Happy New Year 2010!

I love the time between Christmas and New Years. For me it has always been a kind of quiet, contemplative time.  A time to sit in front of the fire with a much anticipated new book.  A time to reflect on the past year and reevaluate goals for the new one.

Now that the school supplies have been broken in and well used, it's a time to break open a crisp new calendar, planner and journal.  The unmarked pages lie full of hope and promise.  Perhaps a colorful new pen and some stickers and stamps with which to decorate the record of a life.  I know it will be another year where the pages of the calendar turn too quickly, the jobs in the planner will never get all crossed off, and the journal may not be written in as often as I'd like.  But just for these few nights, I will reflect, and plan, and look forward joyfully to a fresh start.

I will try to be more realistic with my goals, flexible with my plans, more disciplined in my work.

I will worry less and pray more.

I will smile until I feel like smiling.

I will try a little harder to see and serve Jesus, especially in those I don't like.

I will sacrifice some of my excess and even, sometimes, some of my necessities, so that someone else may have basic comforts of food, shelter,clothing or education.

I will try to remember to make the best of every situation I find myself in, and if possible, to have fun with it.  Even if others are determined that I should not.

I will play music, and read books, and walk in the woods.

I will share all these things with my children.

I will try to leave my little corner of the world a better place.

A Different Christmas Poem

Grazie!

And another new baby!  Here is Grazie the lamb, born on Thanksgiving Day to mama Valentine, the black South Down/Navajo Churro ewe, born on - yup - Valentine's Day.  Well, I refused to name her Thanksgiving, because that would sound too much like her fate would be the freezer, and since she is a she, that fate will be postponed indefinitely for now.  Hence the Italian version. 

I walked out to feed the animals and heard the familiar lamb cry.  After verifying that, yes, we did have a new baby, and it was from the sheep, I ran in to tell everyone and we all came out to gawk.  I have to say, I am very thankful that she is a sheep, because I am culling my entire unproductive herd of goats and starting over.  Which would not have been a problem, except that the goats are already promised away.

Maybe we should rename the Homestead, from Mrs. D's to Holiday Homestead.  Our animals seem to have a preference to those days these last couple years.  Wonder what's in store for Christmas?

For more on baby Grazie, see my Grit Reader Blog:  http://www.grit.com/Homesteading-With-Mrs-D/A-Lamb-to-Be-Thankful-For.aspx