Happy New Year! Can I still say that on 16th January? It is still a pretty new year really, and I hope that it is being good to you so far.

As I’ve said many times, I am not a fan of  traditional New Year’s Resolutions. As far as I’m concerned, January is not the month for punitive endeavours like giving up booze or half starving yourself to lose the mince-pie based insulation built up over Christmas. However, although you can take the girl out of the middle-management strategy and planning job (and it’s now been TEN YEARS since I worked in a job with regular hours, annual leave and, umm, a salary), you can’t take the strategy management out of the girl, and I do love a bit of objective setting.

These aren’t particularly specific or measurable objectives, it was more a chance of using a little window of quiet over the Christmas holidays, when my children were being entertained by my brother and SIL, to think about my life, and our family life, and what I like about it, don’t like about it, want to do more of or less of. You get my drift.

There are a whole load of domestic/DIY objectives, which read more like a long and somewhat daunting to-do list – replace kitchen sink, redecorate kitchen, paint bathroom, organise the cupboard under the stairs etc etc. and that doesn’t exactly make my heart sing. But there are also objectives which I’m actively looking forward to – more baking with small daughter, and cooking proper meals with slightly bigger daughter. Getting into the habit of having a proper Sunday lunch as a family, and film afternoons after school on a Friday. Making dates to see my friends more often.

I have some work related objectives too. At some point I will be refreshing and revamping this blog, and I’m going to get back in the game with my writing, starting with finding a new agent and carrying on with my latest idea for a new book.

Finally, I’m going to reinstate an objective from a couple of years ago which I loved, and aim to read fifty-two new-to-me books in 2019, and blog each month about what I’m reading. I haven’t been feeling great the last week or so, as I seem to be having an ankylosing spondylitis flare-up, and the fatigue has been quite overwhelming, but reading is still achievable, and so I’m off to a good start in January, and will be blogging about it at the end of the month.

Does anyone else have any New Year objectives, or is January daunting enough without all that?