I was reviewing my wonderful New Years Resolutions 2008 list the other day and was wowed to realize that I have ... 1) accomplished only one of the things on the list ... 2) because our priorites have changed--it´s all about the priorities you know and ... 3) I am going to be forced to change my resolutions to some new ones. For now here's my quick update on my resolutions for the last two months.
1.
Priority change. I´m not thinking about this right now because so much else is going in. I´m taking this one off.
2. Lose 11 kilos (going from 61 to 50 kilos --my pre Little S weight)
Okay wait be right back...okay wow 56 kilos! I haven´t even been trying to lose. I think it´s all the feeding she´s been doing. And I remember that at 7 months with Little S I started to lose all the padding so it´s my metabolism´s way.
I need to do a week long fast to cleanse all those leftover fertility and birthing drugs out of my system and that will also help get me to my target weight. I have to wait though because of breastfeeding the little biquette. It probably won´t happen this year. I´ll keep this resolution on here.
3. Read 1 book a month and organize books (Dewey decimal system most likely)
This makes me sad when I read this. There´s not so much time at night to read unless you count kids books. When can I read again? I try to read on car trips but that´s impossible because I get car sick when I read. I hope I´ll find time to read eventually.
4.
This will never happen. I´m taking this one off. Hopeless.
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)
I have this great idea for making little picture books which I will try to start soon and share. I am really excited about this project. So yeah I hope to get a bunch of this type of stuff done over the summer.
6.
It´s an awful, evil place with an awful lot of plastic. I´m taking this one off because I won´t have to worry about this much longer now will I?
7. Learn to sew (I bought the machine...it´s a start)
It´s alllllll about the sewing here. I have four or five really fun projects in the works right now and so many more in my head. I am finally able to sew some straight lines and let me tell you it´s a matter of practice just like anything. I sew every single day now. It´s my ritual.
I´m inching into working with pattern pieces and I hope to actually do this when I stay with mom this July. I´m even thinking of taking my machine and leaving it with her so I can have my own machine to work on when I visit each year.
8.
No time to read but I´d still like to start one in France. This one will have to come off. I think maybe next year is a better target.
9. Work with Little S on his English one afternoon a week
This has changed too because I´m not so much into FOnIKs but more into getting him to love books more and more. Lots of philosophical meanderings about education going on here at our house, all for another blog post. So I will be taking this off the list.
10. Learn to bake bread and make tortillas
I still would like to do this before we leave. I have been buying my tortillas from the bakery and they are so wonderful that I´m spoiled (flavored with green chilies...yummm). I´ll have to learn to make them so I can have the same kind in France and feed my little addiction.
So as you can see there is a lot of room for new resolutions just in time for the six month mark. I´m really into this idea of projects after reading reviews of this book (hey we don´t get to order books around here so much--it´s an old book from a few years ago). Project building has become a huge priority for me. I will talk about this too because they are kind of like resolutions only more important. My idea book is plein, plein, plein.
5 comments:
Just curious...What language do you teach little S? Do you speak to him at home in more than one language since, I am assuming here, that you are bilingual? What do they teach him at school? I love the most recent pic of him you posted! He has a sneaky look on his face!!
We do what most bilingual families I know do which is I speak to him in English, Seb speaks to him in French and we try to let him get his third language on the exterior, ie. at school.
A long time ago for a few years I taught English Reading skills to anglophone kids in France. What a shock to me to realize that perfectly bilingual kids aged 9-12 couldn´t read the simplest words in English and were terrified at the thought of it! I guess I just assumed if you could speak a language you could read it at a typical pace. They had a huge block where any words in English were concerned. I vowed then and there that I would work with my future kids on their English reading from an early age (or French if we were living outside of France).
I used phonics (and theatre!) with the kids I taught back then but I think I´m coming around to a whole new way of thinking and the idea is just that there should be exposure to lots of books and literature and the motivation to explore reading.
So when you and Seb are talking to each other do you speak French or English? I am so amazed at this! Our schools have just started teaching Spanish in the lower levels and I'm so excited for my girls to learn a second language. So excited that I want to start taking Spanish so I can talk with them! I took 4 years of French in high school and can't speak a word!!
You should take Spanish. Thats a great idea. You will be able to help them with the language and their homework. The best thing you can do though is invite a Spanish speaking exchange student into your home for a year or a summer and have an agreement that she will give your girls some conversation lessons. The other thing that you can do is put up a free ad somewhere (like the library) for language exchange. You work with a spanish speaker on their english (maybe fine tuning their grammar if they already speak well) and then they will give all three of you, or just your girls some conversation lessons. An hour or so each week. One week you get lessons--the next week it´s their turn. I did exchanges like this a few times in France and it was lots of fun. We would just talk about current events or do dictation exercises or just sit by a tree and play cards. Even if you´re just starting to learn they will do the Dances With Wolves thing and point a lot haha. "Tatanga?" "....Ohhhh Buffalo, okay" haha. Just some ideas. This is the very best way to learn. You need someone who is a native speaker.
Seb and I speak to each other in our respective languages at home. He really doesn´t speak English with me so much anymore. He says he´s too tired.
That is so cool! I think you have convinced me on the Spanish class. I am going to try and take a summer class and get a feel for it. I think I will look at the library and inquire about posting an ad to help a spanish speaker with english if they'll do the same in return. A great idea! We have a huge hispanic population here so it should be fairly easy to find. Thanks for the ideas!
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