Onward into January

Well, Ridgecrest is waking up after its long holiday sleep. I think a lot of people must leave town for the holidays -- if not for Christmas, then for the week after. But school started up again today and most of the boos' little friends seemed to be back at daycare.

The weather is very pleasant, not at all like winter. Highs in the 60s every day. On Sunday we drove out past Trona to Homewood Canyon and wandered through the old buildings associated with the old Ruth Mine, which was interesting. Perfectly beautiful day for it, even though my tummy was still unsettled.

January. Never my favorite month, even in years when I'm not being evicted. Four years ago in January my mother died. But even before that it wasn't my favorite month. It's always so hard to make the transition from colored lights and cookies to the cold clear light of a new year and all those resolutions.

I haven't made mine yet. I did write my list of accomplishments for 2011 and that's always cheering. Biggest success: potty trained the twins! Yeah baby! All else pales by comparison.

Number one on this year's resolution list will of course be a successful move, but once we're done with that I will need other goals. How many books do I want to read this year, what do I want to write, what else do I want to do with myself? Must give it some thought. Maybe I won't finalize the list until after we move.

For the month of January, my goals are to freecycle something every day, pack at least 2 boxes every day, finally get the holiday cards written and sent, and not let myself get too stressed out.

It's very cheering to spend time writing cards, fun to spend a few minutes thinking about each old friend.

Freecycling, on the other hand, is terribly irritating. Yesterday I successfully freecycled our original double stroller -- just about broke my heart to give it up, so many sweet memories of using it, but we don't use it anymore, so might as well pass it on to someone who will. Today, however, I spent several hours attempting to freecycle a dozen old baby sleepers, and I've still got someone coming tomorrow for some of them. It should make me feel good to (a) get rid of things we don't need, and (b) give them to people who do need them, but it's mostly just irritating.

And I didn't manage to pack any boxes today. Tomorrow for sure.