Happy New Year

Hope all my readers are having a fun New Years Eve! I was coerced into leaving little 'un with my parents for tonight and party like an idiot. I'm blaming all my bad moods, my body aches, and my recent sewing project mess-ups on Mercury being in retrograde. That is my story and I am sticking to it. I'm hoping that 2011 will be as nice as the first half of 2010. The second half just kinda started to suck around July 4th but I digress. Hope you and yours have a wonderfully magical New Years and I will see you all then!

I have Survived!

Well I have survived the Yule Christmas rush around again this year. Despite my mother-in-laws best tries at manipulating hubby and I into running all over the place at her behest we have resisted. This time of year sends her into overdrive with the "I MUST SEE YOU EVERY SINGLE DAY!" bs that just plain drives me nuts. Looking forward to a quiet week of clean-up and getting back onto schedule. Little 'un got 3 train sets for Christmas and he loves every one of them! We all have been having fun with them. Reading has been put off for the most part because new toys have taken over the house.

I'm planning on getting him on a more involved schooling schedule in the new year. He now knows his ABC's and can count to 15 so I think hes ready for more difficult schoolwork. So I'm really looking forward to that! I am also working on weight loss in the coming year, I have been working on finding a diet plan that works for months now and I'm hoping to lose at least 30 pounds. Here's a list of all the things I'm going to be working on in the next few weeks:

1. Furthering my education in the areas of health and nutrition. This is very important to me, I want my family to be healthy and eat well. We have cut back on eating out, salt and fat. I'm hoping to be soon making all our own pasta and bread. Maybe even things like kefir and yogurt.

2. As always work hard on homeschooling with little 'un. I have all the materials gathered together and a schedule worked out. Now I will put it into practice and see how it works; tweak it if I need to and make it as best as I can!

3. Add in some me time to everyday. Less stress more time with the Goddess it's a win win situation. Meditation, yoga, ritual and prayer are all things that I need to have more of in my life. I'm going to make time for them.

4. As a part of number three; get more sleep. Again I will feel better and less stressed and it's something that will make life better for me and my whole family. Little 'un especially siffers from my lack of sleep in the for of lack of patients for him being a toddler.

A Yule Montage

The cookie decorating winners!









Mulled Wine for the win!


Yummy Cookies

Ahh Yes

I didn't get buried in Yuletide crap yet! Sunday was busy but due to inclement weather some of the guests had to choose to stay home for their safety. We still had a good time with those who did make it. We had a great meal (I gave my kitchen over to a "sister") of stuffed collards and homemade salsa. Plus all the cookies I busted my hump baking and decorating (in the case of my favorite sugar high cookies) for the party. We just hung out and had a good time; drinking mulled wine and having good drunken conversation. Exchanged some gifts and enjoyed each others company. It really did me some good because by the time the party happened I was just a little burned out. There wasn't much left to do but I didn't even have to ask and it was done. I got a whole day to do nothing but what I was looking forward to doing and nothing that I wasn't so a major stress relief for me. Today after hubby came home we decorated our Yule tree with lights and bulbs and some really nice fruit decorations my grandmother gave me because she wasn't using them, pictures will be forthcoming.

Party!

So busy getting ready for the Yule Party we will be hosting for the tribe this weekend. Since we all find family important we get together very early in the month for our ritual and get together because we will all be traveling to our families homes as it gets closer to Christmas and New Years. I just added batteries to the camera so tomorrow I will hopefully not forget to take some pictures of lil 'un and I making our dozens of cookies. This year we decided to make as many gifts as possible for people because money is tight. I'm really trying to not let the holiday stress get to me (ie: Mother in law) it's still a work in progress. Sleep still isn't happening. Boy do I wish I new something new to try to get some sleep. Don't be expecting too much in the way of posting until the new year. I'll leave you with some things I currently working on

1. Getting some sleep; I don't like being tired and moody.

2. Finding some better ways to relax. That will also help with #1

3. Doing some historical research on the house. It's an old one and should have some interesting background.