Woohoo! It's time for New Year's resolutions, although
Carole prefers us to think of them as goals. DH and I sat down Sunday morning and came up with a very detailed plan; I'm giving you an abbreviated version:
1. Healthier lifestyleI know I know, we all want to lose weight and train for a marathon. I'm no different (even though I don't want to train for a marathon). The pregnancy weight is off (all eighty-three pounds. Yup, you read that right), but I was on the big side before getting pregnant. To lose twenty-five pounds would be awesome. To reach this goal, DH and I thought of many small changes in our daily routine that hopefully will help us get fitter, slimmer, and healthier. (Small changes such as "plan meals ahead," "three meatless dinners per week," "desserts on days that start with S" [this last one is a suggestion from
Michael Pollan], "no sugar in coffee"...)
2. Explore locallyWe live in one of the geographically most interesting states in the country, and we better make the best of it! We want to get to know the city, the valley, the Wasatch range, and Southern Utah.
3. Get back into the saddleWe used to bike
all the time, but I haven't mounted my bike in 2011 more than a few times. It's time to get back on my bike! We can't wait to get a
Chariot carrier to pull Conrad behind us on our bikes. With biking, we're going to kill two birds with one stone: get fitter
and explore the area.
4. Make new friendsHave you noticed that it gets harder to make friends the older you get? "Meeting people" doesn't just happen anymore unless you make an effort. I'm channeling my efforts towards the knitting crowd and daycare parents.
5. Make a decisionA career decision, that is. Tenure-track jobs are hard to come by these days, no matter where you live and what your field is, and I don't know for how long I want to be "adjuncting," always in the hope that something more will become of it, but without any job security (or much of a salary). So, I'm considering leaving academia. In order to go back to school. Ugh.
6. Knit more. Read more. Spend lessI have enough yarn and patterns to make twenty-six sweaters and a number of socks and accessories. I have enough books to keep me reading for a decade. I swim in yarn and books. I do not swim in money. It's time for some financial conservatism. We have everything we need (once we have that bike carrier)--so why buy more?
7. Spend the summer at homeNo European travels this year, for the first time since I've moved to the US. We'll be either here or at
the other gorges place. I look forward to a very relaxed summer.
8. Become multilingual We speak English and German at home, and we want to add a third language to the mix. We have grand plans to learn a bunch of different languages (certainly French and Latin, which we both had in school), but currently I'm in love with the idea of learning Swedish (or Norwegian, which would allow me to get around all of Scandinavia, or so I'm told).
9. Share cooking dutiesDH likes to cook but doesn't have much time, I have more time but don't like to cook. In the past it was either DH cooking or ready-to-eat soup from Whole Foods. Since we want to lose weight and save money, I volunteered to cook three times a week. DH will cover three nights, and on Saturdays we cook together. Oh dear oh dear. I got the Crock Pot out; I'm confident that I can master chopping and throwing things together and turning on a switch... :)
10. Have funBlog! Sew! Go to knit night! Do yoga again!
The Bean says Happy New Year!
