I'm not cool enough to choose a "word" or "theme"

So I'm just making regular old resolutions this year. We'll see how well I do on them. (That's the right attitude to have, right?)

1. Become a better teacher.

Superman and I have been called to teach the 14-15 year old class at church. I've taught Relief Society and Primary before, with ease. I did not expect to have a problem teaching the youth, but I do. There is little to no participation, and I struggle with making the lesson fun (and therefore memorable) while still teaching the basics.

Superman is a fantastic, marvelous, highly gifted teacher. His lessons are humorous, memorable, and he teaches with the Spirit. Mine, on the other hand, have been lack-luster thus far. We alternate weeks and tomorrow is my first lesson with our new class. As you can see, I'm doing a great job working on my resolution as I am blogging instead of preparing my lesson.

2. Write in my journal and my children's journals more.

I used to do a half-decent job at this. Every three or four months I'd pull out our journals and catch up. But the last two years or so, I haven't done well at all. On the boys' birthdays I'll pull them out, but I have barely recorded that I got pregnant with Miss Marvel in my own journal! I had journals for both boys while they were still in utero. Miss Marvel just got her first journal for Christmas. She is 10 months old, walking, growing teeth, and starting to talk and I haven't recorded a single thing.

But this year we have church at nine (HALLELUJAH!!!) and I will have time in the afternoons for Sabbath-appropriate activities. If I can just pull out one journal each Sunday, I'll be writing in each of our journals once a month. Seems like a goal I should be able to keep.

3. Exercise.

Notice that there's no more or time frame attached to that one. That would be because I don't exercise. Like, at all. A few years ago I bought a Dancing with the Stars workout DVD. It was great at first. The boys (who were 2 and 4 at the time) would play while I worked out, or join me in trying to dance. I frequently stumbled over them, but we were all having fun. After about a month, however, they grew bored with it. They would just walk over and turn off the TV while the video was on. Then I started walking in the mornings with a friend, but we stopped when school started and the temperature dropped. That was over a year ago.

But my new ward has just started an exercise class. Twice a week we meet and just follow a video. We can bring our kids -- it's very low-key. I've also started going to Zumba at my local rec center and I LOVE IT. It's fun and a good workout. I'm still trying to convince Superman that the $30/mo for a pass is a good investment and I won't flake out. Maybe I should just check out a video from the library.


So, there you have it, folks. My resolutions. It's the first time in my adult life that I've had any. I don't think I'd do well with a word or theme, mostly because those are very broad and therefore easy to forget or ignore. I need more specific goals -- things that can be easily monitored. My main reason for recording these is so I have some accountability.

What about you? Have you made resolutions? I've seen some good themes and words out there: Annie's Choose Charity, Cynthia's Cultivate, Tiburon's Audacious and Kristina P.'s Smut (of course.) Do you have a word of or theme for the year?

Random Friday

Miss Marvel is walking. She walks about 75% of the time now.

She's also only about 16 pounds at 10 mos. She looks like a Baby Alive walking around.

I've gone to Zumba 3 times now and can't get enough. I'm not a fan of workout videos, but I might give it a try for Zumba, rather than pay $4 every time I get the itch.

My ward has started a twice/week workout class. I love getting more exercise, even if most of the people there are over 65. (My new neighborhood is very well established.)

Today is my first "normal" day since the week before Christmas. The kids were out of school a full week before Christmas, then my mom and younger brother came and stayed until yesterday. It was fun having them here as extra babysitters and people to run around with. Back to reality today.

The Hulk has learned to count in Spanish. I often hear him around the house counting, "Uno dos, tres. Cuatro, cinco seis!" His favorite number is ocho. He may or may not watch a lot of Dora the Explorer.

His other new thing is "Punch yourself in the face." I'll ask him if he wants a snack and he says, "Yes. Punch yourself in the face." He says it very matter-of-factly. The kids cracks me up.

Spiderman is reading. He's in kindergarten and he's sounding out words, doing simple math, and mastering patterns. For his homework the other night, he wrote a story about something you do in the winter time.

Is it just me, or is kindergarten much further advanced than when we were kids?!

I got a haircut the other day. I love it. It comes just past my shoulders now and is a little shorter in the back. Superman misses the long hair, but kept it long for 5 years. Now that I have a Chi, I can do short hair without it being poofy. I'll take a picture.....someday. Someday when I don't have a zit on my chin and can squeeze out a half-decent picture.

I made resolutions (but I'm just calling them 'goals') for the new year. Maybe I'll do a post about them.

Sex and the City (the show) is playing on Vh1 right now. I am SSOOOOO Charlotte. 110%. Who are you?