Happy New Year, Everyone!

I feel like I should be doing some sort of countdown list of the good and bad of 2007, or posting my resolutions for this next year, but really I haven't had the blogging spirit for awhile. This December, I was awash in Christmas spirit for the first time in years, and it resulted in actually doing not one but two advent calendars with Nora which was really fun and I'm happy we did it, although it did result in a let down for her when they were all over. I also minimally decorated (owl tree, stockings, a few bowls of holiday decorative things, and wreath on door) which is more than I've done for several years as well - although not all of my family appreciated my efforts. But then we all got sick and crabby and Christmas sort of faded away as did New Years. Jason did make a resolution, and that was to use up all these bottles of lotion we have laying around the house this year, but that was sort of the extent of it. I know Tree and PD have a very extensive goal setting session over the new year, so maybe they will post an instruction manual for the rest of us.

Now I'm back at work and after two absolutely freezing days (it was 52 degrees INSIDE my office), I'm sort of thinking about what needs to be done this year, which for work is quite substantial, and so I'm somehow not so much thinking about my world outside of work.

I guess I have thought about goals Nora-wise. So, in order to make me a better parent and keep me on task, here they are: 1. night weening in the next month or as soon as everyone is no longer sick (this is really more about me and my need for sleep than better parenting), 2. cooking more healthfully for her (and us) 3. keeping a better schedule, especially sleep schedule since the past two weeks of her night waking has been killing us 4. (which is related to 3) much less TV. We used to be better about this, but during the month of illnesses that was December, Nora (and I) spent way too much time in front of the TV and it is disturbing to me both how much she asks for it and how much she knows about the characters on that magical screen. I'm also disturbed that I actually looked at new TV's for us since I was shopping for a new DVD player (ours is dying) and that I even ordered my vouchers for the converter boxes for the changeover in 2009, despite the fact that I've got a lot of other things to do which should be priorities. I need to get back to watching only what I really want to watch and not just whatever is on and limiting Nora to watching TV only when I really need to get something else done and not on just to keep her from whining about it or just because I don't feel like playing with her right then or because I want to play on-line. I guess my rant on TV is getting a little off topic here, so I'll try to move on. 5. Play with Nora more and especially, get outside more. This is a fun one, so there is no excuse for me dodging it!

That's it for my '08 goals. What does '08 hold for you?