Reflections

2011...aren't we suppose to be vacationing easily to mars now and driving water fueled hover cars? Sheesh...

Anyway, we have IPhones, netflix and Justin Bieber so I guess it will still be a cool year.

In reflection on the lightening fast blur that was 2010 I can think of the main highlight that dominated much of this year. He came in a darling little 8 pound package of sweetness that we called after 2 minutes of deliberation and tossing the moniker he had adorned as a fetus; Jacob...and it fit (he is so Jake (y) ). I laid in bed with him four days and fell totally in love, it was awesome. Then I thought I wanted to move to the country for a bit so there was the months of quick mini renovations and paint jobs and packed boxes...only to be unpacked into a house we discovered rejuvenated love for. I was a vegan(ish) for six months until I ate a big mac in lui of running down a wild turkey on the side of the road and thus ended that phase. Then I gave Jon a break over Christmas and didn't start anything radical...now I am in full creative swing again and signed up for soap making, building a cob oven, sewing wool diaper covers and wheat grass growing classes. Fun Fun... you know so I can be useful when we go off the grid (can you still get netflix...and Dominoes pizza delivery off grid...hmmmm).

I suppose I should resolve to be more resolute since I don't have a lot of ideas this year. I think I have come into a really comfortable place where I am satisfied more than wanting. I think sometimes about the books I want to read...and write, the classes I want to take, the organizations I want to join, the projects I want to start (and finish) but only fleetingly. I have fully recognized that I am in a unique and all encompassing time of my life right now that can be so joyous and rewarding beyond dreams so long as I don't try to balance it with anything else. I am really enjoying my family right now and I just want to do more of that this year. I want to do more things that matter with them and less things that pass time. I want to have more conversations (now that I have a child who converses..and well..and hilariously...) and make more memories.
On another note, I want to give up totally on my pot cupboard. It is never going to be organized, and every meal forever will consist of me slamming around in there and banging pot lids on the ground. I am at peace with this. It is a good place.
I hope to be more conscious of my footprint...leave things a little nicer than I found them; trade my van in on a civic...hang dry more clothes, grow a garden that actually yields produce, compost...use the farmers market, maybe join a farm co op. Hmmmm...I want to keep learning to bake and cook new things, especially with Ben's help. He is a great little cook, although you have to watch him because he eats everything along the way...him and batters...I just don't know...plan less (is this already breaking that resolution?) and toilet train Ben. He will not turn 4 in diapers. No. No. No. Yes, I should add "stop trying to put my children on an arbitrary developmental time line" on the list but seriously...4...in diapers, when he has been perfectly capable of independent elimination for almost 2 years now...it is his smug desire to drive his Mother batty that overwhelms the urge to pee unfortunately, that is the problem. Oh and he is adorable and indulged (that sounds less character reflective than "spoiled" doesn't it?) and I am bad at consistency. So lets end on that note shall we? I will be more "consistent" in 2011.