Contemplation

Apologies to anyone reading today. I have to admit to feeling blue today. The year has come to an end, and while I accomplished a lot this year, there was so much I hoped to do and it just didn't come to pass.

Here are some things that I did manage to get done:

• Watched a lot of sports. My son plays basketball, baseball and football, and my daughter plays softball and soccer - so many hours were spent cheering my favorite athletes on. (Favorite memories - watching my son hit a triple and later catch a fly ball hit waaaaaaay out to center field. Adults we didn't even know were waiting to congratulate him after the game.)
• I planted a garden this year, using two kiddie pools and several 5 gallon buckets. The garden was a moderate success, we grew broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, hutterite beans, cherokee beans, jalepeno peppers, green peppers, cucumbers, red potatoes and assorted herbs. Unfortunately, we did not grow a great number of any one thing - something we will remedy this coming year.
• We started composting and collecting rain water for our garden.
• Canning was in full swing in our kitchen this past summer. We purchased vegetables by the bushel, half bushel and peck from an Amish farm to supplement our home garden. The big successes this year were salsa, spaghetti sauce, hot pepper jelly, apple pie in a jar and wineberry jelly.
• I had a stand at a local street fair, selling my purses and tote bags. It was a moderate success, but much too exhausting trying to stock an entire stall.

Things I really wish I had done (or done better):

• My goal for the past several years has been to be more hospitable and to work harder to cultivate friendships. I did try, but things really didn't work out the way I had hoped. We joined a Dinner 8s group at church, but only one of the couples made it to our house for dinner. We then invited another family over to our house, but they did not stay very long. Later in the summer, we hosted a picnic for three families and that seemed to go well. I need to be more confident and try harder to invite more people, I guess. At least we did better this year that we did last year. Hopefully, we will do even better in 2009.
• This year we opted to take a stay-cation (stay home while on vacation) rather than travel. We've never been terrific travelers, the most successful trip to date was a weekend in Williamsburg, VA two years ago. I long to travel, I've never even been on an airplane. I'd love go somewhere amazing with my family this year.

Wow, no wonder I feel tired today. It has been a busy year!