Thursday 31 December 2009

Moving into the "Tennies"

I gave up New Year's resolutions a long time ago, ever since I failed spectacularly to 'give up' smoking 12 years in a row. (Thankfully I did stop smoking one September evening a long time ago, no calendar-induced promise required!)

However, moving into a new year I do like to have a think of where Gruff, Sprout, Squidge and I will be headed in the year to come, and with this in mind I have come up with my aims for 2010, some big, some small, and mostly just recorded here to jog my memory in a week when the usual day to day goings on have clogged up my brain so that any thoughts beyond changing nappies and how to spell c-a-t have no wriggle room.

1. We will start a business.

Now this one has been on the horizon for a while, being as I am stuck in a part time job which I dislike almost as much as I need it. While I passionately want to teach my children that you work to earn a living, I also want to show them that it is indeed possible to do something you enjoy rather than having your soul sucked out corporate stylee. Myriad ideas have been put forward, mulled over, and put on hold, so I am making this number one on our list.

2. We will grow more veg than last year.

Now, this was not for want of trying. A combination of me being in hospital, Gruff having a poor memory watering-wise, and an all-consuming platoon of slugs, led to our minimal harvest of 17 carrots, 26 runnerbeans, 12 tomatoes, some very mangy potatoes, and a raspberry. Yes, one. So any advice on organic slug control gratefully received! (And forgetful husbands!)

3. We will build a chicken house and keep some ex-battery hens.

Sprout is all for this, and he loved trying to grow veg last year so I think he would be a valuable helper. Plus any eggs would be a bonus, reluctant as I am to buy supermarket "free range"

4. We will start an informal scheme to collect cartons from the houses in our street and take them to the recycling centre.

It's bugged me for a while that the facilities exist locally to recycle juice cartons, yet they're not picked up. Not quite sure how this will go down with the neighbours (or should I say I'm pretty sure but I'm gonna try anyway!)

5. We will convince our MP that home education is a valuable thing and not an abberation to be ignored at best, wiped out at worst.

A long shot, but I'm going to keep on trying. One of these days he might even reply to me without weeks of repeated phone calls.

6. We will make all our gifts and be as sustainable as possible doing it.

We did make most of our Christmas gifts this year, but ended up buying birthday gifts for people. We also ended up using some wrapping paper, so I'll be hoarding alternatives (fabric, newspaper, old maps etc) early on this time!

7. Spend as much time as possible with our children.

Now this really should be at number one, but no matter, it's not in order of importance! In fact, this one should go without saying, however so much time in 2009 was spent fighting the government's plans to take over the role of parents in the UK, that it took valuable family time away from us, and for that I will never forgive the government. The fight is not nearly over, and you can help by getting everyone you know to sign the petition against these totalitarian plans here


So that's the summary of our plans for the year ahead, some big, some small, some personal, and some affecting all families in this country. Happy New Year to you all!

2 comments:

  1. Happy new year. They are a fab assortment of aims and I hope you get some way towards all of them by the end of the 2010 :)

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  2. Thanks, fingers crossed :) It's an unusually good sign that I've already made a start!

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