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Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Talking 'bout a resolution

I'm not one for New Year's Resolutions. Actually, I'm not one for New Year's celebrations of any kind, generally. I must have been somewhat cynical even as a child because I distinctly remember staying up all by myself until midnight when I was in third grade and then thinking "That's it? This holiday is ridiculous!" Since I have had children, I have come to loathe New Year's and the Fourth of July specifically because of the loud and upsetting and sleep-depriving fire crackers, though the noisy horrible kind are outlawed in Cleveland, so that may have been more of a Charlestonian/Southern phase of my life.

BUT, I feel the inexplicable need this year to mark the passage of time somehow, perhaps with resolutions, though I am historically bad at remembering resolutions, if and when I ever make them. I saw somewhere on the interwebs recently that you could make New Year's SOLUTIONS instead of resolutions, and that idea at least made me smile, so maybe that's what I will do. So, without further ado and without much premeditation or even thought on my part (because you KNOW that always works out well for me!)...

My Solutions for 2013

1. Clean my room by February. No really, giving myself ONLY a month is a stretch goal, believe me. You have never seen my room. Actually, no one has, outside my immediate family and my parents, back when it was clean (for once) when they came to visit in May. And right now, it's an epic disaster, a black hole, a vacuum into which no vacuum has gone for months and months (see previous sentence). There are many problems: lack of space, a closet with no working light fixture, the bedroom/office/laundry room combo we have, laziness and ennui, too much stuff, yadda yadda yadda. But the SOLUTION (see what I did there?) is to clean it, thoroughly, finding a home for all the stuff or chucking it. And I am giving myself a nice, snowy, winter month in which to do this, just to help myself out a tad.

2. Blog more. Yes, I know, I have dropped the proverbial ball (is that really a proverb? hmm...) here, but I am going to retrench and begin again to chronicle the everyday for two simple but profound reasons. One, otherwise I have no journal of my kids' activities and that is criminal. Two, there are a few of you out there who regularly lament my inactivity and so I will return for you, as well. It's all about the children and the friends. Because I'm a giver! I'm going to start slow and ramp up, perhaps beginning with once every two weeks, moving to once a week, and aiming for three times a week eventually.

3. Get healthier. Did you know I have a gym membership now? Wait, no, of course you don't, because I'm not blogging! Yep, I am a member of a local gym now, though for some unknown reason (actually, the reason is probably just contrariness), J doesn't like to visit the kids' play place and has made my going there increasingly difficult, but I am going to force him to come and try to go on the days he goes early to school and figure out a snack I can bring that will entice him. Because I was going regularly for about a month there and it really helped me feel better, so I should keep doing it. Also, I am doing an online biggest loser type challenge online for the third time (what? You didn't know I's already done it twice, losing and then regaining and then losing about 10 pounds? Darn this uninformative blog!) and this time I am actually going to try, instead of committing halfheartedly. First up: counting food points, Weight Watcher's style of old (I HATE points plus, by the way), upping my physical activity (hence the gym), and cutting out candy and most sweets as much as possible. I am NOT going to go all "no refined sugars!!" crazy because, let's be realistic, this is me we are talking about, but I CAN eat less sugar, and I am sure it will help me. Then there's the doctors. I haven't seen a doctor of any kind except at an urgent care emergency since I moved to Ohio. I don't have a primary care doc or an OB or a neurologist or gastroenterologist or cardiologist or infectious disease specialist or urologist, all of whom I have seen more or less regularly in the past. I also don't have an acupuncturist or a chiropractor or even a dentist. I am a mess! I am definitely not the solution but the problem here. So, no longer. I declare 2013 the year of medical professionals! I will have a bevy of them before the year is out. And, at the very least, I will be better protected in case something else goes wrong!

4. Parent Better. I've decided that I need to get serious about figuring out how to better parent the boys. I took a parenting seminar a few months ago and, while it hasn't helped much right away, I did feel better about my choices while I was there and gained some insight into what is making my children do what they are doing. So I need to do more. Next up, an online seminar on intentional parenting (their words, not mine). I'm not sure what will work, but for now I see the husband and me making one anxious child more anxious and one rough child rougher, which isn't a particularly good track record. So I'm going to learn more and do better this year. Wish us all luck!

I think that's about enough, don't you? Hopefully, these solutions will actually solve some of my life's current issues. I can't wait to see if they do!

2 comments:

Betsy Escandon said...

Oh, good. You can learn all about how to be a better parent and then distill it into short reads for me here on this blog.

Good luck on those resolutions!

Janelle said...

My bedroom is a black hole too, but only because of laziness. I don't have any of your other good excuses.