To Resolve or Not to Resolve?

Post intended for 01 January 2010.

Do you make New Year's resolutions? Resolutions are, perhaps, the result of the first month of the year being named for the Roman god Janus. Janus was the god of gates, doorways, beginnings, and endings. He is most often depicted as having two heads, facing opposite directions. A philosophical person, or one searching for symbolism, might say that one of Janus's faces looks forward, the other backward, making him an ideal figure to put in charge of resolutions.

Some years I make resolutions, often I don't. This year, I have made a few.

1. Spend more time with family and friends.
I do pretty well with the family part, not as well with friends.

2. Exercise regularly.
My husband and I have a fitness club membership, and I was exercising three times a week in the summer, after we got it...until my dad had surgery, I was chosen as the new department chair, and my life entered a new dimension. Or four.

3. Write more. Or faster.
I need to do something to get A Diplomatic Alliance finished sooner.

4. Learn something new.
I'm not sure yet what that new thing will be. Perhaps to learn to knit Fair Isle, even though that type of color knitting doesn't appeal to me nearly as much as textured knitting (like Aran sweaters) does.

5. Speaking of Aran sweaters, I'm going to knit one.
It has been about ten years since I have knit an Aran. My husband has been the recipient of the last three. The 2010 Aran will be for me. I have not yet decided which one to knit, but the pattern will come from one of the books below.
The most likely choices are Norfolk, Eriskay, or Fulmar. Possibly Irish Moss or Na Craga.

6. Blog more frequently.
When life gets hectic, I sometimes go for weeks without blogging. I will try to do better this year. I can always blog about a Georgian or Regency wrangle.

7. Get all the boxes unpacked.
Although we have lived in this house for a year, we still have many books in many boxes.

What resolutions did you make? Have to kept them so far?

Susannah

Happy Holidays!

Post intended for 24 December 2009.

The semester ended (for me) not with shouts of jubilation, but with a whimper of exhaustion. After staying up most of the night to finish grading Senior Design reports, I was too tired, once grades were submitted, to appreciate that the semester really had ended.

I fell on a patch of ice in front of the engineering building two weeks ago and sprained my right wrist and thumb, so doing everything has been difficult---grading included. Knitting has been impossible, until today. I am still working on a sweater-tunic for my oldest grand-niece, which I'd hoped to finish before Christmas. My oldest niece is not getting socks this Christmas; neither is my younger sister.

The photograph I wanted to use (of the church we attended when we lived in the mountains of northern Utah) is not on this computer, so this one will have to do.

My family celebrated Christmas last weekend, since that was the time my sisters and their husbands and most of their children could come, so this has been a quiet week. My husband and I and his brothers will celebrate Christmas tomorrow. Tonight, my husband (if he can stay awake) and his older brother and I will walk to church for the 11.00 pm service. It snowed earlier in the day (and week), but it is not snowing now.

If you celebrate Christmas, I wish you a merry one. If you do not, I wish you, belatedly, a happy holiday. Like the people of Bethlehem, we can all hope for peace on earth.

Susannah