One of the things I love about the New Year’s tradition is the setting of resolutions. I enjoy thinking of ways to change or improve, as well as new things to incorporate into my life. This year Tom did his New Year’s resolutions  a little differently. He broke them up into daily, weekly, monthly and yearly resolutions. I liked the idea, and followed his lead. It’s easier to remember four things you want to do daily, three things you want to do weekly, and two things you want to do monthly, for example; than  nine things you want to do- throughout the year.  I particularly liked the “yearly” resolutions. Because when separated out from the others it held new meaning. Now yearly resolutions just mean something you want to do at least once this year, or perhaps a hobby you want to develop. Like, I want to visit all the museums that are free while I am a student this year before I graduate. Nothing monumental, nothing that is going to change my character or daily patterns- but something that will get me out to take advantage of the thousands of dollars of tuition money I spend. The other yearly resolution that sparked my interest was learning to make artisan bread. (However, as of yet I don’t own a stand mixer- which makes the task unnecessarily daunting. So we’ll see, I’m still thinking. . .)
Tom and I also came up with some couple resolutions. A new one was a couple reading list. We want to read/listen to six of the same books this year. No, we didn’t go so far to say we were going to read them together, but we want to have some common themes and ideas to draw conversation from. So far on our list is Musicophilia- Tales of Music and the Brain, a beautiful merging of our two career paths and When the Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down and Tao Te Ching an ancient Taoist philosophical text. Any recommendations for our other three?!
One of my lingering goals from last summer was this: “I am going to master Cleveland weather before I move from here!” So far I have been doing remarkably well. I’ve implimented several new strategies:
1. I take vitamin D supplements- or as we like to call it “a little bit of sunshine” every morning
2. I grew/I’m growing lots of indoor plants. Some are traditional houseplants. Others are new to me: paperwhites, amarylis, coleus, impatiens, primerose. Starting last year I started growing some of my vegetable plants and flower plants for the spring garden from seed. (I just picked out my seeds and I’m SOOO excited!)
3. I look at the early darkness and think, mmm maybe I’ll read!
4. Okay, maybe it’s unfair to leave out that I spent a week in Central America.
So far, the combination is working. Yes, I know it’s only the middle of January. And yes, I realize the winter gray gloominess lasts until May. But hey, I’m on my way!