2013

Well, it’s a new year and with that comes some new goals. Micah and I haven’t spent too much time talking about goals for 2013 as I left for Ethiopia two days after we got back from Santa Barbara. Yes, Izzy is mad at me about this. We came up with a few that I think are a good.

1. Snowshoe, snowshoe, hike, hike – we are going to Peru in August (!!) and need to get ourselves ready for all the hiking we are going to do particularly the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. I don’t think hiking will be our problem, it’s going to be hiking at such a high altitude that will get us, particularly me since I have asthma. We are aiming to go snowshoeing at least twice a month until all the snow melts and then hike in the spring and early summer.

2. Save, Save, Save – Micah’s new school hooked him up with a great retirement plan and now we need to take advantage of it. We are sorting out the best way to save for the future and take advantage of the flexible spending money they gave him.  We have had so many changes in our take home pay and need to adjust our budget.

3. Eat at the table – This was on last year’s list but once fall hit, we stopped eating dinner at our gorgeous table. I don’t like it and we are going to break that bad habit. We did decide Micah doesn’t have to eat at the table when I’m away. He says it’s super depressing.

4. More Family Time – We don’t see Micah’s family enough and we never really spend a ton of quality time with my whole family outside of the occasional meal or DIY project. We are going to see Micah’s nephews this month and his parents will be moving back to the area in the summer (we think). We hope that we will see the boys again sometime in the summer or early fall and we know we will definitely see everyone at Christmas. We are also hoping that we can do a long weekend with my family at a cabin this winter. Momager and the neighbor (my sister) seem excited for it. If that works well (ie we don’t all kill each other), it’s likely we’ll try to do something similar in the summer.

5. Go to more shows – We went to some really great shows last year. Beirut was definitely my favorite though I did really enjoy The Bad Plus. I hope we get to go to more shows and at smaller venues.

That’s pretty much it. Of course there are house projects we want to get done, but don’t we always have house projects we want to get done?

I have a few goals for myself this year that I hope will become life long habits.

1. Unsubscribe – I get SO much junk mail, it’s crazy. I swear that for every 20 emails I get, only one or two are of interest to me. I decided that each day I would unsubscribe to a few listservs. So far, so good. I’ve been doing it for 10 days and the number of new emails I get has been cut in half. It’s great.

2. Power Down – I am on too many devices during the day – iphone, ipad, laptop, tv, etc. I decided that every night I would power down one hour before bed. No checking my phone or ipad and no e-books or Pinterest. TV is OK, for now. It means I have to have a real book at my bedside which has been nice. I will make the exception for the occasional work related things like a late night Skype call (Ethiopia is 11 hours ahead and late night can be more convenient) or working on a document that has a tight deadline.

3. Organizing myself online – Strange that I would put this after powering down but oh well. I cleaned out the bookmarks I have on my laptop and pinned all the recipes and ideas to Pinterest, and added all the blogs and sites in My Favorites to Flipbook. Eventually I’d like to move all the recipes I really like to a virtual cookbook and meal planning site. I also started using Dropbox for more than just work. I’ve installed iAnnotate on my iPad which was a lifesaver on this trip. I read through a 80 page lit review on the flight here without having to carry a single piece of paper. I can make handwritten notes and highlight on PDFs. iAnnotate has no idea how many trees it’s saving.

4. Homemade – I want to try to make at least ½ the gifts we give this year. I like the idea of food gifts which has been a big hit in the past. We’ve gifted homemade ginger vodka, beer, smoked salmon, bacon, parmesan, biscotti, lime curd and lemoncello. I have hopes of making (to gift and consume) our own pancetta, bitters, ginger beer (non alcoholic), new cheeses, crackers, jarred pestos, spice rubs, caramels, vanilla extract, and maybe even sausage. Micah got the Kitchenaid mixer grinder attachment for Christmas, so I know he’ll be busy and we’ll be eating well. There are also some more traditional crafting projects I’d like to make.

5. A pin a month – At least. I pin a lot of things on Pinterest and I think I actually do a good job of tackling some of the recipes on my boards. I want to clean up my boards and also attempt at least one pin a month. It could be reading a book from my Books to Read board or trying out one of the exercise routines that looks doable. It also means deleting the pins that are unsuccessful or that I will never, ever attempt. If you are interested in following me, you can by going to www.pinterest.com/forty20four I warn you, I go pin crazy when I am on the road (which is a lot)

6. Swim, Swim, Swim – I’ve been swimming for the last few months and love it. I have some personal goals like cutting down my strokes per lap, getting faster and cleaning up my stoke in general. The Neighbor (my sister) got me some new swimming accessories for Christmas which I am excited to use. I think the key to this goal will be increasing the strength training I do outside of the pool.

7. Vitamins and water – Not vitamin water. For some reason I can’t get myself to take vitamins regularly and I only drink enough water when I travel. Micah is really, really good about always taking his vitamins and drinking more water than any human being, ever. I am going to try and follow his lead.

8. Learning a little Amharic – I know, learn a language is like saying my resolution is to lose weight. For the most part, I think most of my malaria project related travel will just be to Ethiopia. I am excited about that. I really like my team here and like the country. I used to know a handful of words but I forgot them. I will be spending time in some of the regions this year and I think a few key phrases in Amharic would be smart. Let’s be clear, I am not crazy enough to think I will learn the alphabet, I just want to be able to say a few key phrases like, ‘I don’t speak Amharic’ or ‘No, I am not Ethiopian,’ or ‘yes, I am sure I wasn’t adopted from Ethiopia.’ Key phrases.

9. Read 24 books – This is always on my list and I always get to tick it off.

10. Visit 3 new places – Same as above, this one is also a gimme. We already have Peru booked. It’s likely I will get to go to Uganda and/or Bangladesh this year with my new projects. Micah and I are also hoping for a trip to the Methow Valley to go snowshoeing with Izzy. I’ve never spent much time in that part of the state and am looking forward to it.

That’s a lot but I think they are all doable.  What are some of your goals for this year?