It seems like 2010 sucked for a lot of people. Haiti for instance. To a much lesser extent, people at my church. My mom. And of course, miners everywhere.
My family actually had a relatively good year. I started it throwing up and I ended it covered in someone else's throw up, but I'm content because I got this guy out of it.
He's pretty awesome. And handsome. Those eyelashes are kind of insane. Even if my mom does refer to him as "The spitting-up-est baby I've ever known." Nana tells it like it is.
But a new day has dawned! Honestly I've never been that into the new year stuff. I mean, we ate collard greens and black eyed peas when I was a kid, but it wasn't a big deal. It's probably a good idea to embrace any chance to start fresh though, so I made some resolutions. Here goes...In 2011 I'm going to:
1. Learn to knit socks. For real. I've crashed and burned so many times, and now it's this super intimidating thing. But I can do it! This is MY YEAR, SOCKS. For the 2012 apocalypse, I'm going to be wearing a pair of hand knit socks.
Pretty, right?
2. Get chickens. If this sucks, oh well. We can surely find some people who will take them off our hands. But I've wanted to do it for so long, and at this point it's mostly just fear that's stopping me. And also my husband. He is stopping me. But we can work around that! Right, hon?!
Anyway, chickens. It's happening.
3. Be more present and engaged with my children. And since I am the kind of person who slips out of intangible resolutions like they are so many spit up encrusted t-shirts, let's make this specific.
At meal times in 2011, the only thing I bring to the table is my food (and my sparkling personality). No phone, no computer, no book/catalog/newspaper etc. I will converse with my children. No matter how many poop conversations and knock knock "jokes" this involves.
Do any of these guys look capable of telling a decent joke? No. The answer is No.
We are going to hopefully jump into some of my long held dreams in 2011- things like gardening and (maybe!) chickens, and other homesteady (on a budget) type stuff. In the midst of these experiences, I will surrender control whenever possible to my kids. Even if it means plants get overwatered, eggs get dropped, and clothes get permanently stained.
Can you imagine getting the dirt out of those dresses? Praise God for washing machines. Seriously. I do.
Usually, when I'm rushing through preparing dinner, because I didn't plan ahead of time and the kids are grumpy and hungry and under foot, I shoo them out of the kitchen. Not because pots are hot and knives are sharp and all the stuff I tell them, but because they are ANNOYING and I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS, and other awesome thoughts. I would like to change that this year. Plan better, move slower, have time for the most important people in my life to ask my questions and in Jane's case, sneak bites of whatever stomach turning raw ingredients are on the counters. I have seen her shove the following in the her mouth --
- flour (lots of this- it's her favorite)
- butter
- any kind of dough or batter
- brown suger
- white sugar
- cinnamon (that one was fun to watch)
- coffee grounds
- uncooked potato
- entire strawberry with stem attached (swallowed before I could even tell her)
- block of parmesan
and innumerable other improbable substances that I just hadn't even considered she'd want to eat.
"Mmmmm.... coffee grounds....are you going to eat those?"
Anyway, I'm not saying I want that to happen more. I just want it to be less annoying to me when it does happen. I want, basically, to live with joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc. Some goodness, gentleness, and self-control would be helpful as well.
So that's it for now. There's lots of other stuff I'd like to do this year - lose baby weight, have a cleanish house, keep up with the laundry, other generally good ideas. But those are the main ones. The big deals. Socks, chickens, and kids. In that order, of course.
3 comments:
apart from knitting socks ( i don't have the gift!) or getting chickens (we have 6, do you want the 3 too many that we have?), I am stealing your new years list. Thanks for making it so easy for me!
If you're getting chickens then you might have a rodent issue, which means you should probably also get a cat. We of course have three insanely adorable, children's book-looking kittens in our yard who are up for adoption...let me know when I should drop them off.
No comment on how well cats and chickens interact, but I'm sure you can work it out.
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