resolute

Now that it's mid-January (ok a slight exageration) I think it's about time to make some resolutions. Every year before Christmas I spout on about how new year resolutions are silly and it shouldn't have to take one day to decide to make your life better, it should be every day, yadda yadda yadda...and then I find myself here. Again. Making new promises. Sigh.

This year should bring lots of things though: lots of planning for our wedding, lots of improvements and tinkering away at the ramshackle farmhouse, lots of hard work on the farm and lots of play with our family and friends hopefully.

{ image via pinterest }

There are the usual resolutions I make every year like finish off craft projects before I start another one, be a domestic goddess, stop and smell the roses, eat healthier, save money, be more organised. Well in 2011 I want all that and more. Ha! Asking too much? Probably. Setting myself up for dismal failure? Definitely.

In 2011 I want to try to do all this...

donate

volunteer or be more a part of my community. Mr M volunteers in the local CFA and I feel I should do something for our small rural community also. I remember when I was growing up Thorpdale was a vibrant community of farmers revolving around the footy club, lot of little farming communities dwindle away, I don't want that to happen to mine.

play

the piano more, get better at reading music

improve

my Photoshop skills

learn

to crochet granny squares

try

to knit something, again...hopefully my mum is up for (yet another) challenge here with my two left hands

read
a classic yet challenging book to stimulate my mind and make me think

finish

a cot size, free-motion quilt

walk
more often with Tessa or Pippa and Lily in the early morning or evenings at Brindabella and beyond

get away

camping with friends (or just me and Mr M) more often to east Gippsland and the high country now that we're closer to our favourite spots. Don't hesitate to throw the swags in the back of the ute on a Friday night

take care
of my skin and hair. I am going to try to grow my hair (even longer!) for our wedding, which means looking after it, not straightening it every second day and regular trims. I finally want to have acne free skin for my wedding day, I need to drink more water, get more sleep and am going to have my skin analysed to see what it needs or is lacking

ride
my pony Danny who resides here in Thorpdale. My sister Louise and I got him for Christmas when I was 5 and she was 8, poor old Danny is now a ripe old 27 years young and still likes us to jump on him bareback for a trot down to the dam and a splash. I know I'll miss him when he's gone.

visit and talk
to my 88 year old grandmother more. Nan still lives on the farm by herself and we all take for granted how extraordinary she is for her age. Mr M's grandparents have all passed away and he tells me almost daily to be grateful for her, to go and visit her, to sit and talk and drink tea with her and ask questions about our family, my grandfather, the war, how to make perfect lemonade scones. I need to listen to him, he's a wise old soul isn't he?

That should probably do me...I have a whole heap of other lists rather than resolutions of things that need to be (or I would like to be) finished on the house and garden before 2012, not to mention my ever-expanding wedding spreadsheet list of things to organise. I think I should just quit while I'm not even a little bit ahead yet though!

Hold on tight, I think 2011 will be a busy one!