Let Us Start as We Mean to Go On (NYR)

Today is the day we collectively resolve to be better: to be fitter and stronger, more organised and thriftier, to spend time doing things that will please us years for years instead of the things that will please us from moments. These and so many other resolutions surround us and, while I think it's good to feel renewed vim and vigor, optimism all too often covers delusion and flows to disillusion and disappointment. Thus I remind myself that life is about striving, about trying and failing and trying again, and not just deciding things will be different and expecting them to change magically. Seanan McGuire suggested a resolution to wake up each morning (always a good place to start) and think "I will be kind today", to everyone friends and strangers alike and especially ourselves.

For myself, I have started the year as I mean to go on, with laundry being washed, folded and put away* and the upstairs picked up and hoovered**. Normally I'd want to begin the year with a clean house but I think the act of cleaning is, for me, a more suitable "start the way you mean to go one" than sitting around enjoying the fruits of one's labours: at that, I am adept. So my goal is, not to have a clean house, a goal which can be achieved fleetingly if at all, but rather to clean my house, to put in effort at least weekly that entropy be kept at bay, chaos not overwhelm.

With my crafts I resolve to adopt a "project in, project out" policy. If I complete a project I may acquire yarn for a new one, though obviously picking something from my stash would be best. This does leave room for me to knit a bunch of little toys and reward myself for each with a sweater-quantity of yarn but I think I know myself well enough that that won't happen***. This also goes for sewing/fabric and cross-stitching****.  I am going to winnow my queue to projects for which I already have yarn - if another project is meant to be I will be able to find the pattern again - though queuing multiple project ideas for the same yarn is allowed if I've not yet settled on one. I will try not to buy patterns until I am ready to knit them.

Most importantly, I seek to spend more of my time "actively present" with Little Djinn, to offer my attention unstintingly when she needs it. There are things I need to accomplish but keeping up with social media isn't one of them. She'll need me like this so briefly.

For these things, towards these ideals, I strive.

*in progress

**the two are connected, laundry and hoovering; I did the downstairs on Monday

***more than once. Or twice, you know, whatever.

****progress was made but neither project completed