There are no doubt many out there who are still making New Year’s resolutions, and many of them either forget what they resolved, or give up on them within a few weeks into the year. Keeping and fulfilling resolutions is a long-term goal and not necessarily easy to achieve, which is why I don’t do that anymore.
Setting goals week by week is a trick I learned long ago from a high school teacher and coach who spoke at a teachers’ retreat I covered years ago at F. G. Miller High School, and I find that it works for me.
Last week, my goals were to finish the Year in Review story and to help with Elk Point Library’s January library tea, with both those goals completed by the end of Wednesday. Wow! I had all the rest of the week to do whatever came along, or at least I did without the story list that sits beside my goals in my daytimer every week. However, I also had completed the story from the Economic Development Committee meeting, and as of Thursday morning, I’m writing my column right this minute. The Town of Elk Point’s special meeting hasn’t happened yet, and hockey won’t be underway until the weekend. I’ll do whatever I like for the rest of today, until the Town meeting, going out for lunch and maybe picking up the Review’s Christmas tree from the Forest of Lights. Now that was something that should have been on my goals for the week list, but since it wasn’t, I will endeavour to get it done anyway.
By the time you read this, I will have written the Jan. 13 to 19 goals list and will have already checked off the meeting about seniors’ concerns, and will be working on writing its details for the next paper. The chamber of commerce minutes for approval at Wednesday’s meeting have been submitted, and whether or not I will precede and follow that meeting with Paper Play Day sessions will be decided by then.
Another of my goals for the week will be starting a new quilting, or at least sewing, project. I got the idea for a new one, and I’m eager to see if it will work. If it does, great, if not, I will still have those scraps ready to go some time in the future. If I had made a resolution to make ‘x’ number of quilts or sewing projects in 2025, I might be worried about whether I could accomplish that, but when it’s a weekly goal, no problem.
I do have a wedding quilt or two to make this year, but until the happy couples come forth with their colour and pattern preferences, I’m not getting in a hurry to start on those. I do have ideas and at least the centre panels for a couple of birthday gift quilts, but will have to make sure I have enough fabric to do all four of those, or make a shopping trip to replenish my fabric stash, which although huge, probably doesn’t have all the right colours for those projects.
Hard to believe, at not yet quite mid-January, but around our house, we’re thinking about gardening. This, too, is not a resolution, and the only goal I’ve got at this point is sending the seed order while there is still free shipping, we need those seeds before Canada Post starts thinking strike issues again. Shopping local will for sure cut down on the order, but there are some new varieties that may not be available around here, and I can’t depend on the red-and-white striped petunias to reseed themselves like they did last year, totally surprising me, after I couldn’t find the kind I wanted, no matter where I went.
I guess that gardening is back in my mindset because I was at the Economic Development meeting last week where we went over Elk Point’s recommendations from the Communities in Bloom judges. It’s exciting to hear that this year, they’re going with edible plants instead of a certain colour of flowers, and I look forward to how other gardeners react– beautiful beds of broccoli could be a new goal!
