2015 Goals

Two years ago I found myself in a position of instability and purgatory when the new year rolled around. I was waiting to hear about a new job, and the uncertainty had me off balance. Even though the change was completely for the best, it took a bit of getting used to.

Last year, I was planning my wedding and honeymoon. Scheduling meetings and making decisions was taking up all of my free time.

This year, I'm in a really stable place. Everything is going well, and I'm where I want to be right now. Which means that I'm finding myself with all this extra energy. So I'm spending a lot of time thinking about things I want to do this year. I already posted about my reading resolutions. These are the other goals that have been bouncing around in my head.

• Plant some herbs. I'd love to have fresh basil and mint and maybe thyme available in my kitchen. And I think I can handle a small, indoor herb garden.
• Plant some tomatoes. Tomatoes are supposed to be easy, and it'd be great to have some nice, fresh ones available to eat. Especially since I just found an easy marinara sauce recipe.
• Learn to make jambalaya. Last year I conquered risotto and the year before that it was soup. This year: jambalaya. (My first attempt was a little too soupy. Next time will be better.)
• Bake some bread. We've got this lovely stand mixer that I never, ever use. I want to use it more. Bread could be fun, right?
• Make pasta from scratch. See above, re: stand mixer. With pasta making attachment
• Cook more new things in general. I already moved the cookbooks out of the cupboard to help with this. If I see them everyday, I'll be more likely to actually use them.
• Learn to knit? I mean, probably not. But also it could be fun. And something to do while I'm watching TV
• Start building up a home gym. I want to start small: a foam roller, a mat, a set of dumbbells. Eventually I'd like to be able to cancel my gym subscription. I just need to get in the habit of working out at home first.
• Lose some weight. It's such a cliche. For real this year, though
• Bike to work at least once. I'm doing decently on the exercise bike, and my office really isn't too far away. I'm planning to buy a bike in March or April and get out more. Especially if this summer is as gorgeous as last summer was. (I hope I didn't just jinx it.)
• Reorganize the library/living room. I want to get a couple more bookcases for the living room and start moving some books down there. Because my library is actually overflowing.
• Pay off my student loans. This is definitely happening this year. It's barely even a goal. Still you have to put down something that's guaranteed. It makes the rest of the list easier.

I think I can get started with one or two of these this weekend. As for the rest, we'll see how the year goes. Hopefully I can maintain this productive "I want to do new things" energy for a while.