I can use malfeasance in a sentence

Today at church I looked over at my two oldest boys and discovered that the 13 year old had drawn a beard and a curly mustache on the face of the 7 year old with an ink pen. Clark was trying to keep a straight face while I mouthed "I'm not amused" in my fiercest angry mother whisper. I pondered, for a moment, whether I should make the 7 year old wear it to school the next day as a punishment - after all, he was a willing participant in his older brother's mischief - but then decided against it. Not because I don't think that it would be a perfect consequence for his ridiculous actions, but because I can't honestly deny that I would probably be more embarrassed than he would. And besides, the 13 year old would get off scott-free for something that was undoubtedly his idea in the first place. To tell the truth, I thought the whole thing was pretty funny, but I figured with one parent laughing(Clark), they needed the other one to get mad for two reasons: 1)Just for general balance, and 2)So that this minor incident won't set a precedent for greater malfeasance in the future. (Yes, when you have boys, you can use words like malfeasance quite comfortably.) I can only imagine what new antics they would come up with if they knew that this little incident got a chuckle out of both Mom and Dad.

Thankfully we survived the glut of the Holidays. And when I say glut, I don't necessarily mean a lot of food(although there was that), but rather just a lot of time to laze around and not get anything done. A glut of time. There were a few trips to Rock Canyon park for sledding, and a day of skiing for Clark and me. And of course the few days before, during and after Christmas spent with family. Those were busy. But otherwise we just hung out a lot and did nothing. A little of that goes a long way. So welcome January! with it's endless stretch of pale winter light and dirty snow, and days upon days to hide indoors and work on those projects that are so easy to procrastinate during the fall holiday buildup.

So here's to the new year and all those resolutions that may or may not ever happen: the extra pounds that need to come off, the bad habits that ought to stop and all the good habits that never quite took hold. And boy, do I have a long list of those!