My wife and I are trading “admin days.” I got the whole day with no parental responsibilities to do some organizing and planning for the coming year (hers is tomorrow).

I spent the early morning doing some paperwork and research for finances.

Once the sun came up and it started to get a little warmer, I was able to get out into the workshop and clean it a bit. We’ve been in this house for ten years and I’ve remodeled most of the house from that workshop, but it is an organizational disaster. I really need to think through how it is laid out and how I use it and how it should work better. I need to throw out a couple of hundred pieces of scrap wood. The kids are starting to get interested in woodworking, and the place just isn’t safe or set up for them. Taking a step back to hopefully take several forward.

I went to the library and checked out an audiobook of the Silmarillion, which I hope to listen to with the older two kids this year. We tried previously, but we got bogged down and never finished. I hope an audio version will help!

I went for a hike. New Year’s Resolution in action.

A couple of years ago I remodeled a closet upstairs and put in a little office. When I say little… it’s very little – about 4.5 x 5 feet. But it’s got bookshelves that finally let me unpack some books that had been in boxes for like six years or more. So, in the afternoon I started going through those books and making a stack of books to give away and a stack of books I want to read this year. The rest I tried to organize into categories. It’s a first pass. I’m sure I could get rid of a whole lot more and never miss them.

It feels good to be a little more organized. Still a lot of work to do though, on all fronts.