~HAPPY 2016!~

Wow, another year gone! In some ways, last year seemed to last forever and in others, it went so quickly. I am glad for a new year, a fresh start. I am looking forward to a new gardening season, flowers, green grass. I know this probably sounds odd, but I'm glad we finally got some snow. This Winter has been great, warm, no snow until after Christmas. But now it looks like a good ol' Maine Winter out there. Glistening icicles hanging from the eaves, a sparkling blanket of snow covering the fields. Darling and I have thought up some goals for this year, and I thought I'd share them with you:

Personal goals:

• Follow a new Bible reading plan on a consistent basis
• With God's grace, work on being a more patient person ;)
• Manage my time more wisely
• Drink more water
• Get more exercise, spend more time outdoors
• Consistently keep up with housework 

Family Goals:

• Be more organized for Christmas 2016
• Eat healthier
• Get a bird feeder, look up the birds who visit
• Host our annual Independence Day BBQ
• Declutter our stuff so we spend less time taking care of it and more time enjoying one another
• Create and follow a reading list with the boys
• Take lots of photos and work on the scrapbooks
• Have regular dates with Darling (we went on one date, all of last year!)
• Continue paying down debt
• Go fishing!
• Go hunting!

Farm related:

• Stain the two picnic tables
• Stain the front steps
• Start a new flock of laying hens
• Raise another batch of meat chickens
• Butcher two hogs and a beef steer
• Grow a bigger garden/more canning
• Reorganize the barn/build new pens
• "Pretty up" the landscape, plant flowers
• Plant at least two fruit trees
• Transplant the raspberry patch
• Plant strawberries
• Build a new fire pit
• Clear brush/prune around the pond/plant flowers there
• Maybe restock the pond with more brook trout

There you have it. I am going to hang a copy of this list inside my cupboard door.

"Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"- yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." James 4:13-15

And so, Lord willing, at the end of the year I hope to be able to say we did most of the things on our list. :)

May God bless you in this new year, and may you draw closer to Him.

   Happy New Year All!!!