Not Really Resolutions

The girls started back to school on Thursday, January 3rd. It was kind of nice for them to start on a Thursday. It meant they had two days of school and then, wheee, the weekend. It’s a nice way of easing them back into the school routine rather than plunging them back in by making them start back on a Monday.

All day at work on Thursday, I told myself that if, when I got home, Olivia announced that she had homework, I was going to pretend to be a really good mom and just say gently, “Okay, let’s get on that.”

That is in direct opposition to my usual response of, “Ugh! Fine, sit down and start working on it. No, don’t erase the word. Why are you erasing it again? Olivia! If you erase every single work five thousand times, we’ll be here until April. Just write the word. Write the word. Write the stupid word. Stop erasing, that letter was fine!”

Ahem. Yeah. I want to be better than the mom in the above paragraph.

See, every so often, I decide to pretend to be a kind, patient, loving mom. It drives Alyssa crazy when I do this because my gentle voice is very annoying. But honestly, I think my annoyed voice is so much worse. So I do it for two reasons: One, because I want to be better and two, bonus, because it annoys Alyssa. Win, win.

And guess what? I did it! When I got home, Olivia announced that she had one worksheet as homework. And I said, “Okay. Let’s sit down and get it done.”

And we did. There might have been a little bit of groaning when I realized that even though she’d ‘read’ the article she’d brought home in class, there was no way she was going to be able to answer the questions herself so I had to read it too. It was not a huge deal, just a little annoyance and I think I managed to mask just enough. So one point to me as the good mom.

So while it’s not really a resolution, I am going to try to pretend to be a good mom a little more often going forward. It’s the very least I can do for my girls. I mean, I should be doing more than the least but I’m trying here, people.

I’d also like to get organized around my house. I mean, if I were to die in the coming year, my poor husband would have to deal with the mess that I’ve made of our house in the eight years we’ve lived there. I know that’s morbid but…

So yes, I need to purge our house. There is so much crap in there. The ‘toy room’ has become a storage space for junk no one even looks at anymore. It needs to be tossed/donated/burned. The master closet is a disaster. The seasonal closet is horrible. So much to do. I hope I have enough time to do it.

No, not really resolutions, just kind of a wish list.