Christmas was wonderful, busy, and a perfect passage into the new year. Our kids were very giving and creative (as always), and they totally deserve the gifts that they received. We spent our Christmas Eve at home, together. Tiffany arrived in the evening and is staying for a few days, and we enjoyed David's (Kait's boyfriend) company from Christmas Eve through breakfast. On Christmas day, we visited Grandma's house, then Shelby's family, and, finally, my parent's home to wrap up the night. It was a happy and exhausting day!
Now we rest and prepare for a new year. We have gone through so many changes this year and look forward to even more during 2012. One of the family gifts from us this year were two alpacas that we are scheduled to receive next month from Spruce Hill Farm. The kids are so excited, and we now have a defined start time to our livestock farm. We will put up temporary fencing until we can put up our barn in the spring, and then we will also add sheep, chickens, and goats. We will also begin beekeeping in 2012 - two hives to start us off. The garden will also be dedicated in the spring, providing us with our fruits and vegetables. Although many of our trees our planted, we will need to replace some and add more plants to our plan, especially blackberry and strawberry plants. The outside of our home is a huge part of our sustainability plan, and 2012 will be an important year for establishing our farm.
Hopefully 2012 will also bring me a career. I feel that I keep repeating myself here, with just a different time line. Being established in our new home is a huge part of my career, so we'll see where this goes. My license expires in July, so I will also need to figure out what I need to do to renew that.
Once we have our farm established, I would like for us to have a vacation - we've missed out this year, and I feel that it would be great for our family. The two places I would most like us to visit are Chittenango, New York and St. Petersburg, Florida. Our kids need to be reminded of our Florida living, as do we, since our feet last hit the sand over three years ago. Chittenango is beautiful in the summer, and we all love visiting Shelby's home town. Of course, this all depends on finances, time, and finding a good farm sitter.
What other resolutions do I make for the New Year? I'd like us to continue our goal for sustainable and green living: clothes lines, rain barrels, canning and freezing, and hopefully a wood-burning stove. I would like to be farmers by the end of the year, having the tools and clothing we need to live our life comfortably, in all kinds of weather, on our farm. I would also like to obtain personal growth: read more, master a foreign language, write my book(s), start a hobby, etc. Shelby amazes me with all that she does and learns - she never seems tired and is always absorbing new information, information that she practices and masters. I feel that I've become lazy in that respect, once I graduated. I've been using the excuse that I'm waiting on my career, but I need to get my mind and body in gear again.
This year's goals are more a list of things that will happen, along with a few things that I would like to add to the mix. I have no doubt that we will be in a very different place a year from now. I cannot predict what that place will be, only that it will be very, very different. Hopefully my blog will capture that change, and hopefully family and friends will be a huge part of that change. But most importantly, I hope for great changes in who we are, changes that will turn us into stronger, healthier, and better people in this beautiful family that we are blessed with. Happy New Year!
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| One of Our Florida Christmases |
It's funny, I was looking over some of my previous blogs and I could feel that stress of hating where we lived. Now we absolutely love where we live and still expect so much change over the next 12 months. I just see this place as a continuous flow into making it our paradise.
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