With December comes change

I’ve seen a few other blogs where people put goals for the month and I thought it was a good idea. So yes here I am being a follower…sheesh Liz…you should be original right?  Well I find the more I say I will do things and the more people I tell the better chance I have of doing them, and I could use some accountability for December because this will be a tough month unless I keep it together.  Why a tough month you say, it’s the holidays it should be fun and happy right?  Well I’ve barely thought about Christmas because of the changes ahead. You see my hubby got laid off just about the time I came back to work after maternity leave. I think our munchkin only spent 20 hours total in day care.  Well now Kris has a new job…yey! But since I’m back full time too, this means our son will be in daycare full time after spending the first 6 ½ months happily at home with either mom or dad, so a big adjustment for all.  I’m grateful that we are so blessed as to have our wonderful friends be providing his care while we work, that takes an enormous load off my shoulders because I know he will be loved and cared for and treated as their own.  I can’t help but worry though of how he’ll handle the transition and I even worry how nuts he’ll drive them with his nap skipping and fussyness that is usually a result of a new routine.  The other factor that will make things hard is that neither of us will be home to keep up the chores. I guess you could say we won’t be there to make a mess…but trust me I make bigger messes the less time I have because I’m rushing around like a ninny.  Then there are the poor pets…poor furry kids who already took a back seat to Alexander and now they are going to get even less attention. It doesn’t help its winter so taking walks in the cold dark rarely happens… so any way I see recipe for disaster.

So any way here are my goals for the month to see if I can make this new busy life possible:

Get up earlier.  It’s the only way I’ll get myself together in the morning and have time for munchkin and dogs. I’m thinking 5:30-6:00 at the very latest.  This means I need to go to bed earlier…ug.  So probably 9:30 would be ideal, in by 10:00 at the latest.

I need need need to meal plan.  Plan at least a week in advance what dinners we’ll have.  To make things easier I should make up things for lunches and dinners. Such as washing lettuce for the week so we can have side salads.  I could start packing up baggies for the week with crackers, fruit, etc for lunches although I usually use the same bags over and over or tupperwear so I’m not wasteful, but I guess if I just used the same batch over and over again it might be ok. 

Then I should at least get the dishwasher loaded and unloaded daily so we don’t get a massive pile up. I will have to recruit Kris to help with this.

I could say I should sweep during the week and clean the bathroom, but I hate to load myself down so much that I’m miserable because all I do is work and chores…ah finding balance…always a challenge. 

I need to switch bill paying night too, probably to the weekend; it’s too much of a pain during the week. Sunday might be a good day for this. Then I can enter the receipts that we spend during the weekend.  I should get in the habit of opening our mail daily too so it doesn’t make a huge stack to go through. 

I need to work in exercise.  On sunny or at least dry days I should walk on my lunch break.  I’m sure I can squeeze in 20-30 mins of a pilates video or time on the stair master in the works 3 days a week on the rainy days, just something so I’m not totally sedentary.

Ok my goals are already feeling daunting and a lot like work. So I will set aside a little time to surf the web or make my scrapbook recipe book that I’ve said I’d do forever now!!! 

Some how we will make this work, I just need to keep my butt of the couch and stop watching so much TV.  It’s going to busy and crazy, but we’ll make it work

Other goals include

Writing up a resume….would be helpful since I don’t want to work full where I’m at forever.

Try to go shampooless… I’ve never found the perfect shampoo and I hate having to shower all the time in the winter when I don’t do anything to get dirty, so if I could get my hair balanced out and save $$ it’d be great.

I’m growing my hair out, so no visits to the salon. I like a little pampering and I like my stylist so it’s hard to stay away but I want long hair again.

Find a night time cloth diaper solution for Xander. I’m tired of using disposables at night, feel like I’m cheating.

Phew! I’m exhausted just writing this out… I may be a grumpy monster by the end of the month. But hey maybe I can learn to be more efficient while I’m at it!