2008 was jarring. Talk about discontinuities. I quit pro blogging. I decided to go into teaching. I found a part-time job teaching calculus and algebra. I moved my girls from Montessori into the neighborhood public school. The stock market crashed. My sister had a baby. Our dog died. We adopted a new one.
For 2009, I wish most of all to continue in the direction we’ve already established. I’ve found a house I love in a neighborhood I love with great neighborhood friends. A job I love at a school that challenges me and everyone in it. An insanely energetic dog who pushes me out of bed each morning and gets me out exercising. And, of course, I have my wonderful husband, kids, extended family, and friends. I am satisfied. But I don’t want to just tread water.
Here’s what I’m hoping for in 2009:
- Find a way to blog again and connect online again on a regular basis. I had too much face-to-face stuff to do in 2008 to spend much time online. Plus I was burnt out. I want to blog on a personal level and I want to blog about education. I’ve started a new blog about teaching but haven’t really gotten it off the ground yet. I’ll write a little while there before announcing anything about it.
- Manage teaching logistics better. I have just two classes and 13 students — there is no way I should feel overwhelmed. Yet I do. I have some ideas. I’m going to have my algebra students do their daily work in a journal so I can keep each one’s assignments in one place. I’m going to move my calculus kids’ work onto the computer where it can be graded automatically and give them automatic feedback (see WeBWorK and WebAssign). The algebra kids get too distracted by the computer so I think mostly paper is better for now. The calculus kids are driven to get their work done so I can get them going on their computers. Plus they have tablets so they can write out equations easily.
- Keep eating low carb. In 2008 I started eating low carb. I now don’t even have to do Shangri-La to keep my weight at the level I want. When I eat mainly proteins and fats I don’t have blood sugar highs and lows, don’t think much about food, and find my clothes more often too big than too small. Would like that to continue in 2009.
- Follow up on professional opportunities. I love having a part-time job because it means I can pursue other opportunities, but so far I have focused solely on teaching and keeping my household functioning. I have a lot of ideas about how I could do more at the intersection of education and technology and hope that in 2009 I find the time and energy to pursue those ideas.
- Spend more time with extended family. I’d like to see my sister and her new baby regularly (I hope I will be helpful and not a burden) and spend time with my parents and their respective partners. I am hoping to do a weekly dinner with my dad and his girlfriend because we all like experimenting with new recipes and getting together for fun.
- Clean up my Facebook account. Through Facebook I’ve connected with a lot of people that are important to me — but even so I’m not keeping up with them because my Facebook account is somewhat bogged down with people I don’t really know and don’t have much interest in keeping up with. Same goes for Twitter. I think I will start an entirely new Twitter account.
- Learn more. I love teaching for lots of reasons but one main one is because it is such a great way to learn. Every day I want to expand my knowledge of ideas and connections and people. I feel so fortunate to be able to spend my time learning and sharing learning. I guess that’s what attracted me to blogging professionally too — but there wasn’t enough learning in that for me, at least not where I was.
- Paint, cook, garden more. Pump the creative well inside me. Renew my energy and inspiration daily.
Lucy’s an eight-month-old pointer mix that we adopted from a 

13-year-old Sally was diagnosed with intestinal lymphoma today. It’s usually a treatable kind of cancer — at least treatable insofar as you can use chemotherapy to put it into remission for months or even a year. We will find out more about her prognosis and our options at the visit with the veterinary oncologist on Friday.
I always thought Sally would get to be a doddering old doggie before she died, that she’d reach the point where we’d say “it’s time for her to go.” But she’s not at that point yet, even though she’s 13. A neighbor recently commented, “she’s 13 going on 3″ because of Sally’s exuberant playfulness and puppy-like demeanor.
It was a good idea to plant pansies in the shade of the front flower bed (shown at left) — they’ve loved the wintery spring we’ve had. But next year I should plant purple ones instead of blue ones, because they are the exact same shade as the vinca blooms and don’t add any real interest to the garden right now.
My Claudia lily-flowered tulips (shown at right) are gorgeous. I don’t think I’ll bother with any other tulips — just these tulips plus a bunch of different kind of daffodils (my favorites are
My neighbors have their hot pink moss phlox planted right next to mounds of candytuft. Looks great. My own candytuft did well in places and not so well in others (at left you might be able to see two big plants and two not so big ones further back). Next year I should pick up a few extra candytuft plants if I see them for cheap at King Soopers, like I did a couple weeks ago. My own moss phlox has done great, but I worry there’s too much of it. Still, it looked really pretty with the white Cheerfulness daffodils.