Velkomen 2013!
Well, I had a very anti-climatic end of 2012/beginning of 2013. Due to sleep issues which have rendered me awake at 2:50am on the button most mornings and unable to fall back to sleep before my 5:30am alarm I was sound asleep at the stroke of midnight. Knit night did run a tad longer than normal and even included a short glasses of champagne for many of us. Thanks to DH we had hot from the oven Limpa (Swedish rye bread) and fresh churned butter along with all the other fabulous goodies provided by Sarah our host for the evening and many of the others.
I did cast on that yarn I showed in the last post, along with a contrast yarn into a project I think is going to shape up into something really great. In fact, I’m currently so excited about it (the first since starting to work outside the home full-time) that I may hold back on sharing it in hopes of publishing it somewhere. It is mostly simple with just a sprinkle of interest so it even works for watching TV or reading or any activity that may interrupt knitting time unexpectedly - just the kind of projects I require these days.
I’ve been waffling back and forth about resolutions. Should I or shouldn’t I? The more I think about it the more I like the approaches to set an intention or choose a singple word to define the next year. 2013 is likely to be another year of a lot of fluctuations in many ways. I think the key to weathering those (while I’m no fan of monotony in my daily tasks I’m not very good with changes) is going to be self-care. So for 2013 I’m going to focus on caring for myself - physically and mentally.
Physical Self-Care
- I need to get back into some semi-regular fitness routine, cold weather and lack of gym membership aside!
- I would like to take at least 1 soak a week to detox and restore my muscles.
- If I can budget it, I would like to get a massage once a month to keep my chronic pain levels in check.
- I wish to continue learning about and creating more of my own beauty/health and home cleaning products.
- Continue to eat nutritiously, balanced and in proper portions with a focus on whole foods and a mindfulness of seasonality and origin.
Mental Self-Care
Through much of 2012 I struggled with having the energy (and in some cases physical stamina due chronic pain issues) to persue any of my creative interests after hours. So that will be the focus for this area as I think creative outlets and learning are cornerstones for my mental health.
- Weekly dates with my camera. I have no excuse for having hardly taken any photos in 2012 unless I was given a project. For one, I work in a beautiful area that is full of wildlife and other natural things so at worst (if you can call it that) I can get out on my lunch hour.
- More knitting *and* designing. I think the key to that will be to have something at the vanilla stage of knitting (loads of Stockinette stitch or garter stitch for example) and something a little saucier to occupy my brain if it is obsessing on something.
- Continue to learn more about sewing, including perhaps taking a class or two.
- Practice Yin Yoga, a very slow paced, mostly floor-bound style focused on letting go and releasing muscles rather than toning or building strength that due to its pace is extremely meditative and helpful for stress management and sleeping issues.
- Continue reading, hopefully averaging a bit more than a book a week. While I’d love to surpass this year’s 80 titles read that seems too high pressure so I’m aiming for 62 once again and will re-evaluate as the year progresses.
- Learn more about making fermented foods like Kombucha, Kefir, Water Kefir, sauerkraut and fermented pickles.
Likely those bullet points will evolve and change throughout the year and that is okay as long as I’m still aiming to care for myself.
How about you, do you have any goals, intentions or resolutions for 2013? Any tips for me on adhering to mine or suggestions of additions or alterations?
