2013

It's a new year, and I'm not much for resolutions.  But lots of my facebook friends are, which has led me to consider in the quiet of the evening, if there is some word, some value, I want to focus on this year.  A family theme.  A personal mission.

And being far from perfect, there are words flying through my head.  Ideas on how to better myself this year.  But days like today, a day when my tiny terrorists have cornered me in my room with a box of chocolates and the lifetime channel, I find it hard to be motivated to pick a happy adjective.

But they are now all asleep, and I have emerged from my foxhole to pick up the house and assess the damage.  I see the freshly waxed floor now covered with crushed chalk.  The broken Christmas ornaments and the back broken off my nutcracker for the 3rd time in a month, and the indications that some picky preschooler has gotten into my chocolates, and found some he didn't like.

But then I see the labels my 5-year-old has put on all the doors.  She is so excited to be sounding out words.  And I realize that I need to be more grateful.  I need to embrace what I have, even on aggravating days like today when it's the end of Marshall's 48 and I'm just ready to go to work tomorrow.

Translation: Mom and Dad's Room, Garage, Basement

And you know what?  This blog helps me to do that.  This blog is so chalk full of stories that my kids love to have me read to them, and I have missed a couple years worth now.  Stories that I can't remember anymore and I'm so sad I didn't document anywhere.  I mean, someday I will probably look back and laugh that Wes smashed chalk all over my kitchen less than a day after I waxed it.  So I'll take the pictures, and post them here.

And work on being a little more grateful this year.