Going Public

A week or so ago I was thinking about how the year is nearly half over. At the beginning of the year I had ideas about what I was going to accomplish this year, and I had barely started on the list. OK, I finished a quilt. And I made some curtains. That's about it (besides doing all the mum things like cooking meals and doing laundry, and then there's my job, and the garden, and I wrote a few poems. But that's about it).

So, I have started visualising myself at the end of the year having accomplished all the things I want to. And now I am going to list them here, because it feels like more of a commitment if I make them public.

1. Write the family history that I have been researching for so long. This involves writing it, which I think I should try to do in the next month, because then I have to check it for information gaps, research them, edit it, gather illustration material, do the layout (which I have never done before), check how many people might want copies, and get it printed. Really, writing it is the smallest part of all this.

2. Finish a set of nine small quilts that I have been working on just about forever. I have one quilted and ready for binding, several more ready for quilting, some need borders and one isn't started yet. It's a good thing they are small.

3. Get fit enough to do a triathlon. OK, it's not really a triathlon. It's a sort of baby triathlon. I did it a couple of years ago, and I entered last year and then didn't train, so I didn't do it. This time I want to do it faster than the first time. It's a 300 m swim, 10 km bike ride and 3 km walk/run (which I did about half and half walking and running, the first time).

4. Lose weight - about 10 kgs. I'm hoping that 3 will take care of 4. Though I may need to stop eating the biscuits and cakes I make for the 18 year old teenage offspring (and the other chicks, but he's the hungriest).

5. Keep writing poems, so that I have at least one to take to my writing group each month. Preferably more. Keep sending them out to be published. I'm hoping to get some published in a few different magazines so that my list of publishing credits is a bit longer.

I had a feeling there was something else but I can't quite think what it was right now. Of course there are things I have to do. And things I want to do, but aren't quite important enough to make the list of goals. Sort of optional extras. Such as take part in NaNoWriMo - that may have to wait, if I'm busy on the family history still. And I am thinking I'd like to visit Oamaru for the Victorian Heritage celebrations in November. Which may entail researching and making myself a costume - or I could just hire one, I suppose. I'd also like to get organised enough that I can take one day a week to "play" - make fibre art postcards, mess around with words, try Japanese calligraphy, or whatever takes my fancy at the time.

There! It's public. And I have done a couple of thousand words on the family history so far this week, and finished quilting one of the quilts, so that's a good start. At the end of December I may just post how far I got (or I may hide my head in shame and pretend this post never happened).