Drama

Twice a year, I say to myself that it is time to change my ways and become a better person.  One of those times is every August, when preparing for school to start again (yes, I will go through my son's backpack every day!) and the other time is, of course,  New Year's Eve.

Every year I've made promises to myself that I will improve myself in some way. I will floss every night.  I will work out every day and lose 25 pounds.  I will get organized and stay that way. I will relentlessly declutter. I will cook healthy, balanced meals every night. I will do something kind for another person every day. I will no longer procrastinate on tasks I don't like, like going to the dentist or getting the oil changed in my car. I will quit cussing when I'm driving and people cut me off in traffic, or when I step on a stray LEGO.  I will quit forgetting to put books I've read into my Goodreads account. I will stop turning in books late to the library.  I will repaint the kids' rooms. I'm going to clean all the grout around my bathroom tiles using homemade cleaning products I found online.  I will not start a recipe and then find out that I'm out of eggs, or vanilla, or that the batter needs to sit for 24 hours.  I will finish the cross-stitch project I started in 2005 and then abandoned. I will be a better, healther, more organized person.

I don't actually keep many of these promises or meet many of these goals- I did have some success with the flossing resolution, but as for the rest of it, I must confess that I'm not as slim as I was in high school, and my house is still not as organized as I would like it to  be.  I still cuss while driving, and my library late fees alone would make a nice contribution towards a new building.  I'm not always as nice as I should be, and the cross-stitch project remains, sadly, incomplete.

This year, I'm making a new resolution for 2016. I am going to stay away from drama.  Not theater drama, but the drama that occurs on social media, or in real life.   I'm especially resolving to stay away from online drama.  Since 2016 is a big election year, I'm sure that there will be plenty of drama to go around, but I'm going to just scroll on by. I spend way too much time on the computer anyway.  Most of the people whose drama I find myself drawn into aren't even my own Facebook friends, but other people I've never even met.  All that drama is an energy sucker and I don't need it.  As a middle-aged mother of teenagers, I barely have enough energy to get through the day anyway.

2016 is going to be a busy year for the Mom of No; I have a teenager who will be learning how to drive (pray for us- I've seen her drive go-karts).  I'm going to start some home improvement projects.  I plan to spend a lot of time hiking and trying to get more bad iPhone nature shots.  My band mom duties continue, and of course I have this blog.  So no drama for me. Not getting sucked into it.  I'm going to put down the phone or log off the computer and walk away. 

Let's see how long I can last.  Hopefully longer than the resolution to work out every day (that one lasted about 2 weeks), or the resolution to finish incomplete projects (that one never got started).

Merry Christmas, and if I don't post again before January 1, Happy New Year.  May your holidays be full of joy and happiness and great food, and may those of us who are parents to LEGO fanatics get through these two weeks  while the little darlings are on vacation without stepping on any of those little plastic bricks.