2013 in Review....Sort Of

It is now 2014 and the holidays are finally over.  Time to give a deep sigh of relief and continue on with things as usual.  Unless of course, you made New Years resolutions, then there will DEFINITELY be some major changes in your life for all of a couple weeks, *snicker* *snicker*.

I don't ever make New Year's resolutions, it's like setting myself up for failure.  If I want to change something in my life, or "better myself", one day is as good as another.  I don't really see why New Years is actually a holiday.  This year makes 2 years in a row I didn't watcht eh ball drop and I'm fine.  True, last year I was somewhere in the central American jungle without a WIFI signal, but even this year, my sister just stopped the show we were watching at midnight long enough to yell "Happy New Year!" and then push play on the remote.

And of course comes the mandatory introspection; thinking about 2013, the ups, the downs, the twisty turns and so on.  I tried, I really did try on Jan. 1st to do that, but I find it really difficult to be sentimental and nostalgic on cue.  It's been a few days and I've had time to think about it properly.  I wouldn't necessarily call 2013 a happy year, but it was a year of change for me and those in my life.  There was some negative change, but the majority of it ended up for the better, and I'm very grateful for it.  This was our farm's first "official" year, really getting public, and starting to make a name for ourselves.  By the end of the year we started to get invitations to festivals and fairs just by word of mouth alone.  The business is growing and our products are getting better and more various.  We've made friends with other vendors (I say "we" but what I mean is my mom, that's her job is to be nice and get people to like us) and that strengthens our reputation in the community.

Personally, I've made a new friend or two, and several new acquaintances.  I went on my first completely recreational road trip with (now) a very good friend.

I've learned lots of new things, practical things like how to make candles, skin and cook a squirrel, tan a deer hide, disbud a goat, splint a broken leg (Ok, so it was a goat's, but I bet it works on humans too!), and defend myself with basic marital arts.  Not a bad year in the learning department.

There were plenty of not so physical lessons too, but those are not nearly as fun to write about.

I survived another year, and again successfully dodged life hazards such as broken bones, falling in love or stitches.  Yeah me!  Yeah God! Ok, so mostly yeah God, He got me through anyways.  I so look forward to seeing what 2014 brings, hopefully lots of epic adventures shared with the people I care about.  What do you hope for in 2014?