Success

On this last day of the month, I am taking a look at my February resolutions and evaluating my performance.

My first resolution was to finish the wrap that I am knitting for my Aunt Eula. Although I did not finish, I made significant progress and it is probably 90% complete. I say "probably" because I am still not sure how long I want it to be, but I can say that I am ever so close to having it done and it looks lovely.

Resolution #2 was to exercise for 30 minutes, three times each week and I came incredibly close to meeting that goal. Most often I walked but when the weather did not cooperate, I used exercise videos. Last week's winter break threw a wrench into my plans, but I am proud to say that I met my goal every other week. True geek that I am, I determined that three times a week in the month of February equaled 13, and I exercised 12 times.

So while I technically did not meet my goals, I am declaring success...I kept working at my goals and I came extremely close to meeting both of them. The point of setting goals/resolutions is to inspire me, and that is how I feel at the close of February: inspired to not give up just because I did not exactly reach my goals.

For March, I am going to keep the same two resolutions from February, and I am adding one more: stop snacking. I am a terrible snacker, particularly when I am cooking dinner; even though I know that I am making a delicious meal that will soon be served, I can't resist a snack here and there. I'm not talking about tasting the food that I am cooking, I am talking about eating foods totally unrelated to the meal being prepared.

Just so you know, I do not plan on adding a resolution each month - no way am I going to be keeping up with twelve by the end of 2012! I think three is a manageable number and I want to set myself up for success, not failure.

Works in progress

Earlier this week in one of my online knitting groups, this question was posed: "What is the biggest project you’ve ever undertaken? Define big however you like." Most people responded with details of their knit or crochet project, but one person said, "The biggest project I’ve ever undertaken is the raising of my sons! Nothing much compares with that."

So true. Having Aidan and raising him to be a confident, smart, responsible, honest, kind, and [insert positive adjective of your choice here] person is by far the biggest, most difficult project I have ever undertaken. Parenting is hard work and there is no time off. And while certain aspects of the job have gotten easier as he has grown, other aspects have gotten much more complicated. And as Aidan has grown, I have grown in my role as a parent. I have learned over the years the better ways to handle situations, how to elicit better responses from Aidan when correcting behavior...I just need to learn to REMEMBER better.

Most of the time I can honestly say that I like Aidan - he is funny, smart, inquisitive and interesting. But there are times (several this week alone) when I wonder when the reasoning circuit in his brain will be complete so he can think through what he is doing and see the consequences ahead. I wonder when he will use his fantastic memory for more than Pokemon cards, Harry Potter books, and Nintendo 3DS games. I wonder when he will look beyond this moment and learn that delayed gratification may be better than doing something right now.

In knitting, we have WIPs, FOs and UFOs - Works In Progress, Finished Objects and UnFinished Objects. WIPs are just what you think they are, FOs are completed projects, and UFOs are projects that are not finished but are not actively being worked on. I like to think that both Aidan and I are WIPs, and that we both have a lot more work to do on ourselves and on our relationship.