I’ve always enjoyed and looked forward to the symbolic “restart” of the New Year. The winding down of Christmas and the indulgent holidays, the packing away of the decorations, the traditional New Year’s Day meal of black-eyed peas and greens and cornbread instead of the rich, heavy holiday fare all allow me to mentally and physically reset for the year to come. It’s a time to dream and plan, to say goodbye to the past year, and to welcome the new one with all it’s possibilities and promise.
Last year this time I was hesitant to make plans, even with a vaccine on the way. This year? We have plans this year! Plans for the townhouse. Plans for the house. Plans for travel (fingers crossed) and projects and food and health and so many other things. We may not get to all of them this year but we’re going to give it a try. Because one thing we found out in 2021 is that life is too short to not take advantage of every single minute we have.
Here are some of the things we have planned that I’ll be posting about throughout the year:
- Food: Since Zach’s heart attack we’ve made some changes to our cooking and eating (ok, my cooking, his eating!). We didn’t have to make many, since we were already eating a reasonably healthy diet, but we have committed to eating more vegetables, more salads, and cutting back on salts & animal fats. I want to post more about those changes and talk about heart healthy food and meal planning.
- Gardening: Last year was the first year we had a garden at the house. We put in two raised beds and I planted them pretty much willy-nilly with whatever seeds I had on hand. $600 later and we had 3 jalapenos, 2 eggplants, a handful of tomatoes, and 1 very pulpy cucumber. I told Zach that it was some of the most expensive produce we’ve ever paid for! But lessons were learned and I think this year is going to be a much better gardening year!
- The Property: We’ve still got a lot of work to do on the property at the house: a firepit deck by the creek, more pathing and landscaping around the hammock, 2 more raised beds for the garden (plus something to protect from the deer, now that the fence is gone), and possibly a whole new back deck (or maybe that will wait for 2023).
- House Projects: I’ve got a couple of projects going at the townhouse and I’m proud of how they’re turning out. I’ll be writing about the new fireplace mantel and surround project soon. We’re also replacing all the trim and baseboards in the office this year and possibly in the master bedroom, too.
- Vacation & Travel: We have 2 trips planned for 2022 (assuming Covid lets up and we can travel safely): We’ll be going to Austin in the late spring and I’ll be showing Zach some of my personal history – the house I grew up in, where I went to high school and college, and how gorgeous Texas in the spring can be. Then we’re planning a vacation trip to Maine later in the year. It’s someplace neither of us have been and we’re excited to go discover it together (and eat all the lob’stah we can cram into a week).
Finally, I’m going to work on the weekly Friday Five posts again because they’re good catchalls for things that don’t warrant their own whole posts but are interesting tidbits and links.
So thanks for all of you who have stuck with me and are still reading. Let’s get going on the New Year and Welcome 2022!