A Few Good Things: 2015 Edition

The creepily lovely, balmy temps and warm breezes took wing sometime in the wee hours. Today the air was slap-in-the-face COLD and there's a 100% chance of snow in the forecast for tonight. 2015's days are numbered...

As I take stock of the year, I realize that some very good things happened in my life:

Solar Power! We used most of our savings to purchase a solar array. While it's not quite large enough to zero out our electric bill (we had neither savings nor roof space enough to accomplish that feat) it should get us most of the way there. And it feels GREAT to know we're producing power without burning fuel. It's a pretty safe investment, too. If you're in my neck of the woods, I can't say enough good things about the team at Solar Generation - they've been a pleasure.

Solar panels form a small awning over a balcony outside an upstairs bedroom.

Garden! Thanks to the deer fence, raised beds and stone walls my husband and our friend, Seth built, and to the truckload of excellent dirt our friend, Mila delivered, 2015 was a big year for us. We grew our first crop of onions, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, beets, asparagus, pinto and black beans plus a bunch of stuff we've grown before like tomatoes, garlic, kale, chard, potatoes, peas, sweet potatoes and herbs. It was both delicious and fun in spite of an alarming number of cabbage worms and an army of hungry chipmunks. We're steadily eating our way through the potatoes, onions, garlic, beets, butternut and delicata squashes we stored and I've been thumbing through seed catalogs, greedily circling things on nearly every page...

Rahm planting asparagus crowns in the spring - another great investment in the future.

MommaStrong! My friend, Anna introduced me to Courtney's wonderful online workouts - a very accessible 15 minute of core strengthening that has reminded me that I do have muscles in my stomach. After two babies, I could not even locate them... What I love is that Courtney is a real person - an adorably earnest and down-to-earth single mom with an incredibly fit body and a ra-ra spirit. Her two little girls and her dog sometimes wander into the frame, needing something or other. And I like how she talks understandingly about things like how many moms leak a little pee while doing jumping jacks - not a big deal :) Often times, this is the best 15 minutes of my day. I highly recommend it/her.

Courtney films all the workouts in her living room.

California! We spent a week in northern California visiting family and friends at Thanksgiving. Despite the reality that traveling with little kids is brutal, it was wonderful to watch our boys play with their cousins, aunts and uncles and to catch up with some dear friends we don't get to see nearly enough. I also fit in a couple of hikes in Point Reyes and lunch with a dear friend at Imperial Tea Court, my very favorite Chinese restaurant which was heavenly.

Will with his BELOVED cousins, Ren and Lila in Aunt Taylor & Uncle Daniel's awesome "tree nest".

There was much more, of course, but my memory is not the "iron-clad lockbox" it used to be and time is short what with school being closed and all...

I hope that your year was chock full of good things, too. Feel free to share the good (and the bad!) if you feel like it.

I'll leave you with this succinct quote about gratitude and my best wishes for a happy and healthy new year.

"If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough."

-Meister Eckhart

-Eve

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