Okay, 2014

Last year, in lieu of resolutions, I drafted a mission statement  of sorts.  It was sentimental and hopeful and a bit poetic.  I guess I was successful at some of them, but like all resolutions (or mission statements), the romance of it was gone after a week or so, and I forgot at times what my "mission" was.  

This year's resolution list won't be so idyllic.  Instead, it will be hard, measurable goals that I aspire to accomplish.  Such as: 

- Lose eight pounds. (How original of me.)  I am not going to promise to exercise X number of times per week, or cut out any major food groups for any lengthy period of time, but here ye, here ye, I proclaim now:  I will lose these remaining pregnancy pounds.  

- Get an uninterrupted night's sleep.  This is not so much up to me, as it is to the cute little baby staring at me as I type this.  But I WILL get him sleeping through the night, in the not so distant future.  And by the time we are ringing in 2015, he will be getting 12 hours of solid, continuous sleep.  Ahhhh, that will be nice.  

- Keep blogging - at least once a week.  If you haven't noticed, my posting frequency has correlated directly with the arrival of the aforementioned baby this past November.  There are weeks that I think there's no way I'll get it together to post, but at the end of the day, I am always glad that I do.  Because if I stop, this little blog of mine will fall to the wayside and disappear, and I have gotten so much out of it in the past three years that I refuse to allow that to happen!

- Use my spa gift certificates.  I have two sitting in a drawer right now (one to Bliss, one to Red Door).  I refuse to forget about them. 

- Do sit ups with some sense of regularity.  After three pregnancies, it's not pretty.  Who knows if sit ups will even help, but at least I can say I went down fighting.  

- Have dinner with my girl friends.  At least once a month.  And take a taxi so I can have more than one margarita.  

There you have it.  I've capped it at 6.  

You may notice that none of these resolutions has anything to do with my parenting.  That's because I've learned that you can't make any promises in that department.  All you can have is good intentions.  So I'm not going to say I won't ever yell, or I'll always serve nutritious foods, or that I'll strictly limit their screen time.  I'm going to make mistakes, and I'm not always going to be a model parent.  I'm not going to vow otherwise and set myself up for failure. 

But I am going to do the best I can.  And if I can stick to the resolutions above, I'll be a happier person.  And, hence, a better mom.  If I take care of me, I can take better care of them.  

And that's what we all should do!

Below is a graphic from OTC Safety which summarizes some of the most common resolutions moms make.  Apparently only 46% make it past January.  Hopefully I can beat that statistic!  But the message is clear - take care of yourself!  Make it a priority.  

Here's to a healthy, happy 2014 for all of us!

Disclosure: I received compensation for this post as part of the CHPA OTC Safety Ambassador Program.  All the opinions reflected here are my own.