Happy New Month!

I decided (defaulted) this year that I would not so much make a bunch of New Year's resolutions (because I had so many in mind), but just line up one or two, and then try everything else out for a month. January's thing was not buying anything new. Groceries don't count, toiletries don't count. Everything else was off limits. Jim also joined in the fun, so for a month, the only thing we bought besides food stuff was diaper ointment and dental floss. And in the interest of full disclosure, gum. I was going to give him an exemption when he flew to Minnesota for a few days last week and couldn't find his gloves, but he didn't end up buying a pair for whatever crazy reason.

It was a good exercise for us. We are not zillionaires, but we have enough money that we don't think too much about a myriad of minor purchases (which goes a long way to prevent us from reaching our goal of becoming zillionaires). One month is not long enough, of course, to start figuring out how to go all out, buying solely thrift store clothes (which used to be my favorite thing to do) and joining the local freecycle group. Doing it for a month means you just wait out anything that seems like a need until you are "allowed" to buy stuff again. It doesn't help that the message the media is sending is that we are hurting the economy by saving our money ("Loud and clear!" says Jim). So while I will actually go to Target on Target nights now, instead of straight to Torero's for margaritas and cheese dip, I am a lot less likely to go in with no list and come out with a full cart.

What is February's resolution? It's not a not-do, it's a do. There are some things that I am going to try to do every single day. One of those things is putting up a blog post. Every day! So the usual questionable quality of these posts is guaranteed to plummet. Whatever. I am looking forward to seeing if just resolving on a short term basis is enough to make me take action, as it was when my goal was stopping action. Wish me luck.

And now, with the audacity of Hemmingway in "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," I will waste a perfectly good distinct post topic by adding here that I will also be needing a lobotomy to get a song out of my head that has been helpfully taught to my child by her well-trained educators. Do you know this song? "A, you're adorable. B, you're so beautiful. C, you're a cutie full of charms..." It is a cloying song of the sort sung by an irritating child in a cinematic small-town talent show. Nevertheless, if I can get a video of Naomi singing the whole thing, and can somehow shrink that video down small enough where I can actually post it, you WILL be joining me at the lobotomy shop.