It’s the last day of 2015, with exactly 92 minutes left on the clock as I write this sentence. Our champagne is chilled, we’re in for the night with family, and I’m reflecting on what a wonderful, and sometimes incredibly stressful, year it’s been.

Some of the positive things about the year weren’t anticipated in resolutions, like leaving my teaching job. But many were. And even though the end of the year was rough, overall it really was a big year of growth and changes. But it’s still weird and hard for me to appreciate the year overall, because at this point I feel like I’m pulling myself to the finish line so I can just be done with 2015. For all the positives, it was draining…because of my day job, because of things with H, things with myself. There is no perfect year, but some are much better than others. And for all the cool stuff I accomplished, which I am immensely proud of, this one could have been better.

Let’s see how I did with my resolutions:

1. Health. I just need to take better care of myself. This was a goal in 2014 that I was rocking…until I went back to teaching. I need to get back to it. I cut out a decent amount of red meat in 2014 and started cooking fish. I need to learn how to cook more fish and veggies, exercise more, destress, etc. You know, this one started out really well, and I was rocking and rolling…until September. Then it fell apart. I did cook a lot more fish, joined a gym, etc. I guess overall this was definitely a healthier year than I’ve had in the past, but there’s still work to do.
2. Publish or sell 3 quilts. This is one of the more ambitious ones, but I want to see if I can do it. I published 3 quilts! Two in Generation Q magazine and one for Cloud9 fabrics. I did it!
3. Use my stash. I really want to trim my stash this year and buy less fabric. I’ve got mountains of stuff I adore but think of as too precious to use. Or, I just don’t know how to use it. I need to do some de-stashing and actually sew with what I’ve already got. I sold off a good amount of my surplus in January, and I really haven’t bought as much fabric as I usually do. Stash busting, stash busting. 
4. Try more local restaurants. We basically have 2 that we go to regularly, and we always say we’ll branch out. This year it’s on.
5. Publish 3 print articles. Last year I published 4! Maybe I should be more ambitious with this one, but I’m still finding a balance between teaching, quilting, and writing. The writing is happening less at the moment, I need a boost. Yup. One in Generation Q, plus my two quilt tutorials. A feature in Inside Jersey, an article in New Jersey Monthly’s July issue. Plus, I started writing for Hello Giggles and Noodle.
6. Get H’s Project Life up to date. I really want to do this for her, I loved looking at my baby book so much growing up. Nope. Didn’t even touch it.
7. Declutter the house. Organize H’s toys, clean out closets, etc. I’m always decluttering, but this will be the year everything gets a SYSTEM. Streamlining FTW. I’ve been attempting to be a ruthless cleaner, but there’s still clutter. There will always be clutter. Clutter is my life. 
8. Have date night at least once a month. My former mother’s helper is now an awesome babysitter in high school who lives right across the street. We really need to take better advantage of that! We did way more date nights than in previous years of H’s life, but I don’t think we quite hit once a month. 
9. Take H on more adventures. I so wanted to plan out our mommy/daughter time a little better when the school year started, but I haven’t managed it yet. I need to. With my working 2 days a week and H in 3 different therapies the rest of the week it’s too easy to just hang out at home when we have free time. I don’t feel like I hit this one. I wanted to, but I don’t think I got there. 
10. Read more. 2014 was truly an abysmal year for reading (77 books total, my lowest ever). 84 books. At least it’s better than last year!
11. Embrace my online friendships more. Some dear IRL friends moved away last year, both physically and emotionally. I have some great friends I don’t get to see very often, and I need to make more time for them. But, I also need to use social media to keep my long distance and online friendships thriving. It’s 2015, friends can be there for each other over coffee or bandwidth. Oh, I have to say I did this one with a bang. Hopefully, so much more about that in 2016.
12. Be more creative. I didn’t make enough time for this last year, and I miss it tremendously. Sketch, doodle, design fabric, decorate a cake, make homemade invitations, anything. Use my Cricut, my colored pencils, my endless stash of fabric and paper. MAKE THINGS. It was a pretty creative year, but next year will be bigger. I can feel it.
13. Take up knitting or crochet again. I stopped when I started quilting because I’m allergic to wool. This made knitting tough, my hands were always covered in eczema. I should just get some knitting gloves and do it, I still have a closet full of gorgeous yarn. Nope.
14. Maintain my Etsy store. This was going swimmingly until I applied for my current teaching job, fretted about interviewing for the job, got the job, and started the job. This is entirely understandable; teaching needed to take up some serious mental space for a while, I was a year out of practice. And settling in to a new job is always tough. But, now I need balance. I put too much work into that store to leave it neglected. Nope, nope, nope.
15. Learn to make pasta and cheese. Enough said. Nope. 

On to 2016.