New year, new resolutions

So it's January 2024 and that means it's time for plans and goals and resolutions. I admit I'm already feeling the January swoon, the drop in my mood, the feeling that life is sad and nothing's going to get better. I didn't feel that way all fall -- I was cheerful and reasonably energetic and I got some things done. Why do the January blues have to exist? I try to think of them in a positive way, like, now is the time to let my body rest a little, take things more slowly, all that. The trees and bushes are resting, I should too. Hmm.

One thing that's making me gloomy right now is that the orthodontist decided it's time for bands on my teeth -- and I've discovered I can't sleep with them. They make my sleep apnea worse. The one night I tried, I woke up over and over again. Not good. So I can only wear them during the day. You're supposed to wear them at least 20 hours out of 24, and the most I've been able to do is 14. The orthodontist is going to lecture me about them at my next appointment. I keep playing the (imagined) lecture over and over in my head. We're going to have to talk about sleep apnea. Maybe that's a good thing -- maybe I should have brought it up with him when I was first diagnosed. I'm dreading it, though.

But back to resolutions. Last year, for the first time, I didn't make a real list of resolutions, just a vague plan to do something each month. It didn't work out very well. 

So this year I went back to writing a formal list on a piece of paper that I can attach to the clipboard where I have all my other resolutions, dating back to 1984. Forty years of resolutions!

First, of course, on the left side of the page I wrote down my 2023 achievements. These were mostly the usual: 

• read 121 books (including about 61 from our shelves), saw 19 movies (counting a season of a TV show on DVD as a movie), went to 5 concerts and 3 plays (all school-related) and 1 funeral, wrote this blog regularly, and managed to finish a draft of my first middle-grade novel. 
• In house-related stuff I did all that yardwork this summer, and in rental-related stuff I transitioned to an owner-managed system and got a bunch of repairs done. 
• We took two family trips and I went on another with my sister. 
• After a lazy winter, I walked regularly all summer and fall, and in the fall I started seeing a dietician to help with my blood sugar. 
• I got the kids through Driver Ed and started on their 50 hours of driving practice, 
• and I gave away a bunch of money to charity, plus -- finally! -- Teen A's trombone.

Now, on to 2024. As I think ahead to the rest of this year, I don't have a lot of specific, major goals. No big repairs to the house, no big changes for me or the kids. The biggest things are getting Rocket Boy home to Colorado and figuring out where our income is going to come from after that happens. If he gets a job in Colorado, as he's hoping to, that will be our income. If he moves home without a job, he'll start taking social security -- and I will need to look for a job. I'd prefer not to job-hunt until after I get my braces off, so that puts me in kind of a holding pattern for now.

I wrote my resolutions in eight categories -- and there may end up being more. Sometimes it takes me a few weeks to finish this list.

1. Reading & writing & culture: read at least 52 books, read biographies of at least 3 presidents (Wilson, Harding, Coolidge), see at least 24 movies, go to at least 12 special events (like concerts, plays, etc.), keep on blogging, and write another novel.
   
   
2. Self care: take a walk every day and also do a stretch video every day (or at least one or the other), take a hike every month, follow my orthodontist's instructions to the best of my ability, work on lowering my blood sugar, get a shingles shot, and start using the Waterpik I bought a couple of years ago (sigh). Note that there is no mention of weight loss: I have given that one up.
   
   
3. Twins stuff: help the kids with school, keep taking them driving and see that they get their licenses, help them get summer jobs, and generally keep the household running so that they have a little calm space in their lives.
   
   
4. Outside house stuff: get our trees pruned and the volunteer elm in the front yard removed, keep doing yardwork regularly, fix up our backyard -- new grass? -- and clean up the mess on our porch and our back patio.
   
   
5. Inside house stuff: buy a new mattress for our double bed, keep working on the files, try to get rid of one file cabinet and make space for Teen B to have a desk. Clean up the kids' closet, give away a lot of toys, and set up a sewing center for me in their room. Related to these: make one trip to either Goodwill or CHaRM (Center for Hard to Recycle Materials) each month.
   
   
6. Rental house stuff: get the major HVAC repair done, possibly hire a gardener and/or landscaper in the spring/summer, remove the volunteer elms in front & back yard.
   
   
7. Social/travel stuff: plan and take two to three vacations, stay in touch with all the various friends and relatives I've been in touch with recently, and maybe others.
   
   
8. Money/jobs: help Rocket Boy retire and move back to Colorado, possibly get a part-time job (unless he finds a job in CO).
   

So that's the big list. But how do I break it down into manageable tasks for the month?

January...

1. Reading & writing & culture: I'm reading books by Zadie Smith this month. I also have a Woodrow Wilson biography out of the library -- it's not the one I'm planning to read as my main book, but Steve of The Best Presidential Biographies says it does a good job with Wilson's early life, so I thought I'd read the first six chapters while I'm waiting for the bio I plan to read to arrive via Prospector. When the kids go back to school on Tuesday I can go back to working on my novel. We went to see a movie this week ("The Boy and the Heron"), but I don't anticipate going to any cultural events -- unless I go to a Faculty Tuesdays concert. I might.
   
   
2. Self care: We've been having pretty good weather, cold but dry, so I've been taking walks in the afternoon, all bundled up. I haven't done a stretching video yet -- maybe when the kids go back to school. I need to do my January hike while we don't have snow. I thought I would hike somewhere flat and open, someplace it wouldn't be fun to hike in the summer. Maybe the Dry Creek Trail, out on Baseline. I could even do it tomorrow.
   
   
3. 
   Twins: We've reached 50 hours and 2 minutes total driving time (out of 100), which is amazing (see photo of cake). When the break ends we'll go back to weekend driving. I need to pay more attention to the kids' schoolwork 2nd semester. Their 1st semester grades were a little disappointing. Need to get Teen A to apply for a Boulder TEC course for next year (applications open in late January), and we should start thinking about summer jobs.
   
   
4. Outside house: Nothing. It's January.
   
   
5. Inside house: When the break ends, I'll get back to work on the files. I should also start working on the kids' room. The trip to Goodwill could be any time this month -- I should put it on the calendar.
   
   
6. Rental house: I should call the HVAC people and at least get them out to look at the rental house, give me a quote, all that.
   
   
7. Social/travel: I need to contact the husband of my friend with Alzheimer's, set up a phone call for later this month. I have another friend or two I should call as well. I went ahead and bought the plane tickets for our spring break trip to St. Louis, so those will be paid for long before we go. My sister is requesting time for us to take a baseball trip in August. For our hoped-for California trip this summer, too many things are up in the air to do much planning. I assume we'll try to go right after school gets out, and stay about a week, but... will we drive or fly, where will we stay, will we go to both northern and southern California, etc., etc. A lot depends on (a) whether Rocket Boy is still in St. Louis OR if he's in Colorado with a new job OR if he's in Colorado and retired, and (b) whether the twins have summer jobs. Will have to be patient.
   
   
8. Money/jobs: I finally called the Daily Camera and canceled our subscription, because they raised the cost to $136/month. Very sad about that, but the paper is on its last legs, so, oh well. I also need to start looking for other ways to lower our expenses, or at least take a closer look at how we're spending our money (in preparation for having less of it later in the year).
   

And I think that's it for January. Of course I'll keep doing my usual cleaning and cooking and pet care. But that's enough. January is a quiet time. This will be plenty.