Good-bye 2020!

Looking forward to 2021!

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!!!

 Finally - the end of a very long year of challenges and changes. I can't say I'll miss it any.  My daughter and her fiancé had to cancel their wedding, my best friend passed away and we had to cancel our trip to see my daughter over Christmas. Actually, many other of our plans were cancelled because of the virus. The lockdowns and restrictions certainly put a damper on things! Hopefully the coming year will be better.

I had a lot of changes here at home. One of the biggest was dealing with hubby and son both working from home. There was no longer any ME time. I loved the quiet day, and now there is none. That's OK, though. There are other advantages to having someone home all the time. 

Even with everyone underfoot, I did OK in the crafting department. I had some finishes and learned some new things. I am thrilled to have tried and succeeded at beadweaving, designing my own crocheted top, completed both a short sleeved and a long sleeved cardigan and made 2 different types of ponchos. I learned some new stitches and got a nice amount of items to donate finished. I also finished 17 items off my project list - many of which were added from the previous year. Not bad, overall!

In other areas, I took a few classes on herbology and aromatherapy as well as class on CS Lewis that is not completed yet. My reading goals suffered as I was studying and reading lots of class materials, so I didn't really feel like reading a pleasure book most times. 

I will be posting my goals for next year tomorrow. I've been planning them for the last couple of weeks. Some are quite ambitious - so we'll just see how it goes. Like every other year, if I don't make all the goals, no biggie. It's more like a bucket list than a list of resolutions, so I don't feel guilty if I don't do them. I'll roll them over to the next year's list IF they are still relevant. 

Goodbye 2019

I can't believe it's really the last day of 2019. Where did the year go? I had so many plans and ideas, but because of weather or other circumstances, they didn't all get done. There's always next year and I am really looking forward to it!

Although many things weren't done, there were accomplishments and new things tried. We dehydrated more, canned new things and explored new places. I cannot complain, even with all that we didn't do. Every year is a time to try to better one's self and every year that seems to be accomplished, maybe not to what I'd originally set out for, but still there's improvement.

Tonight will be quiet for us. We will settle down with a good book or movie and probably go to bed before midnight. Us old folks here don't stay up late like the young'uns do. We will just enjoy the day and evening and reflect on the last year and think about all the things we would like to do next year.

Now on to a new and clean slate!

Have a safe and happy New Years Eve!!!

Winding Down 2019

Here we are with only a few days left in 2019. Looking back, I didn't do as much as I wanted, but did do some things I hadn't planned on. I know, life does that. That's why I don't do New Year's Resolutions, but instead make a list of things I'd really like to do. Every year I do this, except for this past year. I started the year healing from a shoulder injury I ended up with in 2018. The surgeon said it would take a good year to heal, so I decided I wouldn't push it, but just work with it. There was no garden and I put up food that I had bought from the farmer's market, etc. when I could. It's not what I originally would have wanted, but, hey, it's life and we got to work with what we have.

Hubby surprised me a couple of weeks ago and bought me a lovely bread maker. I have one, but it's showing it's wear and making noise and not making nice loaves any more. The new one is a Cuisinart Convection Bread Maker CBK-200. Wow - what a machine it is! It has 16 settings including quick breads, jam, gluten free and low carb. It works well, produces lovely loves and is so much more quiet than my old one (even when the old one was new!) Although I enjoy making my own loaves, when making one loaf at a time, this is much more economical than heating up the oven for just a loaf of bread. Now, if I'm using the oven for other things or cooking more than one loaf, I'll use the oven and make the bread by hand.

An Imperfection Can Hold the Greatest Beauty

December is my time to reflect on what has happened throughout the year. I go over my accomplishments, "failures" that hold lessons learned, and things I didn't have time for. It is also the time that causes me to remember so many things about family and friends.

As I was sorting through some boxes in the basement, I came across a box that held a ceramic bird tree.  My mother made this tree for me many years ago. She was taking ceramic classes at the time and decided to make a snow covered bird tree for me for Christmas. She had glazed it and put the snow on it and perfected it to make it look exactly how she wanted it to be. The tree was put in the kiln to fire, and that evening, the electricity went out, so the owner of the shop couldn't fire it right away. I can't remember how long the power was out, but it was long enough to allow the snow to slide down a bit. The owner didn't let Mom know what happened and just fired it. When Mom went to pick it up, she was very unhappy with it and was going to throw it out! It wasn't the perfect tree that she wanted and felt it wasn't gift worthy.

I absolutely loved it. It looked so much more realistic to me. I begged her to finish it by adding the lights and to let me have it and not toss it. She did finish it for me, but was terribly reluctant to give me the tree. She was so disappointed in it. My mother was a perfectionist and , believe me, she would never gift something that she felt was not up to her standards. However, by her doing this, I'm sure there were things people missed out on, because something she made for them was not "perfect" and she wouldn't gift it, but go out and buy a gift from the store instead.

I will admit, her needing things to be perfect had rubbed off on me some. It has taken me a long time to get over the need for perfection. Pulling out the tree brought back so many memories and how much I learned from it. Believe me, I see the tree and realize that an imperfection can hold the greatest beauty. I think the tree is much more beautiful that if it had turned out perfect.