New Year, New Goals

I am super, super excited for this year. God-willing, Keith will graduate and we will move--hopefully to a house. But all of that is incredibly unpredictable right now, so I've spent some time imagining staying where we are (meaning this apartment, Keith in school, etc), and while we both really want to move this year (and it would be really frustrating for Keith if he didn't finish his degree this summer), I know I can be happy even if moving gets put on hold. :)

There is so much apart from that to be excited about, though. Michael's first birthday, and all the milestones he will hit. (He is gearing up to crawl within the next month and a half, I think.) Getting outside more this summer. (Last summer I was a hermit ... I was exhausted and a bit overwhelmed with the adjustment to motherhood.) Continuing to learn about being a stay-at-home mom and domestic diva. ;) Seeing what God has in store for our little family.

So excited!

And my goals for this year have me excited too. Although this list seems a LOT longer than last year's. Uh-oh. I have a feeling that means I won't get much of it done.  We'll see. I've started a Pinterest board for my 2013 goals to keep me motivated, although it's still a bit sparse.

Knitting 

-a sweater for myself

-a sweater for someone else (other than Michael--he kind of goes without saying)

-100 hexipuffs (2 down, 98 to go! I need a concrete goal rather than just "a lot." This might be a bit ambitious, but we'll see!)

-Bigger on the Inside (my friends and I did a "knitalong" on this one and I seriously missed the boat--they're all finished and I haven't even cast on!)

-a panel for Knit the Bridge

-mittens (also planning on doing a knitalong with friends for this)


Things Otherwise Crafty

-Learn to dye yarn. My father-in-law has a lot of black walnut trees on his property, and is all too happy to have someone take the nuts off his hands once they start falling to the ground.

-Sew for real this year, which means I need to have concrete projects in mind. Either or all of these: a knitting needle case, pajamas, a summer dress for myself. (This is where I'm starting to have misgivings about how ambitious this list is, haha.) 

-Make Christmas stockings for our family.

-Learn to make macarons. I am pretty psyched to do this.


Other Goals

-Read 50 books. (Specifically Reckless (how have I not read this yet??), Call the Midwife, The Hobbit, Drowned Cities, Character Building, and the Catechism.)

-Get in the habit of spiritual reading each day.

-Revamp my blog's layout and try to post once each week. (I think I should decide on a day of the week that I always post, no matter what.)

-Submit three stories for publication. (I thought about setting a writing goal of some sort, but couldn't decide on a good one. At the bare minimum this will require me to write even if I'm not producing much new work.)

-Plan and throw a birthday party for Michael.