Wanna Do's

New Year's Resolution time, right? I'm not very good at resolutions, but I have been thinking about things that I would like to do this year. More like habits I would like to establish. Here are just a few thoughts about things I wanna do this year...

Read more
A few books on my list are:
*Book of Mormon at least once
*10 Habits of Happy Mothers
*Love & Logic Magic
*Parenting with Love & Logic

Anyone have good fiction recommendations for me?


Sew & create more
I have a HUGE list of projects that I want to do... the things below are just the projects that I know I have supplies for off the top of my head. Its kind of scary long if you ask me... I would really love to try and tackle one project per week. Thats seems realistic enough without being overwhelming.

*Beanbag chair (Carter)
*"PLAY" canvases (playroom)
*Book slings (girls room)
*Drapes (master bedroom)
*White Button-up (Allison)
*Red Wool Dress Coat (Allison)
*Angelina PJs (Allison or Lindsey)
*Rapunzel PJs (Allison or Lindsey)
*Covered Art Supply boxes (Carter and Allison)
*Rapunzel dress-up (Allison)
*Sleeping Beauty dress-up (Allison)
*Winter yarn wreath
*Herringbone pencil skirt (me!)
*Yellow summer dress (me!)

And the sewing projects listed here probably don't even encompass a third of the fabric I have stashed away. Oh... and the girls are absolutely going to need some matching summer wardrobe something. :)

House projects
We've lived here nearly 2 years and are still in the process of making it "ours." Just a few things I'd like to see done by the end of the year...
*Paint away the pink!
*Hallway photo gallery
*Dining & living room drapes
*Recover dining chairs
*Finish a craft room in the basement (okay... this is a honey-do really)
*Paint master bedroom

And, of course, I have the ever ubiquitous goal of eat healthy/exercise more/lose weight/get in shape. I'd love to see my pre-Carter body again by summer. We'll see if I can find the energy or will power to make it happen. :)

What about you... what do you want to do this year?

More Goals...

So... what did you accomplish in October? Me? I started losing energy fast... but I did get the girls' room painted. Plus Allison moved into it, the crib set up and baby clothes in the new baby's dresser. I made a beanbag chair for Allison's room, and contemplated one for Carter's. I bought canvases to DIY some of these (a football, basketball, baseball and soccer ball) for Carter's room, but have been too scared to try so far. I made roman shades for the girl's room, only to get them installed and realize that the clearance curtains I used to make them were not the same opacity or the same color... so I'll be remaking them when I find the right fabric. Which, now that I think of it, could already be in my fabric stash...

We did not get the living room/entry way/stairwell/halls painted, but I picked a color, which is a start. Its just such a big, daunting job...

For November... finish all my Christmas projects and shopping (I don't have a ton left to do... Princess dress wardrobe for Allison is the big one) and stock the freezer with some meals. Anyone have some great freezer meal plans? I'm thinking some easy crock-pot-in-a-bag "mixes", burger patties, and making double of a few meals this month. Oh... and go into labor.

September

For starters, what happened to September? Out here in NY September seemed to have a bit of an identity crisis (it thought it was July... 85 in September is just unacceptable!), and then it was just over. We did manage to do a few things around here, however.

First, I got my house mostly deep cleaned. I never did manage to tackle a major mop of the floors, and the master bed and beth got generally neglected. But the rest of the house did get a nice clean. And I managed to get Carter's room painted, with Brian's help. I'll take pictures of both kid's rooms when they are (hopefully) completely done later this month. I didn't get my craft room (aka the girls' new shared room) painted, but the color is picked and I think Brian and I might tackle that one this next weekend or on Coloumbus day (which he has off... silliest holiday ever). So, yay for goals mostly getting done!

I took the kids apple-picking again this year, which they thouroughly enjoyed. I can't believe how big they've gotten in a year.

And I potty-trained Carter this month. Yes... I am that crazy mother who decided to potty-train her 2 and half year old. But he was ready, and he took right to it. He is largely accident-free and will tell me when he needs to go... I'd call that venture a success. And now I have a few months of no diapers!

I finished a few sewing projects for Allison: a jumper using Manhatten fabric (pattern is Simplicity 2574 ) and a fleece jacket (McCalls 6430). The jumper is cute, but too big. The little jacket is about perfect, and fills a gap in her fall/winter wardrobe too!

I got inspired about our living room, and how have a whole vision for a make-over. Its involves a different furniture arrangement, new couches, and a new TV, and a new cabinet to hold our DVDs and components. Apparently I don't get inexpensive inspiration, so for now I'll go with a new paint color, slipcovers and maybe a TV on Black Friday. Do you think Black Friday could put me into labor? Becuase that would be kind of awesome.

I love this pallete for the living room, except without the dark greys, and add in cranberry. My carpet is cranberry, I'm going to go a light grey-beige on the walls, chocolate slipcovers on the couches and light blue and green accents. Still hunting for the perfect fabric for window treatments to pull it all together.

What did you do this September? And what are your plans for October?

My October? Paint the girls' room. Finish projects to finish the kids' rooms (roman shades, theme-y painted canvases and bean bag chairs, off the top of my head... I know there are more!). Paint the living room. And halls and stairwell. And I should probably get started on Christmas sewing and crafting projects... hopefully the nesting instinct kicks in hard. :)

Fall Goals

Many, many, many, many, MANY times, I feel like I spend my days accomplishing nothing of merit. Everything I do just has to be redone... clean laundry gets worn and dirty, clean dishes get used and dirtied, meals get eaten and people are still hungry again 4 hours later, clean playroom get played in and cluttered... you get the picture, right?

So, in hopes that maybe this fall, with Allison going to preschool every day (which will bring more structure and schedule to our life), I can accomplish a few big goals. Not many... just a few. So I don't feel so anti-accomplished all the time.

And a goal not written down is merely a wish, right?

So...

September: Deep clean the house (including hiring out upholstery and carpet cleaning) & paint kid's bedrooms, possibly the living room, halls and stairwell too.

October: Move Allison & baby furniture into her new (shared) room (which also means moving my craft stuff out of it) & finish decorating kid's rooms (I've got a few projects I want to try for each room on my Pinterest boards).

November: Stock the freezer with freezer meals, menu plan through January & finish all Christmas shopping and projects by the end of the month.

December: Um... how about survive? :)

New Goals

I don't want to say that 2010 was hard, because a lot of great things happened in 2010. Brian started a great job. We bought a house that we (mostly) love (and have been slowing changing the things we don't love). We made some really great new friends. We did not get pregnant (which, if you ask me, was really great).

But I struggled to adjust to our new life some. And most of my stuggle really came from organization, which is weird becuase I love organization. But I have spent a year lacking in the organization of my time. I wasted too much of it, and then was upset that I got nothing that needed to be done done and then never had time for things I wanted to do.


So... here are the goals that I hope to work on and reach during 2011, and how I plan to do it too.

1) Get Healthier and take care of myself.

Cliche, I know. But I need it. I recently noticed that I don't take great care of myself. I don't eat well, I don't sleep enough, I don't exercise much, I don't drink enough water. It leaves me cranky and tired. And I think my my husband derserves a wife who is not cranky all the time, and my kis derserve a mommy who isn't too tired to play nicely with them. So in that vein,

*I'd really like to lose 15 pounds. That would put be back to my weigh before Carter (who is almost 2... I think I've been putting this off long enough!)

*I want to get to the gym at least 3 times a week... not only for the exercise, but for the stress relief too.

*I NEED to get more sleep. Which isn't working out so well for me so far, but here's hoping...

*I need to eat nutritious meals. Less sugar, more vegetables and lean protien.

2) Get my house-keeping life organized.

A few weeks ago my friend, Jamie, blogged about how she finally managed to figure out a system for cleaning her house that works for her. Funny enough, her figuring out a system was inspired by my whining about not be able to figure out a system. Seeing her figure something out (and being SO tired of the constant mess) made me pretty determined to figure something out that was going to work for me. And, not to jinx it, but I think I have. Its a little bit of Fly Lady, tweaked to fit me.

Every day after dinner Brian and I immediately put the leftovers away, do the dishes (all the way down to an empty sink), wipe down the counters and sweep the kitchen floor. In the mornings, the dish washer gets emptied and (shock!) I fill it with dishes as the day goes. Having the kitchen never be a horrible mess (even though its not always CLEAN) is a huge stress reliever for me. Before bed, I also try to make sure I've removed any leftover kids toys from the living room and returned them to the playroom, so that the house is generally tidy when we go to bed Most days I could really care less if the playroom is messy... its the playroom! But we do try to have the kids pick up after themselves... a total work in progress... and Brian and I "reset" it about weekly. The rest of my week's chores looks a little like this:

Monday: Laundry & free day

Tuesday: Grocery shopping & Errands

Wednesday: Weekly cleaning chores (vacuum downstairs, mop, empty garbages, change sheets)

Thursday: Zone cleaning chores

Friday: Desk chores (grocery lists, meal planning, balance the checkbook...)

Saturday: Major vacuum & pick up

On my Thursday zone cleaning days, I detail clean a specific zone of my house... I chose 4 zones: 1)Kitchen & Dining room, 2) Master bed & bath 3)Kid's beds, bath & playroom 4)Living room, entrance, laundry area & 1/2 bath. 4 zones means that onces a month every area in my house gets a detailed clean beyond the daily wiping up. And it also means that I only have to spend a few hours (it took me less than 2 last week to do the master bed & bath... and that bathroom was in desperate need of cleaning!) every week doing any real cleaning.

So far, I like it. It structures my days and my weeks, but no one daily chore takes me so long that I can't fit other things into my day too. I try to do my daily chores either while Allison is at preschool (like the grocery shopping... so much easier with 1 kid!) or while Carter is napping. And since my chores don't consume my whole day, theres still time to take the kids on kid-centric outings and to just play together too. The think I struggle most to force myself to do: fold the laundry the day I do it. I just hate folding laundry...

3) Improve my scripture study

I suppose I should mention that these are not in order of importance... definantly random order. I recently got released from Primary in my ward, which I'm very okay with. I'm excited to be in Gospel Doctrine again (for the first time in two years I can listen to lessons without a child!). I'd really like to get as much out of it as possible. So, in addition to *trying* to get my daily Book of Mormon reading in (I try... some mornings it just doesn't happen, and if I don't do it before I hit the shower the chances of it happening are so slim...), I want to read the chapters for the upcoming Gospel Doctrine lesson. So far, 2 weeks in, this hasn't happened at all. But hopefully this week. My thin excuse for last week is that I was teaching Relief Society (a calling I think I would really love), so my extra time went into that...

Anyway, there are my goals for this year... what are yours?

Fat Burning Friday...

Andrea at Mommy Snacks does a "Fat Burning Friday" post every Friday, documents her ups and downs of trying to lose her mommy weight. Figured I'd jump in as a way of keeping me honest with my goals...

Since I last posted about my weight loss goals things went not well, but got better this week. Several weeks ago I strained my IT Band... its the long muscle that runs down the outside of your leg from hip to past your knee. It would hurt when I ran, then I'd rest and day and it would feel better, so I'd go running again only to have it hurt again. Its a repetitive stress strain, so it got so bad that one day I was able to run the first half of my route, but when I stopped to stretch and take my pulse my hip acted up again. I couldn't run back... I couldn't hardly walk back. So I took 3 weeks off.

In 3 weeks, I gained 2 pounds. Luckily, my little sister is now free in the mornings to come running with me and my hip is healed. We've been running 3 times this will and will go again tomorrow morning. Brian and I have also made a concerted effort to get all the sugary junk out of our house (again) in ways other than eating it. Thats helped.

So, that being said my progess is... down one pound (from my original starting weight, so down 3 pounds total). Yeah! Slow, but steady.

I'll think I'll be adding in a workout cardio/tone DVD (for the non-running days) and I keep telling myself I'll do pilates during nap time, but I end up doing things like blogging instead. Maybe I'll get the willpower soon... Emily and I are also planning to lengthen the distance of our run, but I think we'll probably stick to our current one and three quarters or two miles for next week. Don't want to get burned out... or restrain that hip!

Pounds lost to date: 1
Pounds to go: 9

Goals: Revisited

So remember how I posted about my urge to own running shoes and lose the baby weight? Yeah... this is me reporting and being honest.

In the three weeks since I wrote that I have gone running... 5 times. Not too great. But I have GREAT excuses.

You see, Brian went out of town on the 18th (just 4 days after my post) and was gone for 5 days. I can't really leave my kids at home by themselves while I go jogging... and I don't have a double jogging stroller.

Once Brian got home I had to go back to work for a week. My doctor approved maternity leave was up and I was taking personal vacation days, which you're not allowed to take in the last week before school is out. And since I have to leave around 7:15 to be to work on time I didn't go running before then.

And here we are to this week. I still have the urge to run. Actually, I hate running. I wish I liked it, and I want to like it, but I don't. The thing is... I hate how my cute pre-baby summer clothes fit more than I hate running. So I go running in the mornings.

Needless to say, I haven't lost any weight yet. But I'll keep you posted (and keep myself honest). Maybe I'll post for Andrea at Mommy Snacks' Fat Burning Friday's.

Baby Weight

I'm faily lucky... baby weight comes off my fairly easily... for the most part. At 6 weeks post-partum now, I've lost 25 pounds and I'm back to wearing my regular jeans. But I've still got 8 or 10 pounds to go... and these 8 or 10 are the tough ones. Those 10 pounds is the weight I put on in 3 years of marriage. Allison was 8 months old before I was able to get them off compeltely and get back to my wedding weight (first time since my first anniversary!)... and South Beach helped me do that. Since I'm nursing Carter, I really can't do South Beach.

So, instead, running shoes.

In the last week I've had the extreme urge to own running shoes, which I don't wear on a daily basis at all. I haven't worn tennis shoes of any variety on a daily basis (or even a regular basis for anything but excercise) since the 9th grade. I want them to run in. I'm hoping that I'll have the will-power to get up and go jogging after Carter's morning feeding. I'm hoping that that will-power will get the last of my baby weight off before the end of the summer.

Thats my goal... 10 pounds gone by the end of August. Maybe I'll try to report here weekly... or biweekly to help keep me honest and accountable. Now all I need is a running partner to keep me getting out of the house for a jog around 7. Anyone near me game?

Flinging

Brian and I have spent our evenings this week "flinging." Or, at least, thats what my mom told me we were doing. It all started in our spare bedroom/Brian's guitar room/Rosie's craft & sewing room. It has never really been organized and I think I finally got fed up. I started flinging... that is, I grabbed a grocery sack and started filling it with things that I decided I did not need or want. Then I did the same in the bathroom (come on ladies, we've all got entirely too many lotions and creams and yummy smelling stuff hidden away in our cupboards). Then the desk... then my closet... the the book cases... I couldn't stop!

It was amazing! I posted all the stuff I no longer wished for my house on Freecycle (its a give and take Yahoo! group) and today, officially 4 minutes ago, it is ALL gone! I'm so excited! For the first time I feel like my house is really getting clean (well, its been clean... my mom did a great job making sure of that when she was here when Allison was born, but this time I did it) and decluttered and organized! Yeah!!!

Next step: IKEA for organizational tools. I've got my eye on a few of these beauties!

I LOVE my post-baby body!

Today, six months after my little angel was born, I feel better than I have in years! I absolutely LOVE my post-baby body. I recently went on South Beach Diet. Since I'm still nursing I didn't stay on the super-strict part of very long, but about a week of it did break me of my incredibly strong sweet tooth. I've now cut almost all sugar out of my diet and, in the process, lost 8 pounds. I am back to my wedding weight and only 5 pounds from my high school weight... I've I've been trying to take off those extra 15 pounds (I lost 4 from my pre-pregnancy weight in the first month of Allison's life) for 3 years! I feel great! Yesterday I realized how good I was doing with this new change... I tried on my pair of size 8 Gap jeans, which I haven't worn in nearly 2 and a half years... and they fit! Not only did they fit, but they're COMFORTABLE and they look pretty good! Check them out below!

Dinner with the Thornock's

My January meal plan goal went really well... we ate well most nights, I didn't have stress out about figuring out what to make for dinner and we stayed within our eat out budget. Now, granted we more than blew our grocery budget, but part of that is that we had to completely restock out pantry at the beginning of the month. We had NOTHING after Christmas. Anyway, since it went so well, its more of the same for February. Here's what we'll be eating. =)

1 - Leftovers
2 - Ginger Stir Fry
3 - BBQ Pork Ribs
4 - Mormon Mommy Casserole
5 - Wontons
6 - Haystacks
7 - Oven BBQ Chicken
8 - Pizza
9 - Taco Bean Soup & Quesodillas
10 - Chili
11 - Enchiladas
12 - Pork & Pineapple Veggies
13 - Parmesan Chicken
14 - Fondue (Valentines Fun!)
15 - Pizza
16 - Honey Lime Chicken Sandwiches
17 - Crock Pot Roast
18 - Tacos
19 - Chicken & Rice
20 - Lasagne
21 - Chicken Pockets
22 - Pizza
23 - Purgers and Fries
24 - Beef Stew
25 - Burritos
26 - Chicken Creole (my grandma's recipe)
27 - Eat out
28 - Lousiana Red Beans and Rice (Brian's choice)
29 - Pizza

Yum! Can't wait for some of these meals!

One of my new goals

I've seen a lot of people on blogs that I look at putting together monthly menus. I've started to think that this is a really good idea for me to try. I used to be SO good about cooking... but then Brian and I took a management job, which stressed me out. And then I got pregnant with Allison, which made me dislike food and the smell of food for a while. Needless to say, I'm not nearly as good at cooking dinners as I used to be. So, this is my attempt to try and get back on track cooking dinners, keep our grocery budget to a reasonable amount and reduce the amount we are spending eating out. So, here's January!

Sunday's (Crock Pot Night)

6 - Creamy Salsa Chicken

13 - Beef & Potato Casserole

20 - Chili

27 - Pot Roast

Monday's (Mexican Night)
7 - Tortilla Stack
14 - Chicken & Green Chile Enchiladas
21 - Tacos
28 - Spoon Tacos

Tuesday's (No Theme)
1- Chicken Pockets
15 - Lemon Chicken
22 - Chili Pasta Skillet
29 - Cordon Bleu Quiche

Wednesday's (No Theme)
2 - Ginger Chicken Stir Fry
9 - Macaroni & Cheese
16 - Wontons
23 - Parmesean Chicken
30 - Spaghetti

Thursday's (No Theme)
3 - Oven BBQ Chicken
10 - Eat out (my birthday!)
17 - Lasagna
24 - Chicken & Sun-dried Tomato Fetticuini
31 - Shepherd's Pie

Friday's (Pizza Night)
4 - Frozen Pizza
11 - Homemade Pizza
18 - Pita Pizza
25 - Papa Murphy's Pizza

Saturday's (Soup/Sandwich Night)
5 - Hamburgers
12 - Taco Soup & Quesadillas
19 - Sloppy Joes
26 - Honey Lime Chicken Sandwiches

I would do a left overs night, but those usually get eaten for lunches. I suppose if I rearranged things I could also have an Italian/Pasta night... maybe next month! Hopefully this will be something that works for me. I would call it a new year's resolution, but we all know what happens to those.