(10) resolutions I'm going to try and keep

I'm a week or so late on this, but that's more in the writing than in the making, and you'll see that I address such tardiness in the following list, so bear with me.

(1) Take more photos. For several years in a row I took, and mostly kept, the photo-a-day challenge, and by the end of the year I had a lot of wonderful shots to make a family yearbook with. The last couple of years, though, I've spent less and less time behind a camera. To some extent this is a good thing, but I miss the photos, and I miss the hobby, so this year I want to refresh my knowledge and start working on my "skills" again.

(2) Read out loud more. We read to Calvin every night, several times a day, actually, for many years, but when he started being able to read just about anything himself, we fell away from this. I blame impatience, because both Calvin and I can read in our heads faster than out loud, and we're often too eager to hear the story for it to go so slowly. This past fall, though, we read a couple of books together because they were difficult reads that I thought would go better read together, and while it really is sometimes exhausting, I've missed reading together.

(3) Get courageous in the kitchen. We are all good eaters. There are very few foods that we won't eat, and we really enjoy trying new things. I try new recipes all the time when cooking, but rarely do I venture out o my own.

(4) Stop counting calories and logging food. A few years ago, when I had a few pounds to lose, I started keeping a food log that tracked every calorie in and every calorie out. I lost the weight quickly, and reduced my record keeping to a less anal food log, but even now, after years at a healthy weight and with a very religious exercise schedule I am keeping that food log like my life depends on it, and the truth is, it doesn't. I have become a slave to the food log, and it's time to let it go and focus instead on keeping to my generally healthy lifestyle with easy happiness.

(5) Turn in book reviews on time. I review books for a magazine: they send me a stack of pre-release books each month which I then read and write briefly about. Each book has its own deadline, and although I'm almost always finished with the books well in advance (I like to read them all in a sprint so I can read books of my own choosing for the rest of the month), I almost always put off the writing part and and up turning in the review minutes before the deadline. Time to change that nasty habit.

(6) Plan the next four-ish years of homeschooling. Alright, this is more of a to-do list item than a resolution, but it is something I need to be resolved about. Four years ago Calvin and I decided together on a couple of curriculum paths that would last for a four year span. We've reached the end of that span and it's time to look ahead again.

(7) Read more non-fiction. I want to be a non-fiction reader, at least some of the time, but almost all non-fiction puts me to sleep. I've found some joy in reading Mary Roach and Bernd Heinrich, but it's time I branched out a bit.

(8) Revive, update, and stay on top of the blog. Self explanatory.

(9) Get back to the piano. When Calvin was three years old we both started taking piano lessons. A few years later I broke a couple fingers and had to take a break, which got me out of the habit pretty quickly. Now, seven years later, Calvin has gotten good enough that he could give me lessons. I'm giving that some serious consideration.

(10) Get more sleep.

Good night.