happy new year

Do you make resolutions for a new year? I make resolutions, but not on New Year's Day. I make them all year long... some are big and some are small. Some are very short term, and some for the rest of my life. I'm over new year's resolutions, though.

I do think it is a good time to look at things. Assess where you are, and how you're doing there. It is a time to follow nature, and put away the things that are done, and make room for the new growth. A season to bide your time, waiting for spring to come, for the warmth to come, for growing season to come.

I've come to a couple of realizations today, reflecting on "where I am," and I"ve come up with a few ideas to help me progress on my road. No, not resolutions, just, "maybe I should try..."

I'm not a new year's partier. I like the idea of the big, formal party, where everyone is drinking and dancing and looks beautiful, but... I'm not a big drinker, and once anyone gets past the point where the alchohol is in control and they are not, I'm done there. I'm not a "beautiful person" and I don't really like dressing up all that much. No one much asks me to dance, and I'm a big, shy wallflower. Oh. I hope that doesn't sound like I'm whining, here. I'm not. I just finally came to the realization that I like the _idea_ of those parties, not the actuality of them.

So, no big deal, here tonight. Tomorrow, I think we have a cookout (weather should be permitting) and gaming party. In the afternoon. When its light out, and sane, and all those other fools will be sleeping off hangovers, and watching football.

I hope your new year is a good one, filled with hope, and love, and the promise of growth.

nice things

We got to help a young cousin celebrate his birthday this evening. Its nice to see him growing up. Well, he's over 6 foot tall, I think, and just turned 15. Growing "up" for him may be more a matter of maturity than height. Still, he's a good kid, and the next few years may be a challenge for him as he finds his way. I wish him well.

I also head that another young man I know got married recently. I know him as a good kid, but he is hasn't been a kid for a while now. I wish him and his new wife all the happiness they could have, and the strength for when happiness isn't enough. Huzzah!

i said i would

I'm going to post pictures. Last time I posted more than one, I learned that I need to post the last first and the first, last. When I was taking the pictures, just a few minutes ago, I learned that the thing around the lens (don't you love those technical terms?) was creating a shadow in the flash. hmmm I tried a few shots without the flash, which came out better than I thought they might, then I took the thing off and tried a few shots that way. I cropped the shots I wanted to share, as this camera takes a lot of pixels. I hope I can actually include them as they are, and I won't have to modify them further for memory size first.

First (I hope) will be a couple of my latest dragons. One for a friend's daughter, and a lava dragon for Raine. Next a scarf I knitted for the friend's older daughter. I tried wetting the scarf to block it so it wouldn't roll up at the edges, but I'm not sure how good I did with that. maybe more water next time.

Finally, I emptied out three boxes today, with craft books, magazines and leaflets. I got them on the shelves in the craft room, mostly, but I haven't sorted them all quite yet. No sign of the dragon patterns yet, but if I still have them, they're in there somewhere. Two more boxes are poised to go in the car back to school with me on Monday. Now if only I can get the rest of the books onto the shelves, there will be a little more order in here.

i could

blather on about things i've already blathered about before. But I doubt it would be any more interesting this time than it was before. Instead, I think I'll take myself into the tv room, and see what I can call up on hulu that I would like to watch. I'll let you know if it is anything worth sharing.

Tomorrow, I'm going to be posting pictures... will you be ready for them?

here we are

Its Saturday, now. Ron has been home this week, which has made it very vacation-y for all of us. Every day seemed like the weekend, in the best way. We relaxed and got done what needed to be done to enjoy our Christmas. Here we are at the real weekend now, and tomorrow will kind of be back on our routine. Laundry, and shopping and stuff to be done.

Next week, Raine, Carl & I will still be home, and Ron will have to tolerate being the only one who has to go to work for the week. I've been there, and there's resentment. Still, he did get a nice week. I hope he can take that with him. I've got plans, though - don't I always? Boxes, you know, there are still boxes. And I still haven't found my crochet patterns. Maybe if I clean out the closet here in the computer room, I can put the shelves in it that we got for it, and check in the boxes there to see if I get lucky... Then there is some sewing that has been lying around teasing me...

And of course there's Raine... I'm thinking I may take her to see a movie. Maybe we'll even see if Ezekiel would like to join us. THEN I can think about going back to work myself. It will come sooner than I think. I know it will.

and so

Life goes on. More or less back to the ordinary, although I'm sure that even those days that are special to us, would be pretty ordinary to many folks. Some people have watched to many soap operas and they think regular, real people should live like that. When there isn't enough drama in their lives, they create some. Its more interesting, I guess.

Personally, I take the Chinese curse "may you live in interesting times," for the curse it is. I get it. I would much rather live the ordinary, daily life. The one with not so much drama. Those people on the TV shows are NOT my friends. My house does not have to look like that, nor do my clothes (or my figure). I have no pretensions that I'm ever going to be there, nor do I strive nor secretly (nor overtly) yearn for that life. I love my ordinary life. I take care of my responsibilities. I choose my reasonable and legal entertainments, and I enjoy them. I strive to be a better person than I was. I try to create instead of destroy. I try to look on the positive side of things.

I know people who live the other way, with the drama and the disasters, and the uncertainty. They don't seem to achieve more than me... at least no more than the population in general. They certainly don't seem happier than I am. Its way too easy to be more attractive than me, so I'm not even worried about that. They may enjoy the interesting times. Me, I try to brace for them. Be prepared and ride them out when necessary. Let them flow around me and move on, so that the ordinary life can return. I will embrace it.

merry Christmas

This was a good day. We got to watch Raine open her presents, which outnumbered ours by a good margin. We didn't mind that at all. She got many things that she really liked, and spent the day spending some time with almost all of them. The slinky may last through tomorrow, if we convinced her not to take it to bed with her tonight. She wore new spongebob jammies to bed, although the other new clothes (some very nice ones that she will get lots of use out of) were not so thrilling to her. At one point, she said, "I got everything I wanted!" Which wasn't really true, no Spike the dinosaur, for instance, and really, she didn't need to get EVERYTHING she wanted. Not many kids do. I'm glad she was happy with what she got, though. After all, that is the Santa goal, isn't it.

The rest of the day was nice, too. We watched a lot of Dvd's. We played a game. We ate some fabulous food. We visited with friends and family. It wasn't a stressfull day, or a day too full to relax in. It was a good Christmas. I hope yours was too.