Resolved:

A few years ago one of my friends resolved not to go to jail in the new year. Except she called it the pokey, which made us laugh every time. I was talking to that same friend this morning after I received a text message from her announcing that they had returned from their vacation with bed bugs. We discussed the upcoming year and what is in store for both of our families and ultimately came to the conclusion that our best bet for a new year's resolution is to try to lower expectations across the board. This may sound defeatist, depressing or even ungrateful considering how charmed our lives are but for someone like me sometimes lowering expectations is the key to happiness. My grandfather always used to say that we should expect the worst and celebrate when things turned out better than we'd anticipated but that's not exactly what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about expecting the baby to sleep in my bed for at least another six months, not feeling like a bad mom when we eat take-out more than once a week, planning for friends to come over in the evenings to visit with me instead of trying to go out and being disappointed when I can't and coming to terms with the fact that I now like to buy microwave mac and cheese because I can't be bothered to make it from a box anymore (that one alternately makes my wince and smile). And as for the pokey . . . three squares and the promise of solitary confinement . . . I should be so lucky.