A close friend told me the other day that she likes the number 2012—that it has a "nice balance and solidity" to it. I agree—it seems stable and strong, capable of supporting great things. Not that I have plans to accomplish monumental things. Mainly, I just want it to be a fun year. A year where we don't take ourselves too seriously. A year where my "(frustrated) perfectionism" doesn't get in the way.
Carter already has his page-long list of new year's resolutions. Mine are still in my head, which is not a good place for them, but I'm doing a decent job of implementing them nevertheless. I'm eating more protein, which I haven't been all that great about since I became a vegetarian a year and a half ago. (I think smoothies with whey powder are going to be the key.) I have my list of home projects to tackle, and I've vowed to take them one at a time rather than being overwhelmed by the list. When Hawthorne told me at 8:15 this morning (as we were putting on shoes to walk out the door to school) that he forgot to do his math homework, I didn't yell. I just grabbed the calculator and we whipped out a page of long division problems. (Don't worry, I'm not a terrible parent—he already knows how to do long division without me, and the consequence for him is that he now has to do his weekend homework on Friday afternoons.) And, our dinner menu for the week includes at least one thing that we don't eat all the time.
Now I have a few more things to get a handle on. I need to tackle the kids' scrapbooks, which for Ainsley has never even been started! This of course means organizing a lot of family photos, and it's going to take some serious bravery to dive into that deep end. Last year I managed to replace a few pounds of fat with a few pounds of muscle, but now it's time to just lose some fat! We need a schedule for practicing piano when I can focus on it too because little miss doesn't like doing ANYTHING by herself. I need to take more photos to share with grandparents and someday with grandchildren. And I have to become a better bargain clothes shopper because there are three of us in this family who really like to have fun clothes (and take trips and eat out a lot and participate in fun after school activities) all the time.
Notice the biggie missing this year? No entry for "simplify life." It's been on my resolution list for years because it just seemed like paring down would make things easier. But I like having three types of shampoo, two face washes, and four bottles of shower gel lining the bath tub. I'm never going to quit buying lipstick. I will continue to make big volunteer commitments at the kids' school (that sometimes interfere with getting a good night's sleep) because someone has to do that stuff. I might get in the habit of writing all our appointments down, but I'll continue to forget to look at the calendar. I'll always have three baskets of papers on my desk that "need to be dealt with." ... So, life will just have to be a little messy and complicated. Maybe the line item is just to "be OK with messy and complicated."
So here's to a messy, complicated, and fun 2012! Cheers!
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