Resolutions -- end of month update for February

Oh dear, I have to apologize in advance for boring blog readers with the "laundry list" updates on my mundane resolutions. It's really just for me all this. A list of a person's resolutions and how they handle them over the year is pretty telling though, --what are their (superficial) priorities and how lazy are they from month to month. So yes a highlight of how unmotivated I am will follow!

I'm giving myself some leeway for doing many of these things. We're moving house in the middle of this year after all! Hey come to think of it when aren't we moving house? I guess really I have no excuses now do I?

1. Learn Spanish and study a lot (so I can stop pointing and rifling through the dictionary)

Still learning even though we plan on leaving. We had to drop our instructor though because we're so busy right now with moving. One of the hardest parts about leaving is losing our language skills. I love learning languages.

2. Lose 11 kilos (going from 61 to 50 kilos --my pre Little S weight)

I´m at about 59 kilos today meaning I gained a kilo recently. With Little S I didn't lose the weight until one month after he started solids. Going through his baby book you could see a marked difference in the photos taken of me from six months on. I'm hoping the same thing happens because I can't really diet before the baby stops breastfeeding! (a very good excuse that I will announce to anyone within earshot of me cramming a brownie in my mouth)

3. Read 1 book a month and organize books (Dewey decimal system most likely)

I often think of the character in The Hours, the mother, who checks in to a hotel and in the book you think "okay she's going to kill herself" but all she wants to do is read in peace. I feel the same way. It's a wonderful literary passage showing how you can at once love your children but still resent the time they take away from you and your own thoughts. Like the character in the book, what I wouldn't give for some time to myself to simply read, unbothered by anyone or anything.

And yes the books are very beautifully organized. They'll all go in little boxes soon and travel back from whence they came. The thought of doing an over-the-border book run has crossed my mind a few times but without a passport/birthright Charlotte cannot enter the USA. If she gets her passport soon I'm headed to a Texas Barnes and Nobels with credit card in hand and returning with about twenty titles.

4. Organize the office (scary place where we can never find anything).

I've begun to think that it's perfectly okay to have a messy desk. I bet all the best writers had messy desks that they just cleaned up right before those photo essays done by Life Magazine and Esquire.

5. Start scrapbooking for the kids (I have all the stuff just never had time--it´s important because I´m going to lose all the trinkets I´ve saved)

No but I have a lot of inspiration. It will come soon. I swear I'll do the first page before we move if it kills me.

6. Stop shopping at Walmart, ugh! (it´s a hypermarché here and right up the street from us so I´ve become lazy about my principles)

Walmart and I are breaking up like teenage lovers whose parents moved cross country. Unless Walmart comes to France (ewwww) we are splitsville! Funny story is that I started taking my cloth grocery bags in there last month and they didn't know what to do with them. They wanted to know what aisle I bought them in and I said in broken Spanish that they were for the groceries. The bagger put about two things in each one but I said "no, fill 'em up!" and he did with my help. Will Walmart ever use recyclable grocery bags? Will Mexico ever recycle? I wonder.

Judge me not lest you have strolled past an aisle of hand painted Oaxacan bowls priced at mere pesos and not been tempted. Yes it's clear that I will be shopping here right up until the day we leave.

7. Learn to sew (I bought the machine...it´s a start)

I am indeed a sewing demon! I've made curtains, a baby duvet, a pillow and several toys for Little S. One thing I just recently discovered in all of this is that kids love toys you make for them. I am really surprised by that because my first efforts have been well, lame. Everything is crooked and missing stitches. It looks like I was half drunk when I made some of it. Little S treats them like an YSL couture gown though. He asks for these toys every single night and first thing in the morning. I suddenly recalled MY favorite toy as a child, --a Pippi Longstocking doll handmade by my mother. Make toys for your kids. It's such a nice way to tell them how much you love them (I sound like a Hallmark ad--what a cornball)

Sewing is probably the place where I've blossomed the most. I don't care if my sewing machine won't convert I am bringing it with me! I hope I can run it on an adapter or something. I am so in love with this thing.

8. Start or join a bookclub (I may have to start one because I haven´t heard of any--it will be hard to order books too so I´m not sure how it will work)

I hope to do this when we get settled in Paris. It will definitely be one of the perks of living there. And I can order from Amazon again! Hooray!

9. Work with Little S on his English one afternoon a week (so he learns to spell with phonics)

We have been doing so much reading lately it's crazy. When we read he has started identifying characters and letters spontaneously. Little S is generally behind in all things linguistic and he has a very rudimentary speech level (around age 1.5 or 2 rather than 3.5). He really needs a lot of extra help and we are doing it together, lovingly through books. I so want him to love language and reading like I do. I want him to discover it on his own though and not have it force fed so I'm treading slowly.

10. Learn to bake bread and make tortillas (our household help may be able to teach me to make the tortillas)

Okay I have to chuckle about the household help. We never got quite that far. My neighbor said she'd show me how to make the tortillas and I'm going to invite her over for a glass of French wine and a lesson so we can bond one last time before I tell her that we'll be leaving (which I am dreading).