Happy New Year – 2018

I’m a day late with this post. I had hoped (and planned) to write yesterday, but didn’t. I found time for other things beside blogging, more important things – family, a walk along the frozen lakeshore, preparing and eating dinner, and having fun playing dominoes and watching the bowl games with my family.

It’s good. It was a very good day. The first of many in 2018.

I am not much into New Year’s resolutions. I used to develop New Year’s resolution, but they were often abandoned as the year progressed. Now, my ‘new year’ tends to land at the end of the school year and beginning of summer. I make my resolutions in late May and early June as I reflect on the previous school year and get to audition for retirement. I always ‘fail’ my audition and get to go back to school every fall. Someday, I hope to pass the audition and I’ll retire from teaching, but I don’t intend to ‘retire’ from life.

Last year I made an exception and took on writing and mailing, with postage, a thank you note each day. I began in January and did well writing the first few months, but my writing dropped off as the year progressed. Though I fell short in my writing, my thankfulness and gratitude grew. I plan to continue being thankful and writing (and mailing) thank you notes into the 2018 and beyond.

As a science and history teacher, I encourage my students to ‘be curious and wonder.’ I model curiosity as much as I can and often the homework in science is simply to be curious and wonder, or BC&W. Some of my students take my advice and do get curious, others are more like the young adolescents they are and are more anxious than curious. I know I make a difference and inspire more students than I realize.

This year, I am going to chronicle 2018 in photographs. I am seldom without a camera and there are days when I take no photos and others I take several. Lately, I’ve noticed my photos have gone stale. Friday morning, I discovered a new quote:

“The world will never starve for want of wonders, but only for want of wonder.” G. K. Chesterton British philosopher and theologian (1874-1936)

I am going to put my daily standing science homework into practice and be curious and wonder in my own life. It’s not that I am not already curious and full of wonder, it’s more that I decided to chronicle my curiosity and wonder. The inspiration was two-fold the quote and a blog post from Sea Blue Lens I had read about her Project 365 – taking a photo each day and creating a calendar of photos for the year.

So, I’ll be taking a photo a day and posting to Instagram. My daily photo will be posted in the top right corner of the blog. Here is today’s photo.

It was of this morning’s full moon. I could see the moon clearly, but the camera couldn’t. I was awake early and the moon was setting. I noticed the moon and was able to capture it with my camera – not my phone and it created a couple of technical issues (similar to Frigid Friday’s tech issues) which included an e-mail to myself with file size reduced photos.

It’s been cold across the US this week with temperatures below freezing. I had re-set my phone’s weather app to Celsius and was constantly having to recalculate in my head -12C is really 10 or 11F. It’s been cold here (Up north in Michigan) and at home. In fact, home is colder than here – this morning’s temps – home -24C and here -12C. Quite a difference.

The cottage is quiet the only sound is the wind is whipping past the windows and rustling the tree branches and I am listening to Art Garfunkel croon “I Only have Eyes for You” and it’s dreamy. I recently rediscovered the album from my 8th grade Christmas. The discovery was inspired by the Crown’s season 2 episode 4 – it’s rather intriguing. Here is the season 2 series trailer….


video updated on 12/30/2022…..

Coincidentally, episode 4 is about a photographer, or two.

Everyone is still sleeping, even Ivy. We were all up New Year’s Eve for the ball drop and last night we had our traditional New Year’s Day dinner – roast pork, sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes. We played dominoes on the table after dinner. It was fun. It was a great first day of the year.

Today is gonna be a great day, I know it and I can feel it. It’s gonna be a great year.

“The world will never starve for want of wonders, but only for want of wonder.”

Making the Days Count, one day at a time, being curious and full of wonder.

What are you curious about? what makes you curious?

4 thoughts on “Happy New Year – 2018

  1. I seem to be in a slump….I have material for blogs but don’t quite have the gumption to write…mostly I think because I should do a year end blog, or a beginning of the year blog and I have nothing for that….so I haven’t done anything at all. Eventually I’ll move again.

    I spent the week between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve up north on the shores of Lake Michigan. It snowed and blew every day. There was a moment of sun at the beginning of the week, and a glance of sun one day in the middle, but mostly just snow and wind. It was all lake effect..when I left on Sunday I found sunshine as close as Suttons Bay, about 11 miles away.

    Now I’m back downstate and guess what. Clouds and no sun. Sigh. I think I’m a person that needs some sun, I just didn’t realize it until now!

    Happy New Year to you and your family!

    1. Hang in there! I am back at home….. sad, but true. I really enjoy being up North, but my break is finished and I go back to teaching tomorrow. 8th graders, science and history. I am certain they are as excited about getting back as I am. I understand the rut… I have ideas, but no time to write or read other blogs. Or the time I have is spent elsewhere, it’s sort of a conundrum.

      We drove home Thursday afternoon and it’s good to be home. Friday and Saturday were bright and sunny, but cold. Today it warmed up and we had freezing rain. It’s January in the midwest, we have to take what we can get,

      Happy New Year to you and your family, too and stay warm and safe. Peace.

Thanks for visiting MtDC. How are YOU Making YOUR Days Count?