A New Year and a New Blog

So, here we are at 2013.  Last year was a busy year for me.  Our baby boy, Simon, was born in September, and is just an absolute joy.  I also had the pleasure of attending my first ever Comic-Con (at 8 months pregnant) and even got to have my picture taken with (geek alert) Brent Spiner!  Squee!  Beyond that, my first gardening attempt failed spectacularly due to being massively pregnant during an extremely hot summer.  I wasn't able do any of the canning I wanted to (did I mention how much I hate the heat and how hot it was this summer?). We potty trained our daughter, Eleanor, at 22 months, and she got a big girl bed and finally grew some hair.  So, yeah, 2012 was a decent year, and I have high hope for 2013.

For those of you who followed my other blog (Recipes and Other Randomness), you can still visit it here:  http://recipesandotherrandomness.blogspot.com.  However, I most likely will not be posting there and will be sharing all of my recipes here from now on.  I'm too lazy to transfer the posts from there to here, though, so if you are looking for an older recipe of mine, you'll most likely find it there.  Or, if you really want to, you can e-mail or message me and I'll re-post it here for you.  Maybe.  If I feel like it.

Going forward in this blog, I will (hopefully) be writing about a lot of different subjects, like cooking, canning, gardening, crafty shit, and various other ramblings as I see fit.  If there is a certain food or topic you would like me to talk about, let me know.  You all should also be aware that since I grew up in Southern Indiana, I tend to use "y'all" more than a little bit.  Also, I lived in the UK for a while and still occasionally use the British spellings of certain words, so if you see a random 'u' or 's' floating around, it's not a typo, I promise.  I also will cuss when the occasion calls for it (and often when it  doesn't fucking call for it) and I am extremely verbose, as you can see by the length of this posting.

Many people start out the New Year with high aspirations and a list of resolutions a mile long.  Today is January 10, and I would be willing to bet that a lot of those resolutions have already been broken and discarded.  I know myself well enough to know that setting a resolution (for example: I will run 5 miles a week or I will lose 25 lbs by Tuesday or I will save eleventy-million dollars in a vacation account or whatever) will NOT work out well.  I will invariably hit a bump in the road, give up at whatever I am trying to accomplish and end up feeling shitty about myself.  So, this year, I'm not setting any resolutions.

Instead, there are things I am going to strive for, with the understanding that it's not the end of the world if I don't make it.

So without further ado, in 2013, I am going to try to:

• Eat healthier.  More veggies.  More fruits.  Less crap.
• Drink more water.  Soda be bad for you, yo.
• Spend less time watching TV and more time outside.  Especially with the kids.  This tidbit was typed while Simon is asleep in his swing and Eleanor is watching 'Madagascar'.  See, I suck at resolutions.
• Attempt to grow another garden.  Strawberries, cucumbers, and some herbs.  Maybe tomatoes and jalapenos.  
• Start composting.
• Do more canning, hopefully with the harvests from my garden.
• Be gentle with myself.
• Realize that the images I see of other peoples' lives (on Pinterest, Facebook and other social networks) are most likely NOT true and accurate depictions of how they actually live.  No one can be that perfect.  I do not need to stress myself out by trying to live up to those levels.
• Be more outspoken with my opinions, thoughts, and beliefs, and not worry that other people won't like me because of it.
• Spend more time reading to my kids.
• Be more active.
• Not beat myself up if I fail at any of the above.

So, there you have it, dear readers!  The inaugural post of 2013 and of Tiny Drops of Chaos.  I hope you will join me on my journey going forward.

Namaste.