Resolutions

Well, a lot of mine work into my 101 in 1001 list, but I can post a few that I’d like to do -this- year and not by August 2013.

1. Continue losing weight and exercising
• I started this weight-loss journey at about 220lbs. At last check on WiiFit I was 194, which is up about 15 pounds from my lowest point. I've been off the wagon for almost 3 months, so it's time to get back on. I'd like to see 150lbs by the end of the year.
2. Get the kitchen cabinets repainted
• Hubby and I have been slowly trying to make the house more 'us'. We did a lot of improvements over the last year, repainting and stuff, and there's more to get done, but repainting the cabinets we know we can do without much fuss. 
3. Knit and Spin from stash (as much as possible)
• I have a sizeable (at least 7 large totes chock-full!) yarn stash and I want to use it up, because it's all yarn I love. My spinning stash is notably smaller, but it's still loved, and I want to use it too.
4. Get a handle on christmas gifts early
• Part of this is going to be knitting/crocheting/sewing quick-and-easy gifts throughout the year. Also, making a 'What I'm Giving' list early .. like, by springtime .. will help.
5. Continue decluttering the house
• We've done good at this too, but there's still work to do. We're slight packrats .. not on the same level as hoarders, but we still have too much stuff. Starting with clearing out more clothes, and going through the back attic, I want to donate/trash a few bags of stuff by Spring.
6. Date night with hubby at least twice a month
• We don't do enough together, and when we have gotten out here in the last little bit, it's been amazing fun. I'd like to take dance lessons when we can afford it, but until then, dinner out, or a movie, or -something- fun and just us twice a month will be good.
7. Find a job to help pay down debt
• I've been trying to find something, but the job market is, as it is almost everywhere, pretty awful. Sending out applications every day, and if I get no bites signing on with a staffing agency will get me to this goal much faster.
8. Find a graduate program and get accepted
• This is assuming I still want to teach college. That is the current thought, but I'm still deciding if I might not want to teach younger students. Either way, I need to get into the appropriate program, whether it be graduate school or a teacher education program, or at least get moving on getting into it.
9. Participate fully in 52 in 52 - 2011
•  52 projects completed in 52 weeks. Shouldn't be difficult, right? Except with my attention span, projects tend to languish. I have a Wrapigan sitting in a back that refuses to be finished, and a knitted owl toy that is only half done. I am going to try to use this challenge as a way to get some simple gifts made though.
10. Participate fully in Year of Stash Socks 2011 
• I have less hope for this, but I'm going to try at the very least. I have a lot of sock yarn, and love wearing hand-knitted socks. They're warm and toasty. So we'll see!
11. Write more often (poetry/short stories/essays/anything)
• I love writing. Creative writing. I haven't been able to do much at all lately, and I miss it. I've subscribed to several prompt blogs and such, so we'll see if I can do this a little more regularly this year.

Spam Poetry

Thickened so, that people ran about with flaring indication
in central brazil that torrential rains of there being other
nests in other stubs which eastward as the gale gets hold
of us. The first he — he hates doctors. And his father ?
i don't.

And bear success. By time the winds blow violently: is regarded
by them as misery. The pandavas with i laugh at sight of
thee. Thy austere penances or, perhaps, among hundreds of
thousands, sometimes grannie's for a kitchen, and the great
loft for.

Their comb. I taste the nectar dropped by those are the winds
that below, showering gravels in may give him liberty to
pay his creditors by instalments, from virtue, however high
may the advantages be fell down, fear entered the hearts,
o king, of.

Lawyer to take my place as chairman of the radical scourged.
look! His shoulders are naked his flesh vrihatkshatra. Possessed
of eyes of pure white, of all these, observing all the while
the most with machines set in proper places it was its.

In honor of Brigid on this Imbolc Eve

Elizabeth of Trailing Yarn posted for Silent Poetry, and I found it a simply fascinating concept.

WHAT: A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading
WHEN: Anytime February 2, 2007
WHERE: Your blog
WHY: To celebrate the Feast of Bridgid, aka Groundhog Day
HOW: Select a poem you like - by a favorite poet or one of your own - to post February 2nd.
RSVP: If you plan to publish, feel free to leave a comment and link on this post. Last year Reya put out the call and there was more poetry in cyberspace than she could keep track of. So, link to whomever you hear about this from and a mighty web of poetry will be spun.


Without further ado, a trio of poems:

One I didnt write:

To a Cat

Mirrors are not more silent
nor the creeping dawn more secretive;
in the moonlight, you are that panther
we catch sight of from afar.
By the inexplicable workings of a divine law,
we look for you in vain;
More remote, even, than the Ganges or the setting sun,
yours is the solitude, yours the secret.
Your haunch allows the lingering
caress of my hand. You have accepted,
since that long forgotten past,
the love of the distrustful hand.
You belong to another time. You are lord
of a place bounded like a dream.

Jorge Luis Borges

One that I wrote:

a life springs outward


seeds of fantasy whirl in eddies
cast off from branches like reaching hands
a life springs outward
seeking salvation in words

cast off from branches like reaching hands
the seers listen to the cries of children
seeking salvation in words
remembered from lullabyes long forgotten

the seers listen to the cries of children
thrusting hands into gold-filled cauldrons
remembered from lullabyes long forgotten
when days and youth were bright

thrusting hands into gold-filled cauldrons
that spilled their seeds onto the desperate fields
when days and youth were bright
with the promise of another new tomorow

that spilled their seeds onto the desperate fields
seeds of fantasy whirl in eddies
with the promise of another new tomorow
a life springs outward

And one fitting the season:

Snowflakes

Out of the bosom of the Air,
Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the woodlands brown and bare
Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
Silent and soft and slow
Descends the snow.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow