Welcome to 2021

 I’m hoping it will be a better year than 2020. So far, it looks promising. My son starts a new job on Monday after being unemployed for most of 2020. My daughter graduated from university in May and finally got a (part time) job in her field in December. With her other part-time work, she is coming close to full employment, even though she is without any medical benefits. My parents are doing well, and dad is significantly better than this time last year, when he was barely out of hospital after a major heart attack in October followed by a long wait for open-heart surgery and a slow recovery. I discovered I love working at home, and it is helping me prepare for retirement in the next couple of years.

My goals for 2021 are similar to 2020:

  • 221 workouts in 2021
  • On average, one new recipe from an actual recipe book or website each week
  • Throw out at least one thing a day (or recycle or find a new use for it). Again, this one can be averaged.
  • At least 15 minutes of housework/renovations a day (no averaging here)
  • At least 15 minutes of research/art/crafting  day (no averaging here either).
  • Some sort of special challenge each month. For January, I will be aiming to do Veganuary. It won’t be completely meatless, but I will do my best to have minimal amounts and ideally none most days. 

Since you should start the year as you mean to go on, today I repaired a toilet, started working on a translation from medieval French of baking ordinances from the 15th C, went for a dip with friends and went for a hike with other friends.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The COVID-19 new normal?

Image
I went to my second-last swim practice for a while. There was more social distancing than usual as we didn’t all crowd into the showers afterwards - opting instead to wait our turn while talking about measures being taken in our workplaces. That’s when you realize just how complicated running an economy can be. One colleague works in government procurement so her office is scrambling to acquire everything from medical equipment to additional secure bandwidth so employees across the country can work from home. Friends from the barn where Fancy lives have posted that there are lots more walkers on the streets and hiking trails. It appears that families are looking for things to do that allow social distancing while getting some exercise, especially for the kids. The introvert on the hiking trails found it a little crowded for her comfort, but the extrovert said the neighbourhood felt much friendlier than usual as everyone passed greetings as they walked. Local media are even starting t
Read more

Shedding junk in my work space

Image
I probably shouldn’t use my bedroom as my workspace, but it is big, with two large windows and a little balcony. Plus, I share the open-concept main floor with my daughter, who is doing her university courses on-line, so we often need to be in different areas to be able to concentrate to conversations on our computers. My bedroom is also my favourite crafting space, and it is where we store things that need to go to the charity shop, So it can get pretty junky if I’m not disciplined (and frequently I am not - have you ever met a crafter who didn’t have a stash or two of yarn, fabric, or whatever?). Today, though, I made a serious effort to deal with both my bedroom and my back-up work space, the kitchen. I took down my old curtains and hardware an installed a new rod and curtains that have been sitting in the bedroom since I bought them before Christmas. Now the stepladder, the curtains, miscellaneous screwdrivers, and the storage bags can go away, while the old curtains and hardwa
Read more

Planning

Image
This post is borrowed (with permission) from Nancy Farmer, as swimmer and artist from Somerset in the UK. You can see some of her art Here , but she is also active on Wordpress and Facebook. I did not include any of the pictures of Roger.  This morning I have mostly been drawing naked people. Well, ok just one naked person six times. This is Roger. A fellow artist complained that she kept going off the edge of the paper, I said she just needed to take a bit of care and plan where to place the drawing on the paper at the start. To which she said, slightly aghast 'oh I don't like to plan!' ...see, this is a problem, you can't be fabulously spontaneous without careful planning first, otherwise there is a danger that you will - maybe metaphorically - fall of the edge of your paper. Don't look at me as if 'Plan' is a four-letter word  ;-)””. This may be the most brilliant thing I have read all week. Planning is absolutely essential toalmost ever
Read more