All month I’ve been telling myself I really should make some New Year’s resolutions. Now it’s a few hours until the first month of 2018 is over, and I still haven’t made a list of what I want to accomplish this year. I’ve been doing stuff, sure, some of which would apply to goals I might have written if I’d written some. I guess now is the time to make that list. Except I don’t feel ready to sketch out a whole year, so I’m just going to make some resolutions for February and see how that goes. Basically, I’m going to carry over most of 2017’s goals because 2017 was pretty decent, all things considered.

1. Photographing
As I mentioned in December, I signed up for the 2018 My Daily Photo Diary group. I’ve been doing pretty well keeping up with my posting there, never falling more than a few days behind (right now I’m current through yesterday). For February, I’d like to continue that. Engagement is harder (as is quantifying it). I’ve been making some effort to visit and comment on other people’s diaries (especially those of the folks who come visit mine), but already have had a couple pouty episodes where I feel sad that no one has commented on my pics so I don’t want to comment on anyone else’s. That’s childish of me in a bad way, I know. I need to figure out a better way. Maybe I’ll do that in March.

2. Reading
I also mentioned in December that I set a goal in Goodreads of reading 56 books for 2018. I chose that number because I thought it would be fun to “read my age”, and I’ll turn 56 this year. This is going well; I’m one book ahead of schedule right now. For February, I want to stay on schedule.

3. Writing: Nail Blog
I don’t know that I’ll ever write as much in my nail blog as I once did. I don’t get review samples anymore, and I don’t buy anywhere near as much new polish, and for some reason it’s hard to make time to swatch. I still enjoy it, though, so I’ll keep doing it for now. In January, I did six posts. For February, I’d like to do eight.

4. Writing: Online Journal
This entry will make four for January, which isn’t great but sure beats the zero months I had a few times in 2017. I’m going to aim for three in February (and hope I can do more).

5. Resisting
I participated in the local Women’s March in January, and gave money to Reclaim Idaho, a progressive group that right now is focusing on a petition drive to put Medicaid expansion on the ballot. In February, I want to do the same: showing up at least once to an event and making a donation to a candidate or organization whose values I support.

6. Organizing
Not the political kind of organizing, the clearing clutter and getting my stuff in order kind. The only specific accomplishment in this area for January that I can point to is going through the big stack of catalogs that accumulated before Christmas and getting them into the recycling bin after I’d removed my name and address for shredding. For February, I’m going to go modest, and set a goal to clear the stacks of old mail (mostly charity solicitations) that are sitting on the card table I use as a desk.

7. Cooking
I made beef barley soup for the first time in January (in the Instant Pot, of course). It turned out so well, I made it a second time, too. For February, I want to try at least one more new recipe.

8. Exercising
Exercising pretty much takes care of itself during ski season, so I’m not setting any goals for now. Sure, I’ll have the occasional day when I don’t leave the house oe only leave it long enough to walk down and get the mail in the village (such as today), but I’ll also have days where I’m on the slopes for hours.

9. Losing weight
The older I get, the more concerned I am about my joints, especially my knees, lasting a long time, and I know that dropping some pounds will reduce the stress on them, so I need to do that. How exactly I’m not sure, though I strongly suspect that eating cookies less often at the ski lodge when we stop for lunch would probably be a good idea. Today I weighed and measured myself so I have a starting point. By the end of February, I’d like to be one pound lighter. One measly pound; surely I can find a way to do that.

Onward to next month!