Goals & Questions

The first couple days of the Simple Abundance journey are pretty gentle. They, for one, are short, just a couple paragraphs. And two, they only ask you to think and write a few things down. Think...I do way too much of that, but yesterday I did force myself to write some of my thoughts down on paper. It's amazing how therapeutic that can be. Day one of the Simple Abundance journey suggests making a list of goals or plans or ideas you want to explore for the upcoming year, so here's what I wrote down:

Photography
Many people have said to me that I should pursue photography as a career, or at least a somewhat lucrative hobby. I love taking pictures and have read up on some basic techniques that have made some of my shots pretty awesome. But, as soon as you say the word 'settings' my brain goes a bit fuzzy. The mechanical, technical part of it all is where I get a bit stupid. I keep saying I want to take a class. My dad, who has no photography skills whatsoever nor does he care learn any, bought a state of the art digital camera last summer. Why? Because he could. He doesn't understand why this irks me. One of the reasons I haven't taken a class is because I don't really have, nor can I afford, the equipment. I think he'll let me borrow the camera for a course, so that is going to be one of my monthly goals in the spring or summer. I want to explore this a little more and have waited far too long to do so.

Writing
Duh. I've picked this back up again. I got a little too sensitive and dejected, but last year at this time when I was writing consistently I felt better. So writing.

Crocheting
Now that I can follow an actual crochet pattern and have graduated to intermediate level, I'm contemplating crocheting for cash, in a semi-lucrative hobby sort of way. It's relaxing and I can be somewhat social while doing it, watching TV or a movie with my family or taking a turn or two with the video game controller. The problem, or hitch, is going to be making enough items to sell. I don't want it to turn into a chore, but rather a labor of love.

Home Projects
Last year when I began my monthly challenges I had planned that one month in the spring was going to be devoted to home improvement projects. When I returned to work, that didn't happen. I really want to take time this year to make some affordable improvements to our house. This task is a bit daunting because owning a house is a never-ending list of projects, many of which are expensive.

Homesteading
It has always been a dream of mine to live on a small farm and live off the land as much as possible. Why I moved to a suburb of Philadelphia in South Jersey is beyond me. Our borough won't even allow us to have a backyard chicken coop. If I lived one block over in the next borough, I'd be allowed chickens and even a couple of goats. While the prospect of having chickens, goats, and maybe a couple of donkeys is one hold, I have decided to try and make my home as much of a homestead as the borough of Palmyra will allow it to be. For one, I want to begin worm composting. And I'm contemplating beekeeping, but I'll have to research more into that for the safety of my kids. We have two raised bed vegetable gardens which produced the best harvest we've had yet. There's definitely a learning curve involved there. And finally, eleven years ago my mother-in-law bought me a canner. I have yet to use it. It's very intimidating, but this year I want to begin canning more than just strawberry jam.

So those are all my plans for the new year. Pretty hefty, I know. The second day of the Simple Abundance journey calls for you to "live the questions". All of the above are linked to some major questions I have for my family's and my own future. Our kids' schooling is a major concern, so we have contemplated moving for them and also explored the possibility of sending them to private school. This, of course, leads to questions regarding funding of such a venture which in turn leads to me exploring new ways to make money for the family and new career paths. So many "what ifs". I realized last year in the middle of teaching that I was living the questions. I had been asking myself for three years if I wanted to return to teaching. Guess what? There's only one way to know the answer. You have to live the question and then you get your answer. So all of those above projects are me living my questions, exploring new possibilities, looking for some open windows.