New Year, no resolutions

Everywhere I go, people are talking about their resolutions for the new year. None over here. Not that I don't believe heartily in change and growth. I do, and continually strive to make myself a better person. The thing that gets me about New Year's lists is the odd timing, and the attempt to try to change. When I decide to do something differently in my life, I make that change right away. If it's something I really want to do differently then there's just no waiting until the first of the year to start. To me, saying I'm going to try to do something is really setting myself up for failure. It's hard to really get to work on something new when you've got "I'm going to try" rolling around in your head. I decide something is going to happen and work to do it, period. Now, sometimes I don't actually accomplish whatever it was that I wanted, but just going forward actively helps accomplish so much more than a half-hearted, "try". To quote my favorite Jim Henson creation: "Do, or do not. There is no try."

This year sees a lot of things to do. A staggering list, actually. Dan is furiously job hunting (anyone need a Mechanical Engineer who does project management, system engineering, has a ton of CAD experience, is flexible and creative, and has a great work ethic? Around Portland, Oregon?). The plan, if there is no job to speed things up, is to put our house on the market at the end of February. Given the housing market here in Southern California, it should sell quickly, which puts us at moving by around the middle of April. We'll take the money from the sale and get a rental somewhere around Portland while Dan continues to job search. We should have plenty of money to live off of for six months to as much as a year if really neccessary (hope not). Then we'll find a house to buy and move the final time.

This means two months to paint, install a new kitchen floor, install a bathroom floor (it's carpeted - who puts carpeting in a bathroom?), get new carpeting or possibly laminate flooring for the rest of the house, clean and organize and purge. Getting rid of things and organizing further will help in the move as well. I'm currently making list upon list of all the things we need to purchase, things that need to be done, research needed (how do you measure for carpeting, for instance?), estimates, packing lists, travel notes....it's going to be a regular book by the time I'm done. Thankfully, I LOVE making lists and organizing things, so this is truly my element. But the amount of things to take care of is daunting, to say the least.

Crafting and cooking updates will be sporadic here for a while. Knitting and sewing will certainly continue, more as therapy and sanity breaks (and a way to use up supplies before moving) than as creative outlets, at least for now. I will be organizing recipes, instructions, and patterns so they're easily accessable over on the side bar, and hopefully adding more in the next few months.

2006 will be the year we move to Oregon. I can't wait!