old country house blog

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Today, I received my 3rd and final request 
for a short contribution to the 
annual family newsletter
and thought, rather than to re-invent the wheel, that today, 
as we Welcome a NEW YEAR
I would share my “piece” with you.
   When the ball dropped last night…my 13 year old daughter sighed and said …”Such a bummer, this is the last time we will see the ball drop, cause you know… they say the world is gonna end this year.” 

God I hope not.


Well, as we now embark on another year, last one or not  and as FATE and wayward snowboarders would have it, a recent shoulder injury on our first ever family ski trip, has given me the time to write some thoughts down. 

     All the basics… Life is good…I can’t complain, the Kids are healthy and happy and we have been married 17 years, my husband has a job and even better, one that he loves, my Blog (myoldcountryhouse.blogspot.com) and my paintings (leslidevitopaintings.blogspot.com) are both thriving, and our multitude of pets, well all but one, (the bunny) made it another year. Our respective families are doing well, despite a few health issues, but today, anyway, we are all here… enjoying the first day of the New Year. 

   I always find it a bit disconcerting to sum up a year of living in a few sentences. This particular stage of LIFE and parenthood (our kids are 11, 13 and 15) has brought me to a new level of inarticulateness… the experience…don’t get me wrong…is a bit overwhelming…I love many elements of this phase, I want to freeze it, the conversations, the intensity of everything…all of it, but it is going too too too fast, and the changes, all the changes, come at me faster than anything I experienced when I was juggling three under 4 or even three elementary school age kids…in short, the kids are growing up before my very  eyes. And I have been brought to my knees…  mostly as I am unable to reflect on any of it…as much as to simply say …”whew, we made it here,  relatively on time.” 

          I started a blog last winter…. when my youngest was home for 5 weeks with Mono and the experience has opened up a whole new world to me and has given me a new lease on my sweet little Country Life…which was threatening to take me down! It provides me with, in addition to an outlet for my many creative endeavors, and my compulsion for recording my thoughts…an opportunity to simply process each day…to slow it down and take it in, if only in snippets.

Anyway, we ALL wish the best to Everyone for a Happy and Healthy New Year. 
I have Two mantras to begin the year:
One came from one of my favorite gifts this year.
It was a decorating book from my cousin…entitled
 ” A Perfectly Kept House is the sign of a MissSpent life.” 
I intend to make that my mantra along with 
our
Christmas Card sentiment…
PEACE, HEALTH AND HAPPINESS FOR 2012
THE REST IS JUST GRAVY!


HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!