Each year at my birthday, I set aside time to review my accomplishments of the past year and set goals for the coming year. Then I give myself until the end of the calendar year to make adjustments to my goals. I’ve been writing this post for about two months now, time to publish it . . . (I can, occasionally, get so caught up in the organizing /to do list making that I never actualyl get to the projects themselves.)

2009 doesn’t have any major writing goals, although I do have a book idea I want to complete — its a ‘leftover’ from 2008 when I just didn’t get it done. One thing I realized is that I’ve spent a lot of time writing, traveling, and speaking on behalf of the community, and I have not seen any progress in terms of recognition, book sales, or correspondence. After nearly ten years (my first article was published in 1999, the same year I spoke at Pantheacon for the first time) I feel I need to step off that carousel and take it easy. My wallet needs the break as does my body and my psyche.

I have a handmade book I want to finish: it’s An Alliterative Alphabet for my nephew. I want to create several ‘in memory’ books for family members commemorating my grandfather. There is a Paris book in there as well.

For this blog I intend to start posting more examples of the items I make. I took a lot of pictures of making the yule stockings, for example, but haven’t actually written up the process. When I make the above-referenced books I want to take pictures and talk about how I am going about doing it.

I want to make all of my paper files into electronic ones. (that’s a biggie)

I want to get healthier and lose weight. My goal is to lose 20% of my starting weight. (No, I do not care to share that specific number with you.) I’m starting with a handicap in that although I’d lost about 10lbs last year, I gained 5 back in the last quarter — almost entirely due to stress I’m afraid. (this is another biggie.) I made a lot of improvement in my general eating habits in 2008, and I will be continuing with them. A big part of this is not going to be diet, its going to be exercise. I’ve gotten lazy and that will stop. Cardio 3x/wk, strength training as well.

I intend to continue with my savings goals: 15% of gross income into my 401(k); maximum contribution to my Roth IRA ($5000) and buy another CD (or three) to start rolling over every quarter. I’d like to spend half as much money on clothes and other ‘beauty’ items in ’09 as I did in ’08; the same goes for dining out.

Facing North will have another 200 reviews posted this year, and I suspect it needs a major back-end revision. I want to see if the rights to The Virtual Pagan and Magickal Connections can or have reverted back to me.

In the house, I think we’ll need some repair work as a result of the sink leak and that cuts into my dream of renovating the master bath (I truly covet a real bath tub). Other than that, I think we’ll only replace carpeting and paint the hall (and maybe get to those ‘holidays’ all over the place!). The garage needs re-organization, but I think much of it rests on J’s shoulders, so I’m a bit player in that event. Everything else is in very good shape.

I’m sure there are a few more things, but as I said, its time to publish this list.