Another year, another list of resolutions. This year I’m going for one big goal and a few smaller goals.
// Get rid of 50% of my stuff — Yes, I am insane. (And yes, Damian, I know I said 30% earlier in the week, but now I’m going for half! — here are some reasons why.) I don’t know how feasible this is, but I want to do it badly. After 33 years of life, 11 years of motherhood, 4 years of marriage, and 3 years of home-ownership, I’ve accumulated way too much stuff. And, by “my stuff” I really mean “our stuff.” There isn’t a drawer, shelf, or closet in this house that isn’t cram-jammed with things, and when said house is 960 square feet things get pretty claustrophic pretty quickly. How much of it do I actually need? I can’t tell because I don’t even know what it all is! My goal is not only to clear out the excess stuff, but also to document my decluttering journey here on my blog. (If I hold myself publicly accountable, maybe it will actually happen.) My guess is that it will take several sweeps of the whole house before I can whittle it down by half, but I’m up for the challenge!
// Do the 52 Week Portrait Project (Again) — “A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in 2015.″ I loved doing this project so much last year, and I know that my readers really enjoyed it, too. I’m looking forward to seeing my kiddos and my photography skills grow throughout another year.
// Read all of the books I got for Christmas before next Christmas — I made this my goal in 2013, and it really helped keep me motivated to finish the pile of books on my nightstand. I received an interesting collection this year, which included a lot of non-fiction DNA books (so I can finally understand what my test results mean!), along with a novel, a biography, and a memoir: Ancestral Journeys, by Jean Manco; Trace Your Roots with DNA, by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak and Ann Turner; The Seven Daughters of Eve, by Bryan Sykes; Genetic Genealogy: The Basics and Beyond, by Emily D. Aulicino; Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout; Hetty, by Charles Slack; The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls.
I once read that all mothers should have three books going at once so that they always have something to read, no matter the situation: a “stiff book” (i.e. a challenging one); a moderately easy book (i.e. a biography); and a novel — not “twaddle” — (i.e. Eliot, Dickens, etc). I think that this should apply to all people, not just mothers, and I think my Christmas books fit nicely into those categories and will keep me very busy.
// Write lots of snail mail — This one goes on my list every year because I think it’s important at least to try. My grandmother was the postmaster of North Haverhill, NH for decades (and New Hampshire Postmaster of the Year in 1986, no less!). If nothing else, perhaps a love of all things mail-oriented is in my genes. I’d love to write to you, so please add your address to my postable account (if you haven’t already), and anyone can write to me here any time: Kelli Wilson, PO Box 313, Walpole, NH 03608. If you haven’t heard from me in awhile, you can always bring that to my attention 
Happy New Year, everyone! I’d love to hear your resolutions, so please feel free to leave them in the comments.
