It's Already 2.2012

Like I said in last week's post, I've been on an unscheduled hiatus from my blog the past two months. From the time I get up in the morning to the time I go to bed I feel like I don't stop moving. Between getting both kids and ourselves ready for school / work, the time it takes to drop off / pickup, regular house stuff (like cleaning, making dinners, and paying bills) added to the increased work load at work and managing to pump / breastfeed on top of all that, I've had little time to blog.

Happily now things have "sort of" slowed down at work and I can get a few posts in here and there. I'm going to start back slowly; no promises or commitments for thrice a week postings; and I'll also be spreading out the content so that I have more time to write them on a more manageable schedule.


So what else have I been up to in 2012? Well, trying to get my work-life balance in order mostly. So I started 2012 like so many others do: with a resolution. That resolution was to make a list of resolutions really; one for each month. But I knew for me these resolutions had to be realistic, doable, and still make me feel accomplished at the end of the year. Important to note that this was the list. Laminated and finalized; no adding other resolutions (like "blog regularly" or "host a game night once a month") and over-stretching myself. Now of course I can do those other things, but my commitment is to do these things by the end of the year, without setting myself up to fail with other 'distractions'.

In January I decided to re-add flossing to my daily routine. Its one of those on-again, off-again things I got lazy with, and (TMI) during my pregnancies I had some pregnancy gingivitis. But from what I've been told, dental health can pay huge dividends in other areas of your health (and later on save you money!).

We also bought tickets for two different concerts (one coming up in March and the other in May). Concerts just didn't seem like all that much fun while I was pregnant so we haven't been to one in a few years!

Here's the others:

• Run a 5K (another thing I missed while pregnant)
• Learn to cook (to save money and get healthy!)
• Clean the attic (get organized... this is our #1 junk spot in our house)
• Get my cleaning plan together (eventually leading to less stress, live in a healthier environment, feel organized and let us have people over anytime!)
• Backup all my photos on DVD & create at least two albums (get organized)
• Learn to use my camera (have fun)
• Figure out how to "give back" more (have fun)
• Take a real vacation (have fun)
• Write a will (this one will stress me out until we do it)
• Rid myself of all the clothes that don't fit or make me feel good (enough said)

For me the over-arching goals of "have more fun", "get healthier", "stress less", "get organized", "save money" aren't realistic. However, I feel I can work towards them by setting smaller goals that "roll into" those bigger visions. I also wanted something to remind me of my goals throughout the year. And because it was fun to me, I made a mixed-font word-map with my resolutions in mind. This is on my refrigerator now. I love it.