A Mommy Story

It’s two days into the new year, and I finally have some resolutions. They didn’t come to me on New Year’s Eve. That evening was spent in the good company of two couples we get to see far too little of, and I didn’t think planning resolutions was a useful way to spend our time together.

Nevertheless, I did finally think of a few resolutions. Well, not so much resolutions – more like a checklist of things I’d like to accomplish for 2006. Writing them out here will help me to remember what it is I said I’d do, and I will be more likely to hold myself accountable. A few of them are also joint efforts, but I’ve already told Aaron we’re doing them, and he’s on board.

2006 Goals:

** Improve our finances – Living paycheck to paycheck isn’t fun, and this last year has shown us just how good we had it before. While I have no intentions of quitting my part-time job in favor of a full-time job, I do plan to try other ways to add a little extra to our income. EBay has always been good to us, and I might finally get the nerve to write a few articles and submit them to magazines for publishing. Aaron, for his part, will continue looking for a new job. His current job vastly underpays him, and they’ve made it clear that the company could be sold at any minute. When your boss advises employees to start sending out resumes, you know it’s time to move on.

** Pay off credit card debt – There was a time in my life, many years ago, when I had amassed a crazy amount of credit card debt. I was young, foolish, and had expensive taste. About the time I received my lovely college diploma, I also was handed a credit card bill for just over $10,000, and I had no job. It’s amazing how fast it can sneak up on you. After working hard for many years, Aaron and I got our debts paid off (other than student loans, of course), and starting 2005 we were credit debt free. Now we’re back to over $5,000 on the cards. Time to get working on them again.

** Spend more time with our childless friends – Last Friday I got the chance to do dinner and a movie with one of my best friends that I haven’t seen in months. We spent the night gabbing and laughing and had such a good time. I miss that so much. It’s not like we live that far away – she’s just on the other side of town. But sometimes I get so caught up with Cordy and my “mommy life” that I forget about those outside the Parent Club. I want to see more of my friends, even if it means tempting them with dinners or rented movies to come to our house and hang out.

** Lose some more baby weight – OK, I know losing weight is the #1 resolution, and the most likely to fail. But I’m determined. I wasn’t one of those “9 months on, 9 months off” women – apparently my metabolism never got the message on how it’s supposed to go. I lost weight during most of my pregnancy, was at my starting weight when I gave birth, and then gained 20 pounds 4 months later and haven’t been able to banish it yet. I don’t want to be a fat mommy.

** Grow some nails – This one’s petty, but needed. Never in my life have I had pretty nails. My confession: I’ve been a nervous nail biter/peeler since I was about 5. Even for my wedding, when I managed to do other things to my body to make it look just right for that big day, I couldn’t muster the willpower to save my nails and wore gloves instead. Maybe I can finally be proud of my hands, instead of curling my fingers when I see most people.

** Stand my ground when faced with poor customer service – There have been far too many times that I have been treated badly at a restaurant, in a store, or when dealing with customer service on the phone. I’m not talking about getting a hamburger medium well instead of medium rare; I mean more serious things, like being cheated out of $200 in cell phone rebates because we moved. Instead of meekly dealing with their treatment in an effort to not make waves, I will complain when I see the need to complain, and not back down until there is an acceptable resolution.

We’ll see if I can handle this large list of demands I’m placing on myself. But I think it’s gonna be a good year, so hopefully next year at this time I’ll be able to proudly proclaim that I accomplished all of my goals. Or I just won’t say anything and hope that no one remembers reading this post.