2012: The Year I Grow Up?

This is year is going to be different. I'm going to make some changes. At the end of the year, I'll take stock and see if I was actually able to commit. This year will be the year of Me. I know what you're thinking: Isn't it always the year of you? Aren't we always reading about what you want to eat and your naps and your feelings? The answer is: That appears to be the case.

But here's what I mean: If I continue on my current path, my mother will easily outlive me. This is a sobering thought, made only more so by the image of my hundred year-old mother shaking her fist at my grave yelling, "I told you not to eat that garbage!" so something has to change. I turned 40, and I was all, ha ha! 40! Look at me losing my memory and getting achy! But now I've turned 41 and it turns out I will really and truly not get any younger, so no more jokey jokes. I don't have a plan. I'll come up with one, but, for now, I'll just watch my mom and try to be inspired instead of rebellious.

I have a part-time job I do not love (to say the least) so I'm going to unload it. I am lucky to be in the position to do that. I have a friend who has three jobs, and I recently embarrassed myself by whining that I didn't like my job, and I didn't really want to work, so admit that I am very lucky to be able to not work, and pursue my passion, whatever that might be. I have never been a person who wanted to be something when I grew up. I have had very few life goals, and now that I have a dining room, I have achieved them all (Kid: check. Husband: check. Home: check. End of list.) I have to make some new long term goals starting with figuring out what I want to be when I grow up. I'm open to suggestions.

My other non-paying part-time job is volunteering, and this year I will quit that, too. I will fulfill my current commitments, and then say no the next time anyone asks me to be on the board of something or run a variety show or do lice checks. Okay, maybe I'll do lice checks; I have an hour to devote to lice. So if you're reading this and you're thinking of asking me to help with some fabulous volunteer "opportunity" don't waste your breath. In the last 7 years, I have served on three boards, participated in a co-op nursery school, PTA stuff, fund raising, the infamous variety show, and lots of little things in between, and I am now done. I'll take it up again, I'm sure, unless I figure out what I want to be when I grow up and spend my time doing that thing.

Then there's my house. I have made an identity out of being a horrible housewife, and I'm sure I will continue to be a horrible housewife, but now that I have spent a king's ransom renovating my house, it would be a shame if it turns out to be the same old mess. Or so my mother tells me. When I picture my completed house, it looks like something from a magazine, but my propensity toward clutter and dirty dishes and pet hair and unsightly base boards will change that magazine from Elle Decor to Hoarder's Quarterly. My daughter and I have sworn an oath to each other that, this year, we will make our best efforts to put our clothes away properly at the end of the day. I know this is a small thing, but we have to start somewhere.

I think that's it. So, 2012, here's to ordering the side of salad instead of the side of fries. Here's to getting my eliptical machine set up in the garage and actually using it. Here's to quitting my job and finding an occupation. Here's to single-handedly bringing back the dinner party. Here's to a clean house and a dirty mind. Here's to YOU!