Wrapping up

(my oatmeal. Topped with cinnamon and a pack of trek mix from Trader Joes. Carbs and protein and some fat to keep my day moving. Yum!)

The kids just scrambled out the door, 2 weeks off and it’s as if there were no break at all. The big difference? They each at least had something to eat, either in hand or in belly, before disappearing through the front door in a haze of gloves and scarves and not enough layers.

It is one of my goals for 2014, to provide them with breakfast each school morning. Sounds like I’ve been failing on a basic parent front, right? “Really, Nica? No breakfast?” I’m one of the recent breakfast converts, though, and I completely understand the inability to eat something when you’ve just gotten vertical after not enough sleep. My other reason? Frankly, it’s their responsibility to feed themselves. There is always enough food in the house. I make dinner every night, bake bread for their lunch sandwiches. I lose patience with making food they don’t want to eat (which is why they both make their own lunches and have since they were 5.) But . . . I need want to provide something nourishing in the morning for my growing children, so I asked them what they wanted.

“Bacon,” said Julian.

Uh huh.

“Oatmeal,” said Maddie. “And pancakes.”

Eat carbs much?

Fine. If they’ll eat, on the run or sitting down or somewhere in between? I’ll get it sorted out.

This morning there was bacon and oatmeal (steel-cut oats, thank you.) Julian scarfed 3 pieces of bacon in between putting socks and shoes on; Maddie took a “go” container of oatmeal doctored with plenty of maple crunch and brown sugar. Jeremy and I each had a more leisurely bowl of oatmeal, and I’m left with a sinkful of dishes and a fairly content feeling inside.

What does this have to do with wrapping up?

I like finishing a year with reflection and goal-setting. I try to learn from what didn’t go well and work to move forward, whatever that looks like. My forward might not be someone else’s – I don’t particularly care.

Part of my wrap up is making a video of all the places I worked out in the past year, and people I worked out with.  I don’t get them all, of course, but I get pretty close. After a season of eating too much and maybe not exercising as intensely as I might, it feels good to realize just how consistent I am in general.

I wrapped up 2013 in a pretty bow, and I get to unpack it in 2014 and be delighted all over again. Badass.