It was fun while it lasted......

My new semester of school begins today.  While I'm looking forward to the challenge of conquering the other half of what I call my Year of Anatomy & Physiology, I'm also dreading the work, stress and exhaustion that come with it.  The past month has been blissfully wonderful and relaxing.  I enjoyed a really great Christmas break with my husband and children (Sweetie and I celebrated our 18th anniversary to kick off the break!) and I feel like those two weeks lasted a month.  It was divine.
When my semester ended last month, I created a list of things that I wanted to accomplish while I had the time (and energy).....and here's how I fared:

*Make rolled flowers wreaths - check.
*Wash couch cushion covers - check.
*Clean up leaves in front yard - check....sorta.  The neighbors leaves blew into our yard a week after I cleaned ours up and I haven't been out to take care of that.  So it's now considered mulch for the spring.
*Get talk for Relief Society Personal Progress kick off done - check.
*Organize Personal Progress and Ministering visits - check...mostly.  Those are works in progress that will continue to be worked on as the year moves forward.
*Practice music for classical orchestra concert - check, but the music will continue to be worked on and on and on and on......
*Read "Jesus the Christ" - nope.  This book is one that is NOT light reading and so I'm only able to read small chunks at a time so that I'm fully understanding it.  It's a great book and very informative, but it's going to take me longer than I expected.
*Sleep - YES!  I got as much sleep as I could cram in.  If I didn't have anywhere to go on a day, I'd take the kids to school and go back to bed.  That was my heaven!  I will certainly miss that part of no school in about three weeks when I'm plum wore out.

Will I blog during the semester?  Most likely.  That's how I procrastinate studying!  But here's to a great spring semester and hoping that I'm successful at juggling it all again!

Lesson Learned

This is the top I wore the other day.

Only the stripes were navy blue and there was a big ol' number stitched on the back.

Not too harmless, right?

Wrong.

My daughter chose this and another polo as part of her Back to School wardrobe, and then proceeded to wear it maybe three times between the two shirts.  That is sooooo irritating to me!

(I will now apologize to my mother.  I know I did this to her constantly when I was a teenager.  Maybe if I apologize for acting like a Fashion Diva (as we all were in high school!), this behavior from my daughter will stop because it will end the I-Hope-You-Have-A-Daughter-As-Picky-As-You-When-You-Have-Kids Curse.  Sorry Mama!)

Anyway, my daughter so graciously offered to let me have the polos, as we are the same size.  (Good for her or good for me?  We're not sure.)  So, I picked the striped one because it was the more comfortable of the two.  I was feeling cool, hip, and groovy to be sure.

Until I picked Anner up from her bus stop after school.

She took one look at me and got a strange look on her face.  She got into the car and said, "It's so weird to see that shirt on you!"

That was all it took to remind me that I am Mom.

I've never tried to dress like a teenager (I don't think you should dress like a teenager when you have teenage children), but that shirt  and her reaction let me know that I'd crossed the Teenager Clothing Line.  That said, I will go back to my no-logo solid color tops and bootcut jeans from Gap and Old Navy.  I will NOT, however, wear Mom Jeans and sneakers.  Ick.

I am eyeing some Ugg-type boots that are on sale at Old Navy.  I've heard they're comfy.  And I've got a coupon.

Is that crossing the line?

I Resolve

In 2011, I resolve:

*To stop saying 'two-thousand and eleven' when I tell someone the year.  I never said 'one-thousand-nine-hundred and ninety-eight' when it was 1998, so I will now stop saying two thousand.  It's 'twenty-eleven' for me from now on!

*To take more pictures and videos of my family.  I took tons of pictures and video when my kids were younger.  Their favorite thing to do on Sundays now is to watch our old families movies.  All of that has slowly tapered off and I'm missing them grow up.  They're doing it faster than ever and I'd better catch it while I can.

*In that same token, I will also let my children pick out and coordinate their own clothes for their spring pictures.  They're big kids now and don't need Mommy to dress them.  Besides, it will be interesting to see what they choose and how it all turns out.  If it goes badly, then I will resolve next year to once again pick out their clothes.

*To smile more and look happy.

*To write more in my journal and to blog when I can.  I want my children to be able to read to my grandchildren my story, about who I was, and the things I did (even if they think I'm crazy).  Spoken words and stories only last so long and can change over time.  The written word is more permanent.

*To read the Book of Mormon at least once on my own and with my children.  Noodle and I started earlier this year and we're just over a hundred pages in, but if we read two pages a day, we should be able to accomplish this goal.  I never read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover until I was an adult (I know....bad on my part), but I don't want my kids to make that same mistake.  Anner and Mundo have both read it at least once, but I want Noodle to be able to say he's read the complete Book of Mormon.

*To chillax and not sweat the small stuff.

*To find ways to make my Sweetie's life a little easier.  He works really hard as a teacher, and because he's a teacher, he has to tutor to supplement his income so that I can be a stay-in-the-car mom/student.  I am so lucky to have found someone so willing to sacrifice like that and I want to be able to somehow make his load lighter to bear.

*I've not yet read the book "The Seventeen Second Miracle" by Jason Wright (he writes such great stuff!), but the premise of this book is intriguing to me and I would like to try and implement the concept a little more in my life.  Hold open a door for someone.  Let someone cut in front of me in a long shopping line occasionally.  Compliment a stranger.  I think it will put good vibes out into a world that could really use it about now.

Let's have ourselves a great 20-11!  :)