What's in Store For 2016

Happy New Year! If you've noticed fewer blog posts lately it's because I know you all have better things to do during the holidays than pop in to see what I'm up to.

Plus I'm under the weather. If "the weather" was an inner layer of the earth's crust. It's annoying that when you are well you imagine the next time you are sick you're going to get a lot of reading done, then being sick you just lie in bed and wonder who decided to swirl the plaster on the ceiling.
 
As a fun extra I have pink eye in addition to strep. I look like I already died and the mortician wasn't quite sure what I was supposed to look like. I'm sporting a kind of old Elizabeth Taylor meets Quasimodo look.

Like I said, happy new year.

Onward. Big things happened last year!

 I changed the name of the blog and the honey operation to its forever name and decided that there might be enough interest in the honey and skin care to operate a small business, a micro business really. You can read about the Open House here and Pop Up Shop here.

I applied for and was accepted to the Tennessee Master Gardener course. Something that has been on my radar for over a decade.

Speaking of gardening, remember when I nearly ripped my arm off trying to conquer a stubborn azalea? My husband would like the record to show that he doesn't think the azalea was the stubborn one.  
Want to laugh at my pain? I want you to too. Read about it here.

The Pen & Hive Cottage is (what, for my husband's sake we are going to call) finished. Wink 

 So what's in store for 2016?

The first quarter will be focused on the Master Gardener classes and volunteer hours. Plus in January I'll be trying to get back into healthy habits that I threw under the bus a couple of months ago. Seriously y'all. TEN extra pounds that have got to go. Plus ordering supplies for the apiary. We're expanding! And making decisions about the business. Testing products and collecting feedback from people who have used my goodies. In the back of my mind is that nagging "should I do this?"

The second quarter will be working on getting in the MG volunteer hours. Tending bees. Planting the garden. I'll also be making final decisions about what products are in and out for Pen & Hive, working on label design, and creating an online store. Etsy? Shopify? If you have an online store let me know what you like!

Third quarter will be finalizing volunteer hours paperwork for MG course. Getting documentation together, and graduation. I'll also be planning and packing for a big trip we'll be taking this year. More about later!

Then it's time for the holidays again!

Will all of this get done? In this time frame? And turn out fabulous? Who knows? But these are the goals. Each one is more detailed than it looks like here and I am thinking of about a million obstacles already. But that's okay.

Maybe you don't do resolutions and I get that, but where do you think you are going without a plan? 

The first step to finishing anything...

is to start.