Auld Lang Syne and All That

Here are my reflections from 2009:

* I still don't like going to the dentist.

* Watching an 8 year old girl play basketball is completely different than watching an 11 year old boy play basketball.

* Mullets are funny.

* A John Hughes movie usually makes everything better.

* I'm not sure I will ever stop feeling torn between my parents. They've been divorced nearly 19 years and I still deal with that knot in my guts.

* Orthodontics are wonderful things.

* Giving up traditions is really, really hard.

* I can't fix everything.

* Battling wrinkles, pimples and errant chin hairs is not how I expected to spend the better part of my latter 30's.

* Living with a man who is giving up tobacco is hell on earth.

* If someone really wants to change, they will. However, I have found that more often than not I want them to change more than they do.

* My online friends let me down and hurt me far less than the ones I have in real life. Either that says a lot about my online friends or it says I have a pathetic life.

* Life is full of double-standards.

* Females are cruel.

* Open-mouthed, slobbery kisses from a toddler are just about the best thing going.

* Making my bed is cathartic for me.

* Having a teenager in the house is both rewarding and frustrating - kind of like dieting. I doubt I give up on the teenager, though.

* Everything in existence is fair game to a puppy and is subject to being chewed-upon at any moment.

* A single phone call can make or ruin a day.

* Males are weird. And infuriating. And amusing. And exhausting. And intolerable. And charming. And frustrating. And completely adorable.

* I find that I hinge my self esteem mostly on how I feel I'm doing as a mother. Some days I fly high and feel I've finally got it down. Others are barely worth getting out from under the covers. Fortunately my children are very forgiving - and fickle - creatures.

* Laundry multiplies when no one is looking.

* I tire very easily of drama.

* Judging someone makes you look small and ignorant and is just downright mean. Spreading lies about someone is juvenile. Doing it all in the name of the church or "for God" is deplorable.

* This year I have cried over my children, cried over other people's children, cried because I miss someone so bad it hurts, because I can't make it all better, because I was laughing, cried because things were out of my control, because of words both beautiful and horrible, because I failed and because I didn't.

* It only recently occurred to me that even though I have a seriously hard time letting God handle things, really, He was handling them long before I got involved.

Happy New Year to all of my readers! Thank you for being here through it all. I appreciate every time you drop in and apologize for all the times you did and I hadn't updated. Knowing you're out there gives me the warm fuzzies and I love you all.

Here's to telling 2009 to suck on dryer lint.