January is notoriously the time we think of resolutions. When I was young I remember making “New Year’s Resolutions” every year on the first page of my brand new diary. Some were reasonable: I resolve to keep my room clean. Easy enough.
I resolve not to fight with my brother. Impossible.
Others were lofty: like “I resolve not to eat chocolate until I weigh less than 100 pounds.” Why I would ever consider such a crazy resolution can only be blamed on teenage hormones.
They say that most people have given up or forgotten their resolutions by the third week of January. I am not sure if this is true or how they measure a statistic like this but I do know, depending on the celebration, many might not remember much from the night of December 31st.
Maybe if I share my 2012 resolutions with you I will feel the pressure to keep them longer than the norm of three weeks or less.
I resolve to organize and declutter my house – All I have to do is watch an episode or two of Hoarders and I am racing through the house like a mad woman with a trash bag. Trust me, you will never find a beloved family pet buried in my living room under a pile of clutter but you will find bunnies, lots of them. I thought I had it under control until we decided to paint the interior of our house this month. Dust bunnies had mated with dust bunnies under our beds and in our closets…. there were bunnies everywhere, but not the cute and cuddly type!
I resolve to finish writing a book – This is a goal I truly plan to meet. If you have faithfully read this column there won’t be anything new as the plan is to pull together a book of columns and recipes. But then again if you like the column and you’ve had a laugh or two you might want to pick up a copy, just to reminisce. My fantasy is to be a writer on Oprah’s 2012 book club list…. hey, a girl can dream, can’t she? Maybe if I buy enough wine I can get my book club to read it.
I resolve to run/walk at least one 5K this year – I have a friend who started running a 5K every couple of months and she has really inspired me to get moving. I think of Newton’s Law: An object (my body) at rest will remain at rest and an object (my body) in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. Why this isn’t an ad for Nike tennis shoes, I will never know. I think my body has been at rest long enough – time to get up and get moving.
These three goals should keep me going until May when I head to Tanzania on a mission trip for 19 days. I don’t want any unresolved resolutions waiting for me in June. Then I think I’m going to need the summer off to focus on not eating chocolate until after my 30-year class reunion in August. Wait, that’s just the crazy hormones talking!
Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right.
Oprah Winfrey
Taste of Home columnist Sandy (Anderson) Holthaus lives on a farm in South Haven, MN with her husband, Michael, and their children Zoe, Jack and Ben. Her heart remains on the North Shore where she grew up with her parents, Art and LaVonne Anderson of Schroeder. She enjoys writing about her childhood and mixes memories with delicious helpings of home-style recipes.
Leave a Reply