Yes it is that time of year again: when the old year passes on after aging gracefully and the new year begins with fits and starts.  Being more of a cyclically minded person, I have never really understood the linear thought that one day is so different from the one before it that it can miraculously change your life. But it’s as good a day as any on the calendar to start things (especially as this year it starts on a Monday).

One of the online groups I belong to has been discussing goal planning for 2007 (because one of the members was reading someone’s blog where they had posted their art goals, ironically enough), and it really has got me thinking. I have made some resolutions for the oncoming year (and I am making little bags to put them in and swap them!), and I have made some goals for myself. These are two different things. Resolutions are how I am going to try to become a better person over the next twelve months (start exercising, yell less, be happier with who I am, etc. etc. etc.) and goals have specifics (I want to finish a t-shirt quilt by the end of the year, or at least be working on the quilting aspects).

One woman said that she would make a box (highly decorated, of course) to put all of her goals in so she can pull them out and look at them to keep track of them, while still having something nice on her desk. Won’t work for me. I have to have my To Do lists out in the open for instant accountability. Did I do laundry today? Good, cross it off! Uh Oh, 2 o’clock and I haven’t done the dishes, better get those done. With a 6 month old, I can’t exactly schedule my day and I am just starting to get into this whole repetitive chores thing (laundry, dishes, picking up, menu planning). Anyway, what all this boils down to is that if my goals were in a box, they would never get looked at, hence never accomplished. However, it is a good idea for other people who have the time to have a little calm-down-time-with-myself-to-review-my-day-and-my-life before bed. I tend to breathe a huge sigh of relief and sink in to bed once the kids are both put to bed. So I thought, maybe I could make a pretty box to put my accomplished goals in. Hmmmm . . .

So anyway, some of my goals (and feel free to nag me on them in comments over the year) with monthly due dates:

• Get on the Torch, Get Kiln Rolling (03/07)
• Finish Navajo Knitted Bag (04/07)
• Make Hillbilly Housewife Cookbook (05/07)
• Finish the Fate Altered Book (and never ever use a glued spine book for altering again, unless it’s for a shadowbox) (06/07)
• Pinchushions for Art Camp (10/07)
• Find OrganizedChristmas.com in time again this year (10/07)
• T-Shirt Quilt (12/07)
• Journal Quilt each month
• 8 pages of scrapbooking every month
• Sock Monsters, lots of Sock Monsters

Okay, that’s enough for now. I will prolly add this list to my UFO’s page just so that I can find it easily and add to it easily.