The Anti-Resolutions

Happy New Year, Moms, and welcome to our community.

Have you made your New Year Resolutions yet? Perhaps set an overall intention for 2014?

I'm more of an intention person myself. I'd prefer to cultivate one thing and see where it settles in the different facets of life.

A little peace here, a dash of love there, and a heaping scoop of presence everywhere.

As I talked over what this first post should look like with Greg, and how I was thinking of it being what my resolutions are, he said, "What, like 'I resolve to only feed my kids totally organic grain-fed raw vegan foods'?"

To which I promptly said, "Oh gross. Let's do an anti-resolutions post."

And here you have a few things I don't intend on doing at all this year.

• Let's start with food. I will not convert to a gluten-free, vegan, raw, organic, all-natural, whole grains, vitamin B6 shots, tofu crumbles, paleolithic, Dr. Atkins, insert-latest-trend-here diet. More fruits and veggies? Sure. Eat like a cave man? No thanks.
• I will not post magical parenting moments to various social media outlets and let the world think that I had an epic bravo moment without including the epic fail moments that preceded or followed it.
• I will not turn off the TV. 
• I will not stop bribing my kids with Dum-Dums lollipops when I pick them up from day care. 
• I will not pick up my phone between the hours of five p.m. and eight p.m. for the sake of everyone's sanity.
• I will not give up Fantasy Football, regardless of how competitively angry I get on Sunday afternoons when a grown man doesn't throw enough touch downs for me to clinch a victory (but picking up Peyton Manning was a good move for me this year).
• I will not stop making time for me--to meet a friend for dinner, to go to yoga, to sit with ten minutes of glorious silence and a glass of wine--because time to myself makes me a better mother and wife. 
• I will not stop making time for my husband--because parenting is hard, and it is far too easy to lose sight of the fact that this is a team effort, and for as much as we are consumed with loving our kids, we (ahem, *I*) have to remember that the one I chose to be on my team needs that love, too.
• I will not take my own health or the health of my loved ones for granted.
• I will not let the busyness that life becomes get in the way of the little moments I need to savor. 
• I will not turn down a hug, a hand hold, a goodnight kiss, or a just-picked-you-up-from-day-care-missed-you-so-much cuddle.
• I will not keep every work of art day care sends home. (Oooooo you colored on a piece of paper with one marker! Add some glitter and feathers and then we'll talk.)
• I will not stop drinking coffee. 
• No really. I'm not going to stop drinking it ever. 
• I will not get upset when I feel like a friendship has faded, because I know that that is how life sometimes operates, and that more often than not, when time allows, that friendship will pick up right where it was left. 
• I will not be afraid to say "no." No, I can't meet you today. No, I'm sorry that I can't help. No, you can't have an entire chocolate bar before dinner or ride the dog like a horsey. I will set limits for myself as much as I do my kids.
• I will not let you down, dear reader. I am ready for a community where honesty is valued over perceived perfection; where sometimes the most beautiful things blossom from said honesty.

What are your anti-resolutions? Anything you are looking forward to skipping out on? Did I really just publish the first blog post of this project?! Whew! Need another cup of coffee!

-Kristin