Happy New Year + a little blog admin

Wishing you all a joyful, healthy and productive new year!


Cameron and I are so pleased to be able to put 2009 behind us and move forward to a more positive place. We have worked hard to rekindle some family relationships, our own relationship and adapt our lifestyle and outlook to suit us more presently. And I think we may be out of the other side of the nine year change, which I didn't believe existed until it arrived.

So, here's to 2010!
We saw in the new year with a little walnut shell boat activity (featured in All Year Round). It was a lovely activity and then we got an early night so as to approach January with energy and enthusiasm rather than a headache and fatigue!


Do you do the new year resolution thing?
Usually we make a light hearted list of things we'd like to do, but this year we're just going to have some overall goals (such as healthful choices, beauty in our surroundings, more days out etc) to aim for and see where it takes us.

This may sound completely selfish, but this year I plan to do more for myself. I found myself completely worn down to the point of illness last year for many reasons. One of my goals this year will be investing in myself a little, nurturing my own creativity, and taking some time to be alone or with other adults. I am still committed to being a full time Mother and to home educating Cameron, but it was gently pointed out to me, by someone very nice, that running myself into the ground and taking nothing for myself isn't the best example to be setting. I hope that makes sense without making me sound completely self-centred!

Of course, we have our huge allotment to really get stuck into this year! I have already started a savings fund to buy in some help in the Spring to give us a kick start. Cameron is also very keen to have his own bit of land to grow his own things, which is great considering his reluctance last Summer! I have decided to scrap the separate allotment blog and share our allotment adventures here, otherwise this space will be pretty quiet during the Spring and Summer!

You may have noticed that I've made some changes here on the blog too. I have added an extra sidebar so that you don't have to scroll down so much to find things you're looking for.
I have bought my own domain name which is http://www.homebakedonline.com/ You can still find the blog from the old address but it'd be great if you could update your feed readers/blog lists to the new one, when you have a little time.
I have chosen to keep this blog non-political - this does not mean that I do not care or take action on issues I believe in, it's simply my choice for this space. However, I will post links related to campaigns for home education etc in the "linky love" section as they come up, along with other non-political things I think are of interest. Be sure to check it out from time to time if you're reading on a feed reader and don't see my full page.
I've dropped the word "education" off the blog title, mainly because this space is evolving towards a point where I'm sharing less about home education and more about life in general and my own projects. We'll still be sharing snippets of our educational approach here, but perhaps in less detail than when this blog began as we don't really make the distinction between education and living life anymore - we learn all the time.
Also, although Cameron has not expressed a dislike to me sharing some of his life here, I'm feeling the need to give him more privacy, so there may be a little less of him featured in the blog, but he'll still be popping up from time to time when it feels right.

This week marks my second blogger-versary! I can't quite believe that I've kept the blog going regularly for this long. I'd like to take the opportunity to say thank you to you all for reading and for your lovely comments and support. I really enjoy this platform to express myself and record bits of our lives, and am enjoying seeing it grow and evolve.

Anyway, enough of all that serious stuff! I have a very exciting (well I think so anyway!) idea that I'm hoping you will join in with - make sure you come back and visit tomorrow to find out more!