Out with the old, in with the new
I guess I could jump on the band wagon and do a year in review type thing. The only exciting bits of this year were travel. Boy, oh boy, did boy and I travel. We flew to Oregon twice, Oklahoma once, and Sweden once. We drove to West Virginia and Ohio. I don’t like to travel and I hate sleeping in a bed that is not mine, but I love meeting up with friends and I love showing Erik off to family, so what’s a person to do? Hop on the plane, train or automobile and go forth into the world!
Next year will be the year of no travel. There are so many places I want to go and people I want to see, but our bank account needs time to recover. We bought tickets to Oregon for my sister’s wedding and we told my family we will go out there next Christmas, but other than that we are staying home. I want to go to Kentucky in July (not that I’ve been invited) and I want to go to Ohio and I want to go to Chicago and I want to go to all sorts of other fun places, but this just isn’t the year to do it. Plus, Erik is not at the prime travel age. He’s big enough to recognize that he doesn’t want to sit still for hours and too young to be engaged by sit-down activities.
Whoops. I got distracted. That is about next year, not this year. This year was very sad on the reading front. I only read 24 books. Pathetic! I think if there was a way to tally up all the time I spent blog reading I’d feel better about my literary input, but there isn’t so I’ll just sit here and pout about it. Maybe I’ll do better next year. Erik doesn’t mind if I sit and read a book, as long as I am sitting in a certain chair. He absolutely will not allow me to use the computer in peace when he is awake, so that has significantly cut into my blog reading time. Bad, bad baby.
In 2006 I took up weight-lifting, something I thought would never, could never, should never happen. Surprise, surprise! I like it. Too bad I just missed two weeks and I’m back to being as fat as I ever was. I wish 2007 would be the Year of Lipo but I know I will never have a Year of Lipo because Mike hates the idea and doesn’t think it would be a good way to spend several thousand dollars. If I had an extra several thousand dollars I would do lipo in a heart beat. I would never do any of the stomach shrinking surgeries. I’ve heard too many horror stories about those.
In 2007 I’m not going to eat any sugar until my sister’s wedding (Feb. 10). That’s not exactly a New Year’s Resolution because I do the no sugar thing a few times a year. I really have to be good this time and purge the sugar. I have a very skimpy dress to wear in five short weeks. Ugh ugh ugh.
I have been trying to think of a good New Year’s Resolution and have finally come up with something that is not totally cliche (maybe). I’m going to stop telling everyone all my flaws. It’s a totally obvious self-defense mechanism–I make fun of myself before anyone else has the chance to do it–but I think it’s getting kind of annoying so I’m going to stop. It took me years to learn to say “thank you” to a compliment without denying it, so now I’m going to try to go to the next step. I guess that means I have to get all my self-loathing out in the next three hours. How long an entry would it be if I spent the next three hours typing out “I’m a fattie!” over and over again?
This year I started out with a screaming baby and ended up with a pretty happy toddler. It’s amazing how fast babies change! I cried the day he was born, thinking about how quickly that little newborn would disappear into a big boy, but I like him much better now than I did then. He’s just a lot easier to handle, though he has taken up hitting his mother. We are trying to put the kibosh on that, but it is not easy. I think it’s weird that some people think it’s cute when their kids hit them (or others). It enrages me when he hits me and it takes all my willpower not to give him a taste of his own medicine.
Next year will probably be the year of “trying for baby #2″ even though it scares the bejeebus out of me. Can I really handle two kids? NO!!!! I really do think it’s important that Erik have a sibling for a variety of reasons. At this point I can’t imagine loving another baby as much as I love this one, but I know once I see the next one I’ll laugh that I was so silly to think I couldn’t love him or her as much. I really didn’t think I’d ever get to the point where I wanted another child, but then I never thought I’d get to the point where I wanted a first child. Life changes. Erik has to be able to walk up and down the stairs before we can have another baby. There is no way I can cart two kids up to our third floor walk-up apartment. It would also be really nice if he is potty trained. We were talking about starting to try in October, but if we are successful (and I realize that is wishful thinking) that would put me due right in the middle of summer. Ugh. We have to decide if we want to start trying a bit earlier or quite a bit later. Decisions, decisions. I feel awkward writing about this since I know some of you desperately want children and are unable to have them. I wish more than anything that I could give you a baby. It is my sincerest New Year’s Wish that certain infertile people I know are able to have (or adopt) a baby this year.
This year has been a very good year on the Mosaic Minds front, for the most part. Next year I hope we continue to grow even bigger. I also really and truly plan to submit my writing in other places. I already have two essays lined up for submitting. I just need to actually write the darned things. It would be ridiculous to say I am going to finish one of my novels, but I should. I really, really should. Why don’t I? Why do I always have to defeat myself? I need some kind of writing buddy that will keep me on task.
This year I’ve only completed one quilt and two small wall hangings. Next year I hope to complete several quilts. I’m involved in a couple of different monthly quilt block things and that really helps the motivation. I get tired of doing the same thing over and over, so sampler quilts are a lot more fun.
Happy New Year, everyone! It’s only 9 pm here, but it’s time for me to go to bed. We didn’t do anything special today or this evening and there is no way I am staying up till midnight. Jet lag has turned Erik into a wonderful go-to-sleeper, but he has been getting up at ungodly hours (today was 6:30 so that wasn’t too bad). The doctor hates that Erik has a late bedtime, but I really truly honestly don’t see the point of getting him to sleep at 7:30 if it means he is going to get up at 6:30. I don’t do 6:30 if I don’t have to.
Maybe I should resolve to make a new LJ icon to use and to change the template on the QoR site. At least the icon is only a nine months old. The template is about three years old. I am not big on change.