During the holiday season I pretty much stayed away from the blog (and anything else not work or directly-family related) and spent my time either trying to wrap up 2013 at work or getting the whole holiday 'thing' under some sort of control. The truth of the matter is that my wife did most of the holiday stuff, but it was still a bit nuts.
Anyway, it's Monday and it's supposed to be the first day back to school for the kids, but the weather here in Minnesota looks like this today:
So school's have been closed and we just got the robo-call while I'm typing this - school's are closed for tomorrow as well...
I'm glad that the kids have another day of vacation, but they really need to get back to school for their own good (and our sanity) - it's been 2 full weeks, now plus 2 days, of non-school and they need to get back in the swing of things. So, anyway, I'm getting a bunch done (believe it or not) sitting in the basement today, but lunch was calling and I'm sitting here eating soup and typing this ...
Regardless, it's a new year and at least the symbolic start of something new. I generally don't make resolutions, but I do look back on the past year and try to make some general goals for the following. This year I've actually taken the time to write-out all of my goals after going through a slightly more formal exercise this year and took the approach of combining personal and professional goals into a single document.
I like it and it forced me to go through and figure out what's actually important to me at the moment and what I want my 2014 to look like.
With this sort of thing in mind, I also thought that I'd throw out a list of very cool articles that I've been reading lately (or re-reading because they are so good). Hopefully you also find these interesting/helpful/thought-provoking/etc....
Also - Happy New Year - have a great 2014! And stay warm!
- How Washington Could Make College Tuition Free (Without Spending a Penny More on Education)
- Expected Grace - my wife found this one...
- 14 Fucks I Refuse to Give in 2014
- Hacking Habits: How to Make New Behaviors Last for Good
- Why Having Purpose is the Secret to a Longer, Healthier Life
- If You Commit to Nothing, You'll Be Distracted by Everything
- The Medium Chill
- Bullet Journal - something I'm trying this year
- Crushing the Impostor Syndrome - there's a longer article on this that I liked, but I can't find it anymore....
- The "Middle Class" Myth: Here's Why Wages Are Really So Low Today
- Jumpstart Your Journaling: A 31-Day Challenge - one of the reasons that I'm not blogging here too much....
- Child Nagging and Negotiating - End It With Three Simple Words - another one from my wife
There were other articles as well that I thought were interesting over the last 12 months, but this is the list that comes first to mind. There were a bunch of books that I read that were really interesting as well, but maybe I'll write another post about that later.