Happy New Year everybody! *shoots paper confetti everywhere* It's January 1, 2025, which means if you haven't already, tis the season to be creating resolutions and goals for you to follow for the next 364.3 (for me, anyway) days. 
I used to not be a huge fan of resolutions, mostly because I would write down three or four and then forget about them by mid-February. So I decided this year to create... 42. Resolutions. *facepalm* XD I won't be sharing all of these, but I did want to share my 2024 goals and how well I did, as well as my goals that I'll be focusing on this year. 
How Did I Do in 2024? I listed five goals in my 2024 resolutions blog post, and for the most part, I did fairly well on them. There were some exceptions, though... Learn basic Latin. I didn't feel like I did as well as I could/should have, but I am much better at reading Latin now than I was last January, and my (amazing!) teacher said I was one of her top studiers, so I guess I can check this one off. Become more fluent in ASL and French. I basically quit French after picking up ASL and Latin, so that did not happen. I have learned more ASL vocab (still iffy on my grammar XP) and I think I'm better at understanding ASL when watching videos of people signing. Bonus: I did decide to learn basic Spanish this year, because I wanted to try another Romance language (more on that later). :)Keep a gratitude/prayer journal. I did do this! I've kept an on-off journal that started out as a diary and morphed into a prayer journal, and for the most part, I've written in it every day - at least every weekday. I'm hoping to continue this habit in 2025.Finish Heart of a Warrior. Yeah... this did not happen. I did not actually complete any stories or novels this year, which I'm a bit sad about. Hoping to change that this year though! Read 200 books. Just barely! I finished my 200th book on December 30, but only after reading several comic books/graphic novels and quite a few rereads. Focus more on my editing business, Written Realms Editing. Yes and no? I did work on my editing side hustle, but I decided to retire the name "Written Realms Editing" for now. Instead (with the help of my mom and my newsletter subscribers, who I am so thankful for), I focused on my editing hustle, Redhead Revisions, and it yielded good fruit! As of December 2024, I have one current client, two future clients, and five past clients (two of whom I hope I'll get to work with again!). If you want to learn more about the editing that I do, check out my website here. What Are My Goals for 2025? With my new word of the year ("abide", in case you were wondering), I'm focusing on letting God have the reins on my life, and especially on my career. That said, a lot of my resolutions are focused on building healthy and sustainable habits (as well as doing some fun stuff, because hey, why not). 
With all of that said, here's a few of my 42 resolutions: Read 200 books (1 Christian nonfiction every month and 100 paperbacks): This is actually three resolutions rolled into one. I haven't moved my goal number, but I am trying to make myself read more paperback books in an effort to become more screen less. I also want to work on the Christian nonfiction books that I own, hence my added challenge to my normal 200 bookload. Exercise 5 times a week. Combined with this goal of mine, I also want to be able to do 5 full pull-ups, 20 full pushups, and 20 hanging crunches before the year is out. Now that I have access to a captain's chair (a pull-up bar and a chair spot for me to work on my dips and leg raises), I want to fulfill one of my childhood dreams and be able to do some pull-ups! We'll see how this one goes. Start a gratitude jar. I've done scant research on this, but I'm pretty sure the gist of it is that I collect scraps of paper where I write things I'm grateful for and keep them in a jar for when I need to remind myself to be content. I'll be consulting Pinterest on this in future weeks, so subscribe to my newsletter if you want to see how this all goes down. Get a paid internship in the summer. I've been really trying for this for the last few months and I've applied to five paid intern positions. At this point, it's up to God and the hiring managers. Finish a novel/la. Though at this point, finishing a short story would be nice too. XD We'll see how this one goes. I don't have super high hopes since I'm graduating this year and will be super busy, but we'll see. Try my hand at drawing again. My artistically gifted sister seems to think I can draw if I put my hand to it, and I want to try out hobbies that don't involve my phone or computer. So, I'm going to try drawing nature and landscapes. I may share these drawings in my newsletter... or I may not. We'll see. ;) That's all for today! Do you have any New Year Resolutions? Feel free to share them in the comments, so we can hype each other up! (Quick aside: to all the US college students who start back to school in the next two weeks - don't give up on your resolutions when you start back to school! You can do this!)
I hope you have a wonderful New Year season, and I'll see you next time!
​~Cate