New Year's Resolution

Last year was the first year in my adult life that I made resolutions. I liked having the goals. They helped to keep me motivated and focused on a few priorities. So, this year I made more. Number one being that each month I will look through my cookbooks, chose 3 new recipes, shop for ingredients and make them. Paul agreed to be in on this resolution with me. Tonight's dinner was courtesy of my resolution. I made the North African Couscous Salad recipe from Moosewood Restaurant Daily Specials cookbook (Thanks Becky!!). It was tasty.

The other resolution is not so much a resolution as it is a declaration. In our house, we have declared 2008 to be The Year of Honesty. That means and will mean many things to us but so far the most influential of those being a thorough purging of possessions. If I am honest with myself, it isn't really worth holding on to a lot of the stuff that I have been moving around for years. For example, do I really need to hold on to 3 bridesmaid and 1 prom dress? I think not. So far I have decluttered by donating lots of clothes and shoes, getting rid of back issues of magazines, and selling a ton of books to the book store.

There are many benefits to decluttering. It makes for a less cluttered living space and it makes room for new fun and useful things. After selling a big box of books to the bookstore, I treated myself to a new knitting book 101 Designer One Skein Wonders. I like it way better than the original One Skein Wonders. It felt good to exchange a box of books that I didn't need for a bit of cash and a book I am excited about.

The Year of Honesty has also made itself known in the realm of knitting. There are some projects that I had been hoping to finish but truth be told, they weren't going to work out for numerous reasons. The change of the year came when I had a nice amount of vacation time from work. I took the time to go through my projects and either finish them or rip them out. I also did a little destashing by donating some yarn to Circles charity knitting drive. It felt magnificent to start the year with a stash I am itching to knit and a bunch of knitting bags waiting to be filled with new projects. This was also good timing because I recently found out about all the babies that are busy being grown inside my friends and I must knit baby things...lots of baby things.

I wonder what else The Year of Honesty has up its sleeves?