Dear 2008

Every year just goes faster and faster and before I know it it'll be 2025 and Eli will be 18, leaving for college and never calling unless he has dirty laundry or an empty wallet. If you type "Is time going faster" into google you get 819,000 results so it's reassuring that I'm not the only one feeling this way. But really 2008 I hardly knew ye.

This year I made significant progress on my cooking, I confidently call myself a good cook and will try almost any recipe. This year I hope to branch into bread making--without a bread machine. I also want to try to buy part of a cow and part of a pig from a local farm so that we can have organic meat all year round. If that actually happens surely you know and see pictures of all the lovely white wrapped meat.

This year Elijah got a lot bigger. He no longer looks a bit like a baby; my little guy is a real kid now. And while he was the most adorable baby ever he's possibly more adorable now that he has such a definitive personality. Unfortunately for my ability to discipline I even find him adorable when he's being naughty. I'll try to work on that in 2009 too.

I got a lot of reading done this year, and not just the Twilight series which took up a good bit of my life this fall. Book crack it is! Some very good non-Twilight books:

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon

The Things They Carried by Tim O' Brien

Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

I need to look at my shelves and the floor by my bed for more, 2008 was a good year for reading. Maybe this year I'll start using the virtual bookshelf and put it on here so that next year I won't draw a blank on what I did all year.

This year, for probably the first time in two years, I found new bands I like which excites me because I was starting to think I was my mom and would only listen to what I'd been listening to since I was 21 forever. That said I recommend City and Colour, She & Him, The Honorary Title, and Emiliana Torrini. on a side note Emiliana is a very fabulous variation on my name.

I did not get my house clean or organized this year and I really really really want to work on it. I need outside pressure. Perhaps a social worker visiting weekly and threatening to take Eli if I don't comply? Any ideas about cleaning would be much appreciated; even if they end up being ignored.

The biggest thing of the year is also the thing that doesn't feel a bit different. I guess getting married doesn't make much of an impact if you've already been living and parenting together. It does feel good that it's official just not a bit different...

I spent more blogging time on Christmas than all of 2008. I'm not sure what that says about the year.