Happy New Year Resolutions

Another year of pretending you can make things turn out the way you want if you just try hard enough. So, my efforts along that line. . .

1. Get the kids to bed earlier. They need more sleep, and Chris and I need more time to ourselves. Maybe if they get to bed earlier, I’ll be able to stay conscious after they’re asleep.
2. Read for pleasure more. I just finished Sara Nelson’s So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading; unfortunately I don’t have her job—read a book a week and write about it!—so I don’t think I can keep up that pace and still do all the other things I want. But I would like to read something new more often, rather than just rereading because I don’t have time to start a new book. Maybe one a month? In the spirit of New Year’s Resolutions, and because I love memoirs and thought the first chapter looked interesting, I’m starting with Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen.
3. Cook something truly delicious. I’ve been planning weekly menus and generally actually sticking to them, but my during-the-week repertoire tends to be somewhat repetitive—what can I actually manage to get on the table in the thirty minutes between getting home and the expiration of my starving children? After a while, eating feels like a job. Since half the time neither Laura nor Will likes what I cook anyway, I will cook something wonderful that I might enjoy more often. Damn the macaroni and cheese.
4. Work on my book and finish my stray articles. Or at least some of them. Ideally I’d like to do a little something every work day, but I don’t think that’s realistic with me teaching a new class this spring (and a night class, wail!). But I will try to work even in just a small way on my writing every week, even when I have grading.
5. Say no when I don’t want to do something. Or when I don’t have time to, even though I’d like to. Even if it’s making cupcakes for the after-school party. I have to learn to accept that I am not a bad mother or person if I don’t do everything everybody else wants.

There you go. All appropriately open-ended and vague, a veritable recipe for success. Surely I can manage to cook something delicious at least once in 2006.