cookies. I wanted to find something new and different and delicious to bring for dessert at our Sorensen family Christmas party. I made these candy cane cookies and they were one of my favorite things in December. The candy canes sprinkled on the fluffy frosting get just the tiniest bit softer, and the ones baked in the cookies get a little bit crispy, so it’s all sorts of texture at once.

10 Things that Happened:

1. Haley thrived in college. We got a letter from the dean about her excellent grades in May.
2. Jake survived 10^th grade and started (very reluctantly) 11^th grade. Despite his dislike of school and some other issues he’s struggled with, he’s managed to keep his grades at decent levels and is feeling much better about the second half of junior year.
3. Nathan made the high honor roll twice, finished 8^th grade, and started 9^th grade
4. Kaleb did not love school, but he did adore his 3^rd grade teacher and her aid. Fourth grade has been, well, OK.
5. Jake got his own car! He is paying for half, we are paying for the other half. He loves it!
6. Nathan earned a spot on student council and made the basketball team.
7. Kaleb started playing soccer (on a team, not just the back yard).
8. Jake cut his finger open lifting weights at the gym. Those were our only stitches this year, although…I did cut my forehead open. Glue though, not stitching.
9. I ran what is likely my last Ragnar. (Unless someone asks me to be on their team…)
10. Kendell and I saw and held actual, real, wild bear cubs.

9 Things We Bought a Lot Of:

1. Starbucks hot chocolate. Two years ago, Costco had this awesome tin of extra-dark Starbucks hot chocolate. Then they didn’t get it in 2013 and I was devastated. When I discovered they brought it back again this fall, I bought, I confess, six tins. I have enough to share except I won’t share it with anyone.
2. Legumes. Mostly black beans and garbanzos, but also refried and navy and butter beans. I think we’ve always eaten a lot of legumes, but this year I really noticed how often I buy them.
3. Cheese. Despite the fact that dairy products cost more this year than kidneys on the black market, we buy (and eat) a lot of cheese. Kendell gets a little panicky if there isn’t some in the fridge at all times.
4. Peaches from my niece’s in-laws.
5. Pumpkin spice cream frappuccinos. If you have them add chocolate chips it’s like a pumpkin spice cookie in a delicious beverage format. (I know…tons of sugar.)
6. Wheat bread, 1% milk, butter, and eggs: always on our Costco shopping list.
7. Fixins for hamburgers. After not using our grill once last year, we put it to good use this summer by grilling burgers nearly once a week. The secret to a delicious grilled burger: mix some dry buttermilk-ranch dressing mix into the raw meat. (Take your rings off first though!)
8. Peanut butter. Kaleb and Kendell have a PB&J or a PB&H (respectively) nearly every school day.
9. Berries. Even when they’re expensive. I decided it is a luxury I want to live with.

8 Book/Reading Experiences:

1. Discussing books with Jake. Jake, who used to be a great lover of books, has sort of stopped enjoying reading. (I am hoping this is an adolescent phase.) But when I told him about this book I was reading, The Martian, he thought it sounded good, so he read it right after I did. I loved talking about it with him! He also read The Scarlet Letter in his English class. Helping him write his essay was one of my year’s favorite moments. (By “helping him write his essay,” by the way, I mean this: I don’t write it. I’m not even present for the idea generation and the first draft. But once he’s worked out some ideas and direction and content, I’ll help him revise and shape. I don’t think this makes me a bad mom, either on the side of not writing the whole thing for him or on the other, helping him to make it better.)
2. Presenting at Life, the Universe, and Everything. I co-hosted a discussion about the year’s best fantasy and science fiction books. My fellow librarian discussed picture books and junior books, and I took the young adult books. I decided that presenting at literary conferences might be the best thing the world has to offer. I want to do it again!
3. Meeting Robert Pinksy. Seriously…I met Robert Pinsky.
4. Reading For Darkness Shows the Stars underneath my apple tree, which was buzzing with bees. That was a moment that changed something fundamental in me, in how I look at the world and my place in it.
5. Re-reading the Maddaddam trilogy while we were in Mexico. I brought all three books with me, despite the space they took up in my luggage, and I finished the last pages of the third book about ten minutes before our plane landed back home in Salt Lake City. The place where we stayed has a little restaurant by the pool, so nearly every day I sat outside in the sun, with a pool by my feet and the ocean a two-minute walk away, eating quesadillas with guacamole and reading. One day, an older man came over to talk to me. He said, “I’m from Canada, and I didn’t think any Americans were smart enough to read Margaret Atwood.” I’m still puzzling over that conversation. I hope I represented us surprisingly-intelligent Americans well!
6. Meeting Laini Taylor. She came to the SLC downtown library in October. She spoke in two different conference sessions and I went to both of them. I am still processing what she said, but it is pushing me to be more dedicated to my own writing.
7. Discussing books with Nathan. He read A Wrinkle in Time and was sort of puzzled by it. I don’t think he loved it, but it made him think. We also discussed The Little Prince. And, he read one of Jake’s favorite series, The Cry of the Icemark, and you know it made me happy to hear the two of them talk about books!
8. Meeting Shannon Hale. I brought my copy of Enna Burning for her to sign, because it’s my favorite book by her. I told her that, and she was surprised…she said most people think it’s too dark. Which just made me smile because of course I like the darker & edgier things. (Not a thing anyone might thing Shannon Hale really is.) We had a short but lovely conversation about why I like it, and she signed my book with “for Amy, who would be great friends with Enna.” 

 7 Songs that Will Always Remind Me of This Year:

1. Royals by Lorde
2. Stolen Dance by Milky Chance (Jake loved this song, too.)
3. Unbelievers by Vampire Weekend
4. Blue Monday (remake) by Orgy
5. Just Give Me a Reason by Pink
6. I Wanna Get Better by The Bleachers
7. The Wheel in the Sky by Journey (one of these things is not like the others…this is a story I need to tell!)

6 New Things We Bought:

1. We finally replaced our ancient HP laser printer with a new HP laser printer.
2. A Bosch mixer. Our old one wasn’t very old, but this was such a good deal on all! new! stuff! that I couldn’t resist. (We sold our old one.)
3. Sort-of a new computer. Kendell replaced a bunch of parts with newer and faster ones inside of our PC.
4. A laptop of my very own. I’ve wanted one for a long time, but it had to be just the right one (I’m pretty picky on keyboards!)
5. Tupperware. I got a set of four pink bowls (squee! pink Tupperware!) and some new canisters.
6. A Samsung Galaxy s5 for me (I passed my old S3 down to Nathan, who was previously using a battered old-fashioned texting phone, the kind with the slide-out keyboard).

5 Trips Someone Took:

1. Vegas for Spring Break: Haley
2. Florida for HOSA nationals: Jake (including Disneyworld and Harry Potter World, lucky boy!)
3. St. George for StuCo leadership conference: Nathan
4. Cabo San Lucas: Amy and Haley
5. Yosemite: Amy and Kendell

(looks like Kaleb really needs a vacation this year!)

4 Medical Issues:

1. sprained ankle (Nathan)
2. a whole lot of dermatological stuff (Jake)
3. cracked tooth (Kendell)
4. mysterious aching hamstrings (Amy)

3 Movies We Saw:
(It wasn’t a huge movie year for me. The kids saw more than I did. Nothing really grabbed my attention.)

1. Mockingjay part 1. (I honestly didn’t think they needed to make this book into two movies. I liked this, but I kept wondering what people who haven’t read the books would think of it.)
2. Interstellar (My favorite movie this year, although obviously that’s not saying much. I have a beef with some of the science, but overall I liked the concepts, especially how time could fold back on itself.)
3. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (A bloated monstrosity that entirely lost the feeling of the book.)

2 Things I Would Change:

1. More family stuff during the summer. We really didn’t do much all together.
2. Talk more. Communicate more. Connect more.

1 Lesson I Learned This Year:
(Really….there were many, but this is the most impactful, and maybe it is fairly obvious but I understood it on a deeper level.)

1. What I choose is the only thing I can control. I can encourage, cajole, rail, lecture, nag, discuss as much as I want, but I can’t choose anything but my own choices. This means that I am striving to really think about and understand exactly what I am choosing, rather than listening so much to other people’s ideas.