Plans for 2010 and a fabulous parcel

The parcel first, on the gluten free recipe group it was suggested we have a chirstmas gluten free goodies swap and I was paired with Anna in Germany. The idea was we sent each other a shoebox fully of goodies and mine arrived a couple of days ago but I had to wait to get to the postoffice to collect it as we were out when they tried to deliver it. I have to admit I haven't sent mine yet as I failed to send it in time before Christmas partly due to a stomch bug and didn't want to have food sat in a box in some sorting office over Christmas.. I promise to get it in the post this week though!  As you can see Anna has done me proud. Lots of lovely biscuits (already sampled by me and the boys on some cases), two types of pretzles some tea with ginger and some great sounding recipes.

Now on to the plans.
I don't exactly do resolutions but I do try and look at the last year and see what i want to do differently in the next.

This last year in concept at least has been pretty good so I think really it's more of the same but better.

1) Menus have worked well so I plan to keep doing them but hopefully a little more in advance.

2) The allotment has be great but I hope to do a lot more this coming year and to get at least twice as much ground into production properly this year.. which unless the slugs decimate it again should mean we are self surficent in veg at least over the summer.

3) More mainly veg based dishes which is of course tied up with the growing of said veg. Also possibly having more of a go at preserving things be that in jars or drying or whatever.

4)  More exercise. This is partly tied in with the allotment.. more digging is more exercise but also other things. We just got a wii fit and so far that has been great fun. Though the Yoga has so far loosened my shoulders enough to remind me how stiff they are and give me a headache I know from experience I need to get through that and it will be better once they get looser again! The balance board is great for things like that as it gives you lots of feedback on your stance.

5) I'd like to loose weight. This is one I always feel wary about putting down as I rarely loose weight if I think about it to much and I'm aware that more exercise may make me weight more not less as I put muscle on fast for a woman so perhaps a better target is less inches and that's really what I care about anyway, I'm fed up of having a pregnant tummy when I'm not!!.. that and I want more energy!

6) To be better at sorting and clearing the house, the kitchen is much harder to use when messy and that goes for the rest of the house too. I don't do things because I can't find the right tools or space to work and our house isn't small we just need to get rid of a lot of stuff!!

7) Review how our local Freegle group (was Freecycle till recently) runs as see if we can improve that any now we have over 13,000 members as some things work better for small groups and now we are so big many members have problems with the amount of traffic and I think we are more of a juicy target for spammers and those less honest people after items to sell.. To be clear I don't mind people selling items IF they are honest about it when they ask for them..  Currently however most of my energy on that score is going on helping sort the national level stuff but I didn't stand for the committee so hope to have time to consider options for the local group too..

8) To have another real go at getting permission and help to get the local orchard up and running again. It is owned by the council and so far we have failed to find who we need to speak to never mind get anywhere farther.

9) Help the local school grow more veg and make sure they get in contact with a local initiative that is willing to help but has not managed to make contact with them only with me!

10) Get back into making things properly and regularly and maybe even make a bit of money here and there doing so.

Ten sounds a good number so I'll stop there as that's a pretty good range of aims I think !