Somehow, it has become January. I have no idea where the months of October, November and December wandered off to, but they came and went before I could even realize they were here. Don't you hate it when life gets so busy that the calendar just seems to whiz past you while you stand there dumbfounded?
Whether I like it or not, Thanksgiving and Christmas are over and a new year has begun. So, on to my resolutions...I resolve to force my life to slow down a bit, or to at least make each day distinguishable from the next. I plan to do this using several supporting resolutions. First, I pledge to cease filling my stomach with nondescript food. In other words, I want my meals to be an experience in themselves, not just something I stuff in my mouth to satiate hunger. I want food that makes my mouth stand at attention and take not of what's in it. For me, this will require planning menus on a weekly basis and spending a few extra dollars on ingredients I normally passed on.
Second, I write for a magazine devoted to cooking healthy (in fact, it's called Taste of Home Healthy Cooking). I research and read about the good, bad and evil of the food world, so how can I, as an informed eater, stuff my face with a crap that provides no nutritional value to my body? I resolve to FEED my body - to treat it like the machine it is and fuel it with fruits, veggies, protein and fiber. If there's anything I've learned while working here, it's that nourishing food can be knock-you-socks-off delicious. However, I do want to point out that I don't believe in deprivation, so if I want a Friday-night fish fry (which I seem to want every single Friday), I'm gonna have one! But, I will only honor the cravings that I know I cannot fight - not the little ones whispering, "Eat the brownie," but rather the ones that have been screaming at me for days.
Finally, I resolve to cook and bake more, simply because I'm learning that it's something I love to do. There are days that I leave work bursting with the number of recipes I want to try - days when I just want to cook my brains out. Oddly, this resolution is going to be the hardest one to keep because cooking takes time and it means that I will have to set aside other things I'm "supposed" to do to make time for it. In my life, that means putting down the hammer and taking a break from trying to rebuilt my 100-year-old home with my husband (see my blog at www.aconstructedlife.blogspot.com). To help you understand how hard this is going to be, let me tell you that currently, in the middle of a Wisconsin January, we do not have heat in certain rooms because the radiators have been pulled away from the wall so that we can hang drywall, mud, paint, texture and hang trim behind them. There are portions of my home that do not have walls and ceilings, or even electricity for that matter. It's hard to step away from such a life-altering project to make time for things that are "fun," because, gosh darn it, the need to have heat and power is pretty overwhelming.
Okay, away from the remodeling tangent...these resolutions are really important to me. Although I'm already a content and happy person, I feel like these resolutions will help with my sanity, because they'll force me to slow down and do something just for me. They're not built to make anyone else happy, but me. I feel like 2008 is going to be the year where I experience each month as it comes, and each of those months will be filled with 29 to 31 days that stand apart from each other. I can't wait.