New Year’s Resolutions

Sometimes I really struggle in the winter. I don’t always like the cold temperatures and extra darkness. As I said in the last post, early January feels like a metaphorical hangover after the fun, social atmosphere that is December. That being said, there are hacks that I have come across throughout the years that have helped me manage January better and no I don’t mean spiking my hot chocolate with Cointreau every night after the boys go to bed (thought that is nice sometimes).

I deteste articles that you might see this time of year that say something like “Experts Say It’s Useless to Make Any New Years Resolutions” because I love making New Year’s Resolutions. I love new beginnings.

My birthday is in July, a little more than half way through the year, and I love having two times a year to start anew. It’s like I am a college student and I get to start a new semester every six months. If I were really being I would goofy say that every six months, I get to start a new season of the Katie Show. Some seasons of the Katie show are really connected in theme and plot but sometimes new characters and story arcs emerge with the changing seasons.

I do think that New Year’s Resolutions usually have a different quality for me than my taking stock of life birthday reflection usually takes, but they are similar impulses.

As for New Year’s Resolutions, I do not always resolve to do something for a full year, but just making the resolution often gives me a project that at least gets me through winter and well into the new year. (See Birthday SWOT Analysis in four parts)

One year, I think it was 2016, I resolved to bake a new type of cookie every month of the year. I chose this resolution because I sometimes get very caught up in chocolate desserts and I felt like I wanted to expand my horizons in terms of dessert making and eating. Surprise, surprise, do you know what? I kept that resolution.

I baked a new cookie recipe once a month that entire year. Mr. Katie loved that resolution and he kept me on track. He would remind me if it were getting to be the end of the month and I hadn’t made my new cookie for the month yet. I didn’t outlaw making chocolate chip cookies that year, but I did I try making some new things. I learned that Snicker Doodles are not hard to make and are delicious among other things. In retrospect I can see that this cookie making experience primed for my 3rd place finish in the 2017 Ardsley Cookie Bakeoff! (3rd place out of 12 entries) Take that Nicholsons and Kenneys!

Another year, I made a New Year’s Resolution influenced how I live my life today. In 2014, I took up running for the first time as a resolution because it was something that I always wanted to do and I had been saying for several years that running a 5k was something on my life “to do” list. So I diligently went to the YMCA and learned to walk/ run before learning to run. In May of 2014, I ran in a Cinco Mayo 5K at my local YMCA. I trained diligently for four months and by the time May 5th came around, I was able to do it. I was not in the front of the pack but I did not come in last place either. I was pretty proud. Less than a month later, I sprained my ankle running in a charity mud-run event and I did not start running again for several more years. In any case, the running seed was sown and I ended up coming back to it and it was all thanks to a New Years Resolution.

So what am I working on this winter. . .

This year I have two winter goals. I have a reading goal and a running goal. Also I have a no-buying new clothes resolution that I am workshopping for 2022, but I will write about that when it is more fleshed out.

Also, I will write about my running goal another day, I write about running plenty, today I will tell you about my reading goal.

I bet you would not guess that as a librarian, I have trouble finishing books, but I do. Sometimes I go through phases where I only like to reread things that I have already read. I think it is fine to reread books. I find it very comforting and lovely to reread something that I love. But sometimes this tendency keeps me from trying new things, for example long books by authors I have never read before.

Many years in mid-February I think to myself, that someday I would really like to read Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin. It was made into a movie staring Colin Farrell and Russell Crowe in 2014. The year the movie came out, I was very intrigued by the wintry setting that I saw in the movie previews, though I never ended up seeing the movie (I still haven’t seen it). This fascination caused me to read all about the Winter’s Tale online but since it was late February when the book was discovered by me, I didn’t attempt to read it because I decided that I only wanted to read about winter during the winter and at 700+ pages I wouldn’t be finished it until spring.

Every year, I find myself stuck because I don’t remember that I want to read Winter’s Tale till winter is almost over. In any case, I have decided, this will be the year for me. This is the year that I will read Winter’s Tale.

Before the New Year, I did the math and found that if I read 12.5 pages a night, I will be done reading Winter’s Tale before March. I am already behind though. Good thing spring doesn’t start till March 20th this year. I gave myself some wiggle room.

What is your New Year’s Resolution this year? If you don’t do those, what do you have planned for yourself this year.

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