Saturday, January 21, 2012

Winter is Winter, as it turns out

Yes, we had a lovely reprieve in December and early January, as temperatures soared in the high 30s and the snow stayed away.

Yes, I know we need snow and ice and cold and even disgusting gray slush to maintain the natural order.

And yet...well, this picture from January 2011 still best expresses my feelings towards the Midwest winter.


(I'm not sure which expression I love more - Cora's SnowZombie face, or Trout's apparent protest to having to wear a headband.)

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Onward

The Christmas season went by fast, for the most part. As usual, there were things I meant to bake that I never did. Cards, such as they were, did not go out as early as hoped for. Fewer things were handmade than I intended. Looking back I see that I did a terrific job of managing Cora's expectations, and a really lousy job with my own. Looking farther back I see that as a theme of the past two years. Will 2012 be different? We shall see.

I believe the common approach to the new year is to square up the previous years resolutions. I did part of this for publication elsewhere, but here's the brief assessment, with the goal followed by the result:

Dye sock yarn with Kool-Aid. Knit socks. – dyed worsted yarn instead, gave for Christmas presents, kept some for myself for a new hat. One new recipe a week. 52 recipes. – probably accomplished this one – didn’t track well though; when I got to the end of March and had already tried 21 new recipes, I stopped listing them. Write more. Publish more. – wrote little, published one poem (frankly, only submitted to 12 publications over the whole year), but also several  essays for the Simple, Good, and Tasty web site and blog posts. Make cards. Send birthday cards. – total fail  Read more. 60 books. – read maybe 20 books ( for adults) in 2011, but dozens of articles and magazines, plus many, many, many picture books. My all time reading record is about 120 books in one year, so 60 seemed a reasonable goal. Make a quilt, start to finish. – yes! four new tops completed, one completed, though technically quilted by someone else, but it was finished and under the tree for Cora this year.  Finish four unfinished projects. 1 per season. – an abandoned scarf became an earwarmer, I had two old quilt tops quilted, and I finished the tree skirt I started eight years ago.  Journal. At least a list. At least 5x/week. – total fail, even if I stretch to counting blogging as journaling. Can only claim victory if a Facebook status update counts as a journal entry!

The goals for 2012 are very similar. I still hope to send birthday cards (something I have not managed since Cora was born, but that was nearly six years ago and I really think it now makes a poor excuse). I hope to read more than last year. I'm sticking with the same cooking goal and also hope to finish some unfinished projects. I have a collection of batik fabric I have never cut into. This is the year. I hope to write more - and to finally finish NaNoWriMo - and to send writing out more often.


I would like 2012 to be kind to me. I hope to find this year more sustaining. I hope to leave a lot of the sadness I've been collecting behind. Or at least get the scales to tip in the other direction more often.