With the beginning of every New Year, it is customary to find the time to sit and make a list of resolutions. Things we believe we should start doing to change our lives. New things to focus on, more crap to add to our already excessive list of things to do. Maybe this will be the year that we start exercising more or to finally get organized. Maybe we will make (and actually stick to) a cleaning schedule or vow to always have the laundry caught up.

We are under an immense amount of pressure to keep the house running, the kids alive, and our spouses happy. Constantly attempting to shove ten pounds of shit in a five pound sack. Like a rubber band (and that five pound sack), we can only stretch so far until eventually we break leaving behind quite a mess and a river of tears along combined with feelings of failure.

Screw that I say.

This year, why don’t we stop trying to change everything and start all over and instead just resolve to be better?

Be a better mother, a better wife, a better person. 

Maybe that does include becoming a little more organized or to exercise a little more, but it doesn’t mean you need to curl up into the fetal position in the corner crying about being a failure if you spend a day snuggled up on the couch eating popcorn and watching movies with a sick kiddo instead of running three painful miles on the treadmill.

Your family won’t pack up and leave if you skip laundry for a day (or three) in order to spend more time volunteering at your kids’ school. Besides, they wouldn’t even have anything clean to wear.

Your kids won’t form a coup and kick you out of the house if you hire a babysitter and have a date night with your husband, they don’t even have jobs to pay the bills (or the babysitter). 

At the end of the day it’s those moments that actually make us better people. The snuggles, the dates, the little moments that will pass us on by if we aren’t paying attention.

This year I resolve to not make a list of things I must do, but instead I just pledge to be better. To take in all the moments, to not sweat the small stuff, and to just be.  Be better. 

I hope you’ll join me.

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About the Author

Tara

Tara of You Know it Happens at Your House Too is the mother of five young kids, wife to one hard working farmer. She is the sometimes hilarious, sometimes serious, usually sarcastic writer of the amazingly popular (in her own mind) blog . In her free time she enjoys wiping butts and noses all while picking up Legos and Polly Pockets. If she ever had a moment to herself she would go pee, then relax with a nice, cheap glass (bottle) of wine and any movie starring Johnny Depp. She has completely forgotten what it is like to do anything alone. Tara lives in Kansas with her husband, Farmer Bob, and her five children. You can also find her ignoring her kids on and .