Resolutions 2018

Last year's resolutions was a classic example of my tendency to over engineer. I walked into it knowing that it was all probably too much, but really it was a beautiful arrangement of category and subcategory. I find that kind of organization very appealing, but it's difficult to follow through on something like that. So, this year is hopefully going to be a simplification:

1. Reading Goal: 150 total books, 50 of which need to not be YA. I'm still trying to read 100 YA books a year, but let's face it that's just going to happen. The bigger issue is getting in the other stuff. So, I'm going to read the YA, but my focus is going to be getting in the nonfiction, professional reading, and non-YA fiction.

2. Apply to Grad School. 'Nuff said. I got my certification renewed which was the project for 2017, so it's time to work on the grad school thing.

3. Eliminate Kitchen Waste By Spoilage. Sources vary somewhat, but the average American family wastes about $1,500 of food a year. (The estimates range from about $1300 - $2100) While I suspect that my family is probably a bit under the average for food waste, I know that we do waste food and it's mainly through bad planning and laziness. So for a year, my focus is going to be on cleaning up those habits. No ordering takeout when there's food at home that needs cooking and no ignoring leftovers because I don't feel like eating it. As a sub issue, it's probably past time that I set up my composter. We are a veggie heavy family and those trimmings could be put to better use.

4. Writing. This is the one area where I'm going to let myself get a little complicated because it is important to me.:

• The Blog - 1 post every day and every book I read gets a post. I got pretty sloppy with it last year and I'd like to avoid a repeat.
• School Blog - Launch and maintain the school focused version of the blog.
• Daily Writing Habit - Write every day and begin working on creative writing projects. I'm not sure how to organize this yet, but I am stating it as a goal.

It's still a lot to work on, but it's less rigid. Wish me luck.