After a busy break, the new year has begun. Once again, Isabella, party girl herself, managed to stay up until midnight and celebrate with everyone. This was our third New Year’s Eve celebration with Elizabeth and Zak. We had a great venison dinner from the buck Zak shot. Then we watched Wall-E, the girls’ latest obsession, played ping pong and Scattergories, and watched Dick Clark for the last few minutes before midnight. We had some champagne to toast the new year and our recent resolutions…
So here they are: Bruce and I are both in search of employment, and Bruce really wants to start up a tech business helping people with technology issues in the home, such as setting up wireless networks, backing up data, cleaning out slow computers, etc. We are currently trying to think of a creative name, and hope the business will be up and running by summer. Meanwhile, Bruce will be taking 11 credits this semester, all of which will take up 3 evenings a week, so he’ll be very busy.
I am looking for employment online. I am hoping to do some university-level teaching and a K-12 charter school online. Our goal is for me to be home doing that and Bruce to be working part-time with his business, so he will still be the primary caretaker of the kids and I will be the primary breadwinner.
But my most important resolution of the year has more to do with the environment: I am not going to buy anything new for a year. Used clothes, toys, gifts. Or handmade items. I read about this in an article and thought it sounded like a great idea. We live in a consumer-driven society and we fill our homes with things made in Chinese factories. With the technology available today (mainly Craigslist, of course), there is no reason to buy anything new. It’s recycling at its best: recycling our products, not just paper and plastic. So for our grand audience of Vittetoe Times readers, please do not expect store-bought gifts in 2009. What you receive will be just as glorious, if not better, I promise! It comes without the hefty price tag of guilt.
Our new year has begun with much business. Isabella and I have begun our Girl Scout cookie sales, Mythili has returned to preschool, and Riona is still enjoying being 2 (such an easy life!!). We hope it calms down soon, as we are entering our venture of the Used New Year. We welcome, and invite, any comrades. 
What a wonderful idea. I definitely have made a personal resolution to think about every purchase I make. Think about it’s impact on my life and it’s impact on the earth. Sometimes I notice I just blindly purchase items without thinking about the repercussions of the purchase until I get it home and have buyers remorse. My husband bought an iron the other day. I use an iron quite a lot for quilting, but it was a cheap one and it doesn’t work very well. It spurts water everywhere and doesn’t heat evenly, it’s all but useless. In our haste to save a few dollars we made the mistake of buying something that will have to disposed of, instead of thinking about the long term and making an investment in an item that will last a lifetime. NO New plastic this year!!! I know I can do it, I know my children can do it! I know that your family can do it and through us an inspiration to other families who never thought they could.