Mabon is the time of Harvest Home, when the fruits of our labors are brought in from the fields and the land is left to rest and recover over the winter months. Therefore, it is also a time to reflect on ourselves, what we have accomplished through the year, what goals we have met.

For me, probably the biggest goal I have reached is getting the family back into a routine for school and chores. I have things set up now so that daily chores get done most days, and the kids have their own chores to help with that. I always forget how hard that first year or so with a new baby is, but it does get better. I'm getting back into that better place, where I don't feel like I'm drowning in the workload anymore.

I have also reached my goal of learning braille. I know all the contractions (although I still need a cheat sheet sometimes for writing), and I can read tactilely if I go slowly. I have gotten quite a few books brailled for Jarod and Kender, and I just got more labels yesterday so I can do some more. I even have several decks of cards that I have brailled, and I've been putting braille labels over all the print on Kender's toys. I'm well on my way to my goal of having Jarod and Kender learn braille as they learn print.

For the first time this year I had a significant garden! In fact, it is still producing now. Some things did better than others, but this is the first time I have ever grown food and eaten it. For weeks we were able to get a meal's worth of green beans out of the garden at a time...and even though I thought I didn't like fresh green beans, I love the fresh green beans out of my garden! I have more jalapenos than I know what to do with, and also more cabbage coming in (filling the freezer!). For those who haven't been here this year, I set up a tire garden around the playset. Ultimately, I wanted those tires to hold in some ground cover so we won't have to mow the grass around the playset anymore. Conveniently, those tires also made a great container garden. We had about 50 tires, and we planted a trinity of complementary plants in each tire. It was time consuming to get started, but wonderful to have once it got going!

Among some minor things I got accomplished were setting up a coat cubby for the kids' gear (yes, just like open school cubbies), getting Kender a real nursery set up with a real crib and fresh paint, starting work as a dressmaker (and made my first pair of custom jeans), completing my first oil change on the new van, finally finding a new church community, and bottling and sampling my first batch of wine.

Harvest Home is also a time to look at those crops that didn't grow, figure out why, and prepare for doing better next year. To take that literally, I know that a fair chunk of my tire garden didn't grow because it doesn't get enough sun. About 15 tires didn't sprout much of anything at all, and another 6 or so were stunted. Next year, I'm going to fill those tires with shade-tolerant plants, whether food or decoration only doesn't matter. I'll also expand my garden by putting plants in another part of our yard that gets tons of sun (and where the grass regularly grows thick and knee-high).

I have not kept to my goal of rising with the sun and exercising every day. It is so hard to keep to a good bedtime schedule for myself, when the only time I have for my things each day is after the kids are in bed. I stay up entirely too late, and then just hit the snooze button in the morning. I need to keep my workload down to a manageable level so that I am not as tempted to keep working until 1 or 2 in the morning. While part of getting up in the morning is just willpower, part is also having enough sleep, and that I have failed on this year. Next year, I will do better.

I have not kept Spiral Scouts as active as I would like. I let my work take over the weekends too many times, especially over the summer. I also did not plan ahead for meetings. Over the next year, I will do better. I will set aside time for planning meetings. I will make meeting time sacrosanct, and not allow other obligations to encroach on that special time with my children. I will also plan out a badge schedule for the next year, so that we have a set of goals to achieve as a Circle.

Now I have harvested my crops and plowed my failures under. Now I will rest and reflect as the winter approaches, storing up energy for spring planting. As the winter snows cover the ground and turn the world into a pristine white blanket, I can cuddle up to the fire and enjoy the fruits of my labors, patiently waiting for the circle to turn again.