You may also be interested in:

     A ‘very January’ time of year to you too! Love you all! A special huge, huge thanks to the many well-wishers and subscribers. I missed writing to you every day and now I’m back and wondering how you’re doing so far in 2019?

     How are you? What holdover from the holidays is bugging you? How are you doing on those bloody resolutions?

     What’s still ticking you off about the holidays? Did you invite a guest to your holiday party who antagonized your friends with his pro-Trump rhetoric followed by rants about Obama’s birth certificate and “fake Hillary”? And you’re still apologizing to your friends that he offended?

• Did your dog attack the holiday ham just as your guests were arriving?
• Do you feel you have to write thank-notes to holiday party guests who brought you a hostess gift?
• Did you receive a spectacular present from a colleague you didn’t give a present to, and how did you react?
• Are you annoyed at our ‘forced hugging culture’ where everyone feels they have to give-a-hug-to-get-a-hug? Or do you think it’s cozy cool?
• Did your famously misanthropic brother show up for dinner with a plus one and there was no place at the already over-crowded dinner table?
• Did your brother-in-law forget to bring the promised dessert?
• How did you manage to get that last staggering guest to go home?
• How did you handle holiday “forced hugging”?

Is it O.K. to drop a resolution or two? Having one resolution seems quite enough. First off, I’ve taken my daughter’s advice and now start my day with a new ritual: I drink the juice of one lemon (hopefully organic) in a cup of freshly boiled water to help balance the organs, rid toxins and neutralize any acidity.

     I’m attempting to adopt tidy into my everyday life in the hope of clearing out the clutter. Not just physical clutter like a yellowing copy of the New York Times the day after Obama’s inauguration (Wow, is he handsome!), but mental clutter. Some things cannot be fixed or changed. But you can tidy-up!

• To rediscover the difference between what I want and what I need. To have all I need and want all I have.
• Eat new foods.
• Never forget my shopping bags or list.
• Do one thing every day that scares you (me). ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
• Read two books a month.
• Be a better listener and stop interrupting.
• Don’t let anyone tuck me into a “forced hug.”
• Use “Thank You” more and “Sorry” less.
• Be politically more responsible.
• Clean up my manners.

Past Failed Resolutions —  that I’ve given up on:

• Saying that I’ll cook more–I hate the cleaning up.
• Saying that I’ll walk more–I hate walking in the cold.
• Saying that I’ll make new friends–I don’t pay enough attention to the ones I already have.
• Saying that I’ll restart a gym membership–when I hate the smell of gyms.
• Saying that I’ll write every day–some days I simple cannot.
• Saying that I won’t eat as much chocolate–I love chocolate.

Resolutions I’ve totally given up making:

• Get more sleep.
• Be a better gardener.
• Be more thrifty.
• Wast less time on the Internet.
• Loose weight.
• Entertain more.
• Exercise more.
• Drink less wine, but better wine.
• Eat less chocolate.

Catch us up on your pet peeves and Dos + Don’ts. I bet you’ve got plenty of them, because we do.

In closing, I’ll leave you with these words of Eleanor Roosevelt, once again, “Do one thing every day that scares you!”