What seems like a year

Can someone explain how ten days can pass so quickly? Really? Ten days is the amount of time I've been away from this dear, sweet blog of mine. Trust me, I've surely missed it and missed my reader friends too. (That's all you folks.) And now that ten days have passed, where do I begin to recount what's been going on in our lives? The most general news is that everyone is healthy, happy and here. How's that? I can't say that we've really been doing anything special that has taken up so much of my time. More than anything, I just have been using all of time to regroup after Christmas, put away and maintain. By letting myself forgo my commitment of blogging, I have actually gotten a lot of things done around here. Imagine that? I hate to feel pressure of being overwhelmed anytime, let alone the additional stress of post- holiday clean-up. Have I ever mentioned that I'm a little anal about structure and organization? Just a little. Anyhow... I was glad to get all of our Christmas pictures loaded up here and accounted for. That was important to me since it was Lincoln's first Christmas and our first Christmas together as a family of four. I forgot to mention that on our drive home on Christmas day we began to explain to Elaina that after (that day) Christmas was going to be over. She piped up quickly by saying, "Mommy and Daddy, I had a wonderful time!" I guess that I couldn't have said it better myself. Moving on to New Year's eve, some loser county employees (my hand in the air) had to go into work. I know, I know... we have a lot of paid holidays but seriously, couldn't they consider a little shut-down break for Christmas eve and New Year's eve? I really can't complain too loudly since we were sent home (with pay) at noon. That's a great way to lift my spirit for the upcoming new year! For New Year's eve, we have started somewhat of a tradition of hosting a little gathering of friends to a party at our house. Since having two kids to look after and having to work the same day, we decided to scale back our gathering to only 2 other couples with their kids. It turns out that neither group of friends were able to make it at the last minute (4 day old baby= no sleep; back from out of state trip=cranky toddler= good excuses) so Eric and I rented a movie and cuddled on the couch. Like a date night of our own. It was beautiful. As it turns out, it was possibly a good thing that we were solo because Elaina was a bear to put to bed, Lincoln woke up demanding a bottle at 5:30 (2 hours early) and I woke up with a cold (again). So there you go. And Happy New Year to You! Now, let's talk about new year's resolutions. Last year, I tried to commit myself to a new monthly resolution for the purpose of personal growth. While it was probably a good idea and I really could have benefited from a little "personal growth" that was centered around somewhere other than my hips, I faltered. One month faded into the next too quickly and only five months into the year, Lincoln joined our family and my monthly resolution became just about keeping my head above water and not coming unglued at any point along the way. For 2008, I think I am going to be a little more realistic and focus on a few key areas that I need to work on consistency. Constantly, consistent. Get it? Things like saying bedtime prayers with Elaina. Consistency. Including Lincoln while reading bedtime stories with Elaina. Consistency. I have a few other random things thrown in the mix that I am going to try to improve upon also. One of those things was to try to get to bed before midnight each night. As of January 1, Eric already helped me blow that one. I made every effort to hustle to get myself to bed early and since Eric had already beat me there, he happened to be watching Letterman and the guest just happened to be George Clooney. (Oh there's not a single thing wrong with that man! Wow!) (Or Eric, for that matter. Hi Honey!) So of course, I watched all of Clooney, on Letterman, way past my bedtime. Oh, how I sacrifice. Since my intention isn't to put people to sleep reading my blog tonight, (oh and lookey there, it's past midnight already) I'm going to have to save some more recent stories for some other night. One will definitely touch on the subject of how Elaina got her first real, no-diaper-on-the-butt-spanking the other night. Also, headed your way will be lot and lots of new photos, sure to slow your computer down right away. Saving the worst news for last is that I've decided that I really need to put blogging on do-when-I-can list. I really have tried to make blogging a priority part of my day. I feel that it is extremely important as I try to do my best record keeping for my kids as I recount our days together. At this point, I am resigning myself to the fact that I just need to do what it takes to keep my head above water and keep everyone happy. (And get some sleep.) With Lincoln growing up so fast, his needs are changing rapidly. I do what I can to commit every ounce of my energy and time into my kids and I never want to feel that I'm slighting either kid because Mommy wanted to go write about them instead of play with them. Or, Mommy has to do the housework now while I plop you in front of the TV so I can blog later. It's all about trying to balance out my juggling act here. Some days are easier than others, some days just aren't. One constant that I can always stay true to is that my kids will always come first and I wouldn't ever want it any other way.

Happy New Year Everyone! Wishing each one of you a great year ahead!