Resolutions are for the birds...

but I'll make a few anyway.

Fortunately, I've been going to the gym since my doctor released me after having my baby last summer. My routine is established and desired weight is being lost/maintained. Therefore, I don't have to join a gym for $1 only to quit going by the middle of February (or sooner). Of course, my gym time will be irritatingly altered by all the folks who are adding gym time to their schedule for the next few weeks just until their dedication wanes and they cancel their memberships until January 2014. So no resolution to get into shape or exercise more.

Eating more healthily...um...I can only make this a resolution if having a bowl of Peanut Butter Crunch before going to bed is considered healthy eating.

As for money matters: I like to spend it and not save it. Yep that about sums it up.

Okay, so what does that leave me?

Well, I have decided to keep my house what I call "guest ready." This simply means that regardless of day or hour if someone were to stop by for any reason I would not be embarrassed by the state of my home. This will really be tested once I return to work because some evenings those few dishes in the sink seem insurmountable when compared to my exhaustion after working all day. However, I plan to make sure the beds are made everyday, keep the sink empty of dishes, and have my son put all his toys away before going to bed. Doing these three things will keep my house tidy enough between Merry Maid cleanings.

I desperately need to get back to my writing. It doesn't matter to me if people read it. Writing just makes me feel productive. My fingers assertively patting the keys while my brain filters through all my vocabulary and useless knowledge trying to find a way to organize my thoughts about, well, everything. My goal will be at least one post a week. On days I'm feeling particularly creative I might even write a couple of posts and schedule them ahead of time. There's also the matter of my book. Yes, I would LOVE to publish a book and yes, I've had numerous ideas and starts that never went anywhere. This is my year! I just need to decided how I want to pace myself to get it all done.

Finally, at work I really sort have been in a funk. I still believe that teaching is the only thing I ever want to do. Unfortunately, I teach public school in a state with a crap system that keeps becoming crappier. The minute my negativity begins to bleed into my work my students will know. I need to focus on at least three positives a day even if it requires me going through my Smile File to remember why I go in every day. I actually reread something from Marcus Aurelius' Meditations that I plan to really focus on:

"When, in the early morning, you are reluctant to get up, have this thought in mind: 'I rise to do a man's work. Am I still resentful as I go to do the task for which I was born and for the sake of which I was brought into the world? Was I made to warm myself under the blankets?' 'But this is more pleasant.' Were you born for pleasure, to feel things, and not do them?...You do not love yourself. If you did, you would certainly love your own nature and its purpose."

I know I'm meant to teach. I will just pray that I either find happiness again in my current position or find a job that allows me to use my skills to teach in some other capacity.

That should do it for 2013.