Strolling into the New Year

I don’t do New Year Resolutions. Never have. I may make a goal here and there, but there’s never been anything magical about the turning of the calendar page from December 31st to January 1st in my mind. It’s just time for a new calendar.

That said, I do have a few goals I’d like to see accomplished this year. I need to lose weight. I’m not obese in my mind, but I suppose my height vs my weight would disagree with me. I’m active enough…again, in my mind…I mean how could I not be with a homestead full of animals and children to tend pretty much on my own? I love a lazy day, don’t get me wrong, but around here LIFE happens and lazy isn’t always what you might think it is.

We love to get out and take nature days, choosing a forest preserve and spending several hours hiking. We make a variety of trails, from easy to experienced, and most are 3-5 miles long. I suppose that isn’t technically exercise in the strictest of sense, but a 5 mile hike, climbing and meandering thru brush and over rocks is pretty dang good in my opinion.

But, even with all that, I’m not exactly in any great shape, so apparently I need to do more. Eating isn’t an issue. We eat pretty decent, not as much of the truly good stuff as I’d like, but we are hardly on a Standard American Diet here. We aren’t boxed, prefabricated meal types on any level, we eat vegetables, we don’t ‘graze’ all day or feast on sugary snacks and junk foods. I am far too addicted to sweet tea, though, so there’s a definite start.

Other goals I’d like to see come to fruition this year include getting moved into that addition that has been a thorn in my side for going on 4 years now. Sigh, it’s a box on the back of the house. How difficult can it be to just GET IT DONE ALREADY? It has walls, it has insulation, it has a roof…I’ve got windows ready to go in, and heck, I can easily get a door ready to go. The kitchen needs turned around…sink is going to do a 180 and stay along the same wall, no plumbing to move at all, the woodstove needs moved and then piped in. That’s a bigger-than-me project, but still not something that isn’t easily done.

It’s all a matter of TIME and MONEY. Isn’t everything? Sigh. Dewey has little time at home to get things rolling. I guess this is my year to gain some passable construction skills.

Lord help us, we’ll be living in a duct tape and cardboard shack…

 

There are wedding and new baby goals in process this year as well. Oldest son Chris proposed to his girlfriend Amber over the Christmas work break. I’ve got several projects to get working on for that now. Some are new skills for me so I’m sure it will be slow-going and a bit stressful, but I really want to get these things done, so the motivation is there.

Baby projects are quicker coming, with daughter Johanna and her fiance Matthew due with our first grandchild in mid June. Oh the sewing and yarnwork ahead of me! Seems that Grandmother’s Hope Chest will be getting filled and put to use now. I have several things ready to go, but with new babies there are ALWAYS new project ideas that creep in. I have plenty of want-to-make projects on my list. And not a lot of time to get them going.

 

I guess strolling into the new year isn’t very accurate for this post. I need to get running full steam ahead! It’s a wonderful kind of busy though,

What are some of your goals for the new year ahead?