New Year, New Post

Say it Rah-shay By Jan 03, 2016 2 Comments

The one about resolutions for the New Year.

A few days before I wrote this post I was invited to a New Year’s Day brunch with The Librarian. It was an intimate affair; these were people he currently, or in the past, have worked with and they were friendly and welcoming. It was a wonderful way to ease into the new year! During the brunch the group was asked to write down resolutions for the New Year and after a some hemming and hawing we all started sharing goals for 2016.

Yes, yes. It is that time of year when social media feeds are either filled with people declaring resolutions for the new year, a word of phrase to guide their year or people making the firm decision to not make resolutions. I decided to make resolutions this year. My family had a tradition of creating resolutions each year and I miss the practice. Sure, the turn of a calendar should not influence if I make a change in my life or not, and, one year to the next, should not determine if I will be a better person but the exercise of writing resolutions and the conversation which accompanied it made me want to think about goals that I would like to accomplish in 2016.

Some of the resolutions others shared were “Flirt every day,” “create a nice jar in which nice things which are observed are recorded and evicted monthly” and “remembering how beautiful people are everyday.” I loved what everyone else shared and here is what I shared.

make it picard

Crafting

I’d like to complete one item from my Ravelry queue each month. While I have been downsizing the things in my life that don’t bring joy, the digital clutter has grown! There are so many things in my queue that even if I don’t add anything else to my Ralvery account, I will be crafting for years to come. Instead of overwhelming myself with a project a month (because OF COURSE I want to change this goal to a project a week). One item a month will allow me the opportunity to will help me get the jump on holiday crafting, create a small inventory for when I’d like to gift items and just help me focus on completing objects instead of having needles and hooks full of various unfinished items.

This leads me to crafting goal number 2, learn one new technique each month. There are so many things that I feel like I don’t know and that I want to know to bring my crafting up from beginner to intermediate/advanced. Some of these things are techniques I have started, cables, entralac, lace, et cetera but left them in various states in incompletion. Some of these things will require me to create, gulp, gauge swatches, and with the gauge swatches I think I’ll combine them to create a sampler blanket (Oooh! I snuck in a second project each month!).

 

Fitness

The holidays have found me gaining back a few of the pounds that I lost (boo) and not working out. I wouldn’t like this to be the norm so I need a few goals to keep me accountable and focused.

I want to start counting calories again. When I was counting I lost so much weight and frankly I ate better since my goal was to try to get as much food within my calorie goal. I am using My Fitness Pal and have been tracking my calories for a few days. I did go over the first two days but was able to stay within my goal on the third day. If I treat it like a daily budget, then I can save some calories, see what gives myself the biggest bang for my buck and lose weight like a boss.

So far I have done two runs this year, one at the gym and one outside. At the gym I was able to run two miles without stopping (Squee!) but outside I was only able to run less than a mile before I slowed to a walk. It wasn’t terrible but I would like to be able to run a 5K (3.1 miles) without stopping. Mostly because I don’t want my workouts to be an all day affair. I realize that I am not a the type of person who wants to spend hours at the gym but I do like working out. So if I can get my runs done in a decent time, I can still do my weights and stretch without it being an event.

Reading

I’d like to start reviewing books on my blog again and find new books for storytelling and storytime. I ‘d like to read and review two new to me picture books each week. I’d also like to read and review a YA or Middle Grade book each week (I may revise this but right now i am feeling froggy) and I’d like to clear some of the ARCs that have been collecting dust on my bookshelves.

Family

My grandmother has been in the hospital and the family has been…stressed. We’ve barely spent time with each other over the holiday and when we did, it was full of rushing around and heading to the next thing. I did have a few people over throughout the holidays but want to extend the festivities. The brunch we attended made me realize that I don’t need to be uber fancy, just gather a group of friends and have fun. So this year I am going to celebrate. Celebrate family, friends, life. 

 

Tell me…do you do resolutions? A word or phrase to guide your year? Or do you not make resolutions? Let me know in the comments!

Have a fab year!
-r

 

Author

I am mom, daughter, sister, yarn lover, word lover, crazy cat lady and library chick. Find me with book or with hook and a hot cuppa.

2 Comments

  1. Astrid says:

    These are some great goals. I love reading YA and children’s fiction so am looking forward to seeing wha tyou’ll be reviewing. I really need to craft more too, but my disabilities ake it hard to find techniques that I can use.

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