Submitted by Cam on
Always the turning of the year is a time for reflection. We look at the good, the bad, and the ugly from our last trip around the sun. Then, we try to figure out what we need more of, and less of, and then make a resolution to bring in more good and filter out the bad. It's a cleansing of sorts, usually spent with friends and family. And some of us blog about it, too!
First thing to mention (at least on this site) is that 2013 was the best year yet for Bucknucks Books. It was our fourth year of operation, which is typically the point at which you can reasonably assess whether your business is a success or not. I feel very grateful to the people in this community, because I am able to support my family with this business. That is my measure of success, and I feel that we are there. I don't need to make a lot, I just need to make enough. I extend my heartfelt appreciation to everyone who helped to make that happen in 2013. When you support our business, you support my family, and I can't say "thank you" enough.
As some of you may know, we have a small acreage with a little decrepit house on it. There is never any shortage of projects around the home, and it usually feels pretty overwhelming, particularly when I only get one or two days at home a week to help out. It seems that time flies by and I don't get as much done as I want to. However when you look back at a whole year of Sundays and Mondays and see what you did manage to accomplish it can be pretty gratifying. 2013 could be referred to as "year of the fence" since we managed to put up many metres of fencing, culminating in an area where the chickens and ducks cannot get into, which is where the garden is. The old garden (and fence) was moved into the new garden area and there are now nine beds in place for spring planting. We cleared a lot of brush, and in so doing gained a lot of yard. The place looks a lot different than it did at the beginning of last year, and it's all forward progress so that is good.
The last thing to mention is my writing. It has been a personal mission of mine to complete a novel since I was in High School. I have started many projects, and dropped most of them, some of them are better off not seeing the light of day again. Last year I started a new one, and today I reviewed it and was suprirsed to see that I had 14,870 words. Now that isn't all that much, but it's the most amount of writing I have done in a single year since 2006, and I feel that the writing is markedly improved from my earlier years. This is largely due to the fabulous writing group that I am a part of. I am very thankful to have Carol, Jim, Selinde, James, Kristine, and Kim in my life.
So after reviewing the last year, I like to put my aspirations down in writing for the coming year. It feels more like a commitment, and so more likely to happen, if I publish my intentions for the world to see. These are the items that I hope to accomplish in the coming year.
Store: Build shelving on the East wall so I can move the Romance section somewhere better.
Home: Enclose the yard completely, expand the chicken coop, dig out a new duck pond, and build a greenhouse for my wife.
Writing: Triple my word count from this year: 45,000 or bust.
Body: Quit sneaking the dairy. 2014 is going to be a happy gut year (I hope).
I hope everyone has a healthy and prosperous New Year.
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