Resolutions

Happy New Year! We had an impromptu New Years Eve party that was really fun until 2am.  I've been either pregnant or nursing on New Years Eve since 2005 so this was a nice reminder that I'm still actually young. 

Best Moment of the New Year: Sadly, this is a tie. It could be visiting with my friends the Odoms and the Jauquets for our annual sleepover (see Worst Moments).  I love those guys and I just feel so comfortable and un-judged when we're together. 

Or, since I'm trying to hold on to my honest first reactions to things and not let them get immediately rewritten to be more socially-acceptable, I could say that my Best Moment of the New Year was having a few quiet times to continue reading the Twilight series books.  You could see how choosing this over the other would be a social faux-pas in several ways.  (of course, even if I did think this was better, the Odoms and the Jauquets wouldn't get offended.)

Worst Moment of the New Year: Our annual sleepover wasn't so much about sleep. And I didn't really mind that the kids were up talking and fussing and waking each other up until around midnight.  I did mind that this continued after I went to bed and remained a problem for the rest of the night and into the morning.  

Charlie, the 10 month old, took the early shift of fussing but she settled down completely around midnight and didn't wake up again until the early morning.  J. shared a room with her 3 year old best friend William and his little 14 month old sister.  They were all incompatible since the baby wanted to sleep and the older kids couldn't stop talking and giggling to go to bed. Eventually, with some bed hopping, we got those 3 to sleep. C. was in a room by herself until Jeremiah and I joined her. She cried on and off from bedtime to morning time. Nothing would soothe her. I don't know what she wanted. And then tonight she threw a fit when bath water got into her ear. Maybe she's got an ear infection? If so, it'll have to wait until Monday.

Anyhow, this isn't disappointing. We expected as much from a sleepover with 4 kids under 4.  I just get so bitter when I don't get to sleep.

Thoughts Lately:

(drum roll)

My New Years Resolution will be...

Gardening! 

I'm going to manage the crops that we have (transplanting the strawberry beds into new locations for future management and really staying on top of our asparagus harvest).

I'm going to make new garden beds for our usual veggies.

I'm going to replant our annual herb garden since it was a success last year. 

I'm going to add more berry bushes since I don't think last year's blueberry bush died as others have before (has the streak been broken?).

To be extra good, I'm going to try to do a Seed Co-op for ordering from Seed Savers Exchange.  I'm also going to plant with the intention of canning and hope that I end up with time and energy to do that. (if not, no sweat. it's not a resolution or anything)

I'm also going to try to save a few of my seeds, but not go crazy trying to get them all. I might not have time to focus on that with our busy year coming up.

We've also made a few household decisions that happen to coincide with the New Year but these aren't quite resolutions. I'm going to buy all our meat and most of our dairy from Whole Foods now so that I can get the kind of organic products that I want (not just something with the organic label slapped on it).  We're going to schedule some Free Days into our calendar so that we can hang around the house and catch up on things. And we're going to book a weekend away somewhere- not too far, not expensive, and not a big deal. Just time together in March before the campaign goes full speed!