studio1009

These were my goals for 2022:

Learn ASL: fluent in fingerspelling; learn 20 signs; daily practice - 10 minutes; weekly lesson
Improve Health: weigh 240 (for knees), exercise 5 hours/week – 300 minutes/week (diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol). Log food (lower sugar, lower calories to 1500) – I will continue this
Declutter my house: Declutter workshop and utility room
Travel: New Zealand or Key West; Finish Delta Queen video, A trip to Hawai’i with Devin
Arts and Crafts: Holiday card painting; Quilt designs
Being happy: eliminate things that make you angry; which may mean resigning from convention work or adjusting my attitude.
Relationships: make effort to deepen friendships and marriage

This is my progress toward those goals:

Learn ASL – I did not make much progress. I had a plan, but didn’t do it. It takes a lot of concentration to watch the lessons on video. This will be essential in the future, but I can’t figure out how to make it a priority.

Improve Health – I did not gain weight overall this year, so I could say this is a success. I am still mindful of healthy eating, but apparently not enough to lose weight. I enjoyed aqua aerobics, especially in the summer. Regular exercise is still difficult in the winter. The exercycle and elliptical are boring -- even if I watch TV. Walking outside hurts my arthritic knees.

Declutter my house – Some progress on the workshop, but the utility room was not touched. I have enough space to do art, and can find the tools and supplies to do house maintenance. Mostly successful.

Travel – This goal was highly successful. We traveled to Hawai’i, Maine, Pittsburgh, and New Zealand. Part of the incentive for so much traveling this year was to use airline credits that were expiring.

Arts and Crafts – This goal was also highly successful. I did a lot of watercolor and needlework this year. Most of my paintings were plein air works (Outdoors in a short time period) I took a class in Chinese brush painting which also encouraged quick painting. I posted them to Instagram, mainly to brighten the timelines and encourage people to do their own imperfect art. I made a little progress on the quilting design. I knitted a vest with alpaca yarn I got for free. I continued to cross-stitch a Celtic zoomorph design onto a black T-shirt. I crocheted a couple of baby dragons. I have started a shawl knitted with a fingering weight wool-nylon blend. The wool is hand-dyed variegated in the colors of the Glasgow Worldcon tartan.

Being happy – For the most part I have been happy this year. I still look forward to getting up in the morning. I am optimistic in general. We are financially secure, which helps a lot. I still get very angry at things that happen personally and in the world. I need to turn that anger into action.

Relationships – This is still hard because of the pandemic. I enjoyed a few visits with friends this year. I've gotten to know my daughter-in-law better. The cancer scare last year has made me spent more time with my husband. We are so busy with our separate pursuits, but we have been making it a point to spend some part of the day in the same room just hanging out and to try to kiss or say goodbye when leaving the house. The future is not guaranteed.

Goals for 2023:

Learn ASL – fluent in fingerspelling; learn 20 signs; Daily practice - 10 minutes; weekly lesson Watch videos and fingerspelling app.
Exercise regularly – Weekly goals: Elliptical – 1x; Exercycle daily (30 minutes); Knee PT – daily ; aqua aerobics (45 minutes) – 3x. Log in MyFitnessPal app.
Be happy – Prioritize the things I enjoy doing and take action on the things in my life that make me frustrated and angry.
Read at least one book each month – I find myself spending too much time watching movies, reading news and social media. I have not finished any books other than the Hugo finalists this year. I keep buying interesting-looking books and feel bad that I haven’t read them. I am in the middle of three books: History of New Zealand, Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen, and A Desolation Called Peace. I need to keep a reading log to support this goal, and as a reminder to review the books.
Travel - Make photo books from the Hawaii and New Zealand trip.
Painting – Do at least two studio paintings of my own composition, in addition to plein air and class work. One of the paintings can be my holiday card.

Wishing all my readers a Happy New Year!