2013 promises to be a big year! First of all, in the minds of some 26 percent of Americans, it is a year that was not supposed to happen. Did Gallop interview children for its polls? Every time a new doomsday prediction happens, the result is the same. We all wake up the next morning and read about the people who killed themselves, and mourn their loss, and their foolishness, and move on. The sun rises, and the preachers post their view that no man knows when the end times will come, then start soon again on their tirades about how immoral everyone is, and that this is the end times! This is one of the reasons I am not religious at all. I am not having any of it. I am not having any distractions from living the life I have got, and making it the best possible life I can for myself, and for those around me, family and friends, and even people I do not know. I have no interest is wasting my time and money on those who busy themselves with the philosophies that distract, or disrepute life for less than it really is. There is only one thing that can be proved that life is. One chance. For each of us, it is one chance to live, and make it good for ourselves, and leave the place in the condition for a chance to make it good for others who come after. This is the foundation of 2013 for me.
So, as 2012 comes to an end, I am putting together my list. It is not a list of resolutions in the traditional sense. Resolutions are things that we set to try to improve our lives, but often get broken by February. I am setting mine as a list of goals for the year which are to be written down and focused on. They have reasons and rationale! For example, I have fences to build around the yard to keep the animals that we rely on for our food in their places. I cannot have the goats and chickens and cows running through the garden and eating the vegetables.
The biggest goals for this year have entirely to do with our home, making it a better and more livable place, and giving our family what I can best describe as “food security.” In other words, I am building the place into a working farm where most of our food can be raised. I want to buy the staples at Sam’s, of course, such as sugar and salt, and even flour. But all the meat and vegetables should come from on the land we live on.
The biggest staple for our survival is water. If we are going to raise our animals, then we must have water to raise the grass in the field across the road, and we must have water to raise the vegetables in the garden on this side of the street. We have access to irrigation across the road, but no access to electricity there. Smarts must be used in deciding how we work!
We have other aspects as well to consider, such as networking in the house. There is nothing like convenience to define efficiency. It is a happy place when dreams can be had in a comfortable place, and the work to achieve those dreams be done after a good rest. So, I want to be able to sit in a comfortable place to research recipes and then be able to access those in the kitchen to try out. There needs to be a cache of recipes for the staples at home too, such as favorite breads, cookies, mayonnaise, and so on. There should be an accessible shopping list kept from the kitchen, but in a place that can be accessed from the store too. Does that mean keeping the list on a Google Drive account that can be accessed from Sam’s Club via WiFi? Shopping and budget are best kept in control with proper planning.
At some time in this year, we are likely to lose one of our family members into a care home because of his dementia. If so, he will likely end up in the same home that our aunt Amy is in. How will costs be covered and visits be arranged? How will both visit home, if it is viable?
Goal planning should be arranged around these considerations, in order to make it a better place for us to live! So this is what I am up to today, and for the next few days!
Happy to report that it has been a White and Wonderful Christmas this year! It is snowing today, as we all recover from the festivities of Christmas Day! I celebrate it, yes. I celebrate it as a time to be with my family, and to treat them to the things that we cannot always do. This year we went out for our Christmas meal on Christmas Eve, and then we stayed at home and opened gifts and had a buffet on the dining room table on Christmas Day. We had Aunt Amy with us on both days!
Well, part of the New Year’s goals is going to require an exact model of the house in Google Sketch-Up. So, I have lots of work to do!
Kelsey J Bacon