Here’s how breakfast went at my house this morning:

“Joooey,”  I screamed up the stairs and I frantically spread just peanut butter, no jelly onto crustless bread for his lunch.  “Five minutes to get dressed and get down here.”

He glugged down the stairs with a sigh, throwing his T-shirt on as he walked into the kitchen and sat down at the counter.  I tossed a banana at him.

He ate it.  Slllllllooooooooowwwwwly.  As I said “eat quickly”.  Over and over.  And over.  Toast was tossed on his plate.  And a heap of scrambled eggs.  And our entire conversation was a chorus of “hurry” and “eat faster” and “finish your eggs” and…well, I can imagine the poor boy was stressed by the time he went to school.

And, my goal for intentional conversations in January officially failed.

So, here’s what I’m doing tomorrow.

1. I’m going to call Joey down for breakfast 10 minutes earlier so I don’t have to rush him.  And, when I call him down, I’m going to be done with making his lunch, cleaning up the kitchen, etc. so I can focus on him and only him.
2. I’m going to sit down with him while he eats.
3. I’m going to have an intentional conversation with him… not just nag at him to eat fast.  Tomorrow I’m going to talk about his feelings at going back to school after three weeks off… and explain to him how I feel because truthfully, I’ve really enjoyed having him home and after one day, I’ve really missed him.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

What do you talk about at the breakfast table?

Last year, I was in survival mode.

I had a good excuse.  Make that excuses.  A new job.  A new book.  A new house.  A horrendous pregnancy.  A new baby. Sleepless nights.  Relationship struggles.

But excuses aside, I’m now realizing that I let things slide.  I let my relationships move to the back burner because I was so busy carpooling and sleep training and breastfeeding to notice.  I let my parenting slide because I was too exhausted to be intentional.  I let my writing slide because I was too busy to focus.

But this year, I’m going to change that.

This year, I’m going to be intentional.  As a parent.  As a wife.  As a writer.

And with that in mind, here are my blogging resolutions for this year.

1. I resolve to be real.  There are days that my life is a mess.  There are days that I yell at my kids when they don’t deserve it.  Days when my husband and I fight.  Days when I find myself sitting on the stairs with tears streaming down my face wondering how I’m going to manage even five more minutes.  But last year, I never blogged about those times.  Because for some reason, I felt like I had to portray myself as put together, sane, perfect.  As if the world would like me better if they thought I was the perfect mom, perfect housekeeper, perfect wife.  But it’s not true.  And this year, I want to be real.
2. I resolve to be intentional.  I’ve decided to focus on intentionality this year—which means I’m going to  intentionally focus on an intentional topic each month.  Sounds intentional, right?  It is!!  Glad you’re getting it. One caveat:  I haven’t figured out what I’m going to be intentional about each month… yet… but I promise to do so before each month begins.  For January, I’m going to be intentional in my conversations with my kids.  Which means instead of spending breakfast each day nagging my kids to eat quickly and finish their bananas, I’m going to engage them in conversation that (hopefully) will get them thinking, growing and learning.
3. I resolve to be a good blogging friend.  I’ve been horrible about this recently (see:  excuses).  I rarely visit any of y’alls blogs anymore and that’s a horrible, sad thing.  I love reading your thoughts, goals and stories—and I relish the camaraderie I have with other bloggers.  So, no more slacker blogger anymore!  This year, I’m going to be out there… and I’m going to be reading and commenting on what you have to say.

That’s it.  What are your blogging resolutions this year?