“New Year's Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time.” - James Agate

My children are sleep-deprived, punchy as hell, sugar-hyper, and the littlest one is constipated. The past week they have been averaging 930 pm bedtimes and 930 am wake-ups, easily two hours off their normal schedules.
My house is a disaster area, every surface seemingly covered with little bits of torn wrapping paper, plastic detritus from toy packaging, and Christmas tree ornaments the cats have tired of playing with. There is Silly Putty welded to Seg’s comforter, and crayons, books, and papers scattered throughout Primo’s bedclothes.
We have no fewer than three half-finished jigsaw puzzles on the dining room table, which has been stripped of its coverings for use as the work zone. The tablecloth and festive poinsettia runner are wadded up on the armchair which we moved from the entryway so we could fit the tree there.
My vacuum cleaner has stopped functioning, its hose clogged with pine needles and cat fur. The Baby thinks that poking a chopstick into the various hoses and attachments is a new game derived for his pleasure.
My refrigerator is full of leftovers like Oreo cheesecake, sauerkraut, and turkey wings; nary a fruit or veg to be seen cowering behind the pyramid of wine and beer.
Our recycling pile looks like we’ve been eating our breakfast Cheerios and washing down our pb&j sandwiches with liquor.
I have six baskets of clean laundry to fold and put away – and I hope to God one of them contains clean school uniforms; I have five beds’ worth of sheets to change and launder, and two bathrooms to swab down. I have pine boughs to remove from the mantel, strings of lights to remove from the outside bushes and porch railings, and about sixteen phone calls to return, not to mention the pile of mail to be opened, thrown away, or otherwise dealt with.
I still have one teacher present to ante up, and three Christmas-present-containing packages to mail.

I return to work tomorrow; Primo returns to school. H returns to work Wednesday, and Seg returns to preschool. I will heave an enormous sigh of relief, and set about my new year, satisfied with my New Year’s resolutions to 1) be more patient – letting go of instead of fixating on what irritates me - with H and my children (but mostly H, the squeaky wheel and whatnot...); and 2) to do something relatively physical at least every other day, whether it be ice skating, walking, swimming, running, or even a nice fast game of street hockey with the boys. I don’t necessarily want to lose a ton of weight, but I would like to fit back into that cute jean skirt I bought just before I found out I was pregnant with Terzo; I just want to be a little more comfortable in my own skin.

I want to read more, complete the Winter Classics Challenge, and keep working on my book.

Heck, 2007 might even be the year I try cottage cheese.
Or not.
I mean, let’s not get too crazy now!

Happy 2007, everyone!