2016

Evelyn and I made hot chocolate yesterday afternoon.  I'd gotten a kit for my birthday where you dip some chocolate-covered spoons into hot milk and enjoy some oversized marshmallows.  We even had some leftover Christmas cookies to go with our sweet drinks.   And I decided: 2016 is going to be the year we enjoy ourselves.  I want to actively look for ways we can have fun. 

It's a simple enough thing to do, but not something I'm naturally inclined toward.  But I think this will be a good year for it.  I feel like we've decluttered enough that there won't be any big, overhaul-style cleanings (unless we're going through Evelyn's clothes.  It can't be helped. She grows like an actual weed.  Stacks of leggings become obsolete from week to week!).  We have space to play and grow.  I've got nearly all of my yarn in one space.  This is most of it, by the way:

I'll try to do most of my gift knitting from my stash, and I'm going to work on projects I really like rather than getting concerned about using up the most yardage I can. 

I'm going to try to meet up with friends more often, and when I do I'm going to stop apologizing for Evelyn being super talkative because they don't seem to mind (she's their friend, too! She's everyone's friend! Why do I keep her away from friends?!).  I'm also going to try to stop being so negative, so that when I worry that everyone hates meeting up with me because I'm so negative I can remind myself that I was funny and asked questions about people's interests before possibly falling into a rant about the sorry state of national infrastructure or whatever else it is that sometimes literally keeps me up at night. 

I hope we eat more cake.  I love cake and it's not a big deal to make it. There are worse snacks (maybe).

The moment I stop enjoying something I'm reading, I'm going to stop reading it.  If someone's terrible on Facebook, I can hide them.  Or unfriend them altogether.

I hope I post more here without worrying about keeping up with everything in chronological order. 

I would write more now, but I want to get back to working on a sock I'm trying to knit. I'm not super invested in it, but I like that.  I'm going to knit socks, but I'm not going to be grimly determined or try to knit any tighter because I'm a loose knitter, and a generally relaxed one at that, except for when socks are involved.  But I'd like to try them a little bit more.  And so far I'm enjoying it.  Which is all I need for now.

I have other goals for the year.  I want to contribute to a food pantry every month.  I want to spend more time outdoors.  I want to cook more because I love my own cooking.  I'm hoping we have a nice tiny kitchen garden on our balcony.  And I'm going to enjoy those things too.

2015

I hiked Pinnacle Mountain a lot in the first part of the year.

I mostly quit drinking Mtn. Dew.

We looked at schools for Evelyn.

Cody got permanent work.

We read that book on the love languages and I rolled my eyes at a lot of it, and I don't think either one of us finished it.  But we did get enough of it to realize we'd been throwing our 'I love yous' right past each other.  Whoops.  If Cody cleans the kitchen a bit better and gets the coffee maker ready for the next day every night and I say nice things about him (especially in front of Evelyn), we're a much happier dynamic duo.

I went to therapy for a while.  We mostly talked about work and parenting.  The parenting stuff, I can adapt to.  The work stuff will probably always be hard for me.  I'm still trying to figure out how to enjoy the good parts, and to really get the most out of the weeks/months when I'm not completely physically and emotionally drained so that I can enjoy life outside the office.

We found a school for Evelyn.  The roughest part of transition, in my opinion, was brought on by the fact that Evelyn really got into baby dolls a month or two before school started.  And you can't take your baby to school.  It was a contentious time for all of us.  That being said, Cody and I went to the first PTO meeting of the year (less than a month after school started) and Evelyn wanted to bring her beloved baby.  I can't tell you how many people--from teachers to parent volunteers--said "This must be Hildegard!" because she told them all about her baby, and they listened.  We really, really like Evelyn's school.

Now would be a good time to say that we love our library as well.  I love all libraries, really, but our little local library has been an important factor in helping Evelyn love learning.  The lovely people there are also a big part of why she's so at ease with asking questions of people in charge and why she feels so confident that they'll answer her seriously. 

She asks a lot of questions, and this year I started pointing her in the direction of people who could answer them even if we weren't in a library.  Park interpreters, the nice guy at the Capitol visitors desk, or anyone else got an earful.  Often.

We went to a few museums, and the Historic Arkansas Museum was probably my favorite.  We went there a lot.

Evelyn also really likes my work.  I get a lot of stress from it.  But I also work with some very lovely people, and many of them hold Evelyn in high regard.  She feels welcome there, and she is.  I'm incredibly glad.

Evelyn can kind of read a bit.

We went to the beach this summer.  We sunburned horribly and ate too much and the house was way too full of people who were way too loud and on conflicting sleep schedules.  It was fantastic.  The three of us swam in the ocean together a few times and it was all I wanted out of life maybe.  Evelyn got to enjoy a lot of swimming and I get irrationally excited about driving places in the middle of the day.

We did not go to the state fair, a pumpkin patch, or to look at Christmas lights.  We did meet Santa 3 times and go to a classmate's birthday party.

There was a lot of time to play with cousins.  And there were plenty of grandparent sleepovers.

There was also a trip or two to my old allergist. Evelyn is on maintenance medication, and it's working awfully well.  She likes her inhaler, and I like that we can treat the cough that pops up every time she gets a stuffy nose or an ear infection or the temperature shifts twenty degrees in a day.  Glorious!

Cody's getting into meal planning.  I keep making the same knitting patterns over and over because it's what makes me happy.

We didn't do as much as I'd hoped or planned in 2015, but we had a lot of fun.  I'm not really sure what we have going on in 2016.  I'm hoping we get to see friends and family more.  I keep swearing up and down that we'll go camping some day.  It could happen.  Whatever we do, I think we'll have a good time.

The Book List for 2010

These are the books I finished in 2010!

I think I only read one book in December (but it was really long!  Even if it was just the Harry Potter book.  Still!), so I'll skip doing that post and go ahead and list everything I read in 2010. 

Asterisks mark library books.

Adams, Douglas. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.

--. The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.*

Brown, Larissa Golden and Martin John Brown, Knitalong: Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together.*

Browne, Jill Connor.  The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love. 

Byatt, A. S. Possession: A Romance.

Chappell, Fred. Castle Tzingal.*

--. I Am One of You Forever. 

Danielewski, Mark. House of Leaves.

Douglas, Susan. Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message that Feminism's Work is Done.*

Drabble, Margaret. The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws.*
 

Faludi, Susan. Backlash: The Undeclared War on American Women.

Farrell, Chris. The New Frugality: How to Consume Less, Save More, and Live Better.*
 

Grisham, John. The Firm.*

Hall, Donald. Without.*

Hatcher, Michael. Keeping Chickens.*

Jackson, Shirley. Life Among the Savages.*
 

King, Stephen. The Gunslinger: The Dark Tower I.
 

--. The Drawing of the Three: The Dark Tower II.
 

Kostova, Elizabeth. The Historian. 

LeCarre. John. The Constant Gardener.

Leonard, Annie. The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession With Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health--And A Vision for Change.

Lessing, Doris. Ben, in the World: The Sequel to The Fifth Child.*
 

--. The Fifth Child.

Maisto, Michelle. The Gastronomy of Marriage: A Memoir of Food and Love.*
 

Nichols, Sharon Eliza. I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar: A Collection of Egregious 

Errors, Disconcerting Bloopers, and Other Linguistic Slip-Ups.
 

Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar.*

Potter, Andrew. The Authenticity Hoax: How We Get Lost Finding Ourselves.*
 

Reed, Stanley. Oriental Rugs and Carpets.

Rice, Anne. Taltos: The Lives of the Mayfair Witches.*  

Rich, Adrienne. An Atlas of the Difficult World, Poems 1988-1991.*

--. A Change of World.*
 

--. Diving Into the Wreck: Poems 1971-1972.

--. The Dream of a Common Language: Poems 1974-1977.* 

--. A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far: Poems 1978-1981.*

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Seals-Alders, Kimberly. The Mocha Manual to a Fabulous Pregnancy.*  

Sedaris, David. When You Are Engulfed in Flames.*
 

Shell, Ellen Ruppel. Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture.* 

Smith, Alexander McCall. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.*
 

--. The Kalahari Typing School for Men. *
 

--. Morality for Beautiful Girls.*
 

--. Tears of the Giraffe.*

--. The Full Cupboard of Life.*

--. In the Company of Cheerful Ladies.*

Stewart, Martha. The Martha Rules: 10 Essentials for Achieving Success as You Start, Grow, 

or Manage a Business.

Trooper, Jonathan. This is Where I Leave You.*
 

Valenti, Jessica. The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women.* 

Woolf, Virginia.  Orlando.