Other New Year's Changes I'm Making

So in addition to the whole triathlon thing, I've informally resolved to do a few other things differently in my house.

1.  The first, and by far the hardest (harder than swimming 500 meters, for sure) is to make one dinner every night.  Many of you have met my sweet blond kiddos.  You probably also have heard me complain about their pickiness.  I am perfectly aware that I have created these chicken nugget monsters, and I am the only one who can change them.  So every night, I am now making one meal and serving it to everyone, no matter what the backlash. 

This is hard for several reasons.  Patrick works until 9:00, so I am often the only adult eating.  I would much rather throw together a salad for myself every night and feed the kids a frozen pizza.  It is so much easier on me and the kids go to bed with full tummies. 

Now, I am putting together a simple, slightly healthy, but kid friendly meal each night and serving it to everyone, including myself.  Sometimes this means grilled chicken and salads, sometimes this means spaghetti.  There is no more "grown-up dinner" and "kid dinner."  Jackson has done fairly well at trying new things and likes what he tries 80% of the time.  Macy, on the other hand, usually goes to bed hungry, but doesn't complain too much.  Jackson's eagerness has helped me stick with this plan.  I am seeing that really, if there is no other choice, kids will eventually try something new.

I am not loving the meals so much (I would much rather have baked tilapia and roasted zucchini squash) but I keep telling myself that part of the problem was the huge discrepancies between our meals.  If we can meet in the middle, maybe someday I will be able to introduce the kids to seafood and salads.

2.  The next thing I'm trying to be better about in 2011 is teaching my kids compassion for others.  I think both Jackson and Macy actually have a pretty good sense of this, but I want to nurture it so they grow into caring teenagers and adults. 

My first task is nightly prayers.  It felt a little awkward at first, and I had a lot of questions to answer ("Mom, what does 'bless' mean?"), but we seem to be getting the hang of it.  Jackson always prays to protect his daddy at work, so this is a good start, but Macy is a little more difficult.  For the past few nights, she's been insisting we pray for "Hello Kitty." I'm not sure how to handle this, so I tell her she can ask God to bless Hello Kitty and I'll ask him to bless the sick babies at work.

3.  And last but not least, my obligatory resolution that I make every year:  floss once a day.