Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Back to Work I Go

Going back to work on a Friday was a good plan, but now that Friday is here I think I would have rather waited for the Monday plunge. Too late for me. It is never easy to go back after just a short break. I finished plans for the month and preparations for next week, but still need seating charts and some time to work on files.

Starting a Happy New Year with Fondue and Clue

My sibs and I met for a day of fun, without anyone else for the first time in seven months. There were many reasons why we postponed celebrating birthdays this year, starting with the fact that I was out of town on mine.

We enjoyed cheese and chocolate fondue with a game of DVD Clue in between. My younger sister won. Our time together was great, and too short as always. I ended up staying two hours later than I had planned.

Sleeping In

Oh, how I love my Christmas vacation time. It was long enough to get some tasks that I needed longer stretches of time to complete. I was able to enjoy a wonderful holiday and visit my mom's house a couple of times and spend some great lazy time just sitting around with everything done and the boys and I visit or play games or read together. It is very relaxing.

The most enjoyable part of vacation time is when there is nothing on our agenda and I can sleep until I wake up. The kids didn't let me do much of that before Christmas, but on this side of the holiday they are sleeping past 7 a.m. Daniel has been sleeping even longer. Since their bedtime is two hours later than school days, it is nice to not have to get up before dawn. Getting eight hours of sleep each night for several nights in a row is also very physically and spiritually rejuvenating. I am not pushing my body or soul. I can just get up refreshed and begin my day.

Another Day of Melting

I could get used to this. The other day I was wishing that the patio furniture was still out, and today I am feeling the same way. The melted snow left a vision of brown grass on the lawn. I could get used to the warm, but since winter is only a week old here, I am not holding my breath. I ended up taking a walk, but it ended up being a bit muddy with all the melting happening.

Anne and Kevin left today and the house was quiet for about three hours until Joe and Steven returned from their time away. Joe was visiting his dad with a few of his siblings and Steven was visiting with his Grammy.

First Things First

I have decided to do a review of the resolutions that I have made over the past couple of decades. It is interesting to me to see the changing of resolutions as time passed and priorities changed in my life. I had to do a bit of work to find resolutions from the past, but I found the goldmine of my journals that I have saved and a couple of years ago brought them all together into a single box along with a few other keepsakes. I guess I should have it in something a bit more special than that, but at least they are together. Would you believe that when looking through my journals January had the most frequent entries over the years? I hope you can hear the tone of sarcasm clearly enunciated. There is something about the fresh start that a new year brings, so I should not be surprised to find I have almost always made a resolution and I almost always documented it. The first day of the first month of the year was the day that I started on many new journeys of growth. There are a few years that are missing documentation, but for the most part I found dozens of resolutions. There were some years when the resolution was the same as the year or two previous and some years there were resolutions made into multiple parts of my life. Spiritual, family, health, and organization are some general themes that have repeated through the years. And I know that some resolutions were made at times other than New Year, or I jumped in a bit earlier as I wanted to start during my break in late December.

The next most frequent time for me to record in my journals was in the spring. I usually still had the resolution I made on my mind at that time, but I would either be making excuses as to why they were not being fulfilled or I would be recording checklists at how far I had progressed to meet my goals. Some goals were multiple years worth of steps, and some were expected to be changes that were made immediately and continued forever. Some resolutions took several running starts and some just crashed and burned with little hope beyond the first week or two. Life simply takes over and the resolution sometimes fizzles out despite the early enthusiasm or promise that my life or soul would be improved by the change.

So now to reflect again on my most successful and life changing resolutions.There is no other habit that brings a better sense of starting my day than making my bed each morning. If the rest of the house is a bit cluttered, then the bed being made neatly with pillows piled and bedspread smooth across the plane of our king-sized furniture brings hope that the rest of the tasks I need to do can fall in place soon. The idea is that I can have peace and feel productive all with one act that at most takes a couple of minutes of my time. It also sets the day's momentum. The day's routine has began and I have crossed this task off the list with an effort that makes me feel like I am disciplined and in control of the day.

There is an unsettled feeling for me if I am walking out the door with the bed left unmade. It happens because someone else is still there, which is a phenomena at our house from time to time, but I still do not like it. More often than not, if I walk out the door with the bed unmade then I return home to the unkempt room with an overwhelmed feeling. This is just not right. I have made the bed at 5:30 or 6 p.m. before just to get the peace that it brings.

Since the day over thirteen years ago when we moved into our brand new home and I resolved to take on this task daily (December 8th, 1995) I walk into my bedroom, and there is order and beauty that comes with having everything in its place, including pillows, sheets and bedspreads. Yes there have been days over the years when the habit was left undone, but through reflection I discovered it is very little effort for a big mental payoff. I resolve to continue.