Aquebogue News: Check out Jamesport Meeting House’s website

Happy New Year! I hope your holidays were filled with much love and the magic of the season and you spent quality time with family and friends. I also hope you’re ready to face 2015 with courage and determination! I know that I am. I have a lot of goals for this year, not the least of which is to get my house cleaned out and organized.

This past Thanksgiving we hit our 15-year anniversary of being in our home. Now that my kids are grown, and my book is written, I have a renewed commitment to clean out leftover stuff that has somehow accumulated all these years. I decided each kid will get one large tub of memories to store in the basement and my husband will have to toss those “get to it someday” projects that are hanging around.

I have my stuff to get rid of, too. It’s a new year and that’s a great time to make a new start. If you need ideas and motivation for organizing, then visit flylady.net. It’s a great online newsletter that offers free support. I have been following her suggestions for years, a baby step at a time. Maybe it will help you get organized in this new year.

I didn’t receive any notifications or emails about upcoming events from any of my usual sources, so I went to the websites in the community to check for myself. It appears that Jamesport and Aquebogue are hibernating for the winter. Maybe everyone is expecting a very harsh winter for January and February and I didn’t get the memo. Anyway, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of local events. I guess just stay home and keep warm.

While snooping for announcements, I discovered that the Jamesport Meeting House has a great new website. The Meeting House is a wonderful local community effort. It has been really cool seeing people stepping up to the plate and offering services to help rebuild and support this local treasure.

The musical events they sponsor are really exceptional and frequently fun for the whole family. Take a minute and check out their new website (jamesportmeetinghouse.org) and read about their vision, history and the leaders who are making this vision a reality. See if there is a way that you can use your talent and get involved. Thanks go out to Richard Wines and the committee that makes this all happen.

I want to wish my son, David, a great trip to Guatemala. He leaves tomorrow with the local nonprofit outreach Programa Sueños (programasuenos.com), and will be offering his gift of photography to this wonderful effort.

I must confess that since there isn’t a lot happening (until Jazz on the Vine in February), I am praying for snow. If I have to be home, I want to be snowed in.

Have a great week!

Contact Aquebogue columnist Eileen Benthal at [email protected] or 833-1897.