2011 in Review: What went right

If you were hoping for my information on my plans to stockpile a year's supply of food, like where I plan on putting it all, I'm afraid you'll have to wait a while longer.  First, I want to review the good things that happened in my life in 2011.   Last year was one of the best of my life in many ways and I want to take a few minutes to share some of the great things that happened last year before getting too far into this year.

First off, I think my garden was pretty darn amazing.  If I had the technical skills to do it, I would put a slideshow of the garden pictures on the blog throughout the year in chronological order, set to some cheesy music like Boyz II Men's It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday, but I lack those skills, so here are a few of my favorite pictures of last year's garden:

To see more of the garden and what a small space this is all in, please check out my video tour I did in July

In addition to the garden, I learned a number of cool new skills, from making yogurt, making ricotta cheese, canning with both a water bath canner and pressure canner, making lip balm, making felt food, and "harvesting" chickens, to how to write and maintain a blog, including a number of fairly technical goodies like making my button available for stealing (available on the side bar, if you do what to steal it).  I'm glad 2011 ended when it did, because I'm pretty sure I must have reached the limit of data storage in my brain for one year!

Besides all the things I did, I met a ton of cool people through this blog and feel a real sense of community every time I go to my Facebook page.  That sense of community blossomed into an unbelievable showing of love, support, and assistance when I didn't know how our family was going to make it toward the end of the year when things got really rough.  For that, I can't even begin to thank you, but I have to at least try:  Thank you. Thank you.  Thank you.

I'm also proud of my family's accomplishments in 2011, from the youngest learning to walk to my daughter's beautiful dance recital performance, my (now, as of 2012) 7 year old's help in the garden and progress on learning to read, my oldest son's progress on playing the piano and violin, to my husband's getting a couple deer to help feed the family for the year.  I am truly blessed.

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This post was inspired by the Simplify Your Life Challenge at Home Life Simplified