New Years Resolution Roundup

The kids are going back to school. Yahoo! I’d do a back flip, but getting in shape is one of my New Years resolutions for this year, not last year. Okay, so it was on my resolutions list last year too, but that’s just how things go. We spent a relaxing, completely joyful holiday at home—my absolute favorite so far and I’m so ready to get back into the comfortable routine. Maybe routine is the wrong word. It may be a rut, but it’s mine and I’ve been missing driving in it.


My kids went completely bonkers today. We live in the “no snow zone,” which is a-okay with me but my kids are always hunting the skies for flakes that never come, so imagine my surprise when we woke up to three inches of powdery white stuff on the ground. The kids were digging through boxes of ancient sweater gloves and folding their feet into last years sneakers. They were introduced to the concept of layering and to the reality that I can get really mad when they track wet footprints on my freshly mopped floor.

Somehow I wound up with a completely snow-free lawn and a really strange looking snowman that had fallen on its face by noon and had disappeared entirely by three. They tried snowboarding down our ski-ramp driveway using a piece of plywood and were surprised when it didn’t work. They came in to brain-storm a solution to the problem with me. “Um, it’s not working because snow-boards have a slick surface on the bottom,” I told them. They looked at me like I’d just revealed the seventh secret of the pharaoh.

I know—they’re sheltered. I grew up in snow and in skis. I understand the limits of four-wheel drives (they’ll get you up the mountain, but you’re still sliding like a fool back down it), and that there’s a reason why people carry blankets in their trunks. But my kids have no concept of this. So I’ll take them up to the mountains this month and let them spend the day riding a tube up and down a hill of snow.

I know I’ll take them because that’s one of my other resolutions, to do more activities with my kids. I’m sure I’ll do it. It wasn’t on my list last year, was it? Maybe I’d better pull that list out again. Darn. It was on last years list. It looks like I’m going to need to give myself a big pep-talk about this year’s resolutions. Yep, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to talk myself into keeping my resolutions this year. As a matter of a fact—I’m putting it on my list!