Reflections on 2007 and a Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! :-)

We've been kicking back, enjoying the quintessential Aussie summer holiday: gardening in the cool of morning, and then spending the afternoon drinking a cold, refreshing beverage or two, eating cashews, watching the cricket or the kids splash about in the inflatable pool and catching up on some reading. Simple Living at it's best really :-) So good in fact, that I have had no urge to even turn on the computer most days, let alone blog surf or email anyone (sorry guys!).

But being New Year's Eve, naturally I am reflecting on how far we've come this year in our journey towards a more sustainable future, and thinking about what I want to achieve in the coming twelve months. I've just looked at the goals I made for this year, and we've done quite well. Some things I've not done, more so because my emphasis on what is important to me (us) had changed a little and these things seem a little trivial now, but that's part of the journey.

Probably the most interesting observation I have made about our changes is how my mindset has changed! I started the year feeling a bit panicky about the state of the world and how fast we had to change our way of living, but I'm finishing it by feeling that although the state of the world hasn't improved at all, I/ we are no longer such a significant part of the mess, and in some small way, might be contributing to change for the better. That's a nice feeling :-)

Having said that, I don't at all feel complacent about what there is left to do. We can still do a lot more in terms of living more simply and reducing our use of limited resources. Now, however, I know that if we continue to baby-step our way down this path, we will achieve all that we want/ need to do.

Sorry, I'm waffling, LOL.

Anyway, after this last week or more of (very) limited computer time (and no blogging), I am torn about which way to go in 2008 in regards to this blog.

On the one hand, since I am not working outside the home at the moment, blogging is my way of doing something for myself that doesn't involve my kids; my hobby if you like. As such I have visions of moving to another blogging platform, like Wordpress perhaps, which might allow me to incorporate my other two blogs (My Garden Diary and Simple Cooking), and where I can record my "food forest" ambitions and progress more easily (in theory).

On the other hand, I started typing this during a brief break while the kids were eating morning tea, when I could have (should have) been making ginger beer. Now they are finished and instead of playing with them I am muttering the familiar "Just hang on, I'll be finished this in a minute!" to requests for more apple. Not good.

Sigh.

I can feel the need for another cold, refreshing beverage coming on so that I can contemplate this dilemma further ;-)

Anyway, I am currently reading the book In Praise of Slow, by Carl Honore, and I highly recommend it, especially if you are having trouble slowing down and living more simply. Happy New Year to everyone, may 2008 be a year full of simple pleasures for you all :-)