Happy 2010.

Seems weird to be in the 10's. But here we are! :) I hope everyone had a lovely, dreamy, wonderful, joyful, blessed holiday season and New Year. I'm kind of glad all the bustle is all over. There's something nice about starting a new year. It's kind of like getting new school supplies. Or a new day planner. I'm one of those people who love the nice, clean, empty pages, just waiting to be filled up with new projects, notes, scribbles, and doodles. For now, it's clean. It's fresh. After all, isn't it nice to know, as Anne Shirley said, that tomorrow is another day with no mistakes in it?

God has really been working on me in 2009 (with help from the prayers of a couple of dear friends -- thank you!!) and now that the year has come to a close, I look forward happily to a new year full of continued growth and new challenges. Moving away from the Big City was difficult in 2008, but eventually I got used to the small town. I still (and always will) miss having my friends and family so close by. Even in the Big City, they weren't all that close by, but they were definitely closer than 3+ hours. I sometimes truly ache for dinner with my sister, or tea with Kerri, or enjoying the holidays with my folks. But through God's grace, He helps me bear the ache. Imagine how the pioneers of old felt, leaving their families (sometimes never to see them again!) to move miles and miles and states away. I must be thankful for e-mail and unlimited cell phone plans and cars that go 70 miles per hour. :) Having a baby in 2009; now that was both exciting and terrifying. But we've found a nice rhythm together as a family -- although my many years of independence still gnaws at me when I'm doing dishes and cleaning house at 11pm when the baby has finally gotten to sleep. I don't think I've quite accepted fully the fact that I simply can't do everything I used to be able to do. Nevertheless, God has seen me through these two major life changes...not to mention many little battles that occur from 7am to midnight each day. 2010 will bring another life change (hopefully) -- the building of our home on my dad's ancestral property.

I'm not big on resolutions -- I always get in over my head when I do that and then feel like a failure. But I think if one sets realistic goals, it's much easier to build -- and hold onto -- the confidence to complete them. Here are my goals for 2010. I look forward to seeing what others have chosen to accomplish in the new year.

Eat better. I have a little person who is soon going to be very interested in tasting what's on my plate and in my cup. I eat far too much junk and drink far too many sodas and sugary stuff. I'm a soda addict, I think. ;) Seriously, though, if I'm not going to eat better for myself, I need to eat better for Victoria. And in the long run, she will end up helping me (and Keith) become healthier people. To give myself specific goals, I suppose I should at least start with eating a green vegetable at dinner, drinking tea instead of soda, and drinking a glass of water in the morning and in the afternoon. Then once I master that, I can up the quantity of water, lower the quantity of tea, and start looking at healthy substitutions.

Make more skirts. I love Sarah Jane's historical wardrobe and she's really inspired me to wear more skirts or dresses. Truth be told, even if I can't achieve a wardrobe that's fully historical, I want to at least wear more skirts -- vintage style or maybe 1900 or 1910 style. My first goal, however, is to carve out some sewing time so that I can draft and sew said skirts. I hope to find some cute blouse patterns to wear with them too.

Forego traditional jeans for vintage style. They're just more modest than modern jeans, which are too tight and too low-rise. Anna Allen has a beautiful pair she made some time ago (the image at right are them) from a 1940s vintage pattern. They're totally cute. I'm in love with the sailor style. Here's one of her wearing them. I do plan on wearing many more skirts in the new year -- however, one sometimes needs to do hardy work where there is convenience in wearing pants. I will still probably buy some heavier-duty work jeans to wear when we're out at the property digging in the dirt.

Go to bed earlier. We all need sleep and without it we run a much greater chance of getting sick. I have ended up staying awake until midnight or 1 a.m. since I got off maternity leave, and most days I just drag. (My bad diet has something to do with that.) I'm attempting to work, take care of a baby, keep house, and still try to get in some much-needed recreational sewing -- and it's just hard. By God's grace I'm able to do it. But I need to accept that not everything will get checked off the list every day and just pack it in earlier in the evening so I can get some beauty rest.

Learn how to keep a neater house so my previous goal is easier to attain. I'm not an organized person by nature. Strangely, I do love (as I said in the beginning of this post) organization and neatness and fresh, clean pages/rooms/stuff. It's like two people live inside my head: a neat-freak and a slob. They fight constantly. Keith has gently (ha!) pointed out that I have a tendency to do little things that turn into big things -- like not being more efficient when I cook and ending up with a pile of dishes; or pulling out all of Victoria's toys instead of just a few at a time; or getting out my magazines to get ideas about cake decorating (because I was in the mood) and just leaving the magazines there on the footstool. I know I do these things for a reason -- I'm not done with the magazines, so I leave them out for later. Later, though, I don't have time to look at them because something else has come up and captured my interest. It's the same kind of thing for all the stuff I end up leaving out. Then Clean Day has come and I have a pile of work on my shoulders. Then I get bitter. Then I blame Keith. Then we argue. Then I disdainfully do all the cleaning by myself. I'm not saying Keith doesn't add to the mess -- we both do -- but I know I'm at fault for not picking up the house as I go. So I really, really need to learn how to get into that habit.

Get on the cloth diaper bandwagon. I've ordered a few more cloth diaper styles/brands to test, but I'm pretty convinced at this point that I'm going to go with bamboo diapers with an ImseVimse wool cover. I've tried the non-wool ImseVimse cover and it's fabulous! And I've tried BumGenius all in ones, which were great, but I want to go with natural fabrics. So I've ordered BumGenius bamboo diapers so I'll see how those work out. I tried making my own, but I simply don't have the time.

So those are the goals I'm going to start with. Hopefully, in time, I will have achieved them and can set some new goals. Happy New Year!

-Amy