Resolving Resolutions

Give up all sources of caffeine, save a ridiculous amount of money a month, lose an exorbitant amount of weight, finish every project I ever started, organize every nook and cranny of every nook and cranny, write a novel or two, learn a few new languages…

I love fresh starts. Whether it is the start of summer vacation, the first day of school, the beginning of the week, or waking up in the morning, I love the sensation of a fresh start. The knowledge that no matter what I did yesterday or what I might do tomorrow- I have the opportunity right now to live life how I desire to live life. And that is refreshing to me.

So, as a lover of fresh starts, one would think that New Year’s is a monumental occasion for someone like me. But really, it never has been. And it always is surprising to me that it isn’t such an occasion for me, being a worldwide fresh start sort of day and all. So, this has got me thinking- why? Why is New Year’s just another day to me?

Is it too big of a deal? Maybe I like fresh starts that are more personal, that are unique to me and my life and not 6.6 billion people on Earth. Maybe the big dealness of the whole day and the hype of making resolutions for the New Year is too mediaized (I don’t know if that is a real word, but I think it works here.) Maybe I don’t want to do what everyone else is doing? But am I really that self-conscious about being a unique individual? Hmmm….

Is it too much pressure? Maybe I don’t like to make New Year resolutions because there is too much pressure on keeping and fulfilling these almost always lofty goals. Everyone expects you to make a New Year’s resolution- to change something about yourself and your life and then be able to have something to show for it in 365 days. What if I fail? What if I give up after 72 days? That means I would have 293 days to feel bad about failing before I have another opportunity to make new resolution.

Is it too difficult? Maybe the kinds of resolutions that I feel are worthy of resolving to at the start of a new year are too complicated. Making and breaking habits is hard. Changing, replacing, removing, or adding something to our daily routines is more challenging that it looks written on a list of goals. I don’t have any statistics to back me up here, but I bet losing weight is a fairly popular resolution for people to make. It’s probably up there with quitting a smoking habit and not excessivly drinking. Goals that take two words to write are often the most challenging to do: Lose weight, visit gym, no caffeine, quit smoking, quit drinking, etc. In order to do such things people have to make fundamental daily changes. Maybe it’s just too hard.

Is it too infrequent? Maybe the fact that New Year’s is a once a year kind of thing is a turn off. It only allows one chance all year to make a change. I think that I would rather have ample opportunities on any day of the year to make changes to my life. I don’t want to be bound to one day for making big changes. I want to be able to wake up one mundane Thursday morning in the middle of spring and have a fresh start and resolve to make a change in my life. I think this is the reason that rings truest to why I am not a New Year’s resolution kind of girl.

So, my New Year resolution is that I resolve to not make any New Year resolutions. I’ll save them for an ordinary day. Maybe January 2nd.

Love= Lack of Knit and Days Off

There are a lot of things that I love about being a teacher.

• I love being in a constant state of learning.
• I love watching kids move from "I don't get it" to "Ooooh! I get it!"
• I love that reading picture books is still a completely acceptable thing for me to do.
• I love that I get told I have a pretty singing voice when reality differs from that declaration greatly.
• I love that recess is still a part of my day.
• I love that I am considered a fashionable dresser among my coworkers, though also am told that I am not very festive. (Given the knitted sweaters, wooden jewelery, mauve stretch pants, and embroidered jumpers that abound in my profession's wardrobe, I would say the latter of the two is the real compliment.)
• I love my work days, though planned to the minute, are never the same and generally unpredictable.
• I love that this is my 23rd consecutive Christmas Break.

What's not to love? Well, that, my friends, is probably another post!

Things to Say

Lately I've been saying, "I should totally blog about that." So...here I am. I'm a blogger. I've got things to say.

Last weekend, I had a personal "clean sweep" and got rid of a SUV full of mostly stuff and things...and I thought I could blog about that.

Not that long ago, while shoe shopping, I discovered the 10 is the new 9, bumping me up to 11, the old ten....I've been thinking that I could blog about that.

When the Oak Hills drivethru Starbucks opened this last week , Melis happened to be driving by and saw the ribbon cutting. We drove out only expecting to be able to say we were there within the first hour of its opening, which in and of itself is an impressive thing. However, fate intervened. Not only were there free samples delivered in rounds to our car while we waited in line...but you could order anything...for free. And of course I thought, I could blog about that.

Teaching third grade gives me plenty of blogable moments. On top of the things kids often say, which daily provide me with lots of humor, there is also all the moments that I create myself with my instability on my own two (now size 11) feet and unpredictability of my coordination. Like the time I fell out of my directors chair, or tripped over a the overhead pull cord causing the screen to retract with my heel still in the loop...., or the time a fly flew up my nose during math, or when I missed the seat of my stool, or.....yeah....lots to blog about there.

There's also the questions that I have that I think could be blogged about...like why am I so lyrically challenged? why is there constantly a full hamper of dirty clothes and we do laundry almost everyday? why do I thrive crossing off items off of a to do list? (Which by the way, I will probably add "create blog" onto my Saturday to do list....just so I can cross it off.) All of these questions...blogable.

I think that life in general deserves to be blogged about. The ordinary moments that we tend to forget are the ones that make up the largest part of life.

So mostly blog I will....