Now that the holidays are over, that means no more sleeping until 10am, no more going to bed when I want to, and no more just lounging around. Wednesday, school starts for my daughter and it’s back to 6am days and 10PM nights. I savored EVERY day down to the second and the holiday break gave me life!

But, now it’s time to return to what I do, which also includes school. The start of the new semester is bittersweet for me. I’m ready to get it started and finished but at the same time, I can do without algorithms, c++, php, and all of the math. I must say, it is a bit easier to swallow if I’d just keep reminding myself that I’m a senior. Although I’m not a graduating senior, I’m pretty close to receiving my BA is Computer Science, Information Systems. I’m not sure how long I’ll be in school and to be honest, I’ve stopped focusing so much on that. I have enough going on–I don’t need the unnecessary stress of finishing school within 4-5 years.

As far as my goals for this year, I’ve narrowed them down to three:

• Live
• Laugh
• Love

And that basically sums up what I lacked for the most part of last year. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely didn’t have a bad year, but I spent a lot of the year worrying about things, not having any fun of my own, and partly losing myself in what I began to believe I should only do–be a mother, be a student, and be an employee.

Now, I plan to be among those who live, laugh, and love. Moreover, I plan to be that person who lives, laughs, and loves.

After today, I’ll have 4 sets of keys. I spent two hours looking for my car&house keys so I could take the children to school and so I can go to school. Needless to say, that didn’t happen this morning. My house is literally in shambles and it resembles nothing short of a pig’s sty. Who do I have to thank for my frustration this morning? No one other than my 1-year old son.

Have you ever found yourself at the mercy of a toddler? Imagine my agony while trying to plead with my 1-year-old to try and remember where he put Mommy’s keys. The problem wasn’t getting him to answer; rather, it was getting him to explain to me what he meant by “over there!”

“Over there!” meant the trash. So, here I am, sifting through dirty diapers, food containers, soda cans and the like. They weren’t in there and at this point, I’m so frustrated because now I’m almost late for work. It took a while for the idea to check ALL of the trash cans in my home, to register in my head. And what do you know? The keys were in the kitchen’s trash can.

I learned two valuable lessons today: make extra sets of keys and hang them in high places.