New Year, Old Resolutions

I hope you had a Happy New Year!

It was quite a year for us with highlights being the start of this new blog and our trips to LA, Peru, Lake Tahoe, and Disney-world with two toddlers.  There was the cancer death of my sister's labrador, Mokee:  Qori's best friend, father figure -- all he knew and trusted.  I was too heart-broken to write about it.  Thankfully, Mokee's soul lived on a few months later when my sister gave birth to my first niece, Emily.  Also known as "Em" for "M" for "Mokee".

It's been a good year for me, not the best, but thankfully also not the worst.  I started this blog excited to enter into full toddler-hood life and leave the baby phase behind.  True enough, every day the ruffians get a little easier to handle and a little more independent.  I've even found moments lately to give myself manicures again!  Diego's speech is so good now, I question why he's even in speech therapy still.  And Tater:  he's picking things up so fast, thanks to his constant interaction with his older brother.  Although Ruffians will always be Ruffians, I feel like each day I get a little closer to something I can handle better as a mom.  A mutual, organic relationship with my Ruffians, and now that I think about it, that was probably what I really needed to set as my original goal/resolution for the year, and everything else would have fell into place. 

I'm not blaming my Ruffian-relationship for me not meeting all my resolutions last year.  Although they did make things literally impossible, there are other factors such as working mom life, my own devotion and energy, and my take on motherhood.  I won't lie, I don't think I've handled the first years of motherhood very well, and there have been days where I have a short fuse and displace my own anger and selfishness as resentment towards the Ruffians.  I'm working on that.  I love my Ruffians!  But, man - can they drive this woman insane most of the time!  I honestly have less than 5 minute bouts of time where the Ruffians decide to give me a break.  Not enough time to pamper myself, take a shower, think a deep thought, or even get out a blog post.  There is never any time for ME, and yet I still give myself personal goals every year thinking, "This is the year the Ruffians will give me more time for ME!"  Unfortunately, if I had to grade myself on my 2013 personal goals, I'd give myself a C or a D, which to me means I did not pass this year, and I must repeat the course.  I have faith that I can do it better this year, as my Ruffians start loosening the reigns, and I can get control of the carriage again.  Could 2014 be the year for ME?!!!  I'm a little timid about 2014, since Tater will be in his terrible twos.  Please all pray the best for me!

So I'm re-posting last year's resolutions below (slightly modified for goals I already met) to remind myself of what I thought (during my 5-minute bouts of time) was deeply important for me as a human being to feel at peace with myself for 2014:

• I will be more financially responsible
• I will pay down my debt by at least 50% by the end of 2014. I will use at least 50% of any bonus or tax return money to help pay off the debt.
• I will join the ASPCA (or other) charity by April and use part of my bonus money to provide a significant donation (succeeded last year but worth keeping up)
• I will create my priority wishlist of items (excluding clothes/shoes, because, well - come on... you know I would never be able to get to the other stuff on the list!) for 2014 and buy only things on the list for myself throughout the year (about once a month) if there's financial wiggle room. (Also succeeded last year and worth keeping up)
• I will get fit (lose the baby fast-food-friday pouch and tighten the glutes)
• I will walk down and then up at least 9 flights of stairs daily at work, when my work schedule permits
• I will run on the treadmill at least once a week. 
• I will do sit-ups and lunges at least twice a week. (I'm thinking I should do this while watching my reality TV:  Bachelor, Housewives of Whatever City, or Extreme Weightloss)
• I will eat more healthy:  I will drink more water instead of juice and eat healthy snacks like multigrain crackers and cheese, nuts, and fruit. 
• I will be more healthy with my cooking and provide more variety in my menus. 
• I will make more side-dishes of veggies, beans, or grains when it supplements the dinner menu.
• I will make things that I've never made before (casseroles, meatloaf, etc) or try to perfect things that just never taste right for me (e.g., beef chow mein - how the heck do cheap restaurants do it???)
• I will institute Meatless Mondays for dinner
• I will incorporate less rice in dinner, and if I do make rice, I will only serve myself 1 cup. period.

Diego and Mateo (aka: I) have a goal too:

   Get potty trained by the end of 2014 (Diego was 90% potty trained for a whole week last year and then he regressed.  I'd say he's 2% potty trained now).  This might not be realistic for Tater, but he's been surprising me lately with how fast he picks things up, and I'd really like diapers to be a thing of the past in my life! 

Bring it on 2014!

Shirley (Mama-Ruff)