New Year, Same Ol’ Me

I always like a good New Year’s Resolution (or ten, or twenty) but I’ve mostly managed to offset that fresh new-year energy with my church-year resolutions. (Does that make any sense? I’m writing this between debugging a database issue at work and trying not to sing along to a cover of You’re Still the One playing in the background. Good times.)

So in lieu of the usual resolution post, this is just your plain old, everyday monthly recap/looking-towards-next-month post. Sorry to disappoint?

Goals & Progress for December

Goal: Read a ClassicQuest novel.

Report: Done! Finished Age of Innocence. Not a fan, unfortunately. I just really wasn’t feeling the romance.

Goal: Read 3 non-ClassicQuest novels.

Report: Not exactly done, but I’m also not behind. This month the reading was a bit slower — December is a packed month, after all, and according to my reading log the only non-CQ book I finished was Scout’s Honor. I made it about halfway through The Ogress and the Orphans but I’ll talk about that in the January section.

Goal: Write a December update for A Hodgepodge of Huffmans.

Report: Not done yet, but the plan is to do it tonight or on the plane home tomorrow.

Goal: Write 4 Emily’s Notebook posts.

Report: pained smile. December, amiright?

Goal: Write 10k words of Lucy in Love.

Report: Got around 5k words in. Progress is progress, I say.

Goal: Complete 31 3-ring days on the Apple Watch.

Report: Nah, man. Just. Nah.

Goal: Complete 4 weeks of Thinner Leaner Stronger.

Report: Done, at least up until our trip to KC, when I switched to the Caroline Girvan Iron YouTube series because it’s a dumbbell workout. Hoo boy my legs are feeling it today.

Goal: Get into the 140’s.

Report: I did! I did this! Wheeeeee! Then I went to KC and Christmas happened so…the goal stands for next month too. NBD.

Goal: Finish rainbow embroidery sampler.

Report: Soooo close. As in, I’ll probably finish…tonight?

Goal: Mail off Christmas card + the Huffman update before December 15.

Report: Look, it didn’t happen until a couple days after Christmas but it IS done, so there’s that.

Goal: Mail off Secret Santa Gifts before December 21.

Report: This one will be done…tonight. The gifts are there. They’re boxed. All that’s left is to add the requisite cards and PirateShip ‘em. So what am I waiting for? If I only knew.

January Goals

Goal: Read half a ClassicQuest novel. I decided to re-start the novel section of the classics education book I’m not remembering the name of right now — it’s at home, anyway, but I know it starts with Don Quixote. So if I can read my way through half of Don Quixote, I’ll be satisfied. Heck, I might even modify my goal to 1/3 or 1/4 of the book. It’s long. And I only have two CQ novels to finish before I reach my year goal of 6.

Goal: Read 3 non-ClassicQuest novels. Ugh so I started The Ogress and the Orphans and it’s just okay. I’m waffling on whether or not to abandon it — I actually decided yes when my audiobook loan ran out, but I managed to get it again, so I guess I’ll finish? The writing is beautiful, don’t get me wrong. But the allegory is so ham-fisted, and the book is pretty darn long to endure all of it. I mean, I’m finally 49% of the way through the 13-hour audiobook and am just now getting to any discernably interesting plot: an orphan has run away. Goodness gracious. Yeah, the mayor is a dragon. Duh. Obviously. Come on. Fake news!

Goal: Write January’s Hodgepodge of Huffman update. Same as always.

Goal: Write 4 blog posts. Same as always. Insert weak noises of protest.

Goal: Write 10k words of Lucy in Love. Same as always. Hey, I’m 2 days in and 1k words (of utter drivel) down! Feeling good about this month.

Goal: Get 31 3-ring days on my Apple Watch. Might as well start fresh, right? And, as an added challenge, I won’t let myself use “cooldown” to reach my exercise goal. Boom.

Goal: Get into the 140’s. I can do it, thanks to my renewed Trim Healthy Mama commitment combined with no upcoming month of bacchanal, and when I do do it I’ll buy myself the Homesick candle I’ve always wanted. (But which to start with? Hufflepuff, or Indiana?)

Goal: Begin the 12 Days of Christmas ornament project. I mean, assuming I manage to embroider that last damned flower petal on the rainbow sampler.

Goal: Make 2 recipes from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. I think I’m moving on from Fika and Hygge, for the time being. So many cookbooks, so little stomach space.

Goal: Make 4 cocktails. Old-timey or no. Friday nights are cocktail nights in my house. I’ve already made a somewhat delightful take on the French 75 that substitutes grapefruit-rose vodka for gin, and we have a brand new, unopened bottle of mastic liqueur waiting to be experimented with. (Thanks, Alyosha!)