2010 Resolutions

OK so it's February and a post on resolutions seems more than a little tardy. But I did make them at the start of the year -- though I don't tend to -- and I thought that a month on, it would be good to have a checkpoint.

In my extensive list, there are very specific things that I want to pay more attention to, like drinking more water, avoiding buying food from the school canteen, being a better dog owner, and having more control over the time I spend on the internet. There are also little things to preserve sanity, like going out more with people other than Hubs and/or Bubs and having Bubs babysat more than often than last year. Some of these I'm slowly establishing, others have been acted on, and the rest, I haven't even begun doing.

But on the sheet on which I have typed up these resolutions, and which I have posted in the ensuite and next to my desk, I included what I called "rules," overarching guides for myself. I guess, having come off a bad year (many people I know were glad to see the back of 2009 -- really bad juju going on there, it seems), I needed some simple statements to keep me in check, even if I forget all the rest of my resolutions:

1. Do not panic.
2. Have something specific to look forward to.
3. Don’t be so hard on yourself.
4. Be brave.
5. Be thankful.

They seem like airy-fairy motherhood statements, but in my case, they were forged from extremely challenging experiences. Each in their own way represents a desire to overcome and move forward.

A month on, I think I'm doing fine.

[Photo: First blush of lobelia in a flowerpot, taken on the balcony of our flat in 2001]