2020 Check In
Hello and happy new year, everyone. I cannot believe that it’s already February. I know it’s been a really long time since my last post and I apologize. There’s no grand reason for why I didn’t post in the second half of the year. It’s the usual excuses – life gets busy and I’d rather spend my free time reading and hanging out with my friends instead of staring at the computer, which I have to do for most of the day at work. I also had some technical difficulties with the blog last year which made me a little more reluctant to blog. It’s a long story but it’s been taken care of now (thanks, A!). You might be able to tell that I have a new blog theme. We’re still working out some of the kinks so please excuse the mess for a little bit while I tweak and get everything just right.
It’s a new year which is often a time of reflection for people. Truthfully I always feel like the holidays are such a whirlwind that I barely even notice it when the new year rushes in. Last year was a pretty rough one for me. There was a lot of uncertainty at work and I am still dealing emotionally with my dad’s death from almost 2 years ago. I definitely still had some good times last year though and I hope that 2020 will be a year of growth and just having more fun and making the time and effort to do things that I really love with the people that I love.
So what’s in store for 2020? Last year I made a really conscious effort not to buy as many books. In September I did a huge declutter of my books and got rid of a good amount. I just want my books to be able to fit on the shelves that I have (for the most part at least) and not just scattered in piles all over my house. When my books gets too unorganized, it’s really hard for me to keep track of what I have and what I want to read. So I want to continue to buy fewer physical books and read the books that I already have. I especially want to focus on physical review books so I can read them and then pass them on. I am also giving myself permission to not finish a book if I am not enjoying it, which is usually hard for me.
I also did a terrible job of reviewing books last year. I have so many old requests from NetGalley that I really need to get to. It’s not fair to request review books and then not read them or worse, read them but not review them. I did try and clean up my NetGalley queue a bit last year and went through the list and was realistic with myself on which books I was actually still interested in. My NetGalley shelf is still a little crazy but I was able to whittle it down a little bit and hope to get it down even further this year.
Another goal of 2020 is to travel more. Last year I went to Hawaii with my childhood friends to celebrate a big birthday. It was so fun and a great way to recharge. I rarely go on vacation just to vacation. Most of my time off and holidays is spent going back home to see my family. While I still plan to see them a lot, I want to make more of an effort to visit new places and see old friends. I’m not getting any younger and I want to see more of the world while I am (relatively) young and able bodied.
Make more. Last year I didn’t see a huge output of finished knit items even though it seemed like I was knitting a lot. I want to focus on using the yarn that I already have in my stash. I know I say this every year but it bears repeating. I just want to be more conscious with my purchasing because I have some awesome stuff that is being forgotten because I am constantly looking for the next new thing. I also have a big fabric stash that I want to start using. I am not a huge sewist but I want to get better at it. This might be the year that I finally start a quilt.
Self care is also something that I want to focus on this year. I know it’s kind of a buzz word but it’s something that I think we all need to do. Life is precious and short and we need to take care of ourselves. For me this will mean taking more time to myself and not trying to do everything for everyone. I need to go to the doctor and get a general physical. I’d also like to cook more and get back into baking. It’s about making time for myself, which isn’t as easy as it sounds.
If you’ve gotten this far, I thank you for sticking it out. I know this was a long post but I felt like I had a lot to catch up on. Hopefully you’ll be seeing a lot more of me on the blog in 2020. Until next time, I hope you’re all happy and healthy and that your 2020 is off to a great start!
