happy old year, happy new year

happy new year, my friends!

here? no resolutions.

i usually wait until my birthday in twelve days to come up with some hopes for the year.

how about you? do you make resolutions? do you keep them?

i do wish i had more self control; maybe that's why even though i try to post one picture from each month i end up posting like 3478 of them. sorry. you can skip these jaunts down memory lane if you prefer. here's a peek back at june.

my delightful four and a half year old just threw the most incredible temper tantrum this morning, all aimed at her mama, ahem- me. 

so i am enjoying these glimpses of peaceful and joyful moments, all of which were peppered with the realities of meltdowns then, too, i just don't always post those on the blog. but they are very, very real. i promise. my children are just as human as yours, as am i. whether that falls under the temper tantrum category or the messy house/piles of laundry/parenting fail category. 

i've been trying to explain to my children why everyone is saying 'happy new year'. how do you explain a new year when in so many ways it seems exactly the same? 

but we celebrate every year, don't we? we breathe in the potential, the hope, the belief that goodness will come. that we will be better, that our own grass will be greener, that the places that are broken will be healed, that this new year will be full of new chances.

so, here is to looking back at where we have been (i'm talking to you, june) and looking forward to what is possible in these next twelve months (i'm talking to you for one, self control).