Most of her adult life has been lived in public, so Kathy usually has a yearly resolutions post.
Let’s take a look back at them, shall we?
In 2008, Kathy was all about trying to create less waste, support local and environmentally friendly business, and use less electricity:
Here are some things the husband and I are working on:
- We have started to use our nice cloth napkins (for a few days – unless they get really gross!) instead of paper ones at meals.
- We’re committed to taking our re-usable bags to the grocery store every week.
- We switched our banking bills to e-bills to save paper.
- We always keep our heat off when we’re gone and turned waaaaay down at night. We bought a programmable thermostat.
- We only drink bottled water in emergencies.
- We walk whenever we can, seriously.
- We use washable tupperware when we can instead of plastic bags.
- We recycle more than we throw away each week.
Some things we need to keep working on:
- Use less electricity.
- Keep up our compost. We really only compost big things like huge squash skins and watermelon rinds.
- Be smarter about buying organic food (when appropriate) and shopping at the Farmer’s Market when it opens in the spring to support local farmers. (My favorite grocery store, EarthFare, actually sells a lot of local produce, so that helps when we can’t get to the farmer’s market).
- Make an effort to support companies and buy products that are environmentally friendly, etc.
- BORROW, don’t BUY books! Use the library! (We both prefer to read books we own, which I know is totally stupid and a waste of money and trees!)
In December, 2008*, she wrote,
I love the arts and don’t get to as many performances as I wish I could because of the cost, but going to see more community theater is a New Year’s resolution of mine. And I am thinking about auditioning for a summer musical if my schedule allows!
Looks like that didn’t happen, thank goodness.**
And after her birthday in 2009, she went to yoga and resolved to lose a few pounds:
I just started a new year of life and made a few new year’s resolutions as I flowed. I reflected on year 26 and how I approached my healthy habits. During the past year I’ve really embraced intuitive eating. I eat whatever I want. That includes both sides of the spectrum – salads and oatmeal and beer and chocolate. I love exercise as much as I love frosting. I make choices based on how things will make me feel. I try to live with no regrets.
However, I feel like there is still a piece missing to the puzzle. As evident from both my clothing and my reflection in the mirror, I’ve put somewhere between 3 and 10 pounds. I’ve asked myself is it worth it to be able to eat whatever I want and be a little heavier. The answer> is yes, it is. But on the other hand, it would be so easy to just tone down the partying a little and molt out of those party pounds. I’m not unhappy with my body, but I’m not as happy as I used to be.
I have no plan for changing anything moving forward to year 27. I’m just going to go with the flow with the mindset of living lighter. If anything I just need to drink less alcohol and keep my hand out of my dark chocolate drawer. And not have a birthday for another year
In 2011, she decided to stop fucking around on the computer:
2011
Kathy decided she was perfect in 2012. She’d just discovered she was pregnant, and was celebrating with bikini photos and mocktails in Jamaica:
I have no resolutions for 2012. I make resolutions when I wake up every morning!
2011 was one rockin’ year and I hope 2012 will be too.
In 2013, Kathy made sushi and curled her hair for New Year’s Eve. Okay, the sushi was falling apart and so were her curls, but she was clearly a superwoman who was on top of everything.
In 2014, Kathy’s list was full of things she looked forward to doing for her family’s home, with and for her husband and her son, along with a trip with her friends, all decorated with pretty wretched emojis (why does “preschool” warrant one that looks like a Windows OS box?):
On Friday, Kathy begins 2015 with a post of reminders for each of the months ahead…. none of which include any photograph of anyone aside from herself and her toddler. She talks about a possible second baby — but mentions not a word about Bath Matt’s birthday this month, their 8th anniversary in June, or any kind of “getaway” shared with anyone.
• January and February: Kathy needs to “get rid of the winter blues that come this time of year.” She slowly gets less and less relatable with the rest of her suggestions. She recommends listening to “summery music,” going on “a brisk walk,” eating kale and drinking “fresh green juice” instead of numbing herself to the tedium of her life with “cocktail hour.”
Okay. What else? She also orders herself to buy a sled, because —
If you’re knee deep in snow, make sure it involves some sledding.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a woman in her 30s prodding herself to get out and relive the joys of sledding, especially a woman with a child with a man she fell in love with while sledding during winter break in their freshman year of college. From Kathy’s engagement story on The Knot:
They spent the whole night sledding down the hills of what would be their rehearsal dinner location. The night ended with a kiss, and a romance unveiled. Matt taught Katherine to play the guitar, they finished reading Lord of the Rings, and spent hours talking about every subject imaginable to find that they wanted similar things out of life.
But in Kathy’s world, re-introducing herself, and no one else, to the fun of winter, is something she’s been whining about for years, with no mention of her old sledding partner….aside from when she roped him into having “The Bears” go sledding in their driveway:
She also commands herself to indulge by using her gym’s heated pool and hot tub and going to the hot vinyasa class she’s been “dying to try” (read: waiting to be offered to attend, free-of-charge, on a day that aligns with her child’s preschool schedule, no doubt).
These are all lame substitutions for what Kathy really needs, by the way:
the best thing for the winter blah’s [sic] is …. a vacation to to the tropics.
Because she hasn’t had one of those since…. 96 hours ago.
• March: Kathy is maybe gonna run the Charlottesville 10-Miler, which is scheduled for March 21, and includes a photo of Kathy’s Garmin Forerunner 305, which she once wrote “changed the way [she] ran” and “live[d] on [her] stroller handlebars” before it disappeared. Kathy tells herself:
Take the pressure off. You are not going to run as fast as you did in 2010. Too much in your life has changed. Instead focus on the friends you have trained with and the high you’ll get at the end of the race (even if it takes you 2 hours+!)
She might want to focus on a bit more than that, as taking more than 2.5 hours to run the course isn’t allowed:
• April: With a photo of her pushing Toddler Carbz to go down a step at a playground, Kathy uses this note to herself to remind herself to ride her bike, play outside with her child, and to re-strap herself into her lime green fitness shackle:
If you’re not still wearing your Jawbone, get it back out and start up your warm-weather walking.
• May, June, & July: Kathy knows she’ll be spending most of the summer faffing about on the beaches of North Carolina and Virginia, as she did in the previous year — all year, really — so she reminds herself to “feel awesome” for “bathing suit season,” to eat all the fruit salad, smoothies, and berries she can, and to “REALLY unplug” at Bald Head Island — with a photo of some produce on a lawn, another of a paperback book, and a third of her and her child on the beach. She writes:
This is your favorite vacation of the year and you don’t need your phone on the beach! Blog comments can wait. Emails are not that urgent. Take a paper book instead and get in a good novel.
• August: This month brings with it a photo of Kathy with Newborn Carbz, as well as the possibility that Kathy “could be pregnant,” which means — joy? Excitement? More like an extra dose of martyrdom:
If you are [pregnant], do your best to put your feet up a bit. You might never get the chance again. Your blog friends will understand if you can’t get a post up everyday. If you’re incredibly nauseous [sic] this time, I am so sorry. Remember juice puts you back to sleep at night, and those stretches Jen taught you work wonders. And if you’re not ready to have another baby (or making one has proved a challenge the second time through) try to relax. There is no ideal timeline for spacing kids, and it will happen when the time is right.
Her commenters are pleased about the news:
• September: With a photo of her child alone on a walkway at the beach. Kathy reminds herself that he’ll be turning 3 and, while it’ll be hard to top his chilly Mason Jar-themed first birthday and second birthday party sponsored by cheap inflatable dinosaurs and plastic cups from China, that she should spend at least a few minutes thinking about what he likes:
Are you doing everything you can to nurture him? Take some time to reflect on the past 3 years and plan some activities for his birthday month to make it extra special.
Or maybe a “birthday month” just means she can treat herself to more cake.
• October: To go along with the cheerful picture of her and Toddler Carbz in costumes for Halloween, Kathy…. literally has to give herself a pep talk for enduring what’s usually her favorite birthday-cake-and-pumpkin-beer-filled month. What’s wrong, Kathypants?
I know you don’t love odd numbers, but turning 33 is kind of fun because of the double digits!
She also tells herself to lay off the pumpkin beer this year, making it sound like her 32nd birthday party with 17 kinds of pumpkin beer might have been a bit much. Also, that she might “have to abstain anyways” if she’s knocked up. Thanks, Not-Yet-Inconvenient Second Baby — maybe your nickname can be “Antabuse.”
• November: This month’s to-do item is to donate clothing she hasn’t worn “all summer or fall,” and I’m sure it has nothing to do with the endless stream of subscription-plan clothing, accessories, and jewelry coming into Kathy’s house. There’s a photo of her shirts pushed over to the side of her closet to accompany it.
Long gone are the days of Kathy’s third bedroom, a.k.a. the “Queen Room,” which she used entirely as a closet for herself. (Not joking.)
She also plans to “declutter” so that she can “surround [herself] with the items [she] truly love[s].” Aluminum branches and gold chevron dishes from Pottery Barn for days!
• December: As in October, Kathy will be trying to stay away from the spiked egg nog. She posts a photo of two glasses of wine and a plate of crackers, and writes:
….remember how amazing you felt after Meg + John’s party last year? That’s called being mindful and it was a good example of how focusing on how you FEEL is what’s most important.
That’s one explanation, anyway. The other is that Kathy heard “butterscotch” when one of her hosts said “partyflocks.”
Not exactly dinner mints.
Also in December, Kathy will be trying to do her holiday shopping, “party gift buying,” Christmas card “writing,” and “meal planning” as early as possible. Part of this involves pawning off some of her gift duties on her then-3-year-old:
Next year: have Mazen make homemade crafty gifts for his grandparents!
Hopefully, all her early holiday preparations will mean she can court Williams Sonoma for a new table runner, sweet talk Campbell’s into sending her something to put in her empty silver gravy boat, and find a second disgusting swiss chard recipe she can pretend is stuffing all before Thanksgiving, so that she “can sit back and relax and enjoy the season.”
I guess there’s just one problem with having a great year sledding and exercising and eating berries all by herself — her Scooba mop robot and her Moto X better be ready to take all the photos.
* Also in that post? This weirdness:
I can totally tell that chemicals are making me feel so cranky – some kind of anger chemicals in my blood related to anxiety/stress over [a stove delivery problem], or perhaps PMS? Either way, I can tell something’s not right up there in an out-of-body observation kind of way. I’m just not myself. So sorry to be so melodramatic about this – blame the chemicals!
** Although, man, it would be a hoot to imagine Kathy tagging along with the theater kids to a midnight “Rocky Horror” showing. She’d totally offer to bring the toast, but it wouldn’t be toasted, and she would spend the whole night with her eyebrows raised so high the lipstick V on her forehead would paint her roots red.