Somehow starting the New Year with a ten-day-old baby inspired me to set ambitious goals for 2013. Call it postpartum adrenaline, I guess.

The pace of the year always picks up during the last two months, so now is as good a time as any to take stock of my progress in 2013.

Resolutions:

1. Run a 5K. – Check! And in an acceptable time, too, 31:22.

2. Knit through my yarn stash. – Kind of check. I knit a lot of what I had into a sweater, but it came out shaped kind of strangely, so I’m ripping it out and trying other projects. Does that count?

3. Read the Catechism of the Catholic Church. – Done! No caveats!

4. Read Anna Karenina. – Currently on page two! That’s progress, right?

And the one you actually care about . . .

5. Sell my novel.

It would be great if all this was building up to tell you my manuscript had found a publisher, but unfortunately—fortunately?—it’s not. There’s one more revision to be done, and though that’s somewhat disappointing, I know the book is getting stronger every time I go back to it. My agent has brilliant editorial sense, and the prudence to be sure that when we do send it out, we send it out in its best possible form.

So I’m not going to sell my novel this year. And that’s okay, because I am doing the work to give it its best shot in 2014.