It's the last day of 2021. 9:14 PM. I'm sitting in bed in my cute new satin jammies that I thrifted for $2 surrounded by pets--Maisel, our dog, Tigger our cat, and three foster kittens. The other two foster kittens are sleeping on Casey's nightstand and our other two cats are hanging out in the living room. Fireworks are popping outside the window but none of us really care (Maisel only doesn't care because she got some drugs earlier). Casey and I decided earlier this week that we would not be staying up to ring in a new year, but we will happily welcome it tomorrow morning after a full night's sleep. We are old people at heart, and an early bedtime sounds better to us than a late night, even if it is to ring in 2022. I'm much happier about a bedtime kiss than a midnight kiss.
Casey had today off and I was happy he was home with me today. Unfortunately I've felt a little sick all day and was unable to do the things I wanted to do (sweep and mop, work on my current sewing project, and make Shabbat dinner), but Casey made all three meals for me today--pancakes, strawberries, and apples for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, and creamy dill chicken with broccoli and potatoes for our Shabbat meal. He even had candles lit on the table. Meanwhile, I sat in bed and watched two Christmas Hallmark movies (I'll be watching Christmas movies through January and pretend it's Christmas because December in Louisiana was HOT), read half of a book, took a nap, and watched two episodes of The Chosen (with Casey).
I felt a little better after dinner so I made some chocolate chip cookies. They were alright. I'm making chocolate chip cookies in a few weeks for the wedding of my bestie and brother-in-law (I'm pretty excited that my best friend of over 15 years will soon be my sister-in-law!) so I plan to test different recipes next week and have Casey take them to work so his coworkers can do a blind taste testing. The recipe I used tonight will not make the cut.
Anyways, tonight I crossed off something that has been on my bucket list for years--read 100 books in a year. My original goal for the year was 50, but for some reason I was on a big reading kick in January and realized a few weeks in that I was on track to read 100 books. So I figured, why not? We don't have kids yet and I'm not sure reading that many books will be as feasible once we do, so the timing was good. It's been a blast. I've listened to audiobooks, read middle grade, YA, and adult novels, quite a few home and self-improvement books. I've taken advantage of my (three) library card(s) and also bought more books this year than I have in a while. (More READING books, that is. I also love to buy vintage books to add to my collection, but I don't usually read them.)
Some of my favorite books were, funnily enough, nonfiction, which I've only started liking in the last few years. I also reread sooooo many books. I love to reread books and reread most of my faves this year.
So what's my reading goal for 2022? Well, after so much reading this year, I'm gonna lower my goal. While I did it, it was quite challenging and cut into my craft time quite a bit. I love sewing and want to make sure I have plenty of time for it this year. I averaged the books I've read each year for the last 12 years (I've been on Goodreads since 2010 and keep up with how many books I read every year) and the average was 40. I think this is a good number for this year. Less than one a week, so I have much more flexibility to sew and volunteer and other things I like to do. If I read more than that, great! If not... then that's fine too. I'm looking forward to reading new books and rereads!
Well, time to go to bed. I'll wake up to 2022!
