This week we hear from gransnetter middleagespread on the year she finally managed to stick to a New Year's resolution (well, one month down, 11 to go). The question is...what's next?
One resolution down, 11 to go...
I have lived a life of breaking New Year's resolutions but this year my stubbornness and determination have surfaced. Could it be age-related? I'm 61...oh OK, 62 in February. I have a plan. Each resolution has one month to be accomplished and the pledge not determined excepting that it has to be something I have not done before. In January, my pledge was to find something to do in the evenings, that I could do when watching TV and which allowed me to sit with my husband.
Writing is a great pastime, hugely enjoyable but so restricted. There is nothing I love more than sitting in a quiet room, at a desk, with a laptop, surrounded by endless Post It notes. But, as habits go, it is more unsociable than breeding ferrets under your bed. I need complete silence, hence the clock is stopped from ticking, the dog banished if he snores and DH sent to go and do something, anything, else.
There is nothing I love more than sitting in a quiet room, at a desk, with a laptop, surrounded by endless Post It notes. But, as habits go, it is more unsociable than breeding ferrets under your bed.
So, with the end of the month in sight, and looking like I was doomed to fail (again), on 31st January I found a quilting workshop and turned up. I had a hugely enjoyable morning and learnt so much, realising that there is so much more to learn. I half made a piece showing a cute yacht bobbing around a blue sea and will finish it in due course. I was shown traditional English quilting techniques and if I thought my eyes hurt after a morning on the laptop it was nothing to the intense straining when sewing minute stitches on tiny scraps of fabric. The tutor's husband said he couldn't understand the point of cutting up fabric only to re-sew it together! We had a great time all sat together sewing and I can see why it became so popular with American ladies. Now, what shall I do next month?