I’d been planning it for a week. I’d weighed my thoughts, brainstormed with my keyboard, and changed my direction 50 times. My 100th post would be well written, inspirational and a call to action for my readers.

Except that my calculation was off. The 100th post I planned to write on Saturday snuck in on Thursday, with a lot less finess than I’d meant, and a topic that was a little more prehistoric than usual. I looked on my Blogger dashboard and saw “100 posts”. Oh for crying outloud. Whoops!

Anyhoo, as I enjoy the last few days of my kids at home, experiencing more peace than I’d expected, despite stumbling over the basement obstacle course and mowing around their fort-of many-colors, I consider the coming months of schoolday solitude and ponder…

…Schoolyear’s Resolutions.

Like many parents, our family’s life revolves around the school calendar, rather than the Roman one, so I’m making schoolyear’s resolutions - goals I’m setting for myself as we enter this new chapter. I read the book, The Hurried Woman Syndrome, and felt that much of it was an Ah-ha moment for me. So my goals will focus upon stress reduction.

Of course, my best personal resolution would be to stop trying to be the valedictorian of everything (thanks Dooce, for this phrase), and be happy with a B+ average in life. But that would require a personality change and more therapy than I have time for.

So instead, these are my resolutions:

1. Attitude
Appreciate the phenominally fantastic, yet everyday events that I’m blessed to experience. Spend one-on-one time with my husband and each child, every week — even if it’s just coffee, or just a bike ride, or just a trip to the grocery store.

2. Simplicity
Remember my family’s priorities. Be satisfied with myself and accept my imperfections, even if I’m trying to improve them. Focus on writing assignments and professional engagements that bring me joy. Volunteer for short-term school commitments, rather than overwhelming ones. Smile more. Spend less.

3. Health
Exercise at least a half-hour, at least 3 days per week. Start to count calories, and reduce the bad ones.

I know I’m not the only one that makes goals at the beginning of the schoolyear. Just today, I commented on a Thursday Thirteen post like this (and if I find her site again, I’ll link to it!) If you’d like to start some schoolyear’s resolutions of your own, I’d love to hear them. You can leave them in comments, or if anyone’s interested, I’ll put up a Mr. Linky.

(This is a part of the Crazy Hip Blog Mamas writing collaboration project.)

As I enjoy the last few days of my kids at home, experiencing more peace than I’d expected, despite stumbling over the basement obstacle course and mowing around their fort-of many-colors, I consider the coming months of schoolday solitude and ponder…

…Schoolyear’s Resolutions.

Like many parents, our family’s life revolves around the school calendar, rather than the Roman one, so I’m making schoolyear’s resolutions - goals I’m setting for myself as we enter this new chapter. I read the book, The Hurried Woman Syndrome , and felt that much of it was an Ah-ha moment for me. So my goals will focus upon stress reduction.

Of course, my best personal resolution would be to stop trying to be the valedictorian of everything (thanks Dooce, for this phrase), and be happy with a B+ average in life. But that would require a personality change and more therapy than I have time for.

So instead, these are my resolutions:

1. Attitude
Appreciate the phenominally fantastic, yet everyday events that I’m blessed to experience. Spend one-on-one time with my husband and each child, every week — even if it’s just coffee, or just a bike ride, or just a trip to the grocery store.

2. Simplicity
Remember my family’s priorities. Be satisfied with myself and accept my imperfections, even if I’m trying to improve them. Focus on writing assignments and professional engagements that bring me joy. Volunteer for short-term school commitments, rather than overwhelming ones. Smile more. Spend less.

3. Health
Exercise at least a half-hour, at least 3 days per week. Start to count calories, and reduce the bad ones.

I know I’m not the only one that makes goals at the beginning of the schoolyear. Just today, I commented on a Thursday Thirteen post like this (and if I find her site again, I’ll link to it!) If you’d like to start some schoolyear’s resolutions of your own, I’d love to hear them.

Care to join me?

Last summer, my then eight-year-old daughter came with me to Maryland on a week-long journey along the Chesapeake Bay. Though she’s not a fan of crustaceans, she accompanied me to sample blue crab at a restaurant in St. Michaels.

Expecting a mountain of claws with drawn butter, we were shocked when our waitress arrived with whole crabs — legs, shells, guts, eyes and all. Deena wielded her mallet as she wasn’t convinced her crab was even dead. In fact, it resembled Sebastian on The Little Mermaid.

Lucky for us, our waitress expertly demonstrated proper crab picking, thankfully removing the entrails (locals call it the “mustard”), piling the smelly mess on the disposable tablecloth and revealing the tasty crabmeat inside.

Eyes pinched shut, Deena tried a morsel, then gently asked me, “Do you think we could go out for chicken tonight?”

Here’s the article as it appeared in Budget Travel:

Hello Absolute Writers!

To increase exposure and improve rankings, I’ve started a blogroll that we can each post on our blogs. This is only for Absolute Write bloggers and it is very simple.

FIRST - Get the code at my Absolute Write post.

SECOND - Place the code on your blog. Once the code is in place, post a comment here with your Blogsite address, Blog name and AW name. I will check to make sure your code is working, then add you to the roll.

THIRD - Introduce your readers to your new blogroll and encourage them to read!

RULES — This is a rated G blogroll. Not for the gross, or really profane.

That’s it! Thanks for joining!

This is the Pass the Torch Tuesday Guidelines page. CLICK HERE FOR RECENT PTT POSTS.

What does passing the torch mean to you? Is it teaching? Passing traditions? Or good news about youth? Join us each week for Pass the Torch Tuesday.

GUIDELINES:

1. Write about something that illustrates passing the torch.

2. Leave your permalink in commentson this site’s current Pass the Torch Tuesday post, so that my readers can find your post.

3. LINK to my current Pass the Torch Tuesday post on this site, so that your readers can learn about the meme and find other weekly participants. (This may ping my comments, which can help your page rank.)

4. It can be any child - not just your own, or any adult - not just you.

5. It can be a current post or former post.

Here are some banners you can use:

Email me for the code if you can’t retrieve the graphic. Thanks for participating!