Inspiration

How is it that I am so uninspired to write some blog posts?

Writing every day (almost every day) is MUCH more difficult than I ever thought that it would be.  There are only so many interesting things that happen in my life.  About once per week I will have a day like today where I have ZERO idea what I am going to write about.  My husband would argue that it was more like one day a week where I do know what I am going to write about.  I will start about 5 different blogs and just leave them pending because I can't figure out how I am going to fill an entire blog post about how my children love milk. 

When I first started this blog I had a million different ideas.  Actually, I had a list of about 30 different ideas for posts that I could actually write about.  I had dreams of sitting down to write inspired blog posts and the words just flowing freely onto the page.  This has rarely happened for me.  I will admit that it is getting easy with the more posts that I write. 

I still don't have a super clean vision of where I want this blog to go.  I would love for this blog to turn into a place to share ideas, recipes, and interesting pages from the web.  I love the things that I have been able to document so far, the experiences that I have had and I appreciate the feedback, comments and love that has been shown so far from this blog. 

Thank you to everyone who reads so far!  Some interesting posts are coming up!!

-Sara

Something I'm too old for...

Sunday night I had to work a partial overnight shift in order to test an upgrade that was being performed on our system at work.  I have done many of these and rarely do they take so long and/or go so late into the night.  Because of the high profile nature of this upgrade, we agreed to perform the tasks from inside the office also instead of staying at home which meant that I had the commute of a normal work day after my shift.  The hour that it took me to drive home left me with some time to think.  I couldn't help but realize that it was only 3am and just a few short years ago I had voluntarily stayed up this late to party, drink, etc.  Now I was having difficulty keeping my eyes open. 

Thinking about this difference led me to realize that there is now a list of things that I am too old for. Shortly behind staying up late on the list is a spot for 'understanding teenagers'.  Granted I haven't been a teenager for more than 10 years but I don't remember being nearly as ridiculous back then.  I remember thinking that I was probably annoying to older people, but nothing like today.     

I am a stepmother to a 13 year old girl and a 15 year old boy from my husband's previous marriage.  Having teenagers allows me an unrestricted view of the weirdest world ever.  A world that includes descriptive words like 'scene',hair that I think is too long and pants that are too tight. 

When I was a teenager, boys wore pants that were loose.  I distinctly remember my vice principal at school taking rope and tying pants up of boys who decided to wear them too low during the school day.  Sometimes they were admittedly too loose or too low but that seems to now pale in comparison to what is happening now.   These days it has become cool for boys to wear pants that are SO tight that you can't help but think that they must be uncomfortable.  And apparently it's also cool, according to Target, for boys to wear bright neon colored skinny pants as well.  I don't think that seeing your chicken legs is cute in any stretch of the imagination.  I am too old to get that.   

Teenage females seem to have received the message that boys have the skinny pants thing down so they don't need to wear pants anymore.  Corry and I have been to the mall numerous times in the last few months and every time we go I am shocked and amazed at the amount of young girls wearing SHORT skirts, tights in lieu of pants, stripper high heels, or shorts that look like underwear.  Where are their parents?  I know that there is probably some of the 'I am going to change clothes at the mall' type of thing happening, but it seems too prevalent for that to be 100% what is going on here.  I don't think that young girls need to wear a burkah or anything like that but perhaps we, as a society, should educate our daughters that you can still wear clothes and be attractive.  Have we lost all need to preach some type of modesty to our kids?  This kind of behavior though is drilled into our heads since our children are babies.  We spent a few minutes today looking for a bathing suit top for Isabella today at Target.  We bought her a swim diaper there a few weeks ago so we just needed a swim shirt to go with it.  We are very picky about bathing suits.  I'm not a believer that you need a modesty suit or anything like that but I am not down with a string bikini (or a bikini at all for that matter) for a toddler.  Why does that need to happen?  Why does a toddler need a string bikini?  If you don't believe me that it happens, check out any baby section of any store.  I will save the over-sexualization rant of our children in this day and age for another day...

Next - I don't know what 'scene' is.  I don't know if it's describing a person's personality or their manner of dress.  I tried googling and got lost in a world of brightly colored hair and people who wear too many bracelets so I gave up.  I don't know when this word came about but I know that I am too old to understand what it means.  Based on how my teenager uses the word, I would imagine that it has something to do with a style of dress and keeping of your hair, etc.  He had hot pink hair when he was calling himself 'scene' . 

I want people to cut their hair.  This doesn't just apply to guys.  I don't have a lot of room to talk right now because Corry is currently trying to talk me into cutting like a foot off of my hair, but I digress...  There is nothing more agitating than trying to have a conversation with someone and they can't talk to you because they are too busy pushing their bangs out of their face or flicking their long unkempt hair around.  If that was my kids, I would shave part of their head in the middle of the night.  I am too old to think that is cool. 

I never would have thought that I would write anything like this.  As a young adult you have this view of the world and your impending aging like you are going to be 'cool' forever and that you are not going to age like your parents or other older people in your life.  I have come to the realization over the last year or so that I am more like my parents than I ever thought that I would be, and I appreciate them much more now than I ever have before.  I am a grown up and I would rather be the person that I am today, even if that is boring, than understand anything on this page. 

-Sara

Bonus day

So, my department at work participates in an annual bonus plan.  Today was payout day for that bonus!  And it was payday so it was like a double bonus.  I am grateful to work for such an amazing company that allows me to do something that I like to do and pays me for it even though I have very little past experience doing anything like this.  In this time of job uncertainty and very little job security, you will never catch me speaking ill of the company that I work for.   

This is the time of year that Corry and I evaluate what we have and what we need and/or want for the upcoming year that we might not be able to afford.  We also look at what we might want to do now that we have some spare cash laying around since we also just got our tax return back.  It seems like now that we have two kids there is always something on that list that is bigger and better than last year.  This year there are several new items on the list including gun(s) and ammo, car parts, etc.  One item missing from the list so far: something for me.

Corry explicitly told me this year to buy me something for myself.  I have the hardest time with this.  Why is it that, as parents, when we have children we develop this need to only buy things for our children?  When does that stop?  Or does it ever stop?  I know that I am not the only mother in the universe that buys things for my children instead of buying things for myself.  I am, of course, not talking about food, water, shelter, necessities, etc.  I can go to Target or to the mall with the intention to buy myself something and I will come out later with toys and clothes for both kids and nothing for me.  I don't intentionally not buy things for myself; it just seems more fun to buy stuff for my kids, I guess. 

Corry and I are very lucky that we make enough money between our two jobs to not only pay our bills and provide us the stuff that we need to survive but also keep us well stocked with items that we want.  Rarely do I have to think about a list of things that I want, and when I do I always end up drawing a blank.  This year we are blessed enough to get to do a lot of different new things: garden, join a camping group, etc.  I would like to round out this year and those items by re-learning how to buy things for myself and develop a healthy list of wants.  I think that it seems like the right thing to do to help me get back to feeling like "me" instead of feeling like just some one's mother.  Just typing that makes me feel selfish and judgmental, by the way. 

I know that I am not the only relatively new mother who has a hard time coming to terms with this new person that I have become after having kids.  Before I had my first child, I envisioned that I would stay like Me but I would just have a child.  That didn't happen.  The second that she was born I was a changed person.  I can't explain it really well, but everything was different.  I transitioned immediately into this new person whose every waking moment was consumed by this other living, breathing human and it was difficult to turn that part of my brain off enough to even sleep.  I went back to work after three-ish months of being home and a new transition began to the 'working mom' which is the person that I have been ever since.

 I have only recently determined that I really miss the person that I used to be.  I love my kids and I wouldn't change them for the world, but I wish that I would have known how to keep more of me along with this mother title that I adopted.  It seems like a lot harder to figure out how to get her back, but I would like to try and I feel like at least figuring out a list of things that I want for myself might help me to get part of the way there.  I am going to update a blog in about a month from now (hopefully) with a list of items that I would like for myself. 

Our cloth diaper journey: Types and our decision

It was definitely easier to decide to cloth diaper in the past because you didn't have near as many options as you have today.  It's easy to get overwhelmed in a sea of different options.  Snaps, velcro, and prefolds, oh my! There are three main decisions that you will eventually make as a cloth diapering parent: 1) Do I want my diapers to close via snaps or velcro? 2) Do I want my diapers by size or one-sized diapers? and 3) What type of diapers do I want to use? - prefolds & covers, AIO, AI2's, pockets, etc.  I will cover a brief overview below of each question and our decision about each. 

Do I want my diapers to close via snaps or velcro?
Ok, so in cloth diaper world it's called aplix or hook and loop, but it's velcro to the rest of the world.  I know that at first glance the lazy person in me was like 'Sign me up for the velcro, duh!' strictly because of perceived ease of use.  However, after a bit of reading I found mixed reviews and saw a lot of questionable pictures of the aplix after a certain amount of time and it looked seriously janky.  There were several instructional videos on how to replace the aplix but I knew that I wouldn't be interested in doing that.  There were a lot of good reviews on the snaps from any company that we researched and from what I read and saw on YouTube it looked easy to replace a snap should it break off or come loose.  We decided to go with a majority snaps and a few aplix diapers for when my parents watched Isabella or when we were feeling lazy at night times or something like that.   The picture at left is a BumGenius aplix diaper from http://www.fullcirclebaby.com .  I would have used one of our diapers as a model but we don't currently own any aplix diapers.  The diaper to the right is a Kawaii from http://theluvyourbaby.com - at any time at least a third of our stash has been a Kawaii diaper.   

Do I want my diapers by size or one-sized diapers?
This one seemed like a 'duh' moment as well!  Why would I choose to re-purchase my entire cloth diaper stash three or four times throughout my child's diaper years?  One sized diapers typically have two to three rows of snaps where you can control how tall/long the rise is, along with one or two rows of hip snaps.  They are usually advertised by the community as 'from birth to potty training'.  I have an issue with both ends of that spectrum because my kids have both had less chunkier thighs and just didn't work as a newborn in one sized diapers.  Also, the other day we tried to put a one size diaper on Isabella and at approximately 31lbs she had exhausted the limits of that diaper.  You can see how big the Kawaii goes in the picture above when none of the rise snaps are being used and this is the same diaper snapped all the way down: 

 

You can also look for some brands (not sure of the brand on this diaper or the site that we bought it from) that offer the cross over snaps to make the waist even smaller:



I am going to spend a sentence or two (or ten) on FuzziBunz in this section because I have some familiarity with their system.  FuzziBunz offers a unique (I don't know of many other systems that offer this - but I'm certainly not a cloth expert!) system in that instead of rise snaps they offer the user the ability to size the diaper by moving stationary buttons into different button holes on an elastic band placed inside of the diaper.  At first glance this seems daunting.  The elastic band has numbers on it near the holes and you have to get them sized correctly for your child in order for the fit to be correct and for the diaper to not leak.  The good news is that your child only has to sit still for this process one time and then you should be able to size your diapers the same as that one.  Once Silas gets too big for that one size I go in and just move the buttons up one hole and it seems to work out well.  In the pictures, the back elastic is being sized, but there are also elastic bands along the leg holes as well.  One sized FuzziBunz diapers seem trim to me on our son - these are my favorite diapers. 

 

 

Conversely, sized diapers are usually more trim than one sized diapers and offer some babies a better fit because they are based on weight.  You will also have to take into account though your babies thighs and waist to ensure that you are getting the proper fit.  Even though we were originally against a sized diaper we now have more than 5 of these in our stash.  They are convenient if you want to avoid the 'fluffy butt' that some diapers give the babies or if you need a more trim fit for something.  I like them but they definitely come in second to one sized diapers for me because you don't get as close of a fit with sized diapers, at least with my children.  You can see in the diaper below that there is no insert so the diaper is shaped a bit funny but a sized diaper only has the hip and waist snap rows and not the rise snaps.  This is a FuzziBunz size small.  My 23lb son can still wear this diaper comfortably. 

What type of diapers do I want to use?

• Prefolds are the typical cloth diaper that any lay person knows as a cloth diaper.  Most everyone has seen a prefold if you have seen those Gerber diapers.  These are usually flat white square pieces of material that you fold differently against your baby's skin depending on their age, gender and fit. You put these on your child, fix with a pin or Snappi and cover with some type of outer layer.  I know that some people don't use a pin or a Snappi but I don't know that I would feel comfortable with that unless the cover was tight.  This outer layer can be lanolized wool or a PUL cover.  There are other options I am sure, but I am most familiar with those two. 
• Pocket diapers are the most popular type of diaper, in my opinion.  They are in the same shape as a disposable diaper.  They have a microfiber, hemp, or other type of insert that fits inside of a pocket that opens in either the front or the back of the diaper.  These are easy to use and you can usually surprise a cloth diaper naysayer with one of these to show how easy a cloth diaper really is to use!  Our entire stash currently is pocket diapers with microfiber inserts. 
• AIO diapers have the insert built into the 'pocket' part of the diaper.  These are the easiest to use but take FOREVER to dry, especially if you are line drying.  We have had some of these in the past and the extra dry time wasn't worth the ease of use. 
• AI2 diapers are a similar system in that they have an insert and a cover, however, different in that the insert actually touches your baby's skin instead of being in a pocket.  You can re-use the cover, provided that it doesn't get soiled for multiple inserts.  You can change out the insert when you change your baby's diaper. 

The breakdown of our current stash is this:

• 13 Kawaii one size
• 8 One Size FuzziBunz
• 3 one size BumGenius with snaps
• 3 'no name' one size diapers
• 4 Medium Perfect Sized FuzziBunz
• 3 Small Perfect Sized FuzziBunz

There is also at least one diaper hidden in our car. 

Next: Cloth diaper accessories and the continuation of our story. 

A marriage reminder from an unlikely source

I don't plan to do this very often because I don't want to talk bad (publicly) about my husband's ex-wife but today I honestly couldn't help myself.  I am sure that at some point I will forget this rule but I would like to not talk about my husband's past life as a husband to someone else.  It should be pretty easy to do since we don't regularly communicate with her except about the children, however today was one of those random days when something so funny happens that you just can't help but talk about it.   

Today she shared the following picture on her Facebook wall:

 



This is instantly humorous to anyone who knows her because if you have ever met her and spent about 15 seconds with her you know that she is incapable of not violating all of these "rules" in any relationship.  She cheated on my husband for years before they were divorced and has cheated on almost every man that she has been with since they split up.  In fact, she is currently living with a guy while she is still married to another man.  Classy. 

As funny as this activity was today it did remind me that these "rules" are important and should be the groundwork to any good relationship.  Two of the five should be "duh" rules: stay faithful and don't flirt with others.  If you can't or don't want to follow these two rules then you have no business being married, at least in my opinion.  The others, I will be honest, require some work.  Not that I don't want to make my husband feel loved and wanted but I will admit that some days definitely require work.  Not because my husband is hard to love or difficult, but because I have a full time job and two small children and often times our marriage takes a backseat to all of that.  I don't want it to be like that but it's the one thing that I don't have to constantly babysit to make work, so often times I forget that it takes love and nurturing as well. 

Part of my resolutions for this year is definitely to rekindle #5.  We have talked a few times before about wanting to go on more dates with each other without kids.  One of the things that you don't think about when you have kids is that you will never eat normally until your children are about five years old, possibly later than that.  Once they can eat food(s) you have to spend the time ahead of time thinking about what they are going to eat related to what you are going to eat, or you have to think about what from an eating establishment that they are going to be able to eat.  Then you have to either feed it to them or figure out how to get it in a form that they can eat once it comes to the table; after you figure out how to re-arrange all of the nonsense from the table to where it isn't in any arms reach of either one of your children.  Why do servers insist on putting stuff in front of babies?  Ridiculous... Anyway, after enough days of that you realize that you need a break from that to just be a couple.  I am striving to do more of that this month. 

I say all of that to say that I love my husband.  I love him more than I ever thought that I could love someone in a relationship.  He is the love of my life and the father of my children and I will never love another person quite like him ever in my life. 

-Sara

I have a secret...

This is a secret that I normally don't tell people.  I wouldn't dare say this to most people at work because of the stigma that it carries with people for making you sound crazy and potentially unintelligent.  Ultimately, I don't like to be so devoted to this but I can't help it. 

I love conspiracy thoeries. 

Judge away.  I love them.  I don't subscribe to all of them, of course, but there is something addictive about conspiracies.  I think that it is the feeling of "the government is not telling us the truth on something" that potentially makes you feel like a detective on Law and Order.  It's even better (or worse) that we also now have constant access to Netflix and Hulu and the never-ending supply of documentaries about controversial subjects. 

Now, don't get me wrong.  I don't go on crazy websites or boycott certain things because of my beliefs.. I just like to read articles and watch documentaries about JFK's assassination, the moon landing, and 9-11.  I definitely wouldn't say that I am a doubter and I certainly don't try to convince anyone (except maybe my husband) of anything that I have "found" during my research.  If all of history could have been a conspiracy theory in class (some people believe that it was!) then I would have definitely received a better grade.  I'm addicted.. 

I do want to point out that while I think that there are a lot of suspicious things about 9-11 and more recently the Sandy Hook school shootings, that doesn't mean that I disrespect the folks who died those days or their families.  Wanting to know the truth about these subjects doesn't mean that I don't care about the people who lost their lives or have any less respect for the day.  A lot of people make the mistake of saying that conspiracy theorists have no respect for the dead and that we should just believe the government's story and let them rest in peace.  I think that those two ideas are totally unrelated...

- Sara

I'm a TV addict, I think

When I was growing up at my parent's house, I never really cared that much about TV.  We never had cable.  I 'missed' it growing up because all my friends had cable.  It seemed, at the time, like everyone else in the world had cable.  And we didn't.  Cue the sad teenage violins.  Even though we didn't have cable, television was always on but mainly just as background noise.  I rarely remember watching any specific shows or series programs or anything like that.  If you ask my parents today, they are strictly devoted to several shows about celebrities dancing or singing or ice skating or something else ridiculous. 

Throughout my younger 20's and up until just a few months ago I have done that same thing, except with cable.  Once I got my first apartment, I got cable.  Rebellion from your parents: party of one!  Rarely though did I get involved in any one TV show especially a current show because I can't ever remember what channel or what time it's on.  I would get involved in the Food Network any time of day or night and could always get sucked into those marathons of Law and Order: SVU.  Who doesn't love 19 straight hours of Benson and Stabler?   

Corry and I have always had cable since we moved in to our first apartment together.  However, since having kids, I have now become more aware of the shows that my children watch on television.  Before we go any further, I will say that my children watch television and they have learned an exponential amount of awesome things from educational television.  I am not a follower of the 'no TV before age 2 or your baby's brain will rot and fall out' mindset, nor do I believe that exposure to violent or sexual behavior on television shapes the way that we grow up.  I love SVU, but that doesn't mean that I am going to go out and assault someone.  I digress..

Before we moved into this newer house, in an effort to save money, we talked about getting rid of cable.  We didn't have that much spectacular stuff with our current cable package and it was well over $100 a month including taxes and fees.  Ridiculous.  And what's even worse is that we watched like 5 channels on a regular basis.  Even more ridiculous. 

My husband couldn't have been happier when he saw a NeoTV box on the Black Friday deals in our area.  I, of course, didn't know anything about it but was quickly schooled that it could stream Netflix and Hulu.  Sold.  I originally missed live television, but now I can't even tell you that I notice it.  Plus, I get to become involved in shows that I never watched before, like Survivor.  I have become a Survivor crazy person.  How did I never watch any of the first like 24 seasons of this show? 

I would like for one of the positives of this year with my new exercise resolution to be that I get more exercise, yes but possibly less television.  I want to not be one of those parents that entertains my children with television.  I want them to remember that we went to the park, and out to the zoo, and that we played games, and not that they knew which channel Cailou was on everyday.  I'm working on it... as soon as Survivor is over! 

My husband is a genius

My husband has some questionable ideas.  Let's face it - if you are married, there are sometimes that you're husband comes to you with this idea and on the outside you look like you think it's a good idea and on the inside you are wondering how he manages to get out of bed on his own everyday.  And don't even get me started on how many ideas he will have that end with some type of sexual overtone.  Luckily for me, since the beginning of the year, my husband has had some legitimately awesome ideas.

 The most recent idea being that he would try to investigate what happened to our broken washer prior to buying another one.  Let me preface by saying that our washer would fill, drain and spin but not agitate.  A simple review on google yielded a million different options of how to fix this issue but none that seemed to be applicable for our washer.  When you included our model of washer, zero decent suggestions. 

Of course, when our washer decided to stop agitating it was at the beginning of a wash cycle and so there were dirty clothes in the washer that had just been hanging around for a few days and were now just starting to take on this weird smell.  Last night after our trip to the Sears Outlet, we decided to at least run those clothes through a cycle with detergent to rid the house of the smell.  Let me say first that I remember various other times throughout my life that I have been in that place and seen better prices.  I don't know if now is the time of the year when washers and dryers start to break but they did not seem as reasonably priced as I remember.  The focus of our conversation then turned to how we could live with a temporary washer until tax returns came back.  While washing that load of clothes, he was letting me hear the noise that it was making and had an "Aha!" moment and said "I think that the coupler is bad!"  Possibly a washing machine fix it man in a past life? 

Excellent!  Verdict:  Bad coupler.  Cost of the part: $7.50.  Prior to deciding to buy a new one I looked up and it would have cost $75.00 just to have someone come out and try to tell us what the problem was.  I am obviously in the wrong business - you would imagine that we would have paid more than $100 to have someone fix that washer for a $7.50 part.  The markup on that is insane.  Nevertheless, I am excited by my husband for figuring this out and taking less than an hour to replace the part and get the washer going again. 

I am confident that sometime in 2013, we will again return to the ideas that culminate with a sexual overtone or ideas where I wonder if he has a monkey's brain, but it's nice to start off the year on the right foot! 

-Sara

Convalescent Home

Everyone in my house is sick. I have learned a few things over the last couple of days:

1. I am more of a baby when I am sick than my husband.
2. One should not take NyQuil unless one wants to be in a coma the next full 24 hours.
3. Sleeping in the same position for over five hours makes you have numb hands.

More tomorrow when I feel better..

-Sara

Silas's first birthday party

Today was little man's first birthday party *tear*. Thanks to all who came for your presence and gifts! He had an awesome time and loved his cake. Post tomorrow with recipes of items made for the party - they were all a hit!

Teething baby + Sick Toddler = awesome day

Silas turned 1 on December 31st.  He is my last baby.  We will cover the sadness around that subject sometime in the future.  For now, let's just say that he is enduring the worst part of baby/toddlerhood - teething.  Specifically cutting molars.  I have always told someone that if it was possible for babies to cut all of their teeth in like two days, I would much rather that happen.  Unfortunately it does not. 

We are currently on day 5ish of molars coming in.  Let's regress a second and relive our lives months ago when Silas cut his other eight teeth in like two weeks.  He gets a fever, is up ALL NIGHT, and just generally a ridiculously cranky baby for days.  Isabella was never a problem with teething.  No fighting, no crying, no whining or anything.  We always attributed it to the amber teething necklace that she wore.  I have told my husband that we should have Silas look like Mr. T with so many amber necklaces to combat his teething.  We have one on him that he has worn solid since he was about 2 months.  Please don't judge - I am the worst amber owner ever.  I don't take it off of them ever... I don't wash it... I don't sun it... he just wears it.  I am currently researching how I should go about washing it but I am kind of afraid to remove it because of how he will react.  Currently he doesn't even seem to notice it and I don't want to draw attention to it in any form or fashion. 

So, we are on about 5 days of not sleeping for Silas, me and my husband.  Needless to say our house is in an awesome mood. Because the universe sometimes likes to throw all kinds of fun at you at the same time, Isabella woke up this morning and said that her ear was hurting.  I got instantly anxious because she has had HORRIBLE double ear infections before and not said anything about pain.  After a doctor appointment for the both of them it is determined to be nothing serious except teething for cranky baby, ear infection for Isabella and totally shot day for mommy.

Today is the day before Silas's first birthday party.  I have a million and one things to do.  I am finally getting a second to breathe after making a cake from scratch, cake balls, prepped fruit salad, prepper the dip for tomorrow, cleaned the kitchen, made the banners and got as much prepped as possible for the food tomorrow.  I hope to be able to take some pictures and post them tomorrow.  For now, I am going to pass out while the second cake cooks. 

-Sara

2013 Resolutions

Ok so one of my 2012 resolutions was to write on this very blog more ... and it failed miserably.  This year I am going to take a new approach.  In order to accomplish the resolution this year I am going to write every day around the same time.  That way it makes it like a job ...  a more enjoyable version of a job, I suppose.  Here's hoping that I can do it.  I am also taking on more than one blog.  There are some topics that I would like to discuss or get assistance with that I understand that the general public will not be interested in so I will not bring them here.  Once I establish those other blogs I will link them here..

So, my first post will be my 2013 resolutions.  They are numerous but should be easy to accomplish.  Because I am a list maker, I have organized them into categories.  Later in the week, I will detail how I feel that I will accomplish them. 

Personal
1. Be more "girl"y, i.e. wear makeup, do my hair, etc.
2. Blog everyday.
3. Go on more dates with my husband.

Home
1. Do 52 "Pinterest" projects for the year.
2. Stock freezer with prepared meals once per month.
3. Create a monthly budget and stick to it.
4. Save more money every month.
5. Do 52 acts of preparedness. 

Health
1. Stop drinking sodas.
2. Do some form of exercise 5 days per week.

Once every week or so I will update on my progress.  Eventually I hope to have more of a schedule to my blog about what kind of post gets posted on a certain day of the week. 

Happy New Year!! 

Non-resolutions

So I am sure that everyone has experienced this... December 15-ish, if not before, you start to get nervous thinking about your "resolutions" for the following year.  Almost everyone will include at least one about "Exercise more" or "Lose x amount of weight".  Most people do really well in January, possibly on into February.  Gym memberships *and* attendance at said gym are up, I can imagine, like 100 fold in the beginning of the year.  Then slowly you start to get busy.  You start to make excuses like you are too tired after work.  You are too tired before work.  You forgot your gym clothes.  You took the stairs twice today and that should count as exercise.  The next time you think about it a month has gone by, then two months, and then all of a sudden you can't even remember when you saw the inside of the gym yet.  You are not alone.  You are certainly not the only one who fails at resolutions and goals that they make at the beginning of the year. 

Why is it that we fail at goals, wishes and wants for ourselves that we are SO passionate about at one time during the year?  Why is it that at the beginning of the year we have so much faith in ourselves and our abilities that we are willing to stake our future year's worth of happiness on the smallest statements?  It seems as if we are doomed to fail if we claim those statements as goals that we are interested in achieving.  It's like we, as humans, need our subconscious to trick us into achieving these goals by not putting them out there in the open.  That, perhaps, we need something like subliminal advertising to help us out with these resolutions as most people during the year will not keep even one of their resolutions.  I know that, in the past, most of the time by May I would have forgotten what any of my resolutions were from the beginning of the year. 

This year I decided that I wasn't going to participate in this "tradition" of making a decision at the beginning of the year that I was going to fail at throughout the year.  Instead, I am reviewing my life now, in February, for little things that I would like to either change or start doing that are manageable, because let's be reasonable... I have a husband... I have 4 children, 2 of which live with me full time and are under 2... I have a full time job that I love enough to want to spend more than 40 hours at... I don't have time for "change the world" type resolutions. 

However, I *do* have time for the following resolutions:

1. Have more patience today than I did yesterday
2. Utilize the parts of Once a Month Cooking that work for our family
3. Write a blog post everyday for at least 30 days
4. Become a better money saver

I am going to attempt to start #3 today.  I will utilize one blog post each to explain the four and their importance and significance to me in my life today.