New Year

Happy New Year! In Canada, the beginning of September is really the beginning of a new year. Refreshed and re-energized from all of our summer fun (hopefully) we are ready to re-commit ourselves to the year ahead. It is the time that decisions are made about our schedule for the next 10 months. Classes, courses, lessons... Everything starts afresh. After my initial greiving for the loss of long, hot, spontaneous days and time spent as a family together just being, I love this time of year. I feel recharged and ready to try different things, think different thoughts and learn something new. I have been living in my kitchen these last several days, making plum jam and salsa, trying new zucchini recipes and continually cleaning up after myself. My house has been full of the smells of canning. I even invented a new recipe of my own. I made some plum jam out of the little red plums in the orchard and it was so good and vaguely reminded me of red pepper jelly. So I made some plum jam with peppers and garlic in it. Still tastes kind of plummy but I think it will go well on crackers in the winter... I even think I might be ready to make some jelly myself. I have always dismissed it as too much work but I'm thinking that it has to be an easier way to process all these little red plums which have more pit than anything else. My plum jam has truly been a several hour long labour of plum love (because I think it is bad karma to waste what the earth gives me in such generous abundance...)

Its also a time of self reflection. A time to recommit myself to myself. A time to let some bad habits go and start some good ones. I ahve been pondering myself deeply and what I want in this new year. How I want my life to be, my family to be and how to go about getting it that way. Spring this year was just WAY too hectic. Too much stuff to do, places to go. I ended up not really doing anything really well. I don't want to get in the position again. Rhiannon will forgo ball this year and sign up for soccer instead (one day a week vs two and on a different day than K's ball). Arranging for music lessons to end earlier in the spring. Arranging my time at the Inner World School to be more concentrated on a couple of days rather than an hour every day.

Well, time to go and get dressed... its noon, after all...