Positively 2013

Two topics today.  The first is, not entirely originally, New Year’s Resolutions. To see how I fared in 2012, I looked at the first post from last year when I set out a few intentions.  Included in it was this little gem:

“Detox for a week at some point this month. I have to be careful about this one – the last two times I’ve done it, I’ve found self in the family way not long soonafter.”

Christ alive. Talk about tempting fate. It’s little wonder really that the Gods started to rub their hands together with glee.

So my first resolution this year – and for every year for the rest of my fertile life – is to NOT DETOX.  (Notwithstanding that the c-section included a teeny tube-tying procedure - there’s a miniscule chance of failure, and I really don’t have the energy to make medical history).

The second is to try to find something positive – no matter how minor - about every day. The Man came home from work yesterday and asked me – reasonably enough – how my day was. I gave him The Look.  “Give me one highlight and one lowlight”.  I really did try, but honestly, the only highlight I could come up with was that the day had passed without any hospital visits / major calamities.  Which are, I accept, highlights in theselves.  But assuming I can get all of us through every day more or less intact, I’m going to try for something more; some icing of positivity on the humdrum cake of life, if you will.  Already today there have been a couple.  The first was at 7am when I woke up after over 7 hours’ sleep.  The other was the Boy and the Girl playing happily together in the garden for the bones of half an hour.  Happily!  Granted, the play involved mud and water, but what price a disgusting pool of filth for enough time to have a cup of tea and a piece of toast?  

Finally, I’m going to really really try to post new recipes every week.  In addition to a whinging rant an all-new-singing-and-dancing-with-positivity recount of the hell bliss that is my life.  I got some wonderful cook books for Christmas, and I’m determined to do more than just read them and salivate. (I'm going to read them, salivate, try to copy, and post really cack photos of the results. Hold on to your seats.) 

Onto the other topic:  equally originally, a quick review of 2012. 

The blogging highlight – ie, the post which was most popular – was the announcement of My Condition.  (Seemed that was a bit of a shock to some of you – just imagine how we felt.) Despite the somewhat less than auspicious beginnings, her arrival was our personal highlight, and she remains the gift that keeps on giving.  She gets cuter - and fatter - every day, full of coos and dribbly  smiles, and combined with her new gift of sleeping past the early hours, is currently the best child in the house. (Mind you, her competition isn't much - the fact that she can't speak catapults her to first place in itself.) 

There were a few lowlights, but nothing major*;  just like long-distance flights with children, or broken teeth, once the moment has passed you forget about them and move on. (Which reminds me, I’ve got to organise ROOT CANAL TREATMENT for this month;  don’t expect much positivity after that.) The ongoing juggling of life with three children, and trying to work out the constantly changing logistics remains a challenge, but the all-new-positive me is hopeful that it’ll get easier.  (It has to get easier, right?)

And so I wish you all a very happy New Year;  may it be full of not-too-challenging challenges, children’s dvds, dark Scandinavian crime thrillers, fat smiley babies, mud dragged through your kitchen, and crisps stuffed into your mouths while your children aren’t looking.  Which just about sums up my 2012.

(* Apart from a week-long hospital stay.  Which - thankfully -  seems to have been wiped from my memory by the ensuing sleep deprivation.)