Simple Summer Holidays

As the summer school holidays are drawing to a close it’s been fun to look back and see what we’ve done with ourselves.  Mr B took all of January off work because Little B starts school this year. We then detached ourselves electronically, turned off our mobile phones and placed them in a drawer and let the summer take us where it would. It’s been great family time and we’ve had a whole lot of fun :-)

:: We’ve explored our local surrounds and found new places we didn’t know existed (like waterfalls)

:: Been blackberry picking in our own backyard LOL (we get a bowl like this every 2^nd day) and found wild strawberries

:: We’ve spent a lot of time canoeing, bushwalking and exploring local lakes (yay for the warm weather)

:: Spent time at our local library weekly and enjoyed their school holiday activities like making carrot cars and croaking frogs

:: Read our way through the entire Flat Stanley series; then Babe the Sheep Pig, and re-read Stuart Little

:: Visited family and old friends, discovered new beaches and a new favourite – climbing trees.

The greatest thing I think has been how much time we’ve managed to spend outside and out in nature.  But with school just around the corner, we’ve spent the last couple of days readapting to the “real” world. Not long now and my faithful side kick will take his first big steps out into his new world.

New Years Goals

 Picture courtesy of here

The start of a new year is such a funny time – there’s the reflection that come as one year closes as well the opening expanse of possibilities of a brand new year. I’ve enjoyed 2012 – we’ve renovated and settled into our house, Little B has loved and thrived during his last year a kinder, I made new friends and we’ve had the peace that comes from digging in and making a home.

As I look at last year’s goals, we didn’t do too badly. We started a vegie garden at this house but had no chance to expand it. We kept our electricity usage to a minimum and our latest bill with solar has us in credit (yay!!).  I did find alternatives to more items from the supermarket and have settled on a little local independent supermarket as an alternative to the duopoly of Coles & Woolworths for those things we just cant change because of Little B’s allergies. And I did learn more crafty skills (I learned to crochet, to sew a wider variety of items) and hey I learnt to plaster on this house ;-)

And I was kinder to myself. I’ve let myself wander in mind and thought – read more for fun than information, caught up on old movies, and spent some really concentrated time with my family.

So as I enter 2013, I’m focussing on 4 simple goals:

* Improve my posture – after my fall in July, my body is still struggling to recover. Turns out I pulled my psoas muscle which controls your hip sockets and is kind of hard to work on. But my physio and I are aiming for full recovery by July this year (which sounds like a long way away but it’s sort of a little by little process)

* Move more – said hip injury has made me a couch potato, but a few thoughtful Christmas gifts means I can get back out into the garden and canoeing more.  I’m a moving kind of gal and I want to get back to that.

* Grow more – after our successes this spring/summer with our limited vegie beds, I’m inspired to branch out and grow more of our own. We are aiming to put in more vegie beds and to put in an avocado tree, and another pear tree as well.

* Be more creative –I've purposefully left this sort of open ended because I want to think outside the square for so many different areas of my life and I'm not quite sure where I'll end up. I guess creative to me in this instance, is to look at things in my life with a different set of eyes.

* Remember more - Time passes so quickly and perhaps I feel more nostalgic as I get older, but as we slow down on our sustainable journey and as my little one grows, I want to document our family memories more. I hope to write on this blog more, am aiming to join in Jodie's (from Che & Fidel's)  52 A Portrait A Week project, and to spend more time with my lovely son and husband. We've done so much community work this year, that I want to spend 2013 focussing that little bit more inward.

And as Jodie quotes Gretchen Rubin from The Happiness Project, I want to "slow down, stay patient, take photographs, and play Hide and Seek". This year I want to live and soak in the moments of my time with my loved ones.

 

Let's see what 2013 brings!!