It’s a new year.  New years are for resolutions, big plans, goals, overarching themes, and what not.

I am having a hard time coming up with resolutions for this year.  I keep going over this post from last year in my head.  Suddenly I feel the need for a grand resolution for this year – something that will challenge me and show my personal depth and growth.  Suddenly I am competing with myself.  And frankly that is ridiculous.  There is enough competition in this world.  You want to feel like you need to do more?  Spend 5 minutes on Pinterest looking at some other mom’s immaculately put-together outfit, adorable after school snack, Etsy worthy kids craft project, and perfect dinner plan.

Today I ate a salad for lunch.  That was my big plan.  Because:

1. Somehow the airline managed to totally drop us from their passenger list and this resulted in us not getting on our expected flight and getting home a full day later than planned, which resulted in a lack of food in the refrigerator.
2. My grocery shopping plans at 8:30pm went only far enough to make sure my kids had lunch in their backpacks for school today – they got peanut butter sandwiches, apples, and string cheese.  Take that, Pinterest creativity!  And I bought lunch at work.
3. Salads are healthy.  Pie and cookies are not.  I ate a lot of pie and cookies over the holidays.  So I resolved to eat healthier now that we are back.  Tada! – resolution #1 in the books.

I have a whole year ahead of me.  Half of it will be spent in Mexico and half in the United States.  We will do our best to keep our minds here or there, because no one can be two places at once and do it well.  We will finish out the school year here and then there will be a new job, a new house, a new school for the kids.  Bags and boxes full of stuff will be moved from one country to another.  Things that have been sitting in storage for what now seems like forever will be pulled out and re-examined.  I will likely ask myself about 1,000 times “Why did I keep this?” and “Where on earth did I put that?”.  We will all relearn how to live in the United States after 6 years of learning how to live in Mexico.  We will rekindle old friendships and make new ones.  We will do our best to continue to raise bilingual, honest, caring, Jesus and people loving kids.

Isn’t that enough?

I do not want to create a list of things to accomplish this year.  I want to do my best to live my life well – both here and there.  I want to have ears to hear and eyes to see the people around me and to accept them and love them where they are while I do the same for myself.

Resolve (noun) – firm determination to do something

This year I want nothing more than to show that I have resolve.  I want to use my days and hours well.