New Year, Old Resolution

I wanted to start the new year with a clean house, an empty hamper, or at the very least, a floor free of cheerios and yesterday's macaroni. But the first few sounds I heard this morning were my husband starting another load of laundry and cheerios crunching beneath my feet as I walked across the kitchen floor. Maybe next year, I thought, as I put Emily in her high chair.

I thought all day about the type of year I wanted to have. 2012 was such a blur. Emily's birth in January. An onslaught of worries about Emily's birthmark and Dr's appointments ensued and consumed the first half of my year. Then summer, which I've discovered is nothing like the carefree ones of my youth. Then birthdays, then Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas. I am only certain those holidays happened because they are the only days I remembered to take pictures.

Tonight I sat on the couch and watched Josie and Owen lipsynch to Justin Bieber's Baby for the 800th time. I noticed, for the first time, that Emily was dancing in Norm's lap and trying to sing.  I was suddenly filled with so much joy I could physically feel my heart's reaction.  Such a simple, fleeting moment.

While I swayed with Emily to Bieber's beat, it hit me that I what I hope more than anything for the new year is that 2013 is a year that I remember. With children who are 5, 4 and almost 1, I know this year will be filled with so many fun discoveries, so many laughable moments, and so much growth. Looking back on these moments through stories I've written may be the only way I am able to make it through the year 2025, when my children are 17, 16, and 13.

So I've done it. Again. Resolved to write every day for all 365 days of 2013. And this time, I am doing it as much for the writer who wants to write more as I am for the mom who wants to remember more.