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My kids are counting down to the last day of school. This morning I heard the daily update: 9 days left. They’ve had it. They are both exhausted and tired of the grinding routine: wake up early, long day at school, homework, dinner, daily afterschool programs, choir, piano lessons and practice, etc, etc. Swim practices have stopped, as the season is over, but the (considerable) time this frees up quickly dissipates into special end of year performances, practices, field trips, ceremonies, and although a little different, these weigh on my kids too. Summer vacation is looking good in their eyes. I blogged before about how our family is relocating across the country this summer. This will certainly shake things up this summer – a cure to the blahs of long-term, rigorous school routine.
A shake up isn’t so bad. I’m determined to harness this opportunity to change some things in my life, so I’ve made some New (academic) Year’s resolutions. They are pretty standard as far as resolutions go but I’m hoping that instituting them at this academic year’s end (which to me is much more natural starting time than the beginning of January) will give me a running chance to make them stick, and perhaps guide our family in this time of change.
1. Exercise and take active steps towards stress-reduction: The last three year I have managed to get into a good aerobics regime, which I drop with a thunk mid-fall. This year I will continue past October! I’m thinking about yoga and it’s many health benefits, especially after hearing about this amazing 93-year-old who will be inducted into the Guinness Book of World records in May.
2. More fun outings with family on weekends – off the computer! I don’t want to use “too much to do” as an excuse. There are so many great things out there to try – as I’m leaving this area that has been home to us for the last 13 years I’m more and more aware of the many things we never did here.
3. When fall comes, I will not jump into (or push my kids into) too many activities at once. I just hope I can figure out what “too many activities” means, early enough in the game.
We’re all busy, which is a good thing, and this won’t change, but it would be far better if it the busy-ness is more controlled and less consuming. There’s lots of room for better balance. I’m committed to a new investment to health this year, for myself and my family.
Right. I’ve said it. Now I just have to live it! Happy New Year’s, everyone!
(PS – random information: I just found out that you cannot take a pet hamster onboard an AirTran flight – the carrier we’ve already booked for some pre-moving travel to our new state. This means that our beloved pet Pumpkin will join us on an 8-day family cross-country drive. Oh, Joy! Anyone have advice on long-term car trips with a rodent?)
