A Year in Review

This has been one crazy year.

Those of you who know us well, also know some of the personal employment turmoil we've had this year with Bryon's job. Well, all of that continues and promises to offer us some unique opportunities for adventure in the coming year. Prayers are welcome ;)

Of course it hasn't all been turmoil. We've accomplished a lot this year and had many, many wonderful experiences as a family and on our ever changing little farm. Here are the high lights and the low lights.

1. Grace has now lost SEVEN teeth. Yes, the Tooth Fairy is broke but has a direct trail of fairy dust (ie pink glitter) to help her find her way now.
2. I read 64 books this year (yes half of them were paranormal romances) and I am burned out. This year I plan to read at a more leisurely pace.
3. Bryon had surgery on his shoulder and is now fully healed and has nearly all of his motion back and much less pain.
4. We raised two more pigs and will be enjoying them in several tasty dishes sometime next week.
5. We found a new home for Ruger (our insane Brittany Spaniel) and are now on the search for a female, yellow lab puppy to join the Medley farm.
6. We had a wonderful vacation on Sanibel Island in Florida with my Mom at a condo on the beach and Grace asks almost every week when we can go back. She says she wants to live there.
7. Grace played spring and fall soccer and did great! Here's hoping for some soccer scholarship dollars one day.
8. Our two "female" bunnies made babies. Four of them survived and I found them all new homes last week.
9. I started raising some new Buckeye heirloom breed chickens and hope to breed and sell them this spring. They have been no end of anxiety for me. Raising fancy chickens it turns out is stressful!
10.Grace started Kindergarten this year, got her ears pierced and turned six.
11. I canned, preserved and froze lots of garden and farmer's market food this year, and I am hoping to do even more in the coming year with the help of our new greenhouse.
12 Grace learned to swim this summer and Bryon and Grace spent lots of evenings after school at the Marshfield pool.
13. Grace has $500 saved up for her red convertible VW bug. Yeah, a real one.
14. Bryon and I celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary.
15. I ate more salads and lettuce this year than I had in the past 42 years. (Mostly from our garden)
16. Bryon used his time off this year to build an awesome trail system through our woods and completed every possible honey do job I could think of ... and then some.
17. Grace had two slumber parties at our house and is having a little girl over to play and maybe to spend the night again tomorrow night.
18. We went to Silver Dollar City three times and St. Louis once with friends.
19. I finally got all our bills paperless... now if I can just remember to pay them!
20. Bryon is currently in the process of finding a new job.


So how about last year's resolutions? Well some yes, some not so much.

* Eat more organic and clean food - yes but this will be more of a challenge as far as the organic part this year as we work to save money. We are budgeting no money for eating out this year so we will definitely be eating more and more home cooked meals.
* Eat more local and US foods - yes. This year we will have an even better garden and being doing as much locally as we can.
* Take my lunch more when I work & eat less fast food - I have only eaten out one lunch this month and plan to continue to take my lunches.
* Drink NO soda, at all, anymore - I didn't have even one sip of soda this year. I didn't miss it at all.
* Do more long term meal planning - I will have to do this better this year and I look forward to finally succeeding at it.
* Lose 20 pounds...again. - Yeah, the always present resolution. I am 7 pounds down. No more eating out should help with that.
* Buy more things Made in the USA when we have to make new purchases - still doing this every chance we get.
* Pray daily - a lot lately, definitely not daily though last year
* Do more bible studies - I did not.
* Finish the Old Testament (I only have 4 or 5 little books left) - I did not, still need to complete this
* Read ALL the book club books this year. - I did great until the last few and then I fizzled out.
* Learn to play my guitar - not so much, I am still not a rock star
* Have a kick ass garden - we did have a kick ass garden this year and look forward to an even better one next year.
* Finish the last 12 mile section of the OHT - still not completed. Someday...
* Have more PEACE and QUIET in 2010 - still hoping for this one, ha! With new Wii games and a DSi, it's not looking too likely, but I am still hopeful.


This year, I am not making resolutions. I am going to go with the flow and just try to deal with and complete whatever challenges present themselves. This is going to be the year of living frugally I suspect. That should be challenge enough for all of us I think.