New Year, New Goals

A Happy 2013!  It's been a little over a year since I last posted.  Much has happened, but not in the way of postable material. 

An extended vacation left my veg garden a disaster.  The fruit trees pulled through, and I had enough pears for a couple of canner-loads for the first time ever.  But we were gone for cherry season, and the weeds took over the strawberry bed and all of the veggie and herb beds.  All I had time for this fall was to try and clear the beds as best I could, and keep up with leaves.

So what are the plans for 2013?

Knitting:  I have started my first knit-in-the-round sweater.  I have sport-weight wool from Imperial Yarn in Oregon, and I have finished the body up to where the sleeves join, and 1-1/2 sleeves.  It has a stranded yoke, which I also have limited experience with, but I am determined to plow through.

House:  We fixed up the boys bathroom two years ago, and I still haven't painted the darn thing.  Same thing with the powder room downstairs.  The shed needs a coat desperately, too.  I'm tempted to add all of the bedrooms as well, but I'm trying to keep my list under control.

Garden:  I'm just about starting from scratch here.  The backyard beds are in deep need of composting.  We have a pile, but it's totally out of control.  Get the beds composted and the pile gone.  In the front yard, prune the prunes, roses, and generally renovate the eastern bed.  Spend 30 minutes a day as weather allows weeding and/or deadheading.

Health:  Yeah, okay.  I need serious work here.  Be more active.  Walk a lot.  Start hiking, say, twice a month.  Our family will not purchase soda for the year, even at restaurants. (The restaurant part is easy for me, because I usually drink iced tea.  But I do love my Coke.  And Dr. Pepper.)  Eat more veg.  Take vitamin D daily.

Mind:  Outside of the books I read for the library reading group, I'm reading a lot of, frankly, crap.  You know the free books that Amazon has for Kindle?  Yeah, that garbage.  So I want to read at least two books from this list.  I have knocked off eight of them already.  Yeah, I'm a bit past 30, but it's a good list.

Household:  Less time on the computer (games, facebook), more time doing chores.  The level of dust in here is atrocious.  Doing laundry would be easier if I wasn't working around mending and ironing.  Make a major dent getting photos into albums.

Okay, ambitious list.  Wish me luck!