Happy 2010!

There’s something so refreshing and wonderful about ringing in a new year. The world gets a clean slate and all of the coulda, shoulda, woulda’s of the outgoing year are in the past while the incoming year is alive with possibilities and promise.


I have always been a resolution maker, but typically whatever grand idea that I have had for a life-altering, year-long change goes out the window less than a week after making the pledge. What can I say? I’m weak in the will power department, but something miraculous happened last year; something wonderful and stupendous and fantastic. I actually kept a resolution which was to lose weight and get back into a shape other than round. I lost 55lbs and started running again. Two days ago, I ran six miles. SIX!

With the success of last year still dancing triumphantly in my head, I decided that if I can lose 55lbs, then there isn’t anything that I can’t do and so I began thinking about other areas that could use some attention. The level of their significance varies greatly, but they are all things that I think could use some tweaking. Let’s take a look, shall we?

Resolution #1: The Pop Elimination Application

Hello, my name is Amy and I am addicted to pop. I love pop. I could drink it all the live long day. It tastes wonderful with everything and as an added bonus, incase you weren’t aware, it has CAFFINE; glorious, wonderful, caffeine. When I reach mid afternoon and begin to feel my energy level wane, the first thing that comes to mind is pop. If I eat anything even mildly sweet, I want to drink a pop with it. Pop goes with pizza like Laverne goes with Shirley. If I could put pop in my morning bowl of Oatmeal Squares cereal I totally…well, ok, I wouldn’t actually do that, but the point is that I love it.

Unfortunately, pop is really bad for you, especially diet which is what I prefer to drink. I overheard a greeter guy at Applebee’s the other day talking about pop and how, “That stuff will kill ya. Especially diet.” I know, I know, but it’s soooooo good.

I know realistically that I will never be able to give up pop forever, but I definitely need to start cutting back. I am challenging myself to give up pop completely for one month and after that, only drink it occasionally. I am getting the shakes just thinking about the impending caffeine withdrawl.

Resolution #2: The Can’t We All Get Along Endeavor

I want to spend less time screaming at the kids and more time enjoying them even when they are driving me completely insane and the only way to get through it is to go to my happy place where I escape to a far away island where cookies grow on trees and there is an enchanted waterfall that overflows with Pepsi. This all boils down to patience and the fact that mine has been worn very thin as of late. I think that it is because I expect too much of them and I often forget that Aaron is only almost five and Elyse is just nineteen months. I need to be more laid back and let the cards fall where they may. It never fails that my worst days with the kids are the ones when I feel like I have a million things to do and stress over getting them all done. In truth, as long as we all have at least one clean pair of underwear and we are not swimming through piles of filth, everything will and generally does get done at some point. Not always in my timetable, but it does get done.

I need to learn to let go of the frivolous and appreciate the now. There will be time enough to clean the house, but the kids are only going to be this age once. I will never remember how often I was able to Clorox the toilet, but I will never forget the afternoons that Aaron helped me make dinner or the hours that Elyse and I spend playing with baby dolls.

Resolution #3: The Ducks in a Row Undertaking

While I know that in order to be successful with Resolution #2, I am going to need to chill out a bit, I also know that I am not a person who tolerates disorder and chaos well. This year I want to try to tackle some of the areas that cause me the most distress, and once and for all get a handle on them. This is probably a little like shoveling the sidewalk in the middle of a blizzard, but I feel that the success of Resolution #2 is directly related to the success of Resolution #3. And if both #2 and #3 fail, then I am going to throw my hands in the air, wallow in my failure as a human being, and drown my sorrows in a case of diet Pepsi. You’re nothing without a plan.

So there they are…The things that I want to work on this year. They all seem doable and not at all as scary as last year’s resolution to lose weight.

More than anything, I hope that 2010 will continue to find us healthy and happy.

Happy New Year everybody and good luck on all of your resolutions!