And strangely enough, those first 10 months that I had as my goal to blog about ended up being the main times I was working on my goals.

About half way through November, I was laid off from my job that I had been working at for the last 5 years.  This really caught me off guard, and I admit I went into a bit of a slump for a while there.  I didn’t really feel like working on my goals, and there was no way our bank account could afford frivolous things like paying me for getting a bingo (up to November, although I had done a lot, I still hadn’t successfully completed a full bingo).

So things really tapered off there for the rest of the year.  I did end up completing my Robsichord, running the 5K, and cleaning the 4 rooms, which got me 3 bingos.  But again, I just didn’t feel that it was right to pay myself when we were doing everything possible to save money.

So I have this one final story to finish up these posts:

It was a day or two after I had been laid off, and we were all in the room getting ready to fold laundry.  This was when I told Mindy that although I would continue working on my goals, I wasn’t going to be taking payment for them anymore.  I left the room to go get something, and the boys must have asked what we were talking about and Mindy told them, because when I got back in the room, the boys came up to me and said, “Dad, if you’re not going to get payed for finishing your bingos, then we will pay you!  We’ll do whatever you want for one hour for each bingo you finish!”

I was so overwhelmed, that I actually had to excuse myself and go get choked up in the other room.  I could hardly believe how nice my children were, that they understood how important these goals have been for me this year, and that they were willing to do that for me. 

Once I had recovered a bit, I came back and told them how great they all were and how lucky I was to have such wonderful kids.

Oh, and I did, of course, redeem those hours on my 3 bingos, albeit to the kids benefits.  For 1 bingo, I played Mario with Lincoln for an hour. For another, I let Jonah decide between Goonies, and Dark Crystal and get us all ice cream to eat while we watched (he chose Goonies).  And for my final bingo, I had Kai make us all up some pizza.

Admittedly, I went pretty easy on them, but I was still pretty touched by the thoughtful gestures, so I decided to make a fun night of it.

And that’s it!  That was my amazing year of 25-goals bingo.  I didn’t complete all of them, and some of them were WAY harder than I thought they’d be.  And although I didn’t get the money I was hoping for, I’m pretty sure I got something of more value.

I’m not sure when I’ll post to this blog again, I’d like to say soon, but I think I know myself better than that.  I guess I still haven’t made my mind up on my 2018 goal.  Perhaps I’ll think about it…