Resolution Perfection... Not Quite!

I will lose weight! I will stop smoking! I will be nicer! I will get organized this year! Sound familiar? Of course it does. Who doesn't make grand resolutions for the new year! I do it every year and then discover that by June I have broken most of them, if not all.

I decided to be creative in my resolutions last year. I went online to see what the mass population was resolving. I investigated ways to not break my resolutions. Nothing seemed to quite fit so rather than get discouraged, I shifted some resolutions around and came up with a few that work for me.

First, I will devote more time to neglected children, my own! In reality, we don't spend enough time as a family. Between school, work, extra curricular activities and the day to day happenings of life, there just doesn't seem to be much time left over. My kids get home, want dinner and then, if they don't have tons of homework, either want to zone out on t.v. or video games. I have decided to bring back family game night. We make homemade pizza together, then turn off the electronics, yes, even cell phones go off. We choose a "Game Master" by whoever has made the most creative pizza. Believe me, we have eaten alot of weird pizza this way! Everything from mashed potato pizza to candy pizza! The family then spends the rest of the evening playing whatever games the Master chooses, as long as they are not video games. Some time the Game Master even wants to do an outdoor activity. This has been a great way to reconnect as a family.

My other resolution was not to email, text, or IM my husband all the time. I will actually have a face to face conversation with him daily. We spend so much time away from home or busy with other things that we lose track of how much actual conversation time we have. Unless there is an emergency, I feel anything I need to say can be said when we are at home. This keeps the lines of communication open and reminds us both why we fell in love and got married and why we have been together for the last 14 years.

Eric Zorn said, "Making resolutions is a cleansing ritual of self-assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and ultimately reinforces humility. Breaking them is part of the cycle." quotations.about.com/od/specialdays/a/newyears.htm

I believe this is true as every year we all ask forgiveness for our mistakes of the previous year. We vow to do better and it reminds us that we are not perfect creatures. Trial and error keep us humble yet makes us strive to become better than what we were.