At Home With Dot

Once upon a time... There was a boy that went to college. He lived in the dorms. One day a girl walked into his dorm room and said "Hello." After that, she never walked out of his life.  They actually did a lot of walking together...they walked to class, walked to dinner and walked after dinner. Sometimes the boy would eat ice cream after dinner and he would eat it really loud. That sometimes bothered the girl. BUT she loved him anyway.  When they were about to finish their first degrees at college, the boy asked the girl to marry him. She said yes. They were happy. Several months later, they were married and lived in a little apartment while the boy worked hard at school getting his credential and finally a Masters degree in History. He was so smart. He eventually landed his career in school district finance and budgeting.  One day they decided to celebrate their love and flew across the ocean to Paris. They had a lovely time ...

I'm really not a fan of new year resolutions because, honestly, two months into the year I've either completely walked away from the idea OR just plain forgot what I even resolved to do. So, when a good friend of mine "subtly" kept nudging me to choose JUST a word for the year, I was intrigued and decided to take on the challenge of choosing a word AND bringing my whole family along with me. When presenting the idea to the kids, at first they didn't understand. "Pick a word? Why?" So, in simple terms I explained that the word chosen would be something to help guide them in their actions, behavior or decisions throughout the year. The word would serve as a reminder when you work, play and relate to others. A light popped on and my oldest immediately says, "video games. I want my word to be video games." Not wanting to discourage his process of "choosing a word challenge," I asked him a question: "What do you like about vi...