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?
