Here we are at the tail end of 2015 & we have finally gotten our first snowfall of the season. The trees have a trace of white on them & the ground is snow-covered (we got about 5 inches of snow yesterday). The birds are enjoying the full suet and seed feeders outside & they are flying back & forth to take advantage of both.
The woodstove is crackling in the kitchen & our little log cabin is warm & toasty. One of our dogs is lying on her dog bed in front of the fire warming her bones ~ I think that's where I'll sleep on those cold nights ahead. We have been lucky so far ~ moderate temperatures & rain until a few days ago. The weather took a cold turn & has given us winter.
We are approaching the new year and I'm hoping that 2016 sees us all healthy & happy (a little prosperity wouldn't hurt either). The past year has been a sad one in many ways ~ there is a pending divorce and I lost 2 cousins (one in her late 70s and another in his late 40s) in the last few months. Our daughters & her 3 sons have moved in with us (the pending divorce) and it is more than a little crowded in our little home. We are all making do, though.
I know that most people have New Years resolutions and I am no different. Each year, I make commitments that I hope will stick and they usually slip away several months into the new year. This year, I will not be making unreasonable demands of myself ~ I just want to pay my bills & get more organized so that things become clearer & I know what I need to do a week ahead. I think that those are reasonable commitments. One thing that I want to do for myself in the coming year is to learn a craft. I like to knit but I am limited as to what I know about this craft so I would like to take a class to learn how to make things like slippers & intricate hats for gifts. I can make simple hats & scarves but that is about the limit of my skills.
I have taught myself several crafts (sewing, candle making, long stitch, cross stitch, simple knitting & crocheting). I would love to be able to master a few so that I feel that the gifts that I make are good enough to give as gifts.
We have a large garden & a small garden & this coming Spring I plan to let one of my grandsons have the small garden for growing potatoes & carrots. I'm hoping that he will enjoy gardening as much as I do. His two brothers don't show much interest in the garden so I will be thrilled to have one of them join me in the dirt. The big garden contains about 60 strawberry plants at one end and the rest will be rototilled and we will add pole beans, tomatoes, broccoli, peppers, cucumbers, acorn squash and zucchini. Somewhere in the mix, I will put sunflowers & zinnias for bouquets for our family's tables. I can't wait to start planting but it will be about 4 to 5 months before we can get started.
Well, it's time to crawl back to reality (after another cup of coffee) and take care of the real "stuff" (laundry, cleaning, shoveling snow & feeding our chickens). I hope that you all have a wonderful New Year's Eve & that you don't set unrealistic goals for the new year. Take care of yourselves & your families & find time to rest & regenerate. Happy 2016!!!!!!!!!!!
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