Sometimes I think I should rename my blog Hot-Mess Melissa.

That’s how my garden seemed at the end of the 2015 season, with the creeping Charlie creeping in everywhere and the choking-vine weed choking everything.

But here is January, yielding a clean slate. Just as I have resolved to stop complaining and exercise five days a week and count my blessings every day, I feel grateful for my garden going dormant and also for the weeds and yellow-jacket wasps going dormant.

I’m loving my winter garden. I have lit up my evergreens and am going to embrace the Wisconsin winter by flooding my yard (with help from my dear old dad) to create an ice rink for my 2nd-grader, who still doesn’t know how to ice skate. Stay tuned for ice-rink updates!

So cheers to 2016 and being grateful for our hot messes, for this is our year to try new things–be it better attitudes, habits, or plants and flowers.

I hope I never stop growing.