New Year

Our Christmas card picture: Sent to everyone whose address I was able to write on an envelope in my first round of trying, and sent to the rest of you via this blog right now!   Peace and love!

It has been such a long time since I wrote a blog.  My resolution for this new year is to blog more often, so hopefully I will be a bit more active around here. 

Last year, my resolution was to entertain more.  I read this fantastic piece about a family who doesn't have a ton of space or a ton of time, but who instituted a new family tradition: throwing a dinner party every single Friday night.  It inspired me with dreams of evenings spent full of people from all corners of my life.  Reconnecting with old work friends, making new parent friends, catching up with friends passing through town for the holidays... what a warm dream!

I never did manage that impressive feat, but rather than give up the entire goal, I just aimed a little lower and found something that worked.  Last-minute was the best I could manage, so when I stepped back and looked at a big pot of soup bubbling on the stove and thought to myself, with sinking guilt, "I wish I had invited some friends over to share this!" I shook off the regret, picked up the phone and texted "Dinner at 5:00!" to my friend.  She hates to cook, so she almost never has dinner started by 4:45 and lives just around the bend, so she's usually happy to bustle her kids out the door and join me for a meal.

It worked out great!  Even if it didn't live up to my initial expectation.  No, I did not do much to reconnect with old friends, but I did a great deal to socialize with this one lovely family of new friends, and to feel strong and happy in my neighborhood. 

Similarly, this year, I want to blog more.  I have a lot of plans for how often I want to write, how I want to weave themes through my posts for some sense of cohesion, and how many beautiful pictures I want to put in my posts, but  I know all that is pretty unrealistic.  I will temper those dreams and, for the moment, remember that a ten-minute blog is better than no blog at all.

So it is with so very many things.  If I try for perfect I will never even start.

Happy New Year!