Announcement, Commitment, Decree, Edict, Ordinance...Just call it what it is, a Resolution List.

It’s that time of year. Yep you guessed it, New Years Resolution lists! Now, now, stop groaning it’s good for you. I can’t say it’s entirely encouraging. I only managed to accomplish one (see #) of my goals, but a surpassed all my hopes by leap and bounds with this one goal.

Last year’s goals were:

Read between 150 and 200 books.
I only read 53 books the entire year.

Finish and Enter 21 projects for the quilt show I participate in every August.
This was really too much to commit to. Especially because I’m very bad about waiting until the last minute to rush and finish everything.

# Get down to business about opening a bookstore.
I had no idea when I said that, that I would actually open one. I only meant plan it out and start saving. Such an amazing blessing (Thank you Lord!) To say I opened a bookstore in 2009 (with my sister don’t forget that)! Right now we’re thankfully making just enough each month to cover our rent. With the new year we’re hoping to get the word out to more people (somehow?). I believe the last count of books in the store was a little over 4,500. We still have more to add!

Try harder to write more.
I blogged...does that count? I wrote very little for my book, maybe 10 pages tops.

Journal more.
If it counts, I started the Total 365! photography project in April. It is a form of journaling with pictures.

A better relationship with the Lord.
:( (Deep Frown)


I think I’ve set the bar fairly high for myself for 2010. I don’t know if that’s necessarily a good or bad thing. I’ve split my list into 2 groups. Realistic goals and Unrealistic goals, which are goals I still would really like to accomplish (just don’t know how likely that is).

Realistic Goals:

Read more books from own shelves and hopefully read 75 or more books.
I’d really like to hit 100 or more, but why not set out to accomplish a small goal and surprise myself by beating it. I’ve even started a reading challenge list of books from my personal shelves (see below).

Complete the Women Unbound Reading Challenge.
I have until November 2010 to read (for the highest level) 12 books, fiction and non-fiction. I haven’t started yet and probably should have, seeing how it started in November 2009.

Write More! This includes my book, poetry, and my blog. I’d really like to write at least 2 posts a week. Sometimes it is a bit difficult to come up with material for new posts that quickly, but we’ll see. Any writing advice would be great!

Finish my Total 365! photo project. I think it will be over in April. I’m not sure if I’ll go another year after that or not.

New goal idea that I’m really excited about: Write a letter everyday. Each day write a letter to someone different. Initially it will be 365 letters, but I’m hoping people will write me back and then in turn I’ll write them again (although 2nd letters do not count towards the 365 goal). My grandma was the first person on my list (wrote her letter last night) and I mailed her letter this morning. I’m more than happy to write to new people. If you’d like you can email me your address. My email is peetierox@hotmail.com.

Overcome 2 personal handicaps. Lack of confidence and mental stability issues. Does anyone know of a confidence booster pill?

Hit the 2,000 mark on LibraryThing. Right now I own a little over 1,100 books. Only 900 to go! Is this unrealistic?

This goal is something I didn’t heed in 2009 and SHOULD listen to for this year and every year forever. I’ll post the same text from last year.
A better relationship with the Lord. More than ever my relationship with the Lord has really been slack. The year has had its ups and downs. I think back to all of the blessings the Lord has given me and think shame on me for not striving for a better relationship with Christ. However, I also shouldn’t only want a better relationship with Him just because of His blessings. I need to be in His word everyday, praying, and worshiping Him because I’m told to do so in His word, its obedience. I want to read my Bible more and truly seek the Lord’s wisdom.

Another goal that just came to me via LibraryThing’s (friendly yet constant) reminders. Read my LibraryThing Early Reviewers. I think I have 4 or 5 that I’ve yet to read. Although one of them (picture on the side for book I’m reading right now) I’m nearly finished with.


Unrealistic Goals:

Start Vlogging (spelling?) On YouTube. I still haven’t convinced my mom that this is a good idea, not sure if I will be able to or not. This looks like fun to me and maybe a confidence booster in the making?

Travel to somewhere outside the United States. My personal stipulation is that neither Canada or Mexico count. Preferably another continent.

Loose weight, become skinny. This would be a great time for my magical powers to manifest (just kidding I already have those :)).

One or all of these would be great. Meet Prince Charming, Get Married, and/or have a baby. I’m sure my mother will loathe the and/or before ‘have a baby’. However, I can always visit the sperm bank for that one if Mr. Charming doesn’t make an appearance soon!

Learn to speak another language. I’d like to speak Welsh, German, or Italian. I know a little French, which is awful that I say little after 5 years of French classes.
Save more money. This could really fall under realistic goals, but I’m not always that great at saving.

On your mark (well mine really), get set (list finished...I think), Go (start accomplishing, beat the odds)!


2010 Personal Reading Challenge List:

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
The Gutenberg Elegies by Sven Birkerts
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen*
The Mark of the Horse Lord by Rosemary Sutcliff
Oscar Wilde and the Yellow Nineties by Frances Winwar
Dracula by Bram Stoker*
King, Kaiser, Tsar by Catherine Clay
The Once and Future King by T.H. White*
The Sea Rovers by Albert Marrin
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Riddle-Master The Complete Trilogy in one book by Patricia McKillip
A Thief in the House of Memory by Tim Wynne-Jones
The Cage by Michael Weston
Archangel by Sharon Shinn
True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington*
Flesh and Spirit by Carol Berg
Dinotopia Lost by Alan Dean Foster

* = Also on my 25 before I’m 25 list.

NaNoWriMo and Women Unbound

I had thought I would try my hand at NaNoWriMo. This is the first year I have ever heard of it and I very intrigued. Writing a novel in a month, what a challenge to anyone’s skills let alone my own (which aren’t much to shout about). However, I’m always good with excuses and procrastinating. The idea I have, involves too much research to commit to writing it in a month. I really need a good book on Welsh history and Crimean War. The rest I think I can get by with what’s in me head already. Oh, but wait another excuse and a much larger hurtle to jump (more like a wall). I lack confidence. I look at my writing and see nothing, but boring rubbish that anyone out there could write, nothing special. Do they have pills for confidence, maybe procrastination too? Or while your at it a write a bestseller pill...yum sounds good. That said no NaNo this year. I can’t promise, but maybe next year.

My disappointment was squelched a little when I came across A Work in Progress’s post about the Women Unbound reading challenge. I’m always up for a good book reading extravaganza. At least with this challenge I have a year to complete it. For Women Unbound you are suppose to read books about women studies* (my mind immediately says feminism, but I know that’s being completely unfair). I can’t claim much knowledge when it comes to this genre, in fact (excuse the term) I’m pretty much a virgin. There really isn’t a feminist bone in my body. ** That’s why I thought why not try something different and new. Besides it isn’t really stimulating to the mind to continually read the same types of books all the time. I was thinking I would attempt the highest level, suffragette (If I’m going to take a bite why not a big one...right?). Only one problem really, lack of reading material. Oh I own plenty of books, but not any about women studies. I need to read both nonfiction and fiction. I quickly consulted my LibraryThing to see what I had at the ready. Two? I only have 2 and one I’ve already read. Louisa May Alcott’s Behind a Mask (very good by the way) and The Awakening by Kate Chopin. Now to find 8 more, because as much as I liked Alcott’s, I want to read ‘new’ books. I checked the shop and we do have one there, Unveiling a Parallel: A Romance by Alice Ilgenfritz Jones and Ella Merchant***. Two down, 7 more to find. I’m taking suggestions (you in the back there, what? No sorry no Virgina Woolf...I’m teasing.). I’m hoping for suggestions honestly. Another reason I felt this would be a good to participate in, was because it might be interesting to have an opinion from the opposite side of the spectrum. I know I give myself too much credit (I can be rather pompous at times). Enough said I’m reading for the Women Unbound challenge!

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Almost forgot, I finished Cranford. I loved it and think I will read it again. I feel I owe it to Mrs. Gaskell. Seeing how I took so many breaks from reading Cranford to read other books...sorry.
　


*Participants are encouraged to read nonfiction and fiction books related to the rather broad idea of ‘women’s studies.’ (quoted from their website)

** I feel I'm making quite an idiot of myself. If I were speaking all of this out loud I have a feeling I would be stuttering.

*** This book has actually been calling to me since we purchased it for the shop. It has a very pretty cover...I know guilty as charged.