Happy New Year!

We ended 2010 and started our New Year with a long weekend trip to Maine. The kids definitely enjoyed seeing (and playing on) all the tractors again, hence the collection of photos of my children looking like they are from a family of tractor happy farmers (tractor happy yes, farmers no).


So, as we were in Maine and I was a tad busy (such a change from my regular life) that although I made some pretty half assed attempts at putting together a list of New Years resolutions, it never quite happened. So, I will instead use this blog entry to compile my list of New Years Resolutions, which I am sure will provide the annotated outline for a healthy, productive and of course highly rewarding 2011 .


1) Resolution #1, obviously I will lose 15 pounds and begin exercising 30-35 minutes 5 days a week including, put not limited to, walking on the treadmill, yoga, zumba classes, Pilates, and...... Okay, I'm not even going to bother to finish writing that one down because it looks so ridiculous when I actually look at it. Never mind the fact that I would require magical powers to find 30-35 consecutive minutes to do anything even one day a week, but in reality I would really need more like 60 consecutive minutes (find work out clothes, dress, work out, undress, shower, dress again) and frankly I think even a genie would laugh at me if i wished for that much time to do anything at all. Revised resolution: Will hope and pray and keep my fingers crossed that I magically drop enough weight to no longer look like I am pregnant. Excellent resolution.


2) Resolution #2, become more organized! Yes, that is a very good resolution. I did, after all, just send Andy to Eleanor's first swim class with Eleanor and a lovely pink bathing suit with the Disney Princesses on it. Doesn't that sound organized? Well, it would be expect that I was so disorganized that I didn't order her a bathing suit until last week, and it hasn't arrived yet, and I never got around to asking to borrow a bathing suit for tonight, so this afternoon I was in the attic digging through boxes of hand me downs hoping to God someone had passed on a girls' bathing suit (and debating whether it would be worse for Eleanor to miss her first class or show up in boys swim trunks) when I found the Princess suit! Woohoo! Unfortunately it is a size 4T (it would fit Fraser) and Eleanor has to wear one of Hammie's swim diapers (I ordered those with her suit). Now I'm just hoping to God she doesn't poop in the pool. So yes, it is a very practical and admirable resolution for me to become more organized. This strikes me, however, as somewhat akin to people on the titanic resolving to bail faster. Sure, it is very admirable to keep working away as hard as you can, but in the end you are still going to be sucked down into your icy, watery grave.


3) Resolution #3, be more positive and optimistic! Oh man, that was funny. Moving on...


4) Resolution #4, find time to read 12 actual books (not magazines or the back of cereal boxes). Also a good resolution, satisfying both my need for some time of my own to do something I enjoy and my need to pretend like I am still an adult member of society with something valuable to contribute to the greater good (or at least my need to pretend I still have the brain power to read an entire book whose main characters are not Max and Ruby or which does not rhyme and words like fox, socks, cat, or doody). I have actually been trying very hard to work on this resolution this week. Andy gave me a Kindle for Christmas and the first book I purchased was the Dalai Lama's How to Practice. I am really enjoying it, and am actually already half way through. How is this possible?!? Well, to make time for resolution #4 I have implemented Resolution #5


5) Resolution #5, get up at 5:00 a.m. every day to find time to do something just for myself before the kids get up. Wonderful resolution, truly a stroke of freaking genius. I have, in fact, been doing this every day since January first, and have used the time to drink my coffee while it is still hot and read, and also to make elaborate and very tasty breakfasts for everyone. I am happy, (see progress in Resolution 4) the kids and Andy are happy (yummy breakfast and Mommy looks semi-alert instead of like she just crawled out from under a rock!) Brilliant, genius, oh why can't everyone be as inspired as me?? Just one down side, I believe this is called burning the candle at both ends. I'm still getting up with the kids at night, and they aren't going to bed any earlier, so now it is 6:15 in the evening and I am drooling on myself like some sort of over medicated mental patient. I'm so slap happy that I am currently letting Fraser and Hammie watch their Max and Ruby movie, in french. I think this is hysterical.


6) Resolution #6, get more sleep. I am currently working on how to reconcile this with resolutions #4 and #5. Am starting to suspect I may have created a Catch 22 of New Years Resolutions. Maybe that would be a good book to read re: resolution #4, or was it 5? Or maybe not. I'm having trouble remembering what it was about, the book, not the resolution. Wait, which book? What were we talking about? Oh yes, I am in more dire need of sleep than any semi-literate woman in history.


7) Resolution #7, be more patient with my children. This one is also tricky. I have discovered that there really are two parts of the equation for me to be able to practice sustained patience with my children (neither of these parts involves hiring a full time nanny or shipping them off to boarding school or military school or whatever kind of school takes 1, 3, and 4 year olds, though I am sure I could be the very paragon of patience should either of those parts be implemented). The first part is that I have to have gotten adequate sleep over a sustained period of time (adequate being defined as at least 8 consecutive hours of sleep and sustained period being at least a month). The second part is that I must have at least an hour in the morning to drink my coffee hot and do something peaceful that I enjoy before I am required to face any of my children. Sadly this is again the Catch 22 of not having enough hours in the day to complete both sides of the equation and being left either peaceful but exhausted or semi-well-rested but angry, neither of which do a patient Mommy make.


So, after careful consideration, my final resolution is:


8) Resolution #8, cut myself some slack. This is a resolution I at least have some prayer of carrying through with this year (it certainly stands a better chance of surviving than resolutions 1 through 7). I am not going to be well rested, well read, or well organized by the end of 2011. My children will probably not have learned french, learned to play violin, or begun their quest to read the complete works of Shakespeare. I will not be training for a marathon, sleeping for more than a few hours at a time or wearing a bikini, or any kind of bathing suit, probably ever again (yeah, there is a reason Andy is taking Eleanor to her swim lessons...see "pregnant belly" reference in Resolution #1). But we will do the best we can to enjoy whatever it is that 2011 has to offer, be it more tractors, a little farming, or a few uninterrupted hours to drink a nice cup of coffee or the chance to enjoy a glass of wine and a little NCIS with my tractor loving, farm coveting husband. Speaking of which, i think I will cut myself some slack and do that now, 5 a.m. wake up call be damned. Happy 2011 everyone!