2012 Intentions

Happy New Year! Our change-of-year celebration was really fun. We were invited over by our next door neighbors, who I have never had a real conversation with before. They were so sweet to ask us to come to their big party, and they did a great job of making sure everyone there knew who we were, that we know absolutely no one in town, and that they must come talk to each of us. Of course, everyone was very friendly and welcoming, and it was good to feel a sense of belonging. Even with a five year old, we were able to stay and chat and dance and toast well past midnight. As the clock struck twelve, both Jeff and I felt a wave of relief wash over us. We are in a new year! Yahoo! Amelia was in her pajamas and busted out some totally surprising and hilarious moves on the dance floor for everyone. Whew! So nice to be in 2012!

I am not much of a resolutions person, but I do believe in setting goals and intentions for each year. For at least ten years, I have written goals in my journal on Janurary 1st, and also a letter to myself to read the next year. I think it’s important to identify what we want in life, or who we wish to become. This year, I have been kind of lax. My main desire was to just get through 2011. Now that I am here, I just want to enjoy being where I’m at– location, life stage, etc. But I do have one intention for the year, which comes from my heart– it is to make more art. I am not an artist, and tend to feel really shy/embarrassed about the things I create. But I am trying to be a little more bold, and make and share more art. I have been making little paintings with Amelia for the last couple of weeks, and we have both had a lot of fun. I don’t have any particular loyalty to any medium, and just want to explore a bit. I am planning to sign up for a ceramics class at a local college, and I am super excited about that.

Something that Jeff and I both desire for our family this year is to find a farm that we can pitch in at. It would be wonderful to be able to exchange labor for goods, but even just going a couple Saturdays per month to clean animal stalls or pull up beets would be great. We love spending time with animals, and until we have land that we can keep some on (someday!) we are happy to visit the ones around us. We currently do most of our shopping at farm stores, but we have to do a little more research to find one that has a volunteer/ share program.

So, that’s it. Art and farm animals. I think this will be a really lovely year. What about you? How do you approach the new year? Any intentions, resolutions or goals that you’d like to share?