Happy New Year!

 Happy 2022!  The holiday season went by so quickly.  Today is the first day back to school for the Little and the Middle.  The Oldest is still home from college for a few weeks.  

They have all recovered from Covid.  But I got struck down New Year's Eve, so we still have the hazmat tent and caution tape surrounding the house.  They are required to wear masks to school, and since they have been symptom free for several days, they can return.  I, on the other hand, am quarantined at home and have extra free time to plan my New Year goals.

I have several goals for this year:

1.  Reading goal:  I set my Goodreads reading goal for 45 books this year.  Last year I completed 33 books, and I know I can do better.

2.  Organize and Declutter the house:  I got a good start on this last year, but there's more room for improvement with this one.  

3.  Continue to work on my exercise:  This has been a goal of mine the last few years and I've really made some good improvements.  This year I'm going to add in more days of weight training (as soon as I'm over Covid. Right now, I'm in bed).

4.  Eat better and try new recipes:  This is another goal that I've been working on the last few years.  Again, I'm going to try to tweak things to make them even healthier.  I really like cooking, so I'm going to try to come up with some new family favorite recipes.

5.  Grow my spiritual life:  Another goal that is ongoing.  Last year I completed The Bible in a Year podcast and I enjoyed it so much and the graces I received from hearing God's work every day were innumerable.  I've already started over and plan on going again this year.  And my bigger goal this year is to worry less and pray more.  

6.  Do more of what I love.  This one needs no explanation.  Life is too short not to do the things we want to do.  And we all have things we HAVE to do but don't necessarily want to. I'm going to try to find the joy in those and not complain about it.  So maybe this New Year goal should be called " FIND THE JOY IN EVERYTHING".

So Happy New Year, Internets!  I hope 2022 is a healthy, happy, blessed year for all of us.

From Thanksgiving, a birthday, Christmas, to New Years

 SO MUCH has gone on since mid November.

First we had Thanksgiving.  There were 11 of us.  And this year we did two turkeys.  One I did traditionally in the oven and the other my husband fried.  It was a nice, relaxing day.  I love Thanksgiving.  It's just a relaxed holiday with zero expectations.

The power went out the day before Thanksgiving but I was still able to get prep done with my handy dandy headlight lamp

The main table.  We also had a kids table in the kitchen.

The oven baked turkey.

Next up was my 50th birthday.  I'd rather not even discuss turning 50, but it did happen.  My husbands company Christmas party was at our house on my birthday weekend, so my husband planned the celebration for the following week.  I requested NO PARTY and I put my mom in charge of making sure that no party happened.  She did a great job because of course my husband wanted to do a party.  But instead he planned a night at a local glass works where we made Christmas ornaments and then went to dinner.  It was a fun night with just our family of 5, my parents, and my mother in law.

Me getting some instruction on working with glass.

Next up is Christmas.  It was a wonderful day spent with family.  The boys loved all their gifts and I love watching them open them.  It's 6 months worth of effort over in 45 minutes.  But I wouldn't have it any other way.

This years tree.

A gift from his big brother.

The aftermath.

And lastly New Years Eve.  It was another quiet night with just the 5 of us to start with and then just 4 of us because the 17 year old went to a friends house.  We usually do fondue, but we decided to have homemade chicken wings and French fries.  I bought everything for the fondue, but we were too full for it so maybe we'll use it this weekend instead.  After food, we decided to watch The Swiss Family Robinson on Disney+.  3 of the 4 of us made it to midnight.  The 7 year old went down at 11 pm.

Some of the wings.

I love homemade fries

The fondue pots were on standby.  Maybe we'll use them this weekend instead.

I can't believe the holidays are over.  It just goes by so fast.  But it was good and I couldn't ask for anything more.  Now on to the new year.  I'm hoping to get this house more organized in the new year.  I'm joining The Bowl Full of Lemons 2020 Home Organization Challenge.  I follow her on Instagram and I find her so inspirational.  I may or may not update my organizing here.  So stay tuned for future updates on how that's going and also what our family is doing in 2020.  Lots of major happenings this year!