Wrapping up

We are wrapping things up.  The kids got their report cards a few days ago.  On Tuesday, we went to their awards night for the homeschool we are associated with (and stopped by Malakof Diggins, site of the invention of hydraulic mining and now a ghost town and state park).  We had one of the families over who will be taking two of our goats and built 500' of fence for another.  I installed the new skylight for the yurt that has been sitting in my garage for over a year, haunting me!

All of this has got me thinking about the "like to do list" I posted back in October (10/4/11).  Did I do it?  I've pasted it below with checks (√) for things I was able to do, an "x" for things not done, a "-" for things done partially, and comments in CAPS.

√Be with my family
√Homeschool my kids and hug them often
√Build and repair stuff in and around the yurt and land
√Nourish old friendships
√Make new friends
√Make pumpkin bread with my kids
√Enjoy sports with my kids
√Enjoy more quality time with Juliana
√Play guitar
√Play piano
√Learn some ukulele (maybe)
√Play ultimate
√Learn some karate
√Ski a lot
√Read more
√Read a novel in Spanish (or at least part of one)-PART
√Write a blog
√Write a poem
√Write a song
√Garden
√Witness a goat birth
√Make a bike trail with a bridge over our creek
xMake a cobb oven (maybe)
xMake a sweat lodge (maybe)
-Make a swimming hole at the creek (a long-shot)
√Visit another country or two
√Take some trips around California and the West
√Camp and backpack-BACKPACK TRIP NEXT WEEK
√Explore Auburn, Grass Valley and Sacramento
√Remain financially solvent
√Do nothing with some regularity

Yay!  I done did it!  It isn't all about "doing", of course, and that is much of the point.  That list was generated with the hope that I'd be doing a lot of "being".  Ok.  I beed.

Speaking of which, when we were packing up from work and home last year, I was often asked why we were doing it.  We had some pretty specific reasons.  In a nutshell they were:

• Be with each other more; affirm family.
• Get to know our new place, its surrounds, and the people here better.
• Travel.
• Homestead.

I think we lived all of those things and feel richer for it.

Joey