It’s a new year, and that means time to make New Year’s resolutions; which most likely are all just the things you wanted to achieve last year but didn’t get to. Seriously, who the heck came up with the idea of resolutions? Your life doesn’t change just because you flip the calendar. Yet, every year people will make ambitious, unrealistic resolutions that they inevitably won’t keep. That’s why this year I am resolving to not make resolutions. Instead, I will make casual promises to myself that I am under no legal obligation to fulfill! Here is a list of what I am casually promising to do in 2018.

1. I casually promise to…remember to write 2018 instead of 2017.
2. I casually promise to…stop hanging out with people who ask me what my New Year’s resolutions are.
3. I casually promise to…listen to opera in the car and to sing along loudly (and, of course, off key) in an Italian-sounding but totally made-up language (because, um, I don’t speak Italian) when driving my teens and their friends places just to get out of always having to drive (since my “listening to ’80s music” plan backfired on me when the kids declared it was “retro” and “cool”).
4. I casually promise to…stop texting my kids when they are just upstairs to tell them dinner is ready. Instead, I will go back to the old fashioned way – SCREAM IT!
5. I casually promise to…make a cheat sheet of all my passwords that should save me approximately 318 hours a year trying to remember them.
6. I casually promise to…stop nagging my husband – unless he forgets to do the tiny little thing I asked him to do three days ago but he still hasn’t done. Or he does something stupid or wrong or…
7. I casually promise to…ditto number 6, except with the kids!
8. I casually promise to…leave the past in the past – so if I owe you money, I’m sorry, but I am moving on!
9. I casually promise to…add DRINK COFFEE to my To-Do list every day. That way, I will always have something to check off and feel accomplished about.
10. I casually promise to…remember throughout the year whenever something bad happens that “this too shall pass.” It may feel like a kidney stone – but it will eventually pass!