Ciao 2009

Life is good. I have a job, a home, a healthy family, nothing to complain about. 2009 was good, 2010 will be even better! Here are my goals:

1. Get healthy. It's time to lose all the weight I have gained since I moved here and then some. It's time to get the body necessary to run around playing soccer and kickball with my children without losing my breath.
2. Be more patient. I oftentimes spend too much energy being annoyed with things I have no control over. I have found infinite patience with my 2 year old because I think she's adorable. I need to find that patience with my students, my husband, my pets, my friends and myself.
3. Be a better scholar. I need to spend more of my professional time doing political science and a little less time teaching and doing service. I miss doing papers, I miss asking questions. It's time to pick up those projects that are waiting for rewrites and get to work on them. There is time.
4. Get together with friends more. It's been a major life change for me to have two children. I have become much more Shrekish and I need to get out more. I need to ask people to watch the kids more and I need to be a better friend and not just squeeze them in when I have time. I need to make time.
5. Stop apologizing. I still do it, I still say I'm sorry all the time. Which makes the real apologies meaningless. I do not need to apologize for everything. I hear my daughter saying I'm sorry for things she has no need to apologize for, and I know she gets it from me. (I've been working on this one for years but this year I am going to do it!)