Today I bought a book! Do you know how long it has been since I bought a book to read for pleasure? Quite a while, my friends; too long, in fact. For a girl who spent more than 2/3rds of her life with her nose in a book, it has been ages since I sat down to read something that I wanted to read for myself. Admittedly, I didn't come up with this genius plan on my own; I owe it to the wonderful women in my family who have bonded together to read simultaneously a book of our choosing, and then comment on it. A sort of book club, via email. I am very excited to be included, and more excited to start digging in to a fresh page. This got me thinking: now that have a little place to put it, I should write down my "new" year's resolutions, or at most, a list of things I would like to accomplish this year.
1. Read a book! For fun! (ok, that one is kinda cheating...)
2. Yell less, hug more. It seems the older the kids get, the more there is to tell them not to do. I find that overall, they tend to respond so much better when I tell them, and not yell it at them. But after a day of repeating myself, I feel pushed to the edge. My goal is to take a step back, and remember that they are, at the very least, just little people; let alone MY little people, who love me and are most likely just bored. I would never yell at my husband or my mom or another adult in that way- my children deserve a little more grace.
3. Above all, resist the hair salon! I am growing my hair out, and that's final. Ok, folks, I must come clean: I am a chronic hair-cutter. When I am at the grocery store, and pass by a Great Clips, my mind starts to drift...and suddenly I am in the chair getting yet another trim! It's just that for a mere $10, I can blab to a stranger about my great kids (do you know how many second glances I get when I tell people I have three little ones? That in itself is a mood-booster), and walk away feeling prettier and looking less like the bedraggled momster I so often feel like. But new year, new hair, tighter budget- no spontaneous hair cuts!
4. Finish school! Ok, that one is a little unrealistic. But I am setting my bar high here- if I keep chugging away at it, I should be relatively close by the end of this year. An amendment, then: keep my perfect grade point average. Yes, that's right, it's pretty perfect right now. We'll see where I'm at after the next college math class...
5. Lose 10 pounds. Ok, I would really like to lose alot more, but this one I am going to be conservative on. It may take me a while longer than I hope, so I'll shoot for a small number. I am not the exercise guru; in fact, hauling the groceries in is about the most weight lifting I do each week. But, this year is about doing better, being better- so, Buns of Steel here I come!!
6. Plant a vegetable garden. This one, though it may seem banal, is quite possibly the most terrifying one on my list. I, by nature, have a black thumb. And then, beyond that, I don't know the first thing about gardening. When we were first married, I planted some mums. Before I could water them twice, they were dry, thin, brown bare fingers in a pot. The next spring, I planted a rose bush, some yellow lilies, and some annuals. I don't think they lasted the summer. In our back yard, the fence was engulfed in a horrid, stinky, prickly, viney weed. It grew taller than our shed! And I would hack and hack at it, to no avail. So no matter what side I was on- grow them, cut them down; I couldn't win. I bought a book. I couldn't make heads or tails of it. I watched for two years as my mother in law planted, watered, and weeded. I feared to touch the poor things lest I be the death of them. We moved to our current residence in the month of November, so I reasonably said to myself I would wait and just see what came up in these foreign beds. By spring, however, I had found a new excuse to avoid the yard work: I was near the end of my third pregnancy, and felt no where near capable enough to get down in the dirt and try weeding or growing things. My belly was evidence of my fertility, must I make things grow from the ground, too?! So, I passed for that year. By the time this past spring rolled around, the garden beds had been untended for more than a year, and it looked as though we were being engulfed in a mini jungle. So, I took my less-than-knowledgeable hands and did the only thing possible in that forest of weeds: I pulled. And pulled. And pulled. For days, I pulled weeds. My mom came out, and we pulled weeds for 5 hours together! Finally, we tamed the wild things enough to see the few scrawny starved flowers and bushes that were left, and by that point, I gave up again. I resolved to keep the beds moderately weeded, but beyond that, I could do no more out there. So this year, I am going to step WAY outside my comfort-zone and attempt to grow something. Maybe some cucumbers, and a tomato or two. Graecy really wants some watermelon. We'll see. It may be the biggest flop, but I am at least going to TRY.

Well, that is all I've got. For now. I may come back and add some things, but if you ask me, I am going to have my hands full just trying to figure out the garden...