New Years approaches and so do new goals.

Every December the approach of the new year makes people reflect and focus on new goals. I have many things I want to accomplish, just look at my past posts for everything I want to change about myself and my life.
This new year we have some interesting changes coming. Changes I am sure will cause a few challenges. The in-laws are moving to town. Literally, right behind us....as in we can see there town house from our kitchen window. Crazy? Yes, I might be. MIL wants to watch X full time. That will be a significant reduction in our daycare expenses, but at what cost? I am currently taking a "we will see" approach to all of this.

As for myself I have so much I want to accomplish. Small picture, this week I would like to:
1) do all laundry
2) find the kitchen table
3)soak/ wash diapers
4)Re-arrange living room. Want something a little different
5) come up with a budget for 2010
6) write thank you notes for Christmas gifts
7) make cake balls for family gathering
8) make veggie pizza for family gathering
9) make homemade mac n' cheese for guests this week
10) Put away X's toys, divide for Mil's place
11) Build X's play kitchen
12) Arrange and secure furniture to the wall in X's bedroom
13) Put away Christmas decorations
14) dust
15) paint nails
Yes, it is an ambitious list. I hope to keep track of all that i accomplish.

As for the year, my goals are understandably larger. The biggest of which is # 1.
1) Run a 5k before I am 29 years old - I am tired of being fat. I hate running, detest it and sweating but I want to know if it is possible to do it so we shall see.
2) Be more put together. - I am still tired of my frumpy look. the hair cut helped some. My goal for January is to wear different earrings everyday.
3) To do housework every day for at least 15 minutes
4) To sleep more- I don't need to watch 10 pm TV shows I need sleep
5) To spend more time with B - we need to communicate better, work toward common goals and take joy in each other and take the time to appreciate what each of us have to offer.
6) To be more focused and diligent at work - I think it will make me feel better about myself and dread work less
7) To explore faith - be it attending church or reading books that make me think

I hope to post much more regularly, so I can keep myself accountable.

And here I go again!

August flew by in a swirl of busyness and sickness. X had an ear infection and ended up at home for 4 days. Then I was sick for over a week. All of my goals and plans never came to fruition. I did manage to have a yard sale, B ran his first race, and X's birthday was a success. Then we went on vacation last weekend. We have not had a weekend free since the beginning of August. My little sister J is having freshman roommate drama so she is coming to stay this weekend.

Maybe I am going about this all the wrong way, expecting everything at once. Though everything goes through my head at once. What is that I hope to achieve? How long until I reach that goal? What do I need to do to get there? There are SO many things where do I begin?

1) I want to be organized and put together. Both at home and work. Currently the house is a disaster, my desk at work is a mess and I look like a 45 year old woman, and I am not quite 28.

2) I want to be able to focus on what I am doing not worrying about every other task in my head. Sitting and writing this is hard because I have 10 other ideas of things I want to do.

3) I want to improve myself. Not only be more put together and look better, but to put time into what I enjoy. I would like to explore my faith/ beliefs, work on scrapbooks, get back into cooking, and maybe find some type of exercise that makes me have more energy

4) I want to save more, spend less and not feel deprived. I am trying very hard to reduce our frivolous spending so we can pay off bills and live the life we want. I really need to sit down with B and discuss this with him.

5) I want to be more on the ball at work. I lack focus and tend to get side tracked. Luckily due to some situations at work, things are slow. I feel like I am just sliding by. Needing to find a new job may still be a very real possibility in the next year. I have slacked since getting pregnant. Perhaps feeling accomplished at work will give me the energy I need to stay motivated in the evenings.

6) B and I need to find time for each other. He has been very affectionate and sweet lately. It has been nice. I still find myself trying to find reasons to be angry with him. That is not good.

There are so many other things, but this is probably more than enough to start with.

I have 2 choices. Things can stay the same or they can change. I am giving myself until Christmas. That is a little over 100 days. So how do I begin? I tend to like to jump in head first, but we can see how well that works. Though baby steps I see no progress and get frustrated and give up.

Diaper Update, Goodbye old daycare and weekend plans.

So the Fuzzi Bunz diaper worked great overnight. It did make his bum look like a giant marshmallow, but he stayed dry, even when he joined us in bed to eat at 2:30 AM. We are home with a cold today and using cloth again. I discovered the twist fold and it has made using the pre-folds so much easier.

B took baby X to the daycare today with cards and some homemade blueberry muffins. We are leaving for a number of reasons, but I still am grateful that they did a decent job watching X most of the time. The new daycare has a 1:4 ratio and is about a 10-15 minute walk from work for both B and myself. The thought that I could go and nurse him at lunch once a week, or could go over and volunteer in his class or have lunch with him is awesome. I really think having him so close will make a huge difference. I feel like I spend so little time with him during the week.

So what do I need to do this weekend: clean the house, I really want to get the office put in order so maybe I can work on X's scrapbook. I haven't finished a page in it since he was about 2 months old.

Cloth Diapers- Round 1

So we tried cloth diapering over the last week with mixed results. The first attempt resulted in a very nasty rash. I have still yet to determine if it was caused by the detergent or the wetness. I have a feeling that the Tide didn't get rinsed out. We used them again on Saturday, even though we were at home visiting family. It was really pretty easy. I am in love with the Gro- Baby diapers. They are awesome, though I wish they came in more colors. I did find some new ways to fold the pre-fold diapers that I am itching to try. Sunday X ended up with another rash. The reason I think that it is detergent related is my in-laws washer wasn't spinning properly....so the detergent probably didn't get rinsed out thoroughly. I still need to get a wash routine down. Tonight is the first night in cloth. It is a fuzzi bunz one size. I put 2 inserts in it. His little bum is HUGE in that diaper, so hopefully that means he will stay dry. It is adorable on him.

Me.

So what is a slacker mom? Me. I lack balance in my life and something gets left out everyday. I slack at something either work, or house work or taking care of myself. I am trying to figure out how to do it all. Not in that super mom conquer the world type way, just how to have a comfortable life where the house isn't a disaster and I manage to get to work on time and actually stay focused on work.

So how does writing a blog help me do this? I need somewhere to be accountable to myself. A place to work out what I am trying, what is work and what isn't. Boring and self centered, probably. However it is cheaper than a therapist.

Are my expectations too unrealistic? As I type this my brand new cloth diapers for my 9 month old are in the wash. Am I crazy to try this with everything else I need to do? In the long run it will save us money if I don't become addicted to buying diapers. It is better for the environment and keeps icky chemicals off of baby X. We will see how it goes.