Last month, I wrote that I was going to eschew annual goals in favor of three more manageable monthly goals.

I am pleased to report that I accomplished January’s goals, which were:

1. Do not buy hot drinks in disposable cups. I cut back on to-go drinks in general, but also started carrying a travel mug with me in my messenger bag most of the time.
2. Attend a Tuesday night swing class/dance. My resolution-making started mid-month, which didn’t leave me many options for swing classes. I fudged it, sending an email in January inviting friends to attend the first swing class in February.
3. Get my reader card for the Library of Congress. Now I just need to figure out what I want to look at first!

Again, we’re more than a third of the way through the month when I make my goals (I’ll work on that in March), but here’s what I hope to accomplish in February:

1. Ice skate at the two new rinks in D.C. There are now three outdoor rinks in D.C., and, while I’ve skated at the rink at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, I haven’t been in several years. A trifecta would be awesome for the season, but I’ll settle for checking out the new rinks in Georgetown and over by the Navy Yard.
2. Mend all my clothing that needs it. I have knit items that need darning. I have rent fabric items that need patching/sewing up. I have buttons that need to be refastened. I keep thinking, I’ll get to that later and put things back into the closet or drawers, but they’re just taking up valuable space if I don’t ever get to the fixing stage.
3. Begin a 100 push-up program. When I did the ropes course last summer, I discovered that while my leg strength is acceptable, my arm strength resembles that of the 90-pound weakling. I have a goal for later in the year that requires a good deal of upper-body strength, so this seems like a good time to get going on it. (I will try regular push-ups, but if I can’t manage any, I’m totally going for the ones where you work off your knees instead of your toes to start with.)

How about you? How are your resolutions going?

I thought I’d join Amanda in her weekly summary of where a weekend went:

• Snow in the late afternoon/early evening Friday meant fewer people out and about, allowing me a much coveted table at the local tea house. Chai and naan with my book, followed by tea and a cookie with Rudi.
• Finally reached Gramma by phone at the rehab facility.
• Dr. Who (we’re still several series behind the current one).
• Cuddly cats.
• Clean laundry.
• My cold, as I promised it would be, is on its way out.
• Lunch — a delicious salad with out-of-season blackberries and raspberries — at a new-to-me restaurant with Sarah.
• Followed by a remarkably tasty PB&J macaron.
• I stopped by the Library of Congress.
• And then headed over the river to the library of Arlington (to return materials before I accrued fines!).
• Rudi, en route home from skiing, gallantly picked me up, saving me from weekend metro waits.
• Starting new books and knitting projects.
• A quick trip to the farmers market, sun-warmed in the early afternoon.
• A teen mystery set in D.C. arrives from a publisher unrequested.
• Alone in the car means blasting one of my sing-out-loud playlists — and pressing repeat on “Accidentally in Love.”
• Joining Rudi out in Bowie for the delightful Wreck-It Ralph in our quest to see all of the nominees in the animated category of the Oscars. (Brave is the only film that remains and the Red Box in Columbia Heights has it.)
• A full moon.
• Home in time to talk to family.

How was your weekend?

I’m appallingly bad at keeping annual resolutions, be they public or private, so instead this year I’m going to try something different: I’ve decided that I’m going to try to accomplish three things each month. If something is working but requires additional reinforcement, it can be carried over to another month, but if something isn’t working or has been accomplished, let’s cross it off the list and work on something else.

For January, my three goals are:

1. Do not buy hot drinks in disposable cups. I am guilty of running out to the local coffee shop for a cup of tea when I’m lacking teabags at work, and the waste that creates is not insignificant. I will take ingredients to make hot beverages into the office and will also bring in a travel mug, for those instances when I truly am out of luck in scrounging anything to flavor my hot water and need to seek outside assistance.
2. Attend a Tuesday night swing class/dance. We’ve talked about going dancing regularly for years, but rarely move anything but our lips. They hold weekly dances nearby, and I have eschewed volleyball for the next couple months in favor of a weekly date night with Rudi. Let’s start out right by getting to at least one this month.
3. Get my reader card for the Library of Congress. I was supposed to do this last year and got only as far as filling out the pre-registration form. I will get my butt over to the Hill and pick it up sometime this month.

How about you? Do you make resolutions or goals for yourself? Are you any good at keeping them?

The first weekend of 2013 will hopefully include a variety of tasks, such as:

• Finish mailing out my Christmas cards
• Mail out the Christmas packages (this will only be possible if one of the post offices is open on Sundays still — Tenleytown’s automatic lobby machine is a possibility)
• Return library books to Virginia (hopefully to D.C., too, but that may be Monday’s task)
• Do laundry
• Wash socks
• Go to the farmers market
• Complete a sock
• Assemble a cabinet
• Vacuum
• Take a walk
• Stop in at the local museum/gallery’s Three Kings Day party
• Write thank you notes
• Review some books
• Hang out with Julia
• Drink eggnog in front of the tree while watching a Christmas movie

How about you? What do you have planned this weekend?

Here in Connecticut, as in many parts of the U.S. recently, we’re in the midst of a winter storm. It’s my first of the season.

Nearly half a foot of snow fell earlier this evening, leaving a white blanket across my parents’ yard and an icing of white on the pines out back. It was beautiful to observe out the kitchen window, particular with the glow of Christmas lights on various shrubs and trees in the yard peeping out from beneath the white coverlet.

Not long after midnight, the snow stopped, but the wind picked up, blowing over my parents’ ridge like a train (or a hurricane). The sound is surprisingly ceaseless, like a jet doing constant loops over the house. Although periodically I can hear the gusts roar down the bank and break against the house, most of the winds must be high up. Between gusts, the trees are not waving the way I’d expected them to be given the noise.

I hope we keep power, but if there’s no three beautiful things post later today, you’ll know why.

Merry Christmas! (And expansive wishes for a wonderful day and year to all, regardless of your personal holiday affiliations and preferences!)