1. Eat more Egg-in-a-Holes. True story: I didn’t try my first Egg-in-a-Hole until I was 35 years old. I turned 35 last week. Those suckers are delicious.
2. Read more books. It has officially been one year since I joined a book club. (Holla, This Ain’t Your Mother’s Book Club ladies!) So as long as I want a high-brow excuse to continue drinking wine and eating cheese, I’d better keep on reading. Plus it gives me an excuse to spend Saturday morning with my nose in a book instead of in a pile of laundry.
3. More hugs. I’m doubling down in favour of more hugs, kisses, cuddles and assorted love from my kids. They won’t be offered up so freely forever. Hugs are especially needed after one of them does something like this:
4. No more guilt. This is it, man, I swear. This is the year I have officially graduated from all the mom-guilt tripping that goes on. I don’t care if my kids ever get to Disney World or go to sleepover camp or ride a pony or eat organic vegetables or go to university. Um. Wait. I’d really like to send them to camp for a couple weeks now that I think about it.
5. Bigger, better messes. People have different priorities and ambitions and apparently keeping a tidy (ahem, understatement of the year) home is not one of mine. So fine. Let’s make huge Lego cities, have sprawling teddy bear picnics, make cookies before dinner and sleep amidst piles of books. The bigger the mess, the fuller the life. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
6. More Internet. Either that or less. Because another thing I’m done with feeling guilty about is how much time I’m spending online. For one, it’s how I earn a freaking living. For another, there are too real people online. What’s more, being “connected” and “tuned in” to your surroundings can be highly overrated. Except then I get sick of it and need to take a break and I don’t want to feel bad about that either. Internet, I will use you as I please and discard you when I’m done.
7. Take more selfies. I haven’t really looked at the data on this, but I’m pretty sure there’s a direct correlation between the number of selfies taken and how good a person feels about how they look. And besides, when you work in your basement, it’s good to have a reason to run a comb through your hair every once in a while.
9. Inbox 287. That’s what my primary email account is at right now and, you know what, I can live with that. I’m marking everything read on the first and starting over. If things end up slipping through the cracks I just have to assume they weren’t that important. Oh, and you should definitely follow up with me. I hear I’m kind of crappy about keeping on top of email.
10. More music. I need to seek out more interesting new music, for sure, but also just listen more to the music I already have and love. I used to always put it on while doing household chores, but I’ve mostly stopped in favour of keeping an ear cocked for my children. They’ll just have to learn to be louder.
11. Buy more clothes. Well, I have three kids and a husband and myself to clothe. I’m not going to make it through the year without buying something new. So I might as well embrace the task and have fun with it, right? More clothes for everyone!
12. More Facebook! Er, well, I’m not going to give it up anyway. Facebook is like a Rob Ford-driven media circus. You tend to binge on it until you reach a breaking point and can’t handle even one more viral video. So, it’s self-regulating, you see!
13. Go more places. I spend a whole lot of time at home for someone who’s really not a home body. Something about being the oldest of four kids growing up in a two-bedroom bungalow tends to drive you out into the big, wide world as much and as soon as possible. This year, I want to travel more, sure, but also just grab a notebook and roam around town as much as possible.
14. Listen to my heart or something like that. Insofar as ambition often takes the form of dreams hiding behind fear and self-doubt, I want to be able to make sure I’m paying attention to those dreams. One good thing about about getting older is that ambitions become much more achievable as dreams of Olympic skating, rockstardom and CEO fall to the wayside. All that’s left are things I can actually do. So I should do them.
This post goes out to Telus who hooked me up with a sweet new HTC One after Mary shattered my last one a couple weeks ago. (See number three.) I LOVE HTC and really can’t imagine using any other kind of phone. Even die-hard iPhone lovers have admitted that it’s pretty amazing. Camera! Sound! Display! And it’s a phone too! I’ve been with Telus since as long as I’ve had a cell phone and the quality of service has earned my loyalty. Thanks again, Telus, for helping to make so many of these humble resolutions possible.
3 replies on “14 resolutions I can actually keep for 2014”
I see the egg in the hole but what is on top of the egg? the cut out piece of bread?
I can relate to all of these.
You got it. Toasty bread cap! Probably not usually served like that but I’m a novice.
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