2025 Resolutions
2024 was a doozy. Honestly, it wasn’t my favorite year. It wasn’t all bad, but it isn’t making the highlight reel. Most of the happy moments were laced with stressful threads—a Disney Cruise to distract us from a cancer scare kind of thing. I hope to do separate posts on this later. For now, I’m eager and excited to the page into 2025.
2024 Resolutions (with notes on how I did in bold):
Continue to move my body regularly. Pilates, walking, lifting weights in the basement — I see these things as being important to my health and want to continue to prioritize doing them. Ok, so I did really great with pilates — pending work schedule. I am so happy to have found a workout that I genuinely look forward to each time.
Same as 2023, read as many books as I can. We’re only on the third day of 2024, and I’ve already read one novel. Whoo-hoo! Reading is such a great hobby for busy parents because you can do little bits at a time. I read 35 books this year, and many of them I’d recommend to others. It was probably my most impressive year of reading yet in terms of quality of books, and maybe even quantity! Most of my books were pretty long — I read a total of 17,285 pages; and my average book length was 493 pages. My favorite book was a series — the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown.
Practice shooting people and food with my Nikon. Mission Failure. If only I had a clone!
Practice art, somehow. Maybe I switch to drawing to make it easier to fit into my hectic life. Maybe I can find a buddy I can text art updates with. When I was painting regularly (pre-COVID), I had a little community, which made it so much more fun — not to mention motivating and inspiring. Mission Failure. UGH.
Career-wise, I have lots to think about! My goal is to continue to keep an open mind and to pursue happiness over money (as the money always follows). Sometimes, it’s hard to decipher what makes me happy versus what society tells me should make me happy. I still have lots to think about and will be approaching a fork in the road in a few months.
Less take out/food delivery. Oh this will be a HARD one! When I get tired, especially after a long day of work, it’s hard for me to muster up the energy to cook a balanced meal, especially if Brett is away (which is often). My spending habits are honestly really good otherwise. Since the holidays, I’ve had more bandwidth to cook proper meals, and it’s reminded me of how good it feels to eat nourishing home-cooked foods! It’s all about planning. We did a very good job at decreasing the amount of DoorDash and such this year. We added Green Chef off/on and picked up ready-to-go meals from Whole Foods when we were in a pinch. I'm very glad we made this adjustment - those fees are crazy!
Onto 2025 Resolutions!!
Wellness: I am hoping to increase the frequency at which I workout. Right now, work schedules dictate my frequency. If Brett is on a trip, I have nobody to watch our son so that I can attend pilates (which I still love). So, I’d like to start doing some at-home workouts to bridge these gaps.
Reading: Just like the last 2 years, I want to read as much as I can!
Photography: Honestly, I just want to pick up my camera more. Take more photos of my son, and other things/people I love with it. I almost feel like I have the equivalent of writer’s block with photography right now. The fact is that I need to pick the beast up and use it. It’s sometimes really that simple.
Painting: I miss it. It’s been since 2018/2019 since I’ve painted which is crazy to me. One thing I’m going to do is allocate some space in our living room for my easel and also set up a little art area for our son. If we do it together, I’m not sacrificing either.
Career: This one is tricky. Remember the fork I mentioned? Over the next couple of months, I expect some cards to fall (for better or for worse). I trust the universe enough to understand I’ll be where I’m supposed to be.
