For several years now, I’ve been starting off the year with projects instead of resolutions. I don’t alway complete my projects, but I enjoy starting them and working toward a goal. And I don’t feel guilty if I don’t finish. If I do finish, I feel a sense of accomplishment. Win-win. So, here are my twelve projects for 2012, that I never got posted at the beginning of the year, and an update on each one as to how I’m doing as of the end of January.

1. Bible study project. I’ve picked twelve books or portions of the Bible to study in 2012—one per month. To be posted soon. In January I’ve just been reading in Psalms and trying to get my mind back after a long journey into lunacy.

2. Twentieth Century History Project. I’m continuing this project as I teach my twentieth century history at our homeschool co-op. We’re through the 1950’s now and into the years that I can actually remember.

3. North Africa Reading Challenge. You can still join, if you’d like. And here’s the update for January.

4. Praying for Strangers (and Friends) Project. I was quite impressed last year by my reading of River Jordan’s Praying for Strangers. I still can’t walk up to strangers and tell them that I’m praying for them or ask them for prayer requests. But in 2012 I hope to ask God to give me one person each day to focus on and to pray for. Maybe I’ll be praying for you one day this year. I need to make myself do this consistently.

5. Read Aloud Thursday. I really want to concentrate on reading aloud to Z-baby this year. Right now we’re reading The Lord of the Rings (her request), and maybe we will be reading it for the rest of the year! And I want to participate in Read Aloud Thursday each week at Hope Is the Word.

6. Texas Tuesday. I still want to read books about Texas, by Texas authors and set in Texas and post about them on Tuesday. I’d also like to round-up other reviews of Texas books either weekly or monthly, but I don’t have a plan worked out for that yet. I haven’t really done much about this project in January, and tomorrow is Tuesday.

7. U.S. Presidents Reading Project. I got David McCullough’s biography of Truman for Christmas, and I plan to read that chunkster during my Lenten blog break. I don’t know if I’ll read any other presidential biographies this year, but if I finish Truman I’ll be doing well.

8. 40 Inspirational Classics. I had a plan last year to post about 40 inspirational classic books over Lent, but I only managed to write about eighteen. Maybe I can post about the other twenty-two this year.

9. Shakespeare Project. I hope to plan a Shakespeare course for my homeschool co-op next year, and I’ll probably be posting about that quite a bit in the latter part of the year.

10. Meal planning project. I hate meal planning. When I do plan, I decide that I don’t want what I planned. So my “project” is to figure out a meal planning idea that works.

11. Wednesday’s Word of the Week. I was doing well on this project until the holidays came along, and then it got lost.

12. My Lenten Blog Break. For the past few years, I have taken a break from blogging during Lent. Ash Wednesday this year falls on February 22, less than a month from now. I hope to have posts pre-written and scheduled for Lent before I go on hiatus. If you are interested in guest-writing a post, particularly a post for Texas Tuesday or Wednesday’s Word of the Week, please email me at sherry.early@gmail.com. I’ll be happy to schedule your post on either of those subjects for publication on Semicolon if you can get it to me before February 22.