While I'm trying to take things as they come, stay relaxed, and generally not expect too much so that I can enjoy this first year of motherhood, I do have a few things I'd like to commit to this year. So, in no particular order:
Fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes by the end of the year. I can evaluate this as the year goes on, but let's just say that thanks to the coinciding of the holidays with the ravenous early breastfeeding days, I actually weigh more now than I did the week after T-Rex was born. And clearly that needs to stop. I debated whether my goal was a number (goal weight) or just being able to fit back into my clothes and went with the clothes for now (muscle weighs more than fat, so sometimes clothes are a better measure). But I know pregnancy can wreak some permanent havoc on bellies, so we'll see.
Regardless of how I define it, I know when I'm fit: when I feel strong and have energy. Both of those will be important as T-Rex gets heavier and then mobile!
Anyway, toward this end the DDH and I signed up for a YMCA membership, since it includes childcare. We've scheduled ourselves to go and workout together (weights and swimming) at least two nights a week, and I've already tried a few yoga and zumba classes that hopefully I can attend during the day. After three months doing nothing more than an (almost daily) afternoon walk, this feels amazing.
Make at least four dinners per week at home. This kind of goes with the above goal and kind of fits in because we have no money now. I am picking up some part-time hours at my old job from home, but it's still obviously not the same as pre-baby. We were awful about this in January with the DDH home all day, but I did pretty well in December and am back on the meal-planning wagon starting this week!
I've had to switch up how I cook, and to a certain extent what I cook, thanks to T-Rex. More on this another time.
Read at least one non-fiction and one fiction book per month. I tend to get sucked into all the blogs and Facebooks and etc. because it's easy to operate my smartphone with one hand. But reading longer format works on the page and not on the screen is entirely different for my brain, and I want to make sure I'm intentional about this. I did great with this in January and need to pick out books for February ASAP.
Spend quality time with the DDH. Clearly we were together 24/7 this past month, which was nice. Now, with our new schedules and baby responsibilities, I want to be intentional about making time for each other. It's been great working out at the gym together twice a week, and I'm thinking monthly date nights (Grandma is more than happy to babysit) might be in order, too.
Make friends. This is my vaguest goal. Frankly, the reason I don't really have any (real life, close) friends these days is because I don't know how to make them. I had a group of ladies I thought of as friends that I worked out with pre-T-Rex, but that gym closed and I realized I don't have any other way to contact them. Most of our college friends have moved away, and we just don't meet other people.
I'm hoping at some point to maybe find a mom playgroup, maybe through one of the other churches in town (ours doesn't have one, mostly because there aren't that many young couples there). Regular attendance at fitness classes may yield a new set of fitness buddies. And the DDH and I are discussing ways to reach out and see some of our semi-friends from church or work (mostly older than we are, but nobody ever said you can only be friends with people in your age bracket!) outside of those settings.
Find a new job. While I'm quite happy to work for the old firm from home indefinitely, the volatile nature of the CEO means this is not guaranteed forever. If I have to go to work somewhere at some point, I don't want to go back there.
I'm trying, at 26, to finally figure out what I want to do when I'm grown up. One answer clearly is that what I want, and what I'm good at, is taking care of a house and family. Unfortunately, no one's offering me money for that, so I would like to figure out either what I enjoy that I could get paid for, or find a work situation that leaves me plenty of time and energy (especially mental energy) to do the mom thing. Let's just say that I envy people like the DDH with a clear passion and vocation for a profession.
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I have some other areas I want to work on, like cleaning and organizing the house (and keeping it that way), making the garden actually work this year (being home during the day should help this), that sort of thing.
We need to sit down and re-order our finances with my changed work situation. Luckily, between everything we received from others before and since T-Rex's birth, and since we're using cloth diapers and he's still just breastfeeding, T-Rex doesn't actually cost us anything extra at the moment. That will change eventually, of course.
But a lot of the items on that short list are pretty intense and time-consuming, so I don't want to clutter the list with too much. My main focus for the year is T-Rex. Watching him grow and learn has been such a pleasure so far, and I can't wait to see how he changes in the next year. My friend Sarah said that every age is her new favorite age, and I think I know exactly what she means.
I've already read most of y'all's annual goal lists. So how's it going? Any advice for me?
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