Let me go back for a minute and recap, for my own sanity. Where I last left off, we were about to get all the floors in our house redone [link]. It's a long story that I may someday decide to tell, but it ended up taking two weeks longer than expected (it was only to be a week long project) and the installers broke, damaged, or ruined many other things in our house. While the floors are beautiful, the whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth that I chose not to dwell on by documenting it for the blog. Although it's almost four months later, we are still working to get our house back in order.
In addition to all the house stuff, I've taken up a new hobby. I won't go into any real details here, but I've taken up some design work for myself. I'll hopefully have an etsy shop up and running soon, but most of my creative energy shifted away from blogging and into this new outlet.
Because of these two things, this blog became dusty. I felt some guilt about it at first, but that faded pretty quickly. I no longer have the delusion that this blog will be anything other than a way for me to remember my own life. I won't become some sort of overnight internet celebrity and this space will generate income. I miss that boat. Oh well.
So, to get back on track, I am back. No promises as to how often or in what capacity, but I did want to come back to continue my tradition of analyzing my resolutions from last year and create some new ones for 2018. Resolutions didn't go according to plan, either, but that doesn't necessarily mean it was a fail. I mean, I may give some 'F's, but that doesn't mean *I* am a failure.
Finally, successfully, learn how to drive stick shift. This 100% didn't happen. My new way of handling this is, when my husband starts talking about getting a new car (which he does ALL THE TIME), I ask, "Does that model come with Automatic?" Like, maybe I'll let him buy that fancy new Jeep if he gets it in Automatic. Eventually, I'll just phase out all his stick vehicles and I won't have this problem anymore, right? F
Write four blog posts a month. I did real good through August and then...zip. Nothing. So, like, that's not a complete failure, right? The flaw I found in forcing my self to write a certain number of posted is that I hoped it would motivate me to do more exciting things and then write about them. Instead, it just ends up being me writing about boring things in my life that I, nor anyone else, care to read about. D
Hang out with Dan more. This one really boils down to 'being more mindful of spending quality time together'. Rather than just sitting on our laptops next to each other, engaging in activities together. Having some spontaneous outings. Focusing on the 'friendship' portion of our relationship. And it was pretty good. I wasn't necessarily intentionally trying to achieve this goal, but it did end up happening throughout 2017 more than 2016. B
Read more. I definitely read a lot last year. A lot of great stuff. A lot of terrible stuff. One of the biggest revelations that came from this resolution is that you don't have to finish books. If you aren't enjoying a book and you already gave it 100 pages of effort, cut your losses and move on. This freed me up to try and read a bunch of stuff I wouldn't have before. I got weirdly into comic books. I have a whole other post planned about this that I'll post hopefully soon. but it was a weirdly successfully resolution. A
Find more ways to give back. This one was a cop out for me. I did give more this year, but it was mostly financially-based. I gave to charities and I gave big tips and bonuses to those around me at the holidays, but I failed to give back with my time or my energy. The opportunities didn't present themselves like they have in the past and I didn't go and seek them out. D
And now on to the new stuff!
Try a new recipe a month. This was one of my goals back in 2016 and it was great. It was quite a bit of pressure, so it fell off in 2017. I'm bringing it back and hopefully it will be easier this time because Dan is trying to be healthier. He can be a very picky eater, but it's been easier to deal with lately because if he is hesitant to try something new, I can play the 'it's healthy, just try it' card and it usually works.
Hide less from people. This is probably a 'me' specific problem, but I hate talking to people when I am out and about. Unless you are my best friend or my mom, I don't want to make small talk in Target. If you are a person I barely know, I will do the polite wave or head tilt across the grocery store, but I will go out of my way to avoid someone I knew in high school. It's starting to become a real problem for me and I need to train myself to bear the five minutes of awkward catch-up and move on.
Take a stab at bullet-journaling. In an effort to wrangle my scatter-braining, I've gotten myself a bullet-journal. It arrived on New Year's Eve and I've already started scribbling in it. I know I will never be as good at it as so many people on Pinterest and Youtube, but I just want all my notes in one place. No pressure, just doodles. Hopefully I'll eventually develop a system, but if I don't, no skin off my back.
Be more tidy. I am the type of person who takes her pants off and leaves them where they lie. Or who puts dishes in the sink even though the dishwasher is empty. In a pinch, I could make my house presentable in under 15 minutes. However, I'd like to not live in fear that the person ringing the doorbell will want to come inside. It doesn't save me any work in the long run by being sloppy so why not try to get it right the first time?
Reduce waste. I started this in 2017, but I want to go full 'hippie' this year. I've switched to canvas grocery bags. My sister got me a tumbler composter for Christmas. I've got reusable make-up wipes coming in the mail. I'm starting the year on the right foot, but I'd like to investigate more ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle.
So, that's my list. I've got more, but they are either too small to share here, too risky to believe I will actually complete them, or too personal. I'm trying not to overhype myself this year. Honestly, nothing changed between Sunday and Monday, other than the calendars, so why put all this sudden pressure on myself?
I believe this can be a good year and hope I am correct.
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