So it begins...

The New Year is here, bringing with it the need to take stock and organize and resolve to do better in whatever area of life one feels the need to improve. No formal resolutions for this girl beyond the desire to be healthy and productive. 

I knew it had been quite awhile since I posted here, but had no idea that it was August. So much has happened around here since then, yet so much remains the same. Here's a recap:

We had a fairly successful gardening year and put away several quarts of my special tomato sauce (oven roasted with olive oil and garlic), as well as quite a bit of basil frozen in olive oil, and lots and lots of bell peppers, cut into strips and ready for fajita-making. 

The grandboys' 4th and 6th birthdays were celebrated with a bounce house in the front yard. That caught peoples' attention as they drove by. As things were being set up that Saturday morning, Jess inadvertently drove over the guide wire from the electric pole by the alley and snapped it off, so the power company guys had to come fix it. They told me they were going to leave it until Monday, but were glad they'd come when they saw the bounce house a few feet away. I was glad, too.

School started and Jess sent her oldest off to Kindergarten. He loves school and his friends and we've all adjusted. I get to see him off to the bus a couple of mornings a week, and then pick him up every day. We get a few minutes to catch up on his day and have a snack together. 

The younger of the two boys is in his second year of preschool and goes in the afternoons. He and I have a couple of mornings a week and all day on Wednesdays for "Silas-Grammy" time.  

The baby goes full-time to daycare, but I get some snuggles in before she goes, and sometimes help with getting her fed in the evenings. She's a mama's girl, but likes her Gram, so I don't feel too left out. We'll celebrate her first birthday in less than two weeks from today.

At mid-summer I was asked to return to the local movie theater to help out for a couple of nights a week. It's a fun job, and so nice to get out of the house and see people. In this new year I will have some expanded responsibilities and a few more hours a week as I take on being an assistant manager. The job will still be part-time, but I look forward to having some fun there.

We hosted a very fun Halloween party for friends and family, and I think it will be a tradition to have one each year. Greg really enjoys Halloween, and Silas embraces all things spooky as well. We're already planning crafts for new decorations for the 2016 party.

Thanksgiving was low-key as is usual when Brad spends the holiday with his other family. We had a small dinner for just us on the Sunday before, then enjoyed the buffet at the local cafe with Greg's family on Thanksgiving. We did not enjoy the snow storm that day, however...

December just flew by, getting busier each week, as it does for everyone. Lots to do at school, work, and home. We did have a wonderful holiday weekend filled with family and laughter and lots of good food. 

That brings us to today and looking ahead at this bright and shiny new year. It starts off with Layla's birthday. This sweet girl brings such laughter to our days and I look forward to celebrating her first year of life. 

Then things will slow down for a few weeks since I'm having some surgery and will need time to recover. After that, I'm hoping to feel much better and am planning on embracing my new position at the theater and pursuing some other new endeavors, one as a partner with Jessica. I'll talk more about that if and when that happens. It's not up to us, or we'd already be in the thick of it. 

So that's the update from this corner of the prairie. It is my intention to blog more this coming year. I often feel that I perhaps don't have much to offer in the way of creativity, and who wants to read about our supper menus every week? Then I think about how much I enjoy when my online friends post on their blogs - their posts are the first ones I read when I open Bloglovin' each day - and I learn from their experiences and sometimes incorporate their ideas into my own household. Also, I read a blog post written by someone who was feeling the way I was feeling, and they made the point that yes, what I'm posting may have been blogged about by 100 other people, but not they way I blog about it. Each of us is unique in relating our shared experiences, so I'll keep hanging out here, and I hope each of you will hang out with me.