January Goals and 2013 Goals

It's a new year!  A clean slate, a blank page, just waiting for me to write something new every day.  Think of the possibilities!  Okay, yeah, that doesn't sound like me.  But the truth is that every day is full of choices and while there are some choices I am going to make, every single time (Do I go to work today?  Do I put effort into my job?) there are also some things that are optional that I should be choosing.

Photo unrelated.

So let's start with what I'm going to make happen this year:

• 2012 was SO BUSY.  What was I even doing?  I feel like I constantly ran out of time and looking back, I don't feel like that was meaningful.  So I'm taking 2013 to live simply.  Enjoy time with friends, go camping, keep a few hobbies.  But for the most part, I'm not going to sweat the small stuff.  
• Garden is a big part of my year.  I feel like I put a lot of effort into the garden for not such a great return.  Let's say my time is worth $5 an hour while gardening (because I enjoy it, but it is WORK).  How much time do I spend cultivating tomatoes for the return?  Would it make more sense to just buy tomatoes at the farmer's market?  Last year's garden was an experiment, this year's garden is a labor of love.
• Talk more.  Cultivate relationships.  I've been exploring this lately - it's getting easier to become a social island every day.  You can communicate with friends via text, email, facebook, etc.  You can use the self-checkout at the grocery.  I hate calling people on the phone, and can easily avoid it.  But the thing is, it's healthy to talk to people.  Check out this story about how a community of Italians avoided Western diseases by cultivating personal connections.  I'm going to spend 2013 asking cashiers how their day is going, and actually caring about the answer.

So nothing too life-changing.  Definitely doable, and hopefully habits that will continue to grow long beyond this year.

Let's break it down for January!

• Part of January's living simply is to avoid time wasters like facebook and mindless TV.  Read more, talk more, live in the world more.   
• In addition, January also sounds like a good time to avoid sugar.  I think it's safe to say that December is a month of over-consumption of sugar, which times January perfectly for cutting back.
• Make more wine.  I know.  We somehow ended up with a bunch of wine kits and I've got one brewing right now.  A blackberry zinfandel, doesn't that sound interesting?  I have a feeling it's going to be a little sweet for my tastes.
• Hockey game!  My parents are taking us kids out to a game as part of our Christmas swag.  In the past we've gone to see the Wings, but the flippin NHL can't get its act together.  But this will be just as fun.
• A trip to Chicago!  The summer was all about traveling north, so the winter is going to be all about traveling south.  Sort of like snowbirds, except that the distance traveled is proportional to age (ie I'm about a third of the age of a snowbird, so I'm only going about a third of the way south...it's a bit of a stretch.  Just let me have it).

January is already looking pretty full, but it's mostly trips and legit hobbies, so I think I plan to live simply in January.   We'll see.  Is it possible to be busy but still live simply?