Fresh start.
My dad used to say (actually, he probably still does) that the only New Year’s resolution he ever kept was to never make another New Year’s resolution. I always thought that sounded really wise and adopted it for myself for several years until I finally decided that I liked the idea of being able to start fresh coinciding with the calendar. New year, new goals, new ideas, new hopes. I don’t think I’ve ever kept a single resolution I’ve ever made, but that hasn’t stopped me from making more.
E and I have spent the last few days dreaming about the new year and making plans. This month has been a rough one for us. Definitely not as bad as some, but worse than many others. It’s odd because this always seems to happen around the holidays…..a crisis of one kind or another pops up and overshadows the themes of the season. We made it through, but the first thing we did the day after Christmas was take down our tree (we usually leave it up until the new year) and dropped it off to be mulched yesterday. The pine needles were driving me insane and I just wanted to sort of rid myself of everything that has happened during the last few weeks which for some reason was personified in that tree.
I spent this morning cleaning up the desk we bought for me last year when we finally emptied out our office to make it B’s room. I’ve had it for nearly year and I haven’t used it at all. Money well-spent there. E is currently down in the garage organizing and (hopefully) purging. We’ve done a lot of purging this year but there’s still just so much stuff. I can’t believe how much stuff two people can accumulate over the course of seven years in one house.
I think organizing, purging, and updating our house are at the top of our 2013 list as we really want to sell this place next year. We had originally intended on selling it back in 2010, but then B came along and plans changed. I think we’re both really ready now, though. Ready for a yard. Ready for our own driveway. Ready for walls that aren’t shared with other people. Ready to move on. It’ll be hard to leave this place as this is the longest I’ve ever lived in one house and there are so many memories here, but I’m excited about what a new house will bring.
We’ve also gone overboard in the sugar department so we’ll be starting the year with a 3-week sugar detox and goals to cut back a LOT. Planning meals has become more challenging lately as both our egg CSA and our veggie CSA ended in December and we won’t get anything again until June so we’ve been eating out quite a bit. That also has to stop as it’s not only not good for our bodies, but also our wallets. As silly as it sounds, I’m really excited about the chicken CSA I found and interested to see what changes our veggie CSA will be making as well. We’re also switching to a different dairy for our raw milk at the start of the year which will save us quite a bit of money as well and we’ll have access to fresh, raw cream (our current dairy doesn’t offer it), which I’m very excited about.
Speaking of wallets, finances are another goal on our list. We switched to a semi-envelope system back in November and it has already made a difference so we have high hopes for the new year in that regard. I’m putting money aside every month for the CSA bills that will come in May and June, so I’m hoping that our grocery bill for the last six months of the year is minimal.
On a personal note, I’d like to write more. Here, in a private journal, or anywhere. I used to love to write and planned on actually writing a book one day. But as time has passed, I’ve gotten out of the habit of doing it regularly and I get rusty and then I just don’t want to do it at all because nothing flows well. I definitely worry a lot about what others think of my writing, so maybe that should be a goal tied in as well. To write just to write. In one of my college classes, we had a local author as a guest lecturer and her exercise for us was to write, non-stop, for fifteen minutes with no editing. Just write. I really liked it.
Maybe it’s just because we had some rough holidays and being able to look ahead makes me feel better or maybe it really is because a new year is almost here, but these plans do make me happy. Even if we don’t stick with them, it’s always good to have hope.
Do any of you make resolutions?
