Do What You Love

My New Year's resolution: "Do What You Love."

I think this pretty much sums up everything. I want to spend more/most of my time with family and friends. I want to write. I want to mother. I want to make the world a better place.

Isn't it simple? Doesn't it sound lovely? Do what you love, kids. This life only comes around once. We have to take control of our own happiness, and what better way to do that than to do what I love?

Luckily, most of what I love is pretty wholesome and moral. I'm a lover and a camper and a cleaner. I am one of those lucky ones that really loves to parent. I love the written word. I love a good meal.

And so, today, I am going to savor the fact that I got to sleep in with my love, dating-style. I get to shop a bit with my momma, kid-free. And then I get to pick up my kids, wish them a happy new year and give them high-fives.

Confession: Yesterday, Shrek and I took Lily and Max to see Tangled in 3-D, and I cried, like, three times. I really, truly, thoroughly enjoyed it! Lily sat beside me in her nerdy 3-D glasses and laughed and laughed. She was absolutely riveted by the movie, and I was riveted by her. At one point, the entire theater seemed to be full of lighted, floating lanterns, and, when my seven-year-old baby girl reached out to lift one up, I cried.

And so, it's moments like these that I will seek to find. I will savor and love and nurture and cultivate; I will grow the flowers of people I want to see more of in this world.

And, as if all of this isn't enough, I will bring a final Roberts babe into the world in a matter of weeks. With hard work, luck and discipline, he'll join his siblings in the light, in being a good person when being a good person is hard to do. He'll be gorgeous and sweet, and I am so honored that I'll be his momma.

Happy 2011 to all of you. Let's walk in the sunshine together....