“Blah blah blah, new year, blah blah, planning.” This is what I’ve been thinking the past two days about resolutions, and it’s so unlike me. As a compulsive list-maker, New Year’s Resolutions are my SuperBowl. But I’ve been in a funk so far in 2015. All 2 days of it (I was in a great mood NYE). I’ve had trouble focusing in on what I’m excited about for the new year, and everything productive I can think of to get me out of it is a bummer (like taking down the Christmas tree).

It’s just a little new year blues. So many possibilities for a new year, and so many friends on social media already announcing big exciting things for the year. I have decision paralysis. What do I want to do this year? I can’t even decide what to make for dinner in the face of A Brand New Year. But finally, now in the evening of the 2nd day of 2015, I’m snapping out of it. I’m over myself, and ready to make The List.

I decided to do 15 for 2015. Here they are:

1. Health. I just need to take better care of myself. This was a goal in 2014 that I was rocking…until I went back to teaching. I need to get back to it. I cut out a decent amount of red meat in 2014 and started cooking fish. I need to learn how to cook more fish and veggies, exercise more, destress, etc.
2. Publish or sell 3 quilts. This is one of the more ambitious ones, but I want to see if I can do it.
3. Use my stash. I really want to trim my stash this year and buy less fabric. I’ve got mountains of stuff I adore but think of as too precious to use. Or, I just don’t know how to use it. I need to do some de-stashing and actually sew with what I’ve already got.
4. Try more local restaurants. We basically have 2 that we go to regularly, and we always say we’ll branch out. This year it’s on.
5. Publish 3 print articles. Last year I published 4! Maybe I should be more ambitious with this one, but I’m still finding a balance between teaching, quilting, and writing. The writing is happening less at the moment, I need a boost.
6. Get H’s Project Life up to date. I really want to do this for her, I loved looking at my baby book so much growing up.
7. Declutter the house. Organize H’s toys, clean out closets, etc. I’m always decluttering, but this will be the year everything gets a SYSTEM. Streamlining FTW.
8. Have date night at least once a month. My former mother’s helper is now an awesome babysitter in high school who lives right across the street. We really need to take better advantage of that!
9. Take H on more adventures. I so wanted to plan out our mommy/daughter time a little better when the school year started, but I haven’t managed it yet. I need to. With my working 2 days a week and H in 3 different therapies the rest of the week it’s too easy to just hang out at home when we have free time.
10. Read more. 2014 was truly an abysmal year for reading (77 books total, my lowest ever).
11. Embrace my online friendships more. Some dear IRL friends moved away last year, both physically and emotionally. I have some great friends I don’t get to see very often, and I need to make more time for them. But, I also need to use social media to keep my long distance and online friendships thriving. It’s 2015, friends can be there for each other over coffee or bandwidth.
12. Be more creative. I didn’t make enough time for this last year, and I miss it tremendously. Sketch, doodle, design fabric, decorate a cake, make homemade invitations, anything. Use my Cricut, my colored pencils, my endless stash of fabric and paper. MAKE THINGS.
13. Take up knitting or crochet again. I stopped when I started quilting because I’m allergic to wool. This made knitting tough, my hands were always covered in eczema. I should just get some knitting gloves and do it, I still have a closet full of gorgeous yarn.
14. Maintain my Etsy store. This was going swimmingly until I applied for my current teaching job, fretted about interviewing for the job, got the job, and started the job. This is entirely understandable; teaching needed to take up some serious mental space for a while, I was a year out of practice. And settling in to a new job is always tough. But, now I need balance. I put too much work into that store to leave it neglected.
15. Learn to make pasta and cheese. Enough said.