Friday, January 1, 2010

Happy 2010

What are you doing to me!!??
Ticket wasn't too sure about the New Year's Eve celebration last night. The noisemakers and party hats were a bit much for him, poor guy. We spent a quiet evening at home, watching a Three Stooges marathon. It's great to hear the children giggling so loudly.
Another year is behind us and the new year opens up before us like an empty book, waiting for us to write the story of our lives in it's pages. The past year has had it's ups and downs and I'm looking forward to continuing work toward our dreams here on this little piece of land that we have.
I've been giving lots of thoughts to what I want to accomplish in the year (and decade) ahead. I've got some goals for the coming year, some broader and more vague but most very specific. So the format will be a bit different than last year. I bet you're dying to hear what I've got in mind for 2010, aren't you? Here goes:

Home/house goals:
  • Sand North wall in the kitchen and paint
  • Finish kitchen island (V's mother sent us a gift card that we are to use for the countertop!)
  • Finish work on upstairs bathroom
  • Plan and begin construction on deck
  • Sort closet and donate clothes to Goodwill
  • SELL HOUSE IN TOWN!!!
  • Replace septic system (dependent on selling house)
Garden/land goals:
  • Complete raised beds (at least 2)
  • Construct herb spiral(s)
  • Draw master permaculture plan
  • Plant apple trees
  • Plant apricot and/or cherry trees
  • Replant strawberries into raised bed
  • Add another blueberry bush or two
  • Remove fence between yard and meadow
  • Build three bin compost pile
Personal goals:
  • Once again, get in better shape. This isn't as much about weight as it is about health. While I've always been in pretty good health, my parents both have trouble with blood pressure and the extra weight I'm carrying has been causing mine to creep up. That NEEDS to change.
  • Learn a new skill or two. OK, I'll confess- this is the knitting goal again- and this time I'm going to make it happen.
  • Complete CEUs. My professional license is due for renewal in June. With the craziness of the last year, I really need to get going to complete all my continuing education for that.
  • Spend more quality time with V. We have been so busy and working so hard that it seems like most times we have a chance to sit down on the couch together one or both of us fall asleep. I'd like to have more focus on our relationship. We went through really tough times a few years ago, mainly because we didn't communicate well with each other and I don't want to fall back into old habits.
Food production/security: I'd like to aim for the 50% home or locally produced goal again but I found that it was so hard to determine that percentage. I think that rather than aim for an overall percentage that is hard to gauge, I'm going to go for at least 2 local meals a week.
The other thing I'd like to do is try our hand at making wine. We tend to drink quite a bit of wine and, while we have made some in the past, it is something that we haven't done for years. Maybe now that we have more space we'll need to get back into that. But not a firm goal for this one.

The three R's: I want to continue to repurpose and recycle as much as we can. We still need to be aware of our purchases and be more deliberate about where our limited finances are going.

I'm sure this master list will be morphed over the year. I've got it typed into my ipod so I can keep modifying it as I go.

What do you think? Am I being reasonable with myself this year?
And what goals do you have for 2010?

7 comments:

  1. A great post! I knew you would be along with those goals soon, but not this soon! I will be thinking of mine over the next few days and posting as well, right now I am too busy with ordering seeds, lol! As Scarlett would say "I won't think about that today, I'll think of it tomorrow!" I think your goals are great and you are sure to achieve them. I do hope your town-house sells soon so you can get that mortgage over with! Thanks for the inspiration, and Happy New Year!

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  2. p.s. I'm with you on that knitting goal.... we can share our misery, but I hope in changes to satisfaction by the end of 2011! I had hoped to get on that over Christmas, but I think I need to wait until the kids are back in school to pick up those knitting needles again...too dangerous for others in the house while I am learning lol

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  3. Ha-I can't knit either! It is very frustrating that my 11 yr old is SO much better than I am! BTW I found a great herbal seed site (medicinal) http://www.botanical.com/products/seeds/seeds.htm
    They even have health package of common herbs for the beginning home herbalist.
    Enjoy!
    Kris

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  4. Wow - that is some list! Very inspiring and I have no doubt you will accomplish all of it. We have a house we need to sell, too, and your list has reminded me that we need to make that a priority and simply get it done! Thank you for provoking some forward thinking for us here! And Happy New Year.

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  5. While I can't help with the knitting because I crochet, I can help with the wine. We make our own wine and beer.
    I posted about the beer making last week (http://all-natural-mama.blogspot.com/2009/12/master-of-homebrewed-beer-my-husbands.html), but I haven't posted much about the wine.
    I have a good friend who taught me to make wine and she put up a very detailed wine-making posting in 2 parts last fall when I bombarded her with questions.
    It's very easy (honest!), much easier than making beer.
    Here is a link to her posting, if you'd like to see it. She put lots of pictures as well:
    Part 1: http://alohaknitter.blogspot.com/2009/09/home-made-wine-part-1.html
    Part 2:http://alohaknitter.blogspot.com/2009/10/home-made-wine-part-2.html

    Hope you are enjoying your new year!
    I made my short-term goal of getting all my seeds ordered before Jan 1. They've almost all arrived now, except those on back-order.
    http://all-natural-mama.blogspot.com

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  6. HI Judy...that's a big list but I knew it would be :-). I haven't made my to do list yet. The only thing I want to do so far is "have more fun".
    This being busy all the time wears on a person. I like the 3 Stooges fun you had with the kids. Looking forward to fun with the granddaughter soon. We put our house on the market on the 11th. I hope we both sell.
    Barb

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  7. what a great list! i've got in my mind what i want to do - we'll see what actually gets done:)
    happy new year
    kris

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