In fact, I welcome you and all the craziness you bring with you. It’s the 3rd of January and as I do every year (or thereabouts) on this day, I start to frantically start to re-organize closets, cabinets, review the calendar and look to the months ahead to see “what’s next”. Because we are celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas, and because we finally got a fake tree (Praise the Baby Jesus!) -it is still up and I’m not as worried about a million evergreen needles creating a rug in my living room. All three kids and husband slept in until around 10 am yesterday…re-entry to reality was rough today but we did it. We’ve had a good break from school and semi-breaks from work. It was a good Christmas, and aside from all of the stuff going on in the world around us- we had a good year. We are all here, some healthier than others, but we are all here. For that I am most thankful.
I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions- never have been, just disappointing when by noon on January 1st I have failed drastically with my “no carb diet” or “no social media mornings”. I feel like starting off with that kind of pressure at the beginning of the year is just really not the way to go happily into a new year. It was a hard lesson to learn. Then something happened. Frank says it sounds similar to a New Year’s Resolution, but I am ignoring him. I’m not taking the bait.
About a week ago I received an email advertising a great new planner- and per usual, I didn’t read all of the fine print and I ordered it. Well, apparently this was not actually the kind of “planner” I was planning on receiving. (Like what I did there?) What I received was a GOAL PLANNER for the year. You can not begin to imagine my devastation. A goal planner? I just needed a place to write down orthodontist appointments I would most likely forget not a place to write down goals for the year that would just cause stress and disappointment. I felt like the universe was playing a sick joke on me.
So, I sat alone at the kitchen island and looked through my new book, texting my sister and sister-in-law my disappointment since I had been bragging about how wonderful my new planner was going to be. Sure, it was colorful and well made- smooth to the touch, but this was not what I had expected. I began to thumb through it, every few pages slamming it shut. I was mad- this was NOT what I wanted. I did not want to fill out the 20 page synopsis of my life with headings such as “Getting to Know Me”, “Letting Go”, and “Meet Your Fears”! This was not my idea of a good time. It was no where close to my idea of a good time.
But I have to confess…after 48 hours of thinking about it, I did something some might consider somewhat drastic, I accepted this freak gift from the universe and I welcomed the challenge to lay out my goals in the book. Ok, so I’m just working on setting a few little minuscule goals each day. I’ve not completely gone off the deep end. The crazy thing is it was pretty freaking empowering!! I’m telling you it was like walking around without a bra on —ALL. DAY. LONG. I would have set some goals along time ago if I knew it was going to be this incredible- and heck, I don’t even know if I reached any today! Quite frankly, I don’t care if I did because maybe one of my goals was just to use the book- and I did, so there!
Seriously, I’m trying hard- really hard. The second part to the drastic action I took with the goal setting is I went to a FULL ELECTRONIC CALENDAR. (Gasp!) I know, it’s hard- I’m such a paper person. The twitching stopped after 24 hours which I feel is a good sign that I can continue to move forward. Frank is thrilled with this second development . So far I haven’t missed any appointments- however nothing but laziness has happened since Jan. 1st so we are all in good shape. I will keep you posted on how my move into using the web to keep up with my calendar goes. I will or Russia will, whichever comes first.
I also went to the gym today and drank and gallon of water…so I’ll be up going to the bathroom all night and won’t be able to walk tomorrow. Maybe I did accomplish all of my goals today!
In other news, our precious Julia Bean turns 15 tomorrow!! This is truly not possible. I still struggle daily with my kids growing up at light speed. She’s tall, beautiful, smart, talented and she doesn’t believe any of it. (Well, except the tall part because it’s kind of a given.) Also, she has NO INTEREST IN DRIVING! Can I get and AMEN!?!? She marches to her own beat which is what I love most about her- that and her wicked awesome sense of humor. I’m more excited about her birthday presents than I’m afraid she’ll be. You see, one thing Julia and I have in common is our love of 80’s movies- like a deep passionate love for them. Please don’t tell her, but I have her quite a collection of John Hughes and other classic 80’s movies wrapped up for her. I hope she will ask me to have an 80’s movie marathon very soon-I’m sure she will. She hasn’t seen St. Elmo’s fire and it’s my very favorite so we have to watch it together for the first time. Bring on the BRAT PACK! Thank you God for sending me a child who loves these movies as much as me!
So here we go, slowly into this new year. I feel a little braver, clearly older and a smidge wiser than I did in 2016. It’s amazing what 3 days can do for a gal. I kinda feel like John Bender walking across that field at the end of the Breakfast Club-come on 2017, give me everything you’ve got!
My Unorganized Life 