I’m amazed and appalled that Christmas break ended for me today. It went too fast. My youngest is home until Monday and my oldest returns to classes on the 14th. My employer closed the offices from December 24th on and I spent a great deal of my at home time sleeping. 2018, especially the fall, took a ton from me so I needed to recharge. Some things that are returning to the line-up now that 2018 as departed…

First, yesterday marked the third day in a row that I hit the gym. Go, team. Arrival of sore muscles and departure of paying for gym time I have not been attending.

Second, I signed up for a four-session workshop to learn how to ride one of those fancy Soul Cycle type bikes. Pray for me. It is highly possible that I will launch myself over the handlebars and injure myself, as I have done in my one previous spin class attempt. The sessions start in a couple weeks and happen once a week for a month. I like the idea of having this option for exercise because it’s close to work and offers a late class on nights when I am stuck in the office. Arrival of a new challenge and departure of allowing social anxiety to keep me from trying it (I hope).

Third, my gym is starting a nutrition challenge on the 7th. I’m excited about that because I need a hard reset, but I’m also anxious because I will need to commit to prepping and maintaining a level of organization throughout that I usually find difficult to maintain. But, just because it won’t be perfect doesn’t mean it won’t be effective. I’m thinking I will set up my Kitchen-Aid on the dining room table (where no one eats because the dining room is basically the dogs’ multi-purpose room) with the spiralizer attached. If I’m going to be ingesting scads of vegetables, I need them to be in fun shapes and sizes. Arrival of real food options and departure of boxes, bags, and ingredients no one can pronounce.

Fourth, I’m completely revamping the class I teach. One would think with all the experience I have designing curriculum and creating instructional materials that this would be a piece of cake. It is not, however, and I am struggling to finish the syllabus. I feel like it’s difficult to commit it all to paper when it’s the first go ’round of the assignments and such. Arrival of intentional writing across the curriculum and departure of students’ writing remaining stagnate.

Fifth, my word for 2019 is BALANCE. That’s a post for another day, though, so stay tuned.