2022 New Year's Resolutions Thread

Wraithlady

How am I doing so far? Well about average for me:

- Do my Duolingo Spanish daily (or at least 5 days out of 7) I've switched to Babbel but I do it after work and OH keeps moaning about 'the pinging' which annoys him so it has been substantially less than I'd hoped. If I can find a way to pair my Bluetooth earbuds to my laptop, it'd be a lot easier.

- Reduce my piles of UFOs and mending by at least 1/4 Slowly - not far off finishing the lap quilt if I get cracking

- Do some exercise - use that yoga mat I bought! Even 10 minutes a day will help I've discovered free belly=dancing classes on Mirthy - did the first one last Saturday and finished hot, sweating and feeling better than I had for ages. I think belly dancing is the only exercise I don't mind doing.

- Keep on gardening. I'm starting to learn what works and what doesn't, I need to build on that. Well, hasn't really been the right time of year last month, but I will plant some seeds this weekend (and repot the rosemary, which seems to be dying in its too-small pot)

- Spend time crafting/sewing something new rather than mindlessly scrolling through FB of an evening. Still working on this, with variable results

Cherryfudge

3 - minimise food waste. I had a cooking afternoon today as we had far too many veg and I decided to make soup. I had to throw out half a pepper and half a swede that were past eating, and quite a lot of yellowing coriander. They all went in the compost so not entirely wasted. I also had to peel some items rather heavily (peel goes in the compost too).

I still have half a bag of carrots, about 6 portions of sweet potatoes, a baking potato, a cauliflower, some celery, two part bags of sweet peppers, a bunch of beetroot, onions and garlic aplenty, a few cherry tomatoes and a big handful of cut parsley (now standing in water). The rest of the coriander is washed and frozen so more soup can be made when I've got through the four portions left after tea tonight. Some parsnips were chopped and frozen too, then I ran out of freezer space!

I also made up a kit of Moroccan flatbread, a chilled tube of croissants and a chilled tube of cinnamon swirls, so we've eaten well and there are some left for this weekend.

What on earth can I do with all that parsley?!

ETA: I froze it and will add some to anything I can think of.

PipneyJane

@Wraithlady - Have you tried listening to podcasts in Spanish?  I know Duolingo do a Spanish podcast, as well as a French one (and other language ones, too.). I recently discovered a podcast, “News in Slow French”. They do “News in Slow Spanish” too.  Be warned, the free version only gives you the headlines and lasts about 5 minutes. 

@Cherryfudge - my only recipe to use up fresh parsley is Tabouli.  It also needs fresh mint. If you haven’t frozen all the parsley, it’s worth a google.

- Pip

Cherryfudge

Cherryfudge said:

1. Clean the goldfish at least once a month - sorry fishy
2. Run at least 1x10K a month - no, but between January weather and being laid low with a virus, it just wasn't going to happen. I did my first 5K in ages this afternoon, though.
3. Minimise food waste. We are getting better but there are still soggy bananas and furry yogurt turning up.
4. Read a chapter of the Bible daily - that's been helped a lot by finding a 'Bible in a year' app so I can listen while I knit. It falls down when I have a busy morning, though.
5. Do some arm exercises daily. I did a few...
6. Learn to machine sew and complete an item - not yet.
7. Delete 100 emails a day when home (I have thousands). I managed it for several days but they're piling up again. I've un-subbed from some, though.
8. Bed by 12.30 unless exceptional, e.g. work. Not going too badly though I've only made it by 12.30 a few times and some nights have been ridiculous, like staying up till 5 one night when DS was home for a night and I wasn't well enough to sleep so stayed talking, and last night when we had an adventure with our carbon monoxide detector going off, so I stayed up till gone three while the emergency gas person checked we were safe.
9. Garden 2 hours a week. Come on, it's January. I think I've done about 20 minutes in total so far. (Did enjoy it though).
10. Learn to knit with DPNs - that's waiting for the end of my current project.

I thought it might be entertaining/enlightening to look back and see how I did! I wonder how everyone else fared, and what we can take away from it.

And it there anybody at all for whom life didn't get in the way of our best intentions?  

1. Goldfish... still under-cleaned but I now do the filter if there's no time/energy for a main clean, and there's a second filter on the go, to assist.
2. 10K - I wish! I had Covid in April and haven't run since. Getting back to running needs to be on this year's list.
3. Food waste - better but not perfect.
4. Bible chapters - I've done about half the year's readings in a full year: I decided that to be realistic I had better carry on rather than restarting.
5. Arm exercises... does computer time count?
6. Machine sewing: still on the list but definitely something I'm closer to tackling.
7. Emails have run wild and are approaching global takeover.
8. Bedtime - some good months, some bad ones, and a couple of exceptional days when I've been unwell and slept from mid-evening which is new for me.
9. Gardening - I managed the two hours perhaps four or five times! Poor garden.
10. DPNs still scare me. Circular needles for me.

Is there a new thread for this year?