Monday, December 31, 2012

Monday

Placemats shipping this morning and a newly printed scrap.

Friday, December 28, 2012

Ending 2012


The turn into the new year brings so many possibilities, and at every year's end I find myself so full of hopeful excitement.  Generally, by the middle of February I have sunk back into my normal, comfortable routines and begun to forget all about those resolutions.  By June, I have literally forgotten what my resolutions were to begin with.  The only one I remember from last year was the goal to drink more hot tea and less coffee (coffee can be an all day long habit for me when the weather is chilly).  As it turns out, I just ended up drinking more of both.  Not this year, folks!
It just so happens that I pledge to stick with it every year.  Surprising, I know.  The fact that I wait until the beginning of the year to enact changes I should have done months ago may explain my lack of success.  
Not this year, folks!

This year, I am listing a few goals here, and not in one of my bazillion notebooks that I will likely never look at again.  I am a list making fool, and when I make a list I feel more organized and accomplished, and then I don't usually look at the list again.  I make a new one.

In 2013, I'd like to:
  • Take more pictures
  • Keep up with my financials and taxes every month (I have seen this goal in my lists a time or seven)
  • Set up an art lab in the basement for the family to play.  I just bought this book, and I am BEYOND excited about it!!
  • Simplify and organize our home
  • Sleep in the woods more often
  • Get a food bombing group started.  A few weeks ago, it occurred to me that it would be relatively simple to regularly cook up a huge pot of warm goodness and hand deliver it in little boxes to people that may be in need of some warm goodness.
  • Walk the dog more often
  • Let patience and gentle kindness guide my words and deeds
  • Make something new every week
  • Pick up a pen, pencil, or paintbrush everyday (and not just to make a list)
  • Spread gratitude NOW
  • Grow more food
Looking at this, it occurs to me that my resolutions are all solutions to my end of year regrets.  I suppose this is probably true for many of us.
I regret not having more to remind me of this year that's passing; I regret having to spend two entire days of pure frustration trying to compile and make sense of the year's expenses; I regret freaking out when it's dinner time and the dinner table is not even visible under the piles of the day's activities; I regret spending too much time looking for things; I regret having only been camping twice this year; I regret not doing more for my neighbors when they need help; I regret not taking more time to leisurely stroll through my community with my family with no goals at all (except to get the dog to poop); I regret being a frustrated parent and not remembering all the time that I am a teacher; I regret ending a year with at least 35 projects still existing only in my brain; I regret not writing more; I regret not sending every single thank you note that I intended to; I regret only harvesting about 10 tomatoes this year, and that they all came from my mom's plants, not mine.

No regrets this day.
My biggest goal for 2013 will be to end it with very little regret.