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Friday, January 21, 2022

New Years Resolutions 2022


 Hey everyone.

It's been another spin around the sun. What a tough and interesting year.

Like I always do, I like to look back and reflect on my New Year's Resolutions and see how things went.

Last year I pledged to:

Read 25 books
Watch 2 hours of television a week
More yoga
Learn some Spanish
More gardening
Mending every Sunday night

Yes, did it. Read 37 books. I read a lot more romance books this year - I really enjoyed the first few Bridgerton novels.

Did I watch 2 hours of television a week? Probably more like 1 hour a week. I watched a lot of YouTube videos. Some sci-fi and some K-dramas on Netflix. Some Doctor Who. Star Trek: Lower Decks. King the Eternal Monarch. Bridgerton. Caught up a bit on The Crown. I loved Wheel of Time! How amazing to see one of my favorite book series finally realized in a television format. I'm not counting hundreds of hours that I've probably watched of children's TV shows. I find I'm a little happier when I watch at least a little TV. It gives my brain something to chew on.

I did a non-zero amount of yoga.

I feel like I picked up a little Spanish by osmosis, just living in Texas.

In the gardening department, I had meant to garden in my yard, but was delayed by continuing debate over where we shall have a fence installed. I attempted to grow a bean tipi in my backyard, but was foiled by accidentally having planted bush beans instead of pole beans. At least they were very productive! I did acquire and care for a number of new houseplants though!

Mending? Not every Sunday night, but I did a bit. I always enjoy repairing something that's a favorite instead of just tossing it. I did a lot, a lot, a lot of thinning down and de-cluttering this year though. My current house is half the size of my old one, and getting rid of a few big ticket items helped, but did not get me nearly where I needed to be in terms of simplifying my possessions. I probably donated about half of my wardrobe last year.

What's up for the year ahead?
I'm not sure if I want to set a number on how many books to read. I could go for something easy, like 12? Or something challenging like 200? No. I think this year, for the first in a very long time, I'll just read what I feel drawn to and see what the numbers look like at the end of the year.

I'd like to blog a bit more. Maybe an entry every month?

2021 was a tough year - COVID-19 raged on. The Texas storm last February was difficult. I was lucky not to lose power, but was without running water for some time, and my library pivoted to distributing water to families in need - a laudable, but grueling task. I worked at a mass vaccination site - tracking data for patients, and directing parking lot traffic. I think 2022 will be a year that encompasses more self-care, more slowing down, and more self-reflection.

And of course, my big project of 2022 will be finding a new job. I'm doing a lot of soul-searching about what kind of librarian I want to be, how I want to give back to the community, and what I want to get out of a library position.

Onwards!

Friday, January 29, 2021

New Year's Resolutions 2021

 


Wow. How the time flies. What a wild year. I'm still having flashbacks to when we were all making Barbara Walters jokes about "2020!" and we all had no idea what was in store.

Last year my resolutions were:

Read 52 books total
Read at least 12 ARCs
Read at least 12 "classics"

I completed reading 52 books - just barely! And, I'm ashamed to say, I ended up selecting some verrry short books that I could read quickly, just so I could meet the challenge. This year, I think I'll go with an even lower number, to give myself room to tackle some of those 1,000+ page fantasy novels I've been eyeing.

As far as reading more ARCs and more classics - I just wasn't able to keep track. I began blogging reviews, as intended, and then of course, you all know what happened.

Once the pandemic hit, I was working from home, homeschooling, not to mention being pulled in to work the Georgia polls which truly upended any of my plans. I'm glad I had the opportunity to work as a pollworker. It was a fascinating process, and a grueling one. I know I'll never think about elections the same way again.

And 2020 brought me to a new job, a cross-country move and new (much, much smaller and blessedly more affordable) house. It's truly been a transformative year for me and my family.

This upcoming year, my resolutions are:
Read 25 books. This will equal out to a little more than 2 books a month, should be very easy to do.

My other resolution is to try and watch 2 hours of television a week. I've never been a big TV watcher and there are a lot of great series I'd like to catch up on.

Some more vague and nebulous self-improvement ideas include incorporating more yoga into my life and work on learning some Spanish.

I know I'll be doing more gardening this year, for sure. I'm pretty confident that after a year of baking bread and cakes, I'm ready to give up on baking as a serious hobby (my waistline will thank me for laying off the cake, that much is certain!)

I had a routine last year of doing some mending every Sunday night. Nice way to end the week. I've been debating if I'll get back into it, although to tell the truth, I've been donating or tossing items much more these past few months (got to get rid of the clutter in my small place!)

What are y'all plans for 2021?

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

Culling the 2020 TBR part II

 Here's another batch of books I'm officially taking off my TBR. Feels good!

Splintered (Splintered, #1)
Running With Lions
It's Not Like It's a Secret
The Evil Wizard Smallbone
The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy, #3)
Salvage (Salvage #1)
The Marvels
Mystic (Mystic, #1)
I Am Princess X
Recovery Road
Pennyroyal Academy (Pennyroyal Academy, #1)
Allegiant (Divergent, #3)
Can't Look Away
We Are the Goldens
Tooth and Claw
Among Others
No One Needs to Know
Being Sloane Jacobs
Promise of Blood (Powder Mage, #1)
Free to Fall
The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle, #2)
Altered (Crewel World, #2)
Angel Fever (Angel, #3)
James Potter and the Hall of Elders' Crossing (James Potter, #1)
Red
Promised (Birthmarked, #3)
Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1)
Being Friends with Boys
The Boy Recession
Lucid
Glitch (Glitch, #1)
Bewitching Season (Leland Sisters, #1)
Snow in Summer
Sweet Evil (Sweet, #1)
Every Other Day
For Darkness Shows the Stars (For Darkness Shows the Stars, #1)
Team Human
Princess of the Midnight Ball (The Princesses of Westfalin Trilogy, #1)
Lola and the Boy Next Door (Anna and the French Kiss, #2)
Cleopatra's Moon
Witchlanders
Shattered Souls (Souls, #1)
Every You, Every Me
The Candidates (Delcroix Academy, #1)
A Beautiful Dark (A Beautiful Dark, #1)
Memento Nora (Memento Nora, #1)
The Kneebone Boy
Clariel (Abhorsen, #4)
Carrier of the Mark (Carrier, #1)
Wildthorn

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