Happy New Year! (and some Link Love)

How's that for a creative, attention grabbing title? Weak, I know. But really, I hope you had a good New Year's celebration as quiet or as feisty-spicy as it may or may not have been. I hope you're looking forward to seeing how 2010 pans out. By the way, are you a 'twenty-ten' kind of person or are you more in the 'two thousand ten' camp? Mrs. A. needs to know because I keep waffling.

The New Year and I have a Love-Hate relationship. I love beginnings: clean slates, starting lines, fresh starts. I hate the stick-with-it-ness that I inevitably and predictably procrastinate my way out of. Therefore, there is a noticeable lack of resolution proclamation around here. The disappointment is just not worth it. I do, however, have a few ideas percolating in the background...but nothing I'm willing to lay claim to just yet.

This New Year has started off on a positive note for me. There are new beginnings happening in the bedroom. Real actual furniture has been purchased. That's it, just furniture. This may not be very exciting for most folk, but I'm over the moon. One of the pitfalls of starting a family before establishing a household is the persistent lingering of the college bachelor pad homestead: practical before pretty and pieced together before planned. But no more - Mr. A and I will soon have a proper grown-up bedroom. In our search for a proper dresser, Mr. A and I found ourselves purchasing a complete bedroom set. More economical in the long run. Next month will see us purchase proper mattresses so we can replace the outdated, hand-me-down waterbed I've been sleeping in these last ten years. To distract me from the wait, Mr. A. purchased me paint. I LOVE to paint! So I am now the proud owner of a half-painted bedroom half-furnished with real furniture. (If the novelty of staring at my half-bedroom wears off, I'll paint the downstairs trim until the mattresses are ordered.)

I'm also excited about our New Year homeschooling plans. The last few evenings I've had our books out, getting organized for this coming week, Week #14/36 of our homeschooling year. Happily, I don't have a lot to do due to the work I did planning things out in the fall. New additions to our work arrived under the Christmas tree thanks to my supportive and overly generous mother-in-law. The Girl Child has a new art program Artistic Pursuits. She'll also be taking art classes with a local artist who is highly skilled in graphic design and technical illustration. As part of my thrown-together-in-desperation science curriculum, we'll be reading our way through Galileo for Kids: His Life and Ideas. The Boy Child is keen to use our telescope so hopefully the calendar I bought Skywatchers 2010 will be a daily reminder to do so. Although I am excited to resume our daily bookwork, I can't say that the kids are. I've been visualizing the appropriate parenting methods - patience and clear communication of expectations - that I will employ to deal with any slugishness or resistance. I should have a good week in me before I have to resort to bribery.

I figured that a New Year requires a little virtual closet cleaning as well. I've pared down my blogroll reading list. My goal is to spend no more than an hour poking through cyberspace on my daily blog-crawl and related side-clicks. I do love my blog reading. Good writing, ideas, inspiration and even a bit of entertainment all available with a couple of clicks. I'm such an instant gratification kind of girl. So here's what's holding my attention lately. Peruse at your leisure:

• A Small Corner of Nowhere - check out Audrey's blogroll as well
• Boarding In Bedlam - great writing by Arby...I love me a HSing dad
• Cake Wrecks - this would be part of the aforementioned entertainment
• Free-Range Kids - parenting inspiration and confirmation of philosophy for me
• Handmade Homeschool - check out Sarah's New Year's idea for 2010 - 12 in 12. Inspired!
• Home Spun Juggling - Cristina, her writing and her comics are long-time favourites
• Nurtured By Love - ideas, inspiration and good writing
• Peer Into Our World - Debbie's gone private for now, but a wise and wonderful HSing mom
• Pioneer Woman - Doesn't everyone read here? This one has 'ideas' and 'entertainment'.
• The Homeschool Classroom - more ideas...
• The Woman's Colony - a lot of articles...play catch-up on the weekend with coffee
• Totally Smitten Mama - beautiful babies, cool crafts and really thoughtful writing
• A Knitting Nurse - I keep coming back for Rudee's writing...and knitting

I hope you'll forward any favourite haunts my way. After all, I'm a quick reader. As long as everyone doesn't get all ambitious by blogging every day, I should be able to keep up.

I'm off to rest up for an early start tomorrow. I find it best to return to a regular schedule after holidays by scheduling early morning guests..my dad should be popping by around 8am. Hopefully I'll be dressed and have the dog walked by then. It's always good to have Monday morning ambitions.

♥Mrs. A.