Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

It's been a really hectic December, full of holiday highs with my kids and some tough lows.

It's a new year and a new decade. These past 10 years have probably been the most course setting of our lives. We bought our house, had two babies, I lost my mom and three of my grandparents, our family grew in unexpected but joyful ways. We said goodbye to Georgia and adopted Morgan. We've spent almost a decade working on remodeling our house. I haven't had a dishwasher since 2009!

While I'm not big on resolutions, I do like to look back over the previous year, reflect and set new goals for the this one. The quiet calm of January (plus my natural instinct to hibernate when it's cold and dark out) is my favorite time to do this. I never get everything on my list done, especially when I task myself with too many specific projects, but I like the idea of pushing myself to do more, learn more and remind myself to be open to new experiences. It's too easy to be complacent and stay busy spinning on the wheel of parenthood - I find that I blink and a month will go by. I am the kind of person that needs to push myself out of complacency, remind myself to say yes when a new opportunity presents itself - especially if it is outside my comfort zone.

My goals tend to fall into categories. Healthy habits to keep up plus a new behavior to try to incorporate (self care!). Say yes to new things (especially if they scare me or take me out of my comfort zone) for personal growth, learn new things, creative projects to do, house projects, milestones I want to help the boys reach, family trips and outings to explore the world.

Last year... I said yes to being on the school PTA board (way out of my comfort zone), bought a bike for family bike rides when I had barely ridden on one since I was 11, said yes to a couple of creative projects for fun totally outside my expertise. We potty trained Matt and transitioned him into full time preschool. Oliver learned to ride his bike without training wheels, earned his purple and brown belts in Tae kwon do and jumped off the high dive at our pool for the first time. We tried new experiences like hunting for fluorescent minerals in a quarry and fossils in a stream. We cracked open geodes, did cool science experiments, looked through telescopes, hiked Matt's first national park. The boys tried new sports, we went fishing and boating, lots of swimming, weddings and carnivals and playgrounds and birthday parties and friends, lots of making and doing.

In the house we:

• Redid the living room with a new couch and accessories
• Reorganized the entire house
• Converted our fire pit to propane (with amethyst!)
• Swapped out patio tables to better use the space
• Painted the garage gray 
• Redid the whole raised bed garden (and I LOVE IT) with new fencing, new gates, trellises, pathways, new raised beds, bigger layout. 
• Added new plants to the back and front yard garden beds, moved the strawberry patch
• Stained the deck
• Got halfway through the trench project (totally weather-related, what a disaster... will have to pick it up again in the spring)

(the new summer garden)

This winter we'll be embracing cozy like last year to get through. I spent a ton of time reorganizing the house last winter and while a couple of problem areas still persist (our shared bedroom closet, our office cabinet in the dining room), overall it's been great. In addition to spending some time in the problem areas, the biggest mountain I need to re-attempt is our basement.

Last winter I made great progress. I bought shelves and a ton of bins, moved things around and reorganized things beautifully. It was like 80% done - I still had to tackle tools, the crawlspace and a few other spots, but it was walkable and uncluttered and we could spend time down there. Then life happened again. Busy spring, busy summer, busy fall. Sports equipment, new toys, materials for other projects, tools and supplies that just never got put away properly. It built and built and built, slowly creeping to the point where by December, with all the holiday delivery boxes, it was a disaster of epic proportions. Once again I can barely walk through with a load of laundry and usually knock over 3-5 things in my short journey.

Winter Goals:
- Tackle my closet and the office cabinet again and reorganize
- Reorganize the basement
- Finish Oliver's bedroom updates (photos of Matt's coming soon)
- Kitchen lighting and ceiling holes (Mike)
- Plan garden, prep for spring with seeds and bulbs

Spring Goals:
- Finish trench drainage project (and fix anything that was messed up)
- Set up new garden structures, plant new raised bed garden
- Spring yard cleanup, plant beds and flower pots, mulch garden beds

Summer/Fall Goals:
- Redo back corner with pathways, fixed compost bin, create new garden area back there
- Seal the driveway