The Plan

I love to plan. With the assistance and encouragement of my amazing girlfriend, Sarah, I hope to start turning some of those plans into reality. The plans that I have tend to fall into the following categories:

Health & Beauty: I've been doing lots of research into making some of our own products, and I'm really excited to start some of these. I have been pinning recipes for homemade magnesium oil, body butter, deodorant, and laundry detergent. Since these don't require waiting until spring, this is where I expect to start! 

Landscaping: For the past two years, we've been trying to put a pretty face on our rental home. We put in flowerbeds. We ripped out ugly, overgrown shrubbery (and some poison ivy). We tore out and rebuilt the teeny, tiny, rotting deck off of the side yard. We experimented with different sizes, colors, and types of flowers. This year, we're planning on growing from seed! We will be growing flowers for both our front flower beds and the...

Vegetable Gardening: I'm so excited for this one! I've done lots of researching on everything from raised beds to permaculture, and I've got the start of what I hope will be a pretty good plan. I have seed catalogs on the way! We are following all of the advice I've read to start small -- tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. 

Canning: I've been putting up veggies and jam with my family for years, but I've never put them up for myself. Since we won't have too many plants for ourselves, this will probably mean some trips to the farmers' markets, auctions, and relatives' houses. We purchased a water bath canner at the end of the season last year, so that's what we will be using. That means we'll be sticking to tomatoes and fruits. 

Cooking/Baking: Sarah is the chef; I am the baker. It's a system that works well for us! We both love trying new things, which makes for some adventurous eating at times! We are both interested in eating a little healthier, so hopefully we'll find some recipes that have great results.

Projects: Being the amazing girlfriend that I am, I got Sarah a lovely new drill/driver for Christmas. I'm sure she knows there's a "honey-do" list as the second portion of the project. She's already made me some pretty amazing pieces, including a lofted bed for our son that he absolutely loves. While she's in charge of anything that requires power tools, I'll also be tackling some craft projects that don't look too daunting.

Trips: We haven't really gone on a "family vacation" yet. This year, I hope we can change that. I'm also hoping to make lots of day trips. We live within easy driving distance of some pretty spectacular state parks, caves, zoos, museums, and amusement parks. 

Shew! Lots to do! I know all of my plans won't turn out the way I expect. But every failure just creates an opportunity for a new plan!