Happy New Year!

From the Self-Evident Supermom household to yours, have a very happy new year!

It's as if she's mocking me,
saying, "Oh, you fool,
you think 2 is bad? Wait."

This year will bring a new job (surprise, surprise!), a new schedule for both me and L., the dreaded Terrible 3s (3 is the new 2, have you heard?), potty training (ugh, eventually), a wedding, L. starting school and, hopefully, more topics to write on and more productivity, all while trying to maintain simplicity.

Every year, I make 10 resolutions. I figure I have chance to keep at least one.

Before I set my goals for 2014, I'd like to just take a minute to list my accomplishments of 2013. Not for bragging purposes, but as inspiration that sometimes, despite what my inner critic thinks, I can do it!

Day 13: Write what you know (or what you pretend to know)

Today, I laughed at: "Friends."
At work, we have to get the lottery numbers and they're usually aired on the channel with the news. But when sports games are on, they're aired on the channel that airs "Friends" reruns.
And those are some of my favorite nights!
The show never gets old for me. I watch the entire series once a year. I even got the fiance into it. I got to enjoy it all over again while watching it with someone new who got to experience it for the first time.
"Friends" is one of those shows I hope to watch with L. and have her enjoy it as much as I do. Even if I have to explain to her why coffee houses were so great even before the free WiFi. Even when I have to hold my tongue when she gets upset when Ross and Rachel are "on a break." I hope she'll be able to quote the show just as much as I can. That's the dream!

Day 11: This, too, shall pass and become funny

Today, I laughed at: an imitation my coworker did of me.
At work, we've been waiting for the new restaurant down the block to open up, since we've gotten tired of the same take out all the time. When we tried the food, unfortunately, none of the orders were right. I would have quietly eaten my veggie wrap, which was completely different from what the menu promised, but once other coworkers started hovering around, wondering what the new food was like, I snapped. The combination of others' curiosity and watching me eat, along with a cold side salad in a wrap instead of a grilled mushroom, pepper and cheese veggie wrap I was promised was too much and I flipped out, grabbed a coworker and brought my food back.
Later that night, we were recounting the story and another coworker did an impression of my face and said in a high voice, "This veggie wrap is just wrong! Please, oh pretty please, fix it!"

31 Days: "Does anybody remember laughter?"

When was the last time I laughed?

I asked myself this question yesterday midway through my shift at work. And I couldn't answer that question. It could have been that morning over something silly my boyfriend did. Or it could have been the day before with some coworkers. But I honestly couldn't remember having a "fit of laughter" in some time. At least not one memorable enough to look back on and laugh about later.

Actually, that's not true. I did get reminded of the "Saturday Night Live"  with Will Ferrell and Norm McDonald in a "Celebrity Jeopardy" skit in which McDonald plays Burt Reynolds and changes his name to Turd Ferguson. Something about that skit made me laugh uncontrollably at my desk last week and I couldn't stop. THAT'S the last time I memorably laughed.

(Until a few minutes ago when I decided to find the clip of that to post and ended up laughing so hard, I began coughing, a leftover side effect from my recent cold.)

It's good to know I have at least one trigger to incite my laughing. And, after watching that clip, I took stock of how I felt after. My shoulders let go of some of the tension; my mouth perked up on the sides, as if expecting to laugh again; my mind seemed less focused on "I must, I must, I must get this blog post written" and more on "What else is going to make me laugh this month?"

Here's where the challenge comes in.

Simple Mom, take me away!

About a month ago, I was in a rut. Not even a rut of boredom. It was a hectic rut. My anxiety levels were through the roof. Sleep, which is when the sub-conscious is supposed to file all those thoughts and memories into neat little folders for me, wasn't as efficient as it usually was. I kept just feeling like I was barely hanging onto sanity.

The only time I was able to focus on anything was when I gave my 110% to L. And then, I realized that meant I wasn't giving anything to myself. I was in a mental place where I felt like I didn't deserve it. I had let any idea of a diet fly out the window because I couldn't afford to eat well. My bills were paid exactly on their due date because of an e-mail reminder, and the ones with automatic withdrawl usually weren't accounted for in my head so I would overdraw my account. (Luckily, thanks to "Friends," I put 10% of my paycheck into a savings account, but by the end of the two weeks after getting paid, I usually have transfered most, if not all of that, over to my checking account.)

My only form on entertainment for myself were podcasts I began listening to in the car to and from work. I had gotten sick of the radio. And I don't just mean the Top 40 stations since those don't even have a preset in my car. But I mean my alternative station wasn't any good anymore. My oldies station just wasn't playing music that I felt fit my mood, even NPR was just too much, especially after working at a newspaper for eight hours and the last thing I wanted was to hear about the news I just had to read about.

Progression of a kids song ear worm

Earlier in the day, I had been listening to L.'s CD of nursery rhymes and toddler songs. "Little Bunny Foo Foo" was one of her favorites so we had sung it probably four or five times that day.

Later at work, I found myself still hearing the melody in my head as I was working.

(Also in this picture, next to the bottle of generic Aveeno, you will see my Simple Mom Daily Docket, the closest thing I have to a personal assistant. More on that in a future post about the Simple Mom podcast and website and my love for Tsh.)