Hey! It's (the middle of) April!

Welcomed back into the open, waiting arms of my blog.

Things here are as they were. Office still isn't re-done. Backyard still doesn't have raised planter beds. I still intend to do those things, someday.

The last few weeks, and the next few weeks, are going to be BUSY. And, hopefully, fun.

It's nice enough to play outside!! I cleaned out the disgusting backyard toy storage container and threw away the empty/broken/gnawed on junk inside and replaced it with cool, new outside toys for Pippin to chew on.

**Interruption by Little Man, who refuses to wear shoes in the backyyard and now has a splinter in his foot. Cool Snoopy bandaid to the rescue!**

It's also softball season! Normally this means coaching the middle school girls softball team. This year, it means that + me playing on a women's church softball team.  I admit I am a little skeptical about the whole thing. I have never played slow pitch softball, or on a "women's team", and I am having flashbacks to high school PE. But, first practice is Monday and I am looking forward to it. Eric and the kids have never seen me actually play softball, so even though this will be a far cry from my college softball days, it will be something new for all of us!

I have been in a workout funk.  I had a mystery ailment for a few weeks that left me nauseous and really tired (and, no, I am not pregnant), and I lost all exercise momentum. Truly, ALL. EXERCISE. MOMENTUM.  I combined that with truly horrible eating habits, with the lovely result of having pants that are almost too tight! High five!

So, that is my new news. I am more consistent with exercise when I have a goal, and a plan. So I now have a goal and a plan.

The goal: the Tough Rhino Mud Run on June 9th

(I guess that means I have some characteristic in common with a rhinoceros? My aggressive disposition? Scaly skin? Large size? Actually, I am not sure if rhinos have scaly skin. But I sure do!!)

The plan: Jamie Eason's LiveFit Trainer

The first 4 weeks of this 12 week training program actually specifies NO CARDIO. It's all about weight training.  I actually started with the training program first, and then decided the mud run would be a good goal because it is a 5K but also will require strength.

I am finishing up week 1 this weekend. It's pretty rough: "rest days". I do have "before" pictures, but trust me, those will never see the light of day until the "after" shows some serious change. Or unless I become a celebrity, and my dino-computer gets hacked.

Happy spring everybody! I hope you are enjoying beautiful, get your booty outside, weather!

What I Learned from January

February is here, which means I survived BlogHer's National Blog Posting Month challenge for January. Technically, I failed because I did not post every single day in January, but I sure got close! And a couple of days I actually posted twice, which I think should get me some make up points.

I won't be doing NaBloPoMo for February, but do hope to write at least a few times a week this month. 

Guess what else I did last month? I didn't drink pop! 

Unfortunately, when I stop drinking pop, I increase the amount of coffee and flavored lattes to make up for the caffeine and sugar. So for February, I'm doubling up: no pop & no lattes. I am switching to herbal tea, but allowing for 1 cup of unadulterated coffee in the morning. 

And because I like to do things in 3's sometimes, like right now, a third goal for February: by the end of the month, I am going to finish the grand master planned re-do of our home office.  I have my eye on an ugly little desk someone is selling for cheap on Craigslist. It will fit perfectly into my plan and the guy is only asking $25! The plan involves painting, switching out the current bookcase with one upstairs, smaller desk, beautifying the ugly metal filing cabinet, and a few other changes. I'm going to go all HGTV style and do all this stuff by myself, with a budget, and totally cheery and smiley the whole time. Uh-huh.

So, three February goals:

1) Blog "a few" times a week
2) No pop, no lattes
3) Update the home office

I must also like the number 4 because there is one more I just thought of! I am going to stick to my duathlon  training calendar workouts, even though they are totally kicking my ass! Literally, my butt hurts. (At least it's in a good muscle-weary way, and not the "I spent too much time on the spin bike and my butt is super tender" way.)

4) Continue with duathlon training

Check back at the beginning of March to see how I did with my goals! 

Beginnings 2012

Today is the first day of 2012. I have to admit, I am a New Years Grinch.  There is no traumatic story involved, and I don't *think* my heart is three sizes too small.  I just find the whole thing anti-climactic.  As someone who doesn't stay up late and doesn't enjoy drinking in excess, NYE seems like a big effort for... not that much. I am pretty neutral about fireworks, don't like crowds, and am not a fan of watching crowds and fireworks on television.  Bah-humbug.

This new year is kind of a sham. I did not earn my New Years badge this year. My family didn't send out a Christmas card and letter. We packed up our Christmas stuff early because our tree dried out really fast. Fail.

I also am not creating new years "resolutions" this year. Last year's, immortalized in this blog post, ended up being pathetic efforts (other than running Ragnar which was AWESOME!). So this year I'm still aiming for the same.  The theme for the year will be SIMPLIFY.

And now I will start the year off right by totally blowing my own goal.  I am going to be participating in NaBloPoMo -- National Blog Posting Month.  [I'm new to the whole thing, but am perplexed because in a few minutes of looking around at the website it appears that EVERY month is blog posting month???]
That's right - I'm setting a goal to blog every day in January.

Look I did it! Day 1... done!

2011 Goals

Let me just start by saying that it becomes apparent that I have problems when my goals for 2011 are organized into categories for "ease of use". Seriously. I need help. Really though, I kind of have an excuse, which is that I already set goals for myself specifically related to health, so it seems easy enough to keep those and then round out the list. Right? Yeah, not too convincing, I know.

HEALTH GOALS
* Become a mindless Clean Eater -- I've been a sort-of-Clean-Eater for a couple of years now, but in November I decided that it can't be a half & half thing. I'm been about 95% clean over the past 7 weeks, and that includes Thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas and New Years. In 2011, I'm hoping that I can transition from eating clean because I carefully plan, consider, etc. to eating clean because it's what I am used to and I know my body likes it!

* Complete the workouts in The New Rules of Lifting for Women in their entirity.  The workouts are designed to span 6-8 months, so this is a long term commitment.  I'm about 6 weeks in now.  "Put down those Barbie weights!" Secondary goal here: complete at least 1 unassisted pull-up.

* Train for and survive the Ragnar Relay - Northwest Passage in July.  Hopefully our first team planning meeting will happen in the next few weeks! For me, this will mean completing 3 runs over a 24 hour period at any hour of the night on probably know sleep, with each run being between 3-6 miles. Considering the furthest I've ever run at one time at this point is 3.5 miles, I have a good amount of training to do this spring/summer!

* Run the 10K at Fall Fest this year. It will be my first 10K.  Also, improve my 5K time to break 30 minutes.

AND THE REST

* Start to say no. Or, I could also call this: simplify my life.  Instead of having a job where I have a continuum of tasks or a handy "to do" list, which is what I prefer, I currently have my hand in many, MANY things at my daughter's school and our church. When you try to list all of the volunteer things you are responsible for and can't remember them all to list them, that means there are too many. And the problem is my fault because I don't say no. I think this might actually change this year because usually my reasoning is, "I should help with this because I have time and can do it." But now the reasoning is tipping towards, "I would like to help with this but don't have enough time or concentration to even remember that I am committing to it." Yikes.

* Be less hard on myself. Sometimes it's ok to not finish something or to do "just enough". I know this, but need to remember it and believe it.

* Read 52 books and finish my "10 to read in 2011" challenge! Right now I'm reading Anna Karenina and it is slowly grinding my reading life to a halt. Let's just say I'm going to have a lot of reading to do to make up lost time on the "52 books" goal.

* Get back to Chicago to see family. I haven't been "home" since 2004. It's been a long time. This goal may be unattainable because the primary problem has been financial and, as I learned with last year's goals, "goaling" for more money doesn't really cut it! =) But, it's something I'd like to do, so it's listed here.

* Family trips to 2 previously unexplored places. I'm not talking about shopping at Albertsons instead of Yokes. I mean "vacations" or day trips that will be real experiences for our family.

Happy New Year everybody!!

Reflections: 2010 Goals

It's that time of year again - desperate to keep my mind off of the mess of new toys and clothes in my living room, I start thinking about my goals for next year.  If my brain can't take the present, might as well look to the future, right?

Only, for today, I decided it would be good to look back to the past. Specifically: my January 2010 post outlining my goals for this year.

How did I do?

1) Increase my focus on being "healthy and strong"
This was goal #1, so it's the most important, right? I hope so, because it is one of the only ones that I really made some progress on this year! I switched gyms this fall to one with a kids area that Little Man actually likes going to. It has made all the difference in the world. I've been hitting the gym 5-6 days a week and really look forward to that time. I feel "healthy and strong', and it is a good stress release and time to get focused on my day.  I recently started the weight training workouts in The New Rules of Lifting for Women and am seeing results already.  I am committed, and staying committed (minus my birthday and Christmas which was a cookie debacle), to clean eating, which feels great!
Goal Accomplishment Rating: 4/5

2) Cut back on tv & movies

Let's get real. This didn't happen.  My husband and I crave our evening brain shut off time after the kids go to bed, and we are still "shutting off" to movies and tv. Hey, at least we saw some good movies this year!

Goal Accomplishment Rating: 0/5

3) Add some adventure

When I wrote the original goal, I talked about my plans to go on crazy adventures with Eric and the kids. To do things that are out of the ordinary and create memories.  I think we did a little of that this year. I hope to seek out more adventure in 2011! We did a major landscaping overhaul of our backyard that was definitely "adventure" in a torturous, exhausting way.  Oh yeah, and I went to Haiti on a missions trip, one of the big adventures of my life so far.

Goal Accomplishment Rating: 4/5

4) Put some money into savings

This turned out to be a wish rather than a goal.  I'm giving myself 1 point because we didn't go into debt!

Goal Accomplishment Rating: 1/5

5) Become an intentional friend

This is a rough one to gauge.  I think I was mentally an intentional friend this year. I thought of my friends more, prayed for friends. Didn't do very well at reaching out to friends. Room for improvement.

Goal Accomplishment Rating: 2/5

6) Read more good books

I read like crazy this year! I think I read about a book a week. Not all were good books, but many turned out to be among the best I've ever read (see previous post).  One funny thing about looking back at last year's goals is that under this goal, I mentioned reading "The Bookseller of Kabul" and having weird dreams from it.  I have absolutely no recollection at all of reading that book, and my Goodreads page shows it listed as a "to read". What is up with that? Did I start it and then stop because of weird dreams? Why don't I remember anything about the book at all? Perplexing.

Goal Accomplishment Rating: 5/5 

Hopefully within the next few days I will have a chance to share some of my goals for 2011!

Goals for 2010

I'm about a week late here, but I have been thinking about some goals I have for 2010. Not "resolutions", more like things I'd like to do or work on for this year without the "fail" if some of these things don't happen, or don't happen as often as I would like.

1) Increase my focus on being "healthy and strong"

Eric and I often talk to L about being 'healthy and strong'. Better than talking about not eating junk food because of the chance of getting fat, we talk about how eating nutritious foods help us become healthy and strong. And how our minds can also be healthy and strong. So now it's my turn too. Instead of worrying about my weight or what size pants I'm wearing, if I'm "cheating" by eating a cookie, I'm going to try to spend this year focusing on making choices that make me feel better. I'm continuing to struggle with that distinction when it comes to cutting out sugar and refined flours (doctor prescribed nutrition plan) - I still feel like I'm "dieting" which automatically puts me in a mindset where I think about cheating or sneaking foods I shouldn't be eating, which leads to me eating those things, which leads to increased symptoms of yuckiness (joint pain, tiredness, etc.)
As I recently posted, I'm starting a new workout program, which I think will be good because it is in no way supportive of losing weight and being thin, but instead focuses on strength, flexibility, balance, agility, etc. All good things that will help me be a better mom too!

2) Cut back on tv & movies

I'm planning to make it a goal that at least one weeknight a week, Eric and I spend time actually engaging with each other instead of lounging in front of the tv, reading books, or spending time brainlessly on the computer. Talking, playing a game, doing a puzzle, whatever. Just some time for us to be together while we actually are, in fact, together!

3) Add some adventure

We don't really have the budget for serious adventure, but I want to try to do at least one thing a month as a family or just me and the kids that I would consider adventure. Things outside of the norm of our every day life. So maybe it'll be a day trip to someplace new or spending a few days building vegetable garden beds while the kids "help". Whatever it is, it'll be family time spent doing something new and exciting!

4) Put some money into savings

I'm the family budgeter and also am the one who spends a majority of our flexible funds each month on groceries, cleaning supplies and other necessities. One of the goals for this year is to move from "just getting by month to month" to actually being able to stash a little bit away at the end of each month. Or, simply writing those end of the month bill checks without feeling like I want to puke would suffice!

5) Become an intentional friend

I'm six months in to being brand new to this area and have started meeting and making some friends. Friend making is a weakness of mine (as in, I'm not good at it). I'm hard to get to know, and I know it, which makes me uncomfortable around new(er) people because I worry they are struggling to understand the puzzle that is my unique brain.  But, enough of the excuses!
Isn't it wonderful to have intentional friends? You know, the ones who actually reach out and ask how you are doing? Who think of you at random times and say a prayer for you, or bring you a book or plate of brownies because they thought you might need/want them?
I am going to be one of those friends this year, not only to hopefully get to know my new friends here better, but also to reconnect with some old friends who I've lost touch with.

6) Read more good books

This one is actually a carry-over from 2009, but it's my blog so I set the rules! My mommy brain has really seemed to benefit from reading good books as often as possible. Well written books, books on topics that I find interesting, books that "everyone" is talking about. I love to read and, most of the time, reading is also a good way for me to wind down before bed. (A recent exception being The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad, which caused me to have really weird dreams three nights in a row that were loosely related to the book.) I plan to keep up with the good habit this year.