As 2011 comes to a close, we here at Mumbling Mommy find ourselves in a reflective mood. It has been a great year for some of us and not-so-great for others. No matter what life dealt us in the past year we did our best to enjoy the good times and make the best of the bad days. Thank you for letting us get to know you, readers. We look forward to even more conversations in the coming year and getting to know you even better. Look for informative “Mommy 101” posts, announcements about life events and the same honest posts we already pride ourselves in writing in the coming year.

In the time-honored tradition of making New Year’s resolutions, we have a few of our own here at Mumbling Mommy. We would love to hear what yours are too and are interested to see if any of them are the same as ours.

Wishing you and your family health and happiness in the coming year!

Resolutions Ten Years In The Making

By Rachael

It’s been at least a decade since I’ve made any New Year’s resolutions. I guess there’s no better time than 2012 to renew the practice.

I have two goals this year. First of all, I’m making the traditional resolution to lose a little weight. There are the last few pounds from my recent pregnancy with Abby, on top of the few pounds I never lost after giving birth to Megan, on top of the couple of pounds I put on the first year of my marriage when, in the midst of moving, getting a new job, and adjusting to married life, I lost my exercise habit. I’m still at a healthy weight, but wouldn’t we all be happier if we lost a couple of pounds?

My second resolution is more reflective, and oddly enough, it’s based on a movie quote. Abby was two or three weeks old when my husband picked up the movie Super 8 from Redbox one Friday night. It’s a sci-fi flick in the tradition of Goonies, and the protagonist is a middle-schooler dealing with the recent death of his mother. In one poignant scene, he opens up and tells a friend about his mother and says something like, “When she looked at me, she really looked. It was like I really existed.” Wow. What a wonderful compliment for a mother. I want to be that kind of mom. In our busy lives, it’s easy to brush our children aside when they want us to play with them or talk to them. It’s especially difficult for me to give my older daughter undivided attention when she asks me to play Disney Princesses with her for the fiftieth time in one day. None of us
are perfect moms, but I want to make a real effort to be intentional with my daughters. I want to make sure I take a few moments each day to really pay attention to them so that I can be worthy of such a high compliment myself someday.

A Resolution To Be “Present”

By Melissa

In 2012, I’d like to focus on being a “present” mom. I will be trying harder not to use my phone or new iPad while Lindsay is awake and will be concentrating on her needs and desire to play with me instead of trying to make plans with friends or potential dates. I want to concentrate on being truly happy to be with her, in the present.

A Year To Just Be Happy

By Maddie

I am resolving to be more happy this year! Even if circumstances aren’t that great. 2012 is starting off well for me so far and is hasn’t even begun. I’m hoping to continue, and just enjoy life a little more.

Three Simple Rules… For 2012

By Tricia

I have three resolutions for 2012 and I hope it leads to many happy years of keeping these up!

1. Remind myself every morning when I open my eyes how lucky I am that I get to spend the day with my children. It’s a gift that I take for granted sometimes. Well, sometimes it doesn’t feel like a gift and those are the times that I really need to remind myself that it is!

2. Smile more. That one is pretty self explanatory.

3. Really and truly stop and enjoy the moment, not just lip service because it sounds good. Things go by way too fast and I don’t want to miss anything.

The Resolution Boycott Ends Here

By Beth

I have been on a new year’s resolution boycott for the last two years. I have refused to make any because I never see them through and I am so over highlighting the fact that I have zero willpower and my self-motivation is practically non-existent. That is more depressing to me than realizing the fact that I don’t already possess the qualities that I am pledging to change in the first
place.

But…I have decided that I want to make this year different! Better yet…I need to make this year different. I have decided to narrow my New Year’s Resolutions down to a few. After reflecting on this past year it was clear to me what I need to change. Hopefully putting them in writing for people to read will keep me accountable but please feel free to check in on me at any given time. I need tough love – don’t feel bad to call me out if need be. Ready or not here I go:

This may be the most expected resolution to make but I am serious when I say I need it. I need to exercise my butt off…literally. I don’t like how I feel about myself and I need to start putting myself first. I am not talking about just losing weight; I really could care less about the numbers. It is about my overall health. I don’t intend on putting tons of pressure on myself for the fear that I will totally bail. My plan is simple. I am going to cut back on drinking pop and will promise to drink more water. I like water, water is fine, but given the choice I usually pick pop. I will change that. The other emphasis will be placed on physical fitness. Being a full-time working mom does make fitting in exercise hard. That is why I decided that any exercising that I do I plan on doing from home. I have already found numerous websites that will help you plan a quick and easy workout routine that can be done in the comfort of your own home. The one that I will be using is GainFitness. It will create a custom quick workout for you based on how many calories you would like to burn or how much time you have to workout. If I pair that with running I know I will instantly feel better about myself.

My next resolution will be to work on my patience AND that when I am feeling some stress I will not take it out on my family. I do not think that I am the most impatient person in the world or even the most stressed. I do know, however, that when times get rough I can be very short with the ones I love most. The majority of the time they aren’t the ones causing my frustrations so why do they have to get the brunt of my stress? They shouldn’t! I am determined to be more aware of my attitude towards my kids when I have a stressful day at work. I am sure the negative body image I have right now plays a part in my attitude. Resolution #1 could ultimately help me achieve resolution #2.

Last but not least I have decided I will have a general theme for the year 2012. That theme will be CUT & DECLUTTER. We all have our limits and I am pretty sure I have reached a lot of mine. I know that I can successfully multitask and I know that I can accomplish anything I want to. All through college I worked full-time, had children, coached cheerleading and did many other things here and there along the way. Despite this, I have realized that just because you CAN do a lot doesn’t mean you should. There were specific things I wanted to get done; like graduate college and move up in my career. I have done those things and then some. Am I done? No. But those were main things for me and my life and now anything extra I choose to do will come with very careful consideration. I plan on re-evaluating the things I have going on and possibly cutting it out. I am tired of rushing around and I want to just be able to stop and really enjoy my kids and whatever it is we want to do. Along with making more time I vow to declutter my actual things. I am talking about clothes that will never fit me again, papers that I don’t need, toys my kids don’t play with…this list could go on and on. The intention of this resolution is to make more time and space to enjoy my family – plain and simple.

As I am sitting here thinking about my new year’s resolutions I am really looking forward to making these changes. They actually all go together very well. Making changes in one will make the others easier.

Wish me luck!

Hakuna Matata (If I Can)

By Aubrey

I must admit that this is my first ‘go’ at a New Years Resolution since my childhood days. I thought long and hard about what I should make my ultimate goal for 2012. There are the obvious things: eat better, lose weight, read more, exercise, give up coffee. I don’t want to join a full and busy gym, spend money on fresh produce that potentially would go bad, or ditch coffee for a week until I can’t stand the urge to caffeinate. So yeah… my New Years Resolution took serious thought.

After brainstorming, I realized my New Years Resolution for 2012 is obvious. I am a compulsive and excessive worrier. It’s gotten so bad I worry about the things that I want to worry about later. My New Years Resolution is to eliminate my worry ‘problem’. I call it a problem because I worry about everything from outfit/food choices, end of the World, cavities, etc. You name it, I worry about it. Imagine if there is something serious to worry over! Geesh!

The worrying is distracting. The worry keeps me up at night. It interferes with my concentration and my enjoyment. It is not fun so I consider it a problem. I know this is going to be a challenge. I am worried right now about what I will do with the extra time I will have when I don’t worry. If I follow through with my NYR I will know I will feel great relief!

I am so ready and willing to take the challenge and kiss the worry bug goodbye. I am so excited to start my new year off with a new plan of attack to eliminate worry. My simple, yet not easy, step-by-step plan is the following:

A. Keep a notebook handy and jot down the worries as they enter my mind and promise myself I will read all my worries in the notebook LATER.

B. At the same designated time each evening, not more than a half hour, read through my worry notes of the day. At this time I will be able to inventory my list and dismiss any impractical worries. I will cross out all the worries I dismiss. Anything that I feel needs to be worried about, I must do at the designated time, and only during this time.

C. Perform two 15-minute segments of pure meditation each day. Preferably at the same time to begin a worry-free routine.

Now I have my resolution and a plan. As time goes on I will let you know what needs to be tweaked with the plan, my progress, and devotion. This will be tough to master, yet I know the results will provide great fulfillment. Adios worries! Happy New Year!!!

Since Running A Marathon Is Out…

By Katie

I usually have a few New Year’s resolutions up my sleeve when the calendar page turns. I prefer to refer to them as “goals” with the thought there being that a goal is ongoing and is not dependent on the year. Tomato. Tomahtoe. Here are my goals/resolutions for 2012:

I would normally reserve my first resolution for planning some lofty fitness goal like running a marathon or something ridiculous (just you wait, 2013). Since I am with child this year, however, I am not in any position to start anything new or lose weight (as if!). Keeping the fitness and nutrition routine that I have in place now is what I need to maintain, at least until May or so. Who knows? Maybe I’ll make some half-year resolutions at that point.

But speaking of baby, I do have a goal there. Pardon the TMI, but I want to breastfeed better this time around. I breastfed my daughter for about eight weeks and was pretty miserable the entire time. I did not educate myself in advance on proper diet and was simply so overwhelmed that it was a horrible experience for me. I threw in the towel as soon as I went back to work because I was even worse at pumping than I was at producing milk for my baby’s mouth. I am better prepared this time around and want to give myself more of a fighting chance to make it happen. Call it making up for last time, or not letting myself feel defeated for the rest of my life, but I must breastfeed successfully for at least a few months.

I also want to be more organized. Okay. I just want to be organized a tiny bit, which would be more than now. It is astounding, to me even, that between the many freelance jobs I take on, my husband’s wild work schedule, our custody-sharing schedule and all the other things sprinkled in that I do not own a planner or write much down. My main process for remembering things is by asking my husband what is going on. Like repeatedly. I have already downloaded a family calendar app on my new Kindle Fire and my husband has showed me how to use Google calendar as well. I have so many things on my “to do” list this year (including having a baby in May) and the only way that I am going to make it through with a shred of sanity is by staying organized.

Like the other moms have mentioned, I want to be a more patient, more relaxed, more present mom and wife. Everyday is an opportunity to improve my attitude in these areas of my life and be better for my kids and husband.

I have a long laundry list of actual writing goals, but I won’t bore you here with those. I will reserve those rants for individual blog posts instead. J/K (but not really).

Happy New Year to you all!

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Tags: 2011