The making of resolutions

Middle of Jan is when I typically do my new year resolutions. I used to make these ambitious lists on 31 December that quickly get shelved come the 2nd of January. The new year high has a way of clouding your judgement so these days I like to give it some time to get to know the new year a little bit better before making my resolutions.

By the time I get to the mid of the month, it’s like third date territory. By now, we’ve had a few drinks, watched a couple of movies together and are sort of comfortable enough to trade embarrassing stories. This is a good time to start planning for the rest of the year and talking about the number of babies we want together. What? Is that not a thing people do on third dates? It’s been a long time since I’ve had a third date so my memory of this is a little fuzzy. Although I’m pretty certain I told the husband that he should be prepared to have 7 kids sometime around our third date.

But let’s get back to discussing resolutions. Resolutions are my way of providing focus for the year and I feel like I need to refocus my life. Simplify things. Let some things things go. Account for my time better.

Okay, here we go.

// Educate my babies. Is it bad that this is at the top of my list for the year? All these years, we’ve been of the opinion that the kids should spend their childhood stress-free. Go play their crazy games of superhero tag (which is like regular tag but with capes!), or build forts with blankets, or have a spontaneous wedding ceremony in the living room. But with Truett officially in the system (and Kirsten about to enter the system), we’ve been spending our afternoons going through worksheets and drilling them on spelling lists. I imagine much of this year will be spent on learning the many ways we can say “yu” or “yi” and working out convoluted math scenarios. (If John has more apples than Lily and Lily has fewer oranges than Ali, what is Mary’s grandmother’s favourite colour?) On the bright side, Truett has been responding well to all that learning so we’ll try to keep this up.

// Love on my babies. These 4 babies are growing up way too fast. Just last night, I was holding baby Theo to get him through a coughing fit. He had his little arms wrapped around my neck just so and all I could think of was how my chubby mr cuddles is now the perfect size for holding. Soon, he will be all limbs everywhere but for now, he’s my just right ball of squishy baby fats. I want to get in as many snuggle sessions with these babies as I can.

// Simplify. Part of this involves decluttering. It feels amazing to need less stuff and to be happy with less. I hope to extend it to other areas too. Focus on the things that are important and let go of those that aren’t.

// Date nights. I’ve missed date nights. Having a new baby on top of 3 other babies has made date nights a scheduling impossibility. With Theo reaching the 6-month mark, I think it’s time to bring back date nights with the husband. It doesn’t have to be all fancy, I’d be happy just to have a few hours holding hands and walking with this man that I love.

// Read. And I don’t just mean catching quick articles on my phone in between diaper changes or kids books (great as they are). I mean getting lost in a good book the way I used to before babies came along. Nothing too ambitious, but I intend to read one book each quarter this year. I’m curating a book list to get started on and I’m open to suggestions if you guys have any to recommend!

// Dance. Did you know that at one point in my life (a very brief point!), I wanted to be a dancer? I’ve since discovered that I can’t dance to save my life but I still enjoy it and this dancing that I will do is not to be seen by any other human people except the small humans I gave birth to. Silly dances, crazy dances, get ourselves out of a slump dances, we’ll do them all and we’ll do them often.

// Laugh. I’m on a mission to fill this house with laughter. If there’s one thing I want the kids to remember of their childhood, it’s that it was filled with laughter. And love. And warm hugs. And magic. And wait, I did say one thing, so I guess it would have to be laughter.