What am I all in a dither about, you may ask?

Well, let me tell you.

1. Bacon equals cancer.

2. Paula Deen has diabetes.

Again, I am not necessarily surprised by either of these “announcements”. And I realize that one is a medical fact and one is some extensive research.

But they both make me sad.

I love bacon. And I love Paula Deen.

I think I’ll write love letters to both of them later.

Please look forward to that.

For now, I’m just a little confused about what to do with all the bacon in my fridge. I think my kiddos will cry if they see it in the trash.

And so would Paula Deen.

It’s super dreary here today, and it’s got us cooped up inside. Near all the snacks and diet drinks (both of which I’m trying foolishly to limit my consumption of in this brand-spankin’-new year).

So, I thought I would burden you all with some ramblings.

I’ve been thinking about the holidays as I get the final bits and pieces of the decor that took over this house for over a month down.

(Full disclosure: our tree is still in the living room, and it still has lights on it- decorations are off, but the lights are on. Big plan is to take it to the curb tonight. We’ll just say that I wanted to keep it up through Epiphany. Ok?)

I wanted to share with you something that I coveted all year and then received from my wonderful mother for Christmas:

*photo is taken right off of zappos.com*

It’s the “Lauren” wallet from Hobo International. Except, mine is blue. I guess they are sold out of the blue- so sorry for you! My family doesn’t understand my love for it. When I get it out of my purse I ooh and ahh over it. Every time. I snap it open and closed with care. I show anyone who cares all of it’s compartments, it’s lovely interior print, the strong magnetic close and it’s pocket that is large enough for your iPhone. Because, you see, it can be in your purse or it can BE YOUR PURSE! It is so delightful. If I had sponsors or extra cash, I would give one away to you, my loyal reader(s). But alas. You can just covet mine. And I will try diligently to write more, and more interesting, posts to try to get someone to donate something. Maybe if I had focus.

Wait. What?

Oh.

So, other than spending time showing off my wallet and taking down Christmas, I managed to run last week. And apparently going full-on on the treadmill at plus-eight pounds isn’t so good for your knees. Or, at least it’s not good for my right one. So, I have been limping around and hobbling up stairs for the past 5 days. But, at least I tried.

Then I took up knitting.

But that’s a whole OTHER story. And I don’t have that much to write about these days, so I’ll save it.

Oh, and I also managed to catch a nasty head cold. From my husband. And who says he never gives me anything…

(If you were here, I could ask my child to do the buh-duh-chink on the drums so that you could share in my headache love for music produced on loud instruments by small children.)

So, anyway the bad thing that we’ve got going on now is the ever-on-the-horizon addiction to:

*pop on over and order yours at drugstore.com if you’d like*

Afrin. It’s my last resort. I don’t use it unless I have had a few bad nights of sleep due to inability to breathe OR if I feel like I am choking/suffocating just trying to drink a glass of wine water, which is what was happening on Saturday night.

So, I use the Afrin. And it works miracles.

But then I need it again. And it felt SO GOOD the first time that I can’t NOT use it.

And then I sleep better, so I vow that I will try not to use it the next day. But YOU KNOW that it seems to wear off faster, and by lunch time I can’t breathe.

Slippery slope.

Now I will have to decide when to go into withdrawal.

I think it’s not today. I really like NOT being a mouth breather.

Last year I made a BIG check on my bucket list and ran my first full marathon.

Then I pretty much gave myself permission to stop running.

But whatever. Goal reached.

My oldest baby turned 5 and started Kindergarten. And I cried and cried and cried. I still might. Sometimes.

My youngest baby turned 3.

In honor of my the 5th and 3rd birthdays, I gained 8 solid pounds.

I like to take celebrations to a whole new level.

We took the boys on their first trip to New York City!

We made it through the holidays.

Barely.

There may or may not be a new drum set in this house. And the decorations are definitely NOT packed up yet.

And now, my friends, it’s a new year.

I, like everyone else, will try to be more healthy this year. Instead of looking at it in pounds (although I will be making an effort to erase those magical, celebratory 8 pounds gained from last year) I am going to try to do things like drink more water, get more sleep, not drink MORE than 1-2 glasses of wine per night…I am also going to go with the crowd and try to be more mindful of how and where we spend our money, so I am going to try to do more weekly meal planning and whatnot. Not couponing, though, not really. I mean, we don’t eat a lot of that stuff, and I have about 25 tubes of toothpaste in my cabinet from my brief stint of couponing last fall. Plus, we are holiday-poor currently.

SO, in those ways, I will be like everyone else.

But, I do have a few goals that I am setting for myself this year.

1- I will conquer my sewing maching. I will make it my bitch and then I will make wonderful things with it. Or at least I hope I can make an apron and maybe a camera strap cover. It will feel like a big accomplishment to me.

2- I will move out of plastics and into glass containers in my kitchen this year. For the most part, at least.

3- I will (with my husbands help) make progress on our “to-do” list for this house. First up- boys bathroom!

Happy New Year! Last year was great, this year will be better!

And it’s only 4 hours till 5 o’clock