I was working near Washington, DC this week and rode the Metro into town. Due to work on the line I was riding I had much time to sit and read the posters, and enjoy the pen and ink drawings, describing the new Google privacy stuff.

At one stop I was joined my a gaggle of college students. I'm not stereotyping. I know they were college students because I was one once. Long ago. In case you are worried I'll describe them. There were five of them: three women and two men and they were roughly 20 years of age. All of them were dressed casually but nice. All of them were texting, probably each other. Two of the women had large shopping bags from Georgetown Cupcakes. And like I said, they traveled in a pack.

So, college students. They were nice and polite and had various conversations with one another as we moved from station to station - or sat on the platforms waiting to move. The one of the women asked one of the guys, "What's a google?"
He replied, "You know. The search engine."
She rolled her eyes. "No, I mean. It means something. I know it has a definition I just can't remember what it is."
He looked at her like she was crazy. "Really? It's a word."
"Yeah. I think it means 'to search', but I can't remember."
This is where it becomes so hard for me to hold my tongue that I might have actually pierced it with one of my teeth. Of course it's a real word. Of course it means something. UGH. And did any of them with their phones that can text think to pull them out and Google it? NO!

Yeah, I know. The month is almost half over, but like most things recently it’s taking me a little more time than normal to get into the swing of things. One thing that I’ve already got a handle on is writing “2012”. That was an easy shift and probably the first time in my life when I didn’t have to train myself to change the digits as I moved my pen. Of course, I don’t use a pen much anymore – it’s the keyboard now a days.

For anyone who’s been when this blog for any length of time [Hi, Mom!] I have actually done resolutions in January each year. Sometimes I do them in September, too, as a back to school thing. This year I’m going to continue to put out there a few things that I’m working on.

This one won’t be a surprise since it comes up again, and again and again and again and – yes, you get the picture. Meal Planning. It’s been difficult since day one. It’s my nemesis. If there’s a method out there, I’ve tried it. Now, I’ve added another layer and so far it’s working for us. I hate that I have to kill an entire day but if that’s what it takes, so be it.

I’m going to continue to collect recipes/ pictures on Pinterest. I’m also using a Theme Night idea as part of our plan so that we have a chicken night, pasta night, crockpot night, etc. Then we sat down with a monthly calendar and planned out a month’s worth of menus – except for weekends. Why leave out two nights a week? Well, we wanted some flexibility and we wanted to plan for leftovers.

The weekends also allow me to do some baking because we’re not going to buy store bought bread. I use the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes aDay method so bread is pretty easy to make. Dump ingredients in a bucket, let it rise, put in pan, and bake. I’m testing out softer bread recipes for school lunches – especially since Comfort has lost so many teeth and has a hard time chewing. So far the buttermilk bread recipe is working for us pretty well. I love the idea that our bread won’t have preservatives in it and I can just whip it up in my own bucket!

There’s more to come but it’ll have to wait. What are your plans for the New Year? Are you embarking on a new plan or just pushing yourself to stay on track?