2014 Goals Update

It is time to do a quarterly update of my goals for this year. I have been reading over them and thinking to myself, 'Wow, I had no idea what this third trimester was going to hold.'

Lets just get right into it.

One: Enjoy the last trimester of this pregnancy

Well, that was ambitious of me! My body feels like I am falling apart and my left leg has started to drag. Isn't pregnancy glamorous! I have read some from others about how much they love these nine months, to watch their body change, bond with the baby, on and on. I feel bad every time I read one of these because I can not wait for it to be over. I would rather sleep in my own bed, instead of the recliner, and be sleep deprived, changing diapers then be pregnant for another 3 1/2 weeks. I was, however, able to make an afghan for Lady #2 and am super excited to wrap her up in it. Another thing I have loved to think about is that Lady A will soon be a big sister and that she will have a sister. My sister and I could not be more different but I love that I had her to talk to while we were growing up and now that we are older our bond is stronger. I recently saw a quote that went something like 'Because I have a sister I will always have a friend.' I could not agree more and am so excited for our little girls to have each other.

Two: Develop a routine

We have a pretty good routine going. We live in a small community but there are a lot of families and a lot of activities centered around toddlers and family. There is the library, we live between two so we are able to visit both some times, the community center, a group of women from church and a day to do grocery shopping when dad can come with us in the mornings. Right now we are really enjoying having so many places to go so Lady A can play with other kids and I can supervise. The thought of getting down on the floor makes my hips shiver in pain, so this schedule is a win-win!!

Three: Date Nights with Paul

I feel like I am eating my words a little on this one. I really wanted to start doing a regular date night and you know from my original post that Paul's idea of date night is renting a movie and half of the time falling asleep on the sofa. Well, that has now turned into my date night idea during this third trimester. In February when his show opened I took the time to get ready, the whole nine yards, by the time I was done I was worn out and ready for bed, not to go out for hours and mingle. I am glad I did, his design was awesome and it was great to visit with the cast and crew.

We will continue to work on date night but for now, I am feeling fine with a movie night for our dates.

Four: Be mostly packed and ready to move before Little Sister comes in April

Maybe I was feeling a little ambitious when I wrote out my goals for this year. With Lady A the third trimester was the best. I finally got over the morning sickness and did not need any pills to help. That has not been the case this time. I have slowly been packing up boxes but am not as far as I would like to be since I can not lift too much, bend or hunch and run out of energy so fast. Once I get a box packed it sits right where I had it until Paul has time to move them for us.

Five: Family History

This one is mostly for myself right now. I love looking into where my family came from and it has been even more meaningful now that I have two girls to pass it all onto. I have a family member who has a bit of a rough past {we have have ancestors or even family now like that} but I am finding that the older generations do not like to talk about those things and a lot is lost when people pass away. Once I was putting together a video for my Grandpa and Grandma's 80th birthdays, they are just weeks apart, and so I needed to get photos. My Grandpa is a private man and I really thought I had seen all the photos he had {there were about 12} but I felt like I should ask him again. I can not stress to you how nervous I was because I did not want to offend him but I live by my moms motto 'If you never ask, you'll never know.!' Turns out he had an old chest full of photos and not just photos, there were letters, other papers and a hand written journal from my dads Great-Grandma. My dad Loved his Gram and was so excited to see and read a journal written in her own hand. 

I have slowly been keeping up on my family history and sharing it with those in my family who are interested. It will be a few months until I can fully spread out and delve deep into it but for now I am happy with the progress I have made this year in organizing everything and getting copies to those who want it.

Review

It looks like I have some work to do still and luckily there are nine months left in this year. These next few months are going to be super busy with all of the changes coming up for our family but I am sure I can keep up on my personal goals, this could only help this time go smoothly. Right!?!

2014 Goals

This past year has been great! Nothing too major in the way of good or bad but just a simple and quiet year. This year we will have a lot of changes coming our way: baby sister comes in April, Paul will graduate in May, and one or two moves {depending on how work goes for the summer}. With one chapter of our lives closing and the next one opening there is a lot that I need to prepare and things that I want to do to help strengthen our little family.

Right now, with feeling so blah from this pregnancy, there are a lot of things I have let slip: myself, bills, play time with Lady A, chores...just to name a few. This year there are a few goals I want to work on that will help myself individually, strengthen our family and make our home a haven. I have come up with a list of goals that will help. This will also make our lives so much easier as we prepare for some major changes that will all be happening almost at the same time.

One: Enjoy the last trimester of this pregnancy

I get really sick with being pregnant. With Lady A I lost quite a bit of weight and it wasn't until the third trimester that I was able to start putting it back on. My Dr.'s were not too worried about my health or the health of the baby because I started with some extra weight. This time there is a new pill out that I have been using because the Zofran was not doing much other then giving me a bunch of side effects that I was having to deal with and take more pills for. This new Rx is have been great, not perfect but much better. The only down side is the one side effect that seems to be hitting me......drowsiness. There have been a number of days that I will sleep 14 hours or more. To help me enjoy the third trimester more I want to take time to bond with Baby #2 and something that helped me with Lady A was I spent time making her baby quilt. Getting out more and being more active {on those few warmer days during the winter} will help me appreciate my body and miracle #2, that took so long to get, otherwise I'll spend all my time inside just waiting for these nine months to pass.

Two: Develop a routine

One of the things I have noticed about my sister with her older kids and my sister-in-law with her toddler and baby is that they all have a routine, a good schedule. I know a routine is not for everyone but I think that is a big key to what can help in our home right now. My main problem is that I look at something that needs to get done and think, 'I have all day to do that' or ' I can do that this weekend.' There is no real schedule or time table that is being demanded of me, like school or going to work.

Well, it is time to fix all of that,  I need to demand it from myself.

I love having Paul home for the winter break especially because now I can take naps in the middle of the day and not have to worry because he is here and able to spend time with Lady A. It has been great to be able to spend more time with him, his semesters are so demanding and there will be weeks that Lady A won't see him. Having him around so much has made us a bit lazy especially when it comes to nap time and bedtime. We need to get a daily and weekly routine set up. This will include nap time and bedtime, bills, cleaning and a little me time. I love being a mom but I still need time to do a something for myself, whether it is just getting ready for the day {this will help with enjoying the 3rd trimester too}, working on a project or simply taking some time to read.

Three: Date Nights with Paul

As I have said, Paul's semesters are pretty demanding and he is gone a lot at night. This final semester is not going to get an easier. He has his thesis show that opens the end of February and then has to put his thesis paper together, we will be moving after baby number two arrives and he graduates. But it is important that we work on our relationship too so now he is going to have to squeez in date night....and I told him that just renting a movie doesn't count, we have to interact, but I know great things will come from it. There are a lot of girls in the theatre department who love to babysit for us so there is no reason to not get out of the house. Now to come up with some fun date nights!!!

Four: Be mostly packed and ready to move before Little Sister comes in April

This one is going to take some work, a good schedule and focus. I don't really want to count how many times we have moved since we have been married, if anything it helps with clutter because if I collect it I have to move it and I would rather not. The hard part is that I also love to have my "stuff" available to me if the mood should strike and I want to sew, paint, crotchet, etc. In a previous post you can see that I have already come up with my packing and labeling system. I have also started working on ways to get the apartment ready for when we leave. Check out how I have prepared the stove for easy cleaning when the end comes.

Five: Family History

One hobby that I love to do is family History. Growing up I loved doing puzzles, and geneology is a huge family puzzle. It is more than just putting names down and going back as far as you can, my real love comes from the stories and photos, getting to know my ancestors. It has been some time scence I have really delved into this, partly because of moving so often and not having a place to set it up and leave it so I can come back to it, even when I might only have 10 minutes or so. I have to take the time now and ask my Grandpas all my questions before it is too late.

There it is. Organize. Routine. Family.

Here is to a great 2014!!!

What goals or resolutions do you have for this year? Do you have any tips on what could help with my goals? I would love to hear them.

Creating A New Me

Here we are at the beginning of another year. My daughter is now 14 months old and I have not met my goal to keep the weight off, instead I have been very successful at putting all the weight back on. With the beginning of a new year I want to 'create' a new me. I want to get back down to a comfortable size for me,  there is a number that I would like to get to but we'll see, I just want to be comfortable in my own skin.

With putting this out there for all of you to see I am hoping that I will have friends to help keep me accountable and on track. If any of you would like to join me I would love to have company.

The new me is going to need a new routine. A new diet along with exercise and other life style changes will be the focus. I need something that will work with me and what is going on with my life. This means that there won't be any extreme changes but things that I can stick with and continue to use. I'm sure there will also be a lot of trial, things that work and those things that won't but the goal is to find what will work for me.

I think I'll start with my eating habits first. Abigail has a really good diet but that is because I am in charge of it, now I just need to be as good with my own eating habits. Bigger meals for breakfast and lunch to give me more energy during the day and smaller servings for dinner, evening is the least active part of the day for me so there is no need for huge portions.

If you have any suggestions on things that have worked for you, please share. I would love to know what worked for you and try it for myself.

A friend suggested two aps for me that would help keep track of the calories for what/how much I eat. These two also keep track of calories burned as well. I have used both and find them addicting once a part of my everyday routine.

On your smart phone or tablet check out MyFitnessPal and Lose It!

What are some of your New Years goals? Can we work on them together?

10 Goals for 10.10.10

I put this post on our personal blog but because so many of the goals had to do with creating and crafting I decided to post it here as well.

Paul pointed out to me that it is 10.10.10. At the beginning of the year we were a bit slow to come up with goals for this year so to make up for that I am going to list ten {10} goals that I want to complete before the end of 2010. Lists always help me keep track of everything so here is my list.

~ Loose weight. I never really struggled with weight or trying to look like the Hollywood now girl but it is something I have caught myself thinking more of now, since I've been married {Paul loves big meals and I never wanted anything to go to waste, so I ate it and it all went to my waste}. I have a certain goal in mind but I have never tried to loose weight so I don't know how my body will react to it. For now I will leave this one at "loose some weight" and it could carry into next year.

~ Finish my projects. I'm sure I could go around the house counting all the projects that I need to finish {that number could be pretty high}. Instead I will list a few off the top of my head that I really do want to finish by the end of the year and before we move.

Window Treatments
Table Runner
Picture Collage
Homemade Christmas Gifts

~ Read the Book of Mormon. This is the Virtue Project for the YW's Personal Progress and it would just be a good one to do.
~ Clean the Fridge. This serves double duty because it needs to be done and I will have to do it since we will be moving shortly as well.
~ Continue Attending the Temple. We set a goal for our Temple attendance earlier this year and have been able to make it and I want to continue with that.
~ Sort through my closet. I'll leave this one until closer to the end. If I loose the weight I want to then I will get to keep a lot of these items. Wink, Wink!!
~ Finish my Personal Progress. I started it with my YW and want to finish it here with them even though I have been released.
~ DI and De-junk. We have a constant DI box so that we can put stuff in it as we go. I really need to do this with all the stuff we have in the spare room/office/craft space {one room...many purposes}.
~ Meal Planning. We have food storage items that I would rather use then toss out or have to pack and take with us when it is time to move. I want to plan our meals so that we can use up as much of it as possible. This will take some creative meal planning and patience to use it all.
~ Levi Quilt. I'm not including this with "finish projects" because I haven't actually started it. I made one for a great friend of mine as a wedding present and didn't want to give it away when I finished it. I loved the flannel on the back that made it so nice and soft and how wonderfully sturdy and heavy it was since it was made out of jeans. Fantastic to curl up in. I have always wanted one for myself and it is time to get busy and make mine.

On Saturday my SIL and brother and their little girl came up so that she could take some family photos for us. She was wonderful enough to come up on such short notice. It was a lot of fun and she did a wonderful job.

Here is a sneak peak at the photos.Bentley LOVES Paul and Paul loves him right back!