Saturday, July 11, 2009

Resolution Resolve - January 08

New Year’s Resolutions. Do you make them? I’ve made resolutions in the past, plenty of them. I’m guilty of the usual big ones like quit smoking, get in shape, be more health conscious. Some years I tried to keep it simple, like resolving to do better with remembering to send birthday cards and thank you notes. Some years I went a little manic and my list of resolutions was more like a “to do list.” Keep the house clean, balance the checkbook every week, join the PTA, have dinner on the table every evening by 7:00, make sure I returned the library books on time, and be a better mom/spouse/friend/employee/neighbor. In short, to become perfect between the time I went to sleep on December 31st and the time I woke up on January 1st. Needless to say, I stood a better chance of sprouting feathers and flying.
Why do we do it to ourselves? Is it a real desire to be better? Is it wishful thinking? Or do we take some twisted pleasure in torturing ourselves with guilt when we don’t succeed?

So this year, I’m going to try something a little different. Resolving to “do” something requires action. Resolving “not” to do something requires no action. Surely much easier! So here is my list of non-action resolutions for this year.

I will NOT buy anything that won’t fit on the boat. As much as I hate our dog-chewed and kid-damaged living room furniture, I won’t buy new. There’s no room on a boat (our boat anyway) for a new sofa unless I can find a way to stow a water tank under the cushions. Probably not.

I will NOT go to yard sales and buy someone else’s junk, only to try to sell it in my own yard sale six months later. I finally got rid of my bowling ball, the sewing machine I never used, the fondue pot, and a host of other items I’ve carried around for years and didn’t use. No more.

I will NOT spend a lot of money period. Easy enough if there isn’t any to spend, but what there is will go to the boat fund. New cookware doesn’t fall under the boat fund category. But a pressure cooker does!

I will NOT spend all day Saturday inside cleaning or working when I could be outside in the fresh air working on the boat. Gee, not doing housework? That’s going to be SO hard. Not.

I will NOT argue Mike into making any more structural changes to the boat. He’s agreed to my larger galley and the addition of a designated nav station. Butterfly hatches leak anyway. And who needs yet another hanging locker.

I will NOT force Mike to do all the hard or dirty work himself. Well, ok, so I probably will. But I won’t complain when he gets filthy and sits on the living room sofa. Unless I’ve figured out the water tank issue.

I will NOT subscribe to every boating magazine on the planet just so I can clip out pictures of boat interiors. And speaking of that, why hasn’t anyone come up with a boat interiors magazine? There are thousands of home interior magazines. Why not boats?

I will NOT go to West Marine unless I am accompanied by someone with more willpower than I possess. Mike does not fall into that category, so this non-action resolution is for him too.

I will NOT force the kids to spend time with us on the boat. They might get too comfortable with the idea and decide to live with us forever.

So there you have it. My list of non-resolutions for 2008. I’d report back periodically on my lack of progress, but I’m counting on the fact that you’ll all forget my list as quickly as you forget your own. But regardless of how well you stick to your list or I stick to mine, I do hope that you each have a wonderfully happy New Year and that good things continue for you all year long!

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