This Year in 2012...

Whereas most people succumb to the pressure of making a list of New Year’s Resolutions, I emphatically do not. I find that resolutions made on January 1st are long forgotten by February 1st. Instead, I like to take the reins and envision all of the wonderful and “doable” things I can achieve if I put my mind to it. These aren’t things like weight loss, although it could be, but more like fun things that make starting fresh again not so overwhelming. Perhaps you’d care to join me in this exercise. It is fun, totally calorie-free, not restrictive, and leads to smiling!

This year in 2012 I’d like to be nicer to myself. I pick on myself an awful lot and that just puts me in a bad way. I’m a rather nice person, and I’m kind to most beings, so I’ve decided to be nicer to me this year. I’m going to give myself a break, spoil myself, and let myself off the hook. I’m going to treat myself like I do strangers and casual acquaintances; I’d never treat them as harshly as I do myself. This year I’m making myself a priority and doing it lovingly!

This year in 2012 I’m going to make this career take off in earnest. Last year was huge in terms of growth and milestones, but I’m still the littlest single-celled organism in the largest, vastest ocean. I’m going to concentrate all of my energies on wooing an even larger readership and even, dare I dream, sponsors. I think I’ve proven that I am consistent, reliable, entertaining, and readable day after day, week after week, and year after year. It’s time the right advertisers and I meet up and make this mutually beneficial!

This year in 2012 I’m going to suck the juice out of life every day! I’ve grown to love the Simple Joys that swirl around and enhance my life, but now I want even more! That’s right, I want to laugh more, smile broader, hug longer, and kiss passionately! I want to take every advantage of free time, spend quality fun time with my children, and take every opportunity to vacation. If there is a fair, I’m going, a race, I’m there, a performance, I’m in the first row. There is no guarantee of tomorrow so I’m making every today matter more!

This year in 2012 I’m hoping to reach out and connect with even more of you! Whether on this site, via Twitter, on Facebook, or at Google +, I’d like to interact much more with my readership. If you like what you’ve read of mine, I’d like to know it. If you disagree, I want to hear. Pageviews are great and I appreciate each and every one, but comments are the true payment I receive. Knowing you took the time because you were moved in some way is the ultimate. So, I strive to connect with all of you this year.

This year in 2012 I plan to gracefully enter my forties. In my last months of being 39 I want to feel I have worn out my thirties and am ready to plunge into my forties with exuberance, optimism, confidence, and pleasure. Since I was a girl I was told I was a “forty-year-old woman” so I finally get to live my true age! With childbearing complete, my career chosen, and my marriage intact and healthy (still passionate even!), I feel the forties will have so much to offer and a decade when great things will occur if I stay focused, energetic, and authentic and true to myself.

This year in 2012, when I say farewell to the year in late December, I want to look back on this post and feel I did my all to make these ideals come to fruition. If you see me slacking, call me out! If you think I’m doing a good job, please let me know. If you want to see something different, leave me a suggestion. I started Chief 187™Chatter as an embarkation on a lifelong journey. I asked you all to accompany me on said journey. We are on the path and exploring as we go; I am forever thankful for your presence and so very encouraged and supported by your readership.

What are your goals, wants, and desires? How can you make them come true this year? Share the lofty goals, dream-like desires, and wanton wants that keep you going as the New Year gleams brightly with newness, promise, and blank pages. We are who we make ourselves. Only we have the power to change. I’m willing to try and hope you are, too. Let’s go boldly into the unknown and try our damnedest, shall we?

Please join me tomorrow for another scrumptious recipe on Tantalizing Thursday right here on Chief 187™Chatter.

Simple Joys

Welcome to the first Simple Joys of 2012 on Chief 187™Chatter. The Christmas holidays are finally over and, no matter how well I thought I had prepared myself, I let circumstances get out of control. Although I am fairly stable the whole year through, having a houseful of people who I perceive rely on me for everything from entertainment to meals, gifts to counsel, and anything and everything in between, I get worn out. In addition, communication

between my husband and me hits an all-time low and that makes for trouble with a capital T. A few hours ago I thought about skipping this week’s Simple Joys, something I have never done since beginning the feature a year ago. But, just when I thought there was nothing to write about, my world came back into orbit and life became peaceful. Once the atmosphere cleared and I had a better perspective I saw that my days were still filled with wondrous Simple Joys that salvaged and enhanced the Christmas Week. Now, without further ado, is this week’s Simple Joys.

Post-Christmas Shopping. I’m one of those people; I shop starting December 26th in preparation for December 25th of the following year. I bargain hunt and feel victorious when I score a perfectly great gift for a loved one at a reduced (I mean heavily reduced) price. Certainly I pick up some wrapping paper, gift tags, and Christmas napkins, but mostly I’m scouring the shelves for ideal gifts for next year. I shop big but bring home mounds of presents to be used throughout the year and especially for next year’s Christmas. By buying during the huge after-Christmas sales I can be generous to my family but also to many others who I enjoy gifting. Once I get home I write everything down in my Gift Journal. I write the item and who I intend it for if I know. This allows me to see a running tally of my inventoried gifts and helps me from over-buying for one person and not enough for another. I am certain I truly save money and can be overly generous from my shopping excursions post-Christmas. Taking part in this yearly activity is a Simple Joy that keeps me happy and in the Christmas spirit all the yearlong!

Tree gazing. I adore our Christmas tree. It is filled with glorious memories, sweet mementos, and priceless treasures made from the hands of our children. The glow that emanates from the room is soft and heavenly when the tree is lit, but it is a scene I take in all too infrequently during the season. With so much to do before Christmas and the hectic schedule we keep, I rarely stop to sit and adore our lovely Christmas tree. Once Christmas is over, the frantic pace relaxes, and the major entertaining is over, I love to sit quietly in the Christmas tree room and let the beauty wash over me and the serenity set in completely. Taking those precious moments to bask in the glory of our Christmas tree is a Simple Joy I hope I will never tire and always take time.

Donating. We used to comb through the house yearly and donate a bag or two of out-grown clothes to the Good Will/Salvation Army. In recent years with the addition of babies in 2006 and 2009 I had fallen far behind in my gathering and donating. Bags meant for donating made it to the basement and sat, obstructing pathways and taunting me whenever I went downstairs which is quite frequently. Finally over the Christmas break my husband and I gathered the bags in our van, bundled the children, and drove to the Salvation Army collection center. We unloaded no less than seventeen bags of clothing. At first it was difficult to part with baby clothes, maternity clothes, and some clothing my husband and I had out-grown, but when I saw the need and the appreciation for our donation, I only felt warm and content. Giving is a Simple Joy that never gets old; I’m already planning this year’s donations!

New Year’s Eve. Last year my oldest waited up until midnight to see the ball drop in Time’s Square. This year, determined to make it again, my son announced he would be staying up. His brother, five, declared the same. I was game; if the children wanted to reach this milestone, I wasn’t going to stop them! My husband, suffering from a bad bout, went to bad at 11pm, but the boys and I stayed awake. First we watched Rudolph’s Shiny New Year, a Rankin/Bass animated special that was good but made me sleepy. When that ended we merely had fifteen minutes to reach our goal. We watched the musical guests Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest had on the New Year’s Rockin’ Eve program and then listened to inane interviews with the revelers in Time’s Square and the resolutions of the musicians/performers. In the last minutes of 2011 I told my boys to say good-bye to the year. My oldest teared up in the final seconds. When I inquired as to why he was upset my son plaintively replied, “I’m not ready to say good-bye to 2011!” That choked me up; this child was exactly like me, especially at that age. I never liked to bid farewell to the old. I held my arms out to this sensitive and over-tired boy and held him as he wept tears of exhaustion and trepidation. My middle child just rolled his five-year-old eyes at us as we cried and he stated, “Why am I the youngest and the only one not crying?!” He won’t understand that the tears I was crying were of the Simple Joys brought on by a bond between my son and me and helplessness and resignation that I cannot shield him from change. Once we had a good night’s sleep we both felt much more optimistic about the opportunities 2012 hold for both of us. That, too, was a Simple Joy!

Big Girl Bed. For nearly a month my daughter has been climbing out of her crib when she was finished sleeping. In the very beginning she would unceremoniously tumble out of the crib and sort of “thunk” to the ground. After falling a couple of times she perfected her dismount out of the crib and gracefully climbed down to the ground with nary a scratch every time. Even though her escape was near perfect, I still worried that something could go wrong and the time had come for the child to have her first big girl bed. We chose the mattress and box spring, converted her “Crib-to-College” crib into a headboard and frame, and picked out cheery and girly bedding. While waiting for delivery (scheduled for tomorrow) we threw the crib mattress into the open space of the full-sized frame. Our daughter giggled and took to her new set up instantly; I can only hope the transition will be as seamless when the mattress finally arrives. No matter, unlike her oldest brother, this child welcomes change head on with a twinkle in her eye and a smirk on her lips! Watching my little baby girl grow into an adventurous and excited “big girl” is a daily Simple Joy!

I feel it vital to relay to you how relieved and grateful I am for Simple Joys. It was becoming a fright for me that, in my current mood with this deadline looming, that I would have “literally nothing to write about” as I lamented sourly to my husband a few hours before typing this post. But, once the lines of communication finally opened completely between he and I, the resentments had been hashed out and discussed thoroughly, and I had some time to breathe, I was able to look back upon the week and easily pinpoint the Simple Joys that made the week sparkle. Whether you, like me, prefer to write down your Simple Joys or you are pleased to just silently think about them, I hope conjuring up the Simple Joys of your past week brings you much happiness and perspective. I thank you all for letting me share my Simple Joys with you and invite you back each Tuesday for another edition of Simple Joys.

Please join me tomorrow as I wax poetic on yet another topic on Chief 187™Chatter.

Monday Media Blog-Lego Video Games

Welcome to the Monday Media Blog on Chief 187™Chatter. The Monday Movie Blog has been swallowed by this more encompassing title so it will be heard from again. I have wanted to explore all forms of media – television, video games, etc. – for ages and felt 2012 was the perfect year to introduce this wider genre for Mondays.

This week’s focus is video games. My children are obsessed with the Lego games. What is your favorite Lego video game? What system do you use to play it? Give any and all information that would help someone looking to buy one purchase your favorite. What is the downside of the game?

Each week the Monday Media Blog will change directions so if you are not a gamer then tune in next Monday to see what the topic will be. Like the Monday Movie Blog created a valuable resource of movies to be utilized by the Chief 187™Chatter readership, so the Monday Media Blog will create a large database of titles for various media. If you have any suggestions I am more than happy to take them. Please contact me here through comments or

via Twitter where you can follow me @Chief187s.

Although it is a new year and Monday has a new face, please join me for Tuesday's regular and the most popular post of any week on Chief 187™Chatter, Simple Joys. Some things never change!