March Updates…

Jacob and I have been sick a lot lately. I think I can count on my hands  the number of days that we both have been healthy these past two months. It’s very overwhelming being pregnant and sick and then on top of that having to deal with a sick child. It’s been very difficult for me to stay at home and not go anywhere because the days seem very long and I miss all of the social interaction I get from my mommy groups. Being sick has kept us at home a lot more and I have managed to do a few things with the limited energy and time I’ve had.

My updated March “goal” list:

JUST FOR ME

-Get a haircut :) I had not had one since before Jacob was born so for at least 10 months! And I actually got a decent one instead of the cheap ones I normally get.

-Have a “me” day

-Be more positive

HEALTH

-Take my prenatal vitamin every day -so far I’ve taken it maybe 5/13 days…

LOVE

-Cook dinner at least once a week for Sinisa

-Write a letter to Sinisa

-Go on a date

-Start the Love Dare book (again)

-Buy Sinisa something he’s been wanting

-Do something special for Sinisa’s birthday- his birthday is Sunday and my grand plans were ruined thanks to his mother but I’m going to at least try to salvage them…

BEING A MOMMY

-Write Jacob, Lucas, and Avery each a letter

-Get Jacob’s 9 month pictures taken

-Take a belly picture

-Order Jacob’s birth certificate

FAMILY

-Spend at least five days with family- think I’ve spent 2 or 3 so far…

-Email my grandma

SOCIAL

-Go on kid-free weekend trip w/ friends- scheduled for next weekend

HOUSEHOLD

-Sanitize all Jacob’s toys

-Get rid of 10 magazines in my “magazine” basket

-Organize kitchen cabinets- I did one cabinet so far…

-Make crib rail covers- material bought/washed already

-Clean vent and fan-

FINANCIAL

-Stick to monthly budget- so far we are doing good…

-Pay off car- thought I paid it all off but then got a letter saying I owe more… grr…..

-Become current or payed ahead on all bills

-Save a portion of each paycheck- we are on schedule to save $500-$1000 this month

-Open a savings account- want to do at the end of the month

-Get Renter’s insurance- got a rate quote online but have to check another place before deciding

-Make a menu for at least one week and follow it when grocery shopping- I forgot my grocery list at home but think I ended up getting almost everything I need.

ENTERTAINMENT

-See a new movie

WRITING/READING

-Read one Nora Roberts book

CREATIVE ENDEAVORS

-Complete scrapbook pages for Jacob’s birth and time in the hospital

-Start organizing pictures

GIVING BACK

-Do a random act of kindness

-Give away 50 items

-Leave a dollar somewhere a child will find it

SPIRITUAL

-Read Bible every day (using year plan)

-Tithe each week- haven’t gone to Church because one of us has been sick each week…

FUN

-Complete 10 suduko puzzles

-Try a new restaurant or a new food

ONLINE/COMPUTER

-Empty email inbox

-Print out pictures on Snapfish through 6 months

-Rename blog

THINGS TO BUY

-Buy crib

-Buy video camera

-Buy wii we are no longer buying this…

-Buy new phones

-Buy toddler carseat- it is out of stock online at Walmart which is where I found it the cheapest so I’m trying to holdout until it’s available again…

JUST BECAUSE I NEED TO

-Get oil changed

-Buy and use a fireproof box for important papers- bought it but it’s still in the box

-Resign lease for apartment

_________________________________________________________

So far I think I am doing ok in working towards my month goals. With getting my tax refund back I was able to complete or at least work on a bunch of financial goals which was good.  I got a pedicure/manicure and, with the exception of this week, have kept my house pretty clean this month. I also made it to Walgreens to start my diaper stockpile while they are having this amazing sale. I figure whatever Jacob can’t use, Lucas will be able to use…

I am on an antibiotic so hopefully I will feel better in the next couple days and will have more energy to do things. The weather also should be nicer these next few days which should motivate me to get some things accomplished :)

“Me” Time? What’s that??

So I had been looking forward to this Sunday/Monday for about a week or so. I was dropping Jacob off at my MIL’s on Sunday morning and then getting some things done around the house and running some errands. That I wasn’t looking forward to but Monday’s “to-do’s” were a lot more exciting. It was supposed to be a “me” day. First, I was going to get a haircut. A real haircut. Not the $10 bargain one I normally get. Afterwards I was going to come home and spend the day doing things that were enjoyable. I was not going to clean. I was not going to to laundry. I was not going to even think about doing those things or guilt myself into doing them. What a great day it would have been but life decided to “happen” so I had to cancel my “me” time.

It all started this morning with my MIL calling and saying she needed me to come at 1pm, not 11am. Ok, 2 hours. I can deal with that. So I decided to go over to my brother’s house to spend time with my SIL and my nephew. I couldn’t take Jacob to Church because he was still sick and we had the time since Jacob is on a “45 minutes is long enough for me to nap now” kick. While over there I was talking about maternity clothes and how I was going to buy a few things for myself. I told her I needed new jeans because the ones I was wearing (my go-to, great with gym shoes and flip flop jeans) were about to get a hole in the thigh area. While saying this I looked down and discovered that they weren’t about to get a hole, they already had one. Great. I knew they wouldn’t last another wash cycle so I added “go to store” on my to-do list for the day.

So we leave my SIL’s after Jacob and his cousin had lots of time to play together, or should I say around each other. I dropped Jacob off at my MIL’s and then went to the store. I had to pick up Jacob’s pictures anyways so I figured I’d go to JcPenney’s. After trying on about 25 bras (in three different sizes), some jeans, and a few shirts I left the store with a couple pairs of jeans. Then I thought that I might as well go to Motherhood Maternity and see if they had any bras that fit me and were comfortable. After trying on some different ones and not finding anything that worked, the lady at the store convinced me to let her take my measurements (cross that off my list). She came up with the same size that I had already been trying on. She found me some different styles to try on and I found a few that worked. I ended up leaving with five bras (2 sleeping and 3 regular) and was quite happy with my shopping day. Before I left I picked up the prints of Jacob from the photography studio and laughed again when I saw my son’s St. Patty’s day picture (the only picture I have of him crying his eyes out).

On my way home I mentally went through my to-do list and added up how much time I’d need to do each task. I figured the “make crib rail covers” would take a while so I knew most likely I’d have to use some of my “me” day to make that for Jacob. When I got home I had something unexpected happen and, long story short, ended up spending most of the evening in bed and sitting on the computer not wanting to do anything.

So basically I told you all that to get to the point that I now have to use my “me” day to do everything that didn’t get done today. I have to: dust, vacuum, organize kitchen cabinets, do laundry, clean Jake’s room, go to Walgreens, start the crib rail covers, clean the kitchen, and sanitize the rest of Jacob’s toys. Maybe if I’m lucky I can get a “me” hour in at the end of the day. Or maybe I’ll just want to crawl into bed. We’ll see….

Tomorrow starts a new month…

I can’t believe tomorrow is March 1st already. It seems like 2009 just started. Since it’s a new month it is time to decide what goals I will concentrate on. I have chosen the following:

JUST FOR ME

-Get a haircut

-Have a “me” day

-Be more positive

HEALTH

-Take my prenatal vitamin every day

LOVE

-Cook dinner at least once a week for Sinisa

-Write a letter to Sinisa

-Go on a date

-Start the Love Dare book (again)

-Buy Sinisa something he’s been wanting

-Do something special for Sinisa’s birthday

BEING A MOMMY

-Write Jacob, Lucas, and Avery each a letter

-Get Jacob’s 9 month pictures taken

-Take a belly picture

-Order Jacob’s birth certificate

FAMILY

-Spend at least five days with family

-Email my grandma

SOCIAL

-Go on kid-free weekend trip w/ friends

HOUSEHOLD

-Sanitize all Jacob’s toys

-Get rid of 10 magazines in my “magazine” basket

-Organize kitchen cabinets

-Make crib rail covers

-Clean vent and fan

FINANCIAL

-Stick to monthly budget

-Pay off car

-Become current or payed ahead on all bills

-Save a portion of each paycheck

-Open a savings account

-Get Renter’s insurance

-Make a menu for at least one week and follow it when grocery shopping

ENTERTAINMENT

-See a new movie

WRITING/READING

-Read one Nora Roberts book

CREATIVE ENDEAVORS

-Complete scrapbook pages for Jacob’s birth and time in the hospital

-Start organizing pictures

GIVING BACK

-Do a random act of kindness

-Give away 50 items

-Leave a dollar somewhere a child will find it

SPIRITUAL

-Read Bible every day (using year plan)

-Tithe each week

FUN

-Complete 10 suduko puzzles

-Try a new restaurant or a new food

ONLINE/COMPUTER

-Empty email inbox

-Print out pictures on Snapfish through 6 months

-Rename blog

THINGS TO BUY

-Buy crib

-Buy video camera

-Buy wii

-Buy new phones

-Buy toddler carseat

JUST BECAUSE I NEED TO

-Get oil changed

-Buy and use a fireproof box for important papers

-Resign lease for apartment

See you in March :)

Looking ahead…

Today was my little sister’s 13th birthday and while debating on what I should get her, I thought about every other special occasion that was coming up this Spring and Summer for my family. I decided to make a list because… well, that’s just what I do :)

March- Stepmom’s birthday and Sinisa’s (fiance) birthday

April- Easter

May- Brother’s 1st Wedding Anniversary, Other brother’s birthday and graduation from high school, Nephew’s 2nd birthday

June- Son’s 1st birthday, my due date for baby Lucas, my sister’s birthday, my sister-in-laws birthday

July- My sister-in-law is due with my niece, my birthday is at the end of the month

That’s 13 gift giving occasions. And knowing me and my pregnant, mommy brain I probably forgot something. I’m glad I made this list ahead of time because I have just started budgeting (March is month one) and I will need to include an amount for gift giving every month from now until the end of Summer.

I am not a homemaker…

I am not a homemaker. I have been fine with this, even joking about it, until recently. After reading other “stay-at-home mom” blogs in the past weeks I’ve begun to feel guilty and I’ve realized that I really could be doing more than I do. Before a couple weeks ago I rarely cleaned and I almost never cooked. One of my goals for 2009 that I shared with my mom’s group was to “cook once a week”. It’s not that we eat out all the time (though we probably do that more often than we should), it’s that I eat a tv dinner or something else easy to make or Sinisa cooks when he comes home from work. I really am going to try to make an effort to cook more this year. This is my next step in becoming more “domesticated” (is that even a word?)

Right now though, my focus is on keeping my house “company ready”. Before I could never just invite people over when I felt like it because I always had to “prepare” my home for visitors. For the first time this past weekend I was on the phone with someone and said “why don’t you come on over?”. Let me tell you how great it felt to be able to say that. Granted it was only family (my sister in law) but before I had never felt comfortable enough to say that and the thought of someone coming over unannounced gave me anxiety. Even though my house has stayed clean, I am not following my “daily” and “weekly” lists that I made for myself so that is one area I would like to improve on.

I’m off to get some things accomplished now. My to-do list for tonight includes:

-Putting laundry away that’s in the dryer

-Update “goals”

-Going through my email inbox and deleting some old emails (my inbox has over 3500 emails in it!) My goal is to delete 500 tonight…

-Write up a monthly budget (or at least start it)

-Post some pictures of Jacob on facebook

Of course I also am going to watch tv, including the Bachelor. Should be interesting tonight because it’s the “women tell all” episode…

A New Way of Doing Things Around Here…

So I have made and will be continuing to make some changes with this site. I’ve decided I really want to make this blogging thing a bigger deal than I have been.

The biggest change I’m going to make is the name of my blog. I named it “life” because I didn’t have any creative thoughts at the time. “Life” is just a little to broad and really doesn’t tell anyone what the blog is about. I don’t have a name for the blog yet but I’m brainstorming :)

Another change I’ve started with this post is actually giving the posts titles that make sense instead of just having the title be the date that I write the post. This way people will: 1) know what the blog is about and 2) it will maybe come up in search engines. I believe each post is dated anyways underneath the title.

I also want to add more: links, pictures, and media. I read about 100 different blogs so I’d like to introduce people to those blogs that I read by linking to them in my post if I think the blog (or a post in it) has to do with the subject I’m talking about. I also would like to add pictures that are relevant and maybe some videos/music that are as well.

The last thing I’m working on changing is the look of my blog. Every other blog I visit is fancy and professional and mine is just a template from wordpress. Guess I’ll have to figure out how to change it…

One thing I will keep the same is the theme of the blog which is talking about my life as a mom and also as a woman. My children are very important to me but a lot of what this blog is about has to do with achieving the goals that I have set for myself in all areas of my life, not just in motherhood.

Hopefully I can develop this blog into something more meaningful to my readers and encourage other moms to become the people they have always dreamed of becoming.

Now to end this lets try a link to my blogroll which will show all the blogs I subscribe to in a rss feeder:

http://rpc.bloglines.com/blogroll?html=1&id=aliciamarie112

FYI: It took about 5 tries to get the link above to be clicky… this may be a slow process :)

February 17, 2009

I was thinking a lot today about how I always get my house clean and then, not even a week later, am looking at a messy home again. I tend to “clean” only once a week or every other week when Jacob goes to his grandma’s. The reason I do this is because I like to interact with Jacob as much as possible while he is home and then at night when he is sleeping I just want to relax because I’m exhausted. This clearly isn’t working for me so I’ve decided to try something new. I’m going to make a “daily” list, “weekly” list, and “monthly” list of things that need to get done around the house for myself to follow. I will also start each week with a to-do list and then each morning pick 3-5 things off that list to complete each day. I will try this for a month and see if this works better than the method I am currently using. First, I need to make the lists. This is what I have so far for the “daily”, “weekly”, and “monthly” lists…

Daily- Sweep/swiffer kitchen floor, one load of dishes (start to finish), pick up kitchen nightly, one load of laundry (wash/dry/AND put away), Bible reading/devotions, clean up toy room

Weekly- Dust, vac., menu plan/grocery store, clean bathrooms, clean up Jacob’s room, update blog/goal list, check voicemail, pay bills, change bed linens, clean up desk area, upload pictures on computer

Monthly- Budget, one project from goal list

Those are the things I can think of right now. I know there are more things that need to get done on a regular basis but I feel pretty good knowing that I started the lists. As soon as I get some color ink for the printer (it needs color ink even to print only black and white) I will make a check list in wordpad and then print it out so I can physically cross each item off the list. I do better having things written down because there is more of a chance I will complete them.

As for the daily goals I will give myself each morning I gave myself a few tonight. I am going to do my homework for small group tomorrow morning, post pictures on facebook, and research who can qualify as head of household so that I can file my taxes. I am also going to watch some tv, including American Idol :)

February 15, 2009

I posted before that I was pregnant again and since then we have had the 20 week ultrasound where we found out that we are having another boy. This pregnancy I had hoped for a boy so I was excited when I saw that I was “growing a penis inside of me” (as one of my friends so eloquently put it…) As much as I would love to have a girl I know that financially we really wouldn’t be able to afford one. Having two boys means they can easily share a room, clothes and toys. Not to mention the fact that I hope they will become best friends :)

December 6, 2009

I figured I should post considering it’s a new year and it’s been months since I’ve done so. I updated my 300 in 3 years list as well. So far I have completed 28 goals and have 65 in progress. I am pregnant again and circumstances in my life have changed so I will be updating this 300 list with some new goals and taking away ones that don’t apply to my life anymore. When I first created this list I figured that I would change the list once or twice a year and looking back on the list I created in July 2008, I can see that many things have changed since then.

I would like to encourage everyone who has “New Year’s Resolutions” or just goals in general to write them down and look at them often. You can also look back and see how much you have accomplished which is always uplifting.

September 3, 2008

It’s been almost a week since I’ve updated. With fall tv season starting, becoming more involved in my social groups, and cleaning and organizing my house I’ve been really busy. I cleaned out Jacob’s closet and have a huge gathering of items by my door that I either need to sell or give away. I also rearranged things around my house to better use the space. I think once my house gets organized I will be able to spend more time on things that I’d like to do like blogging, scrapbooking, and reading. And working out, too. It’s been a while since I’ve gone to the gym.

Today was a great day. Sinisa had a day off so I got a chance to spend some time with him and also work on things that I normally wouldn’t be able to do while watching Jacob. He also had some time to build a bookshelf for all my parenting books so I could keep them all in one place. I’m looking forward to just relaxing for a couple of hours with him before going to bed at a decently early hour (yes, 11/11:30 is early for me).

Tomorrow is my first MOPS meeting. I’m excited to see what it’s all about. In the afternoon I have a dentist appointment. I’m hoping I can just get a normal cleaning which is $50 and don’t need a deep cleaning which is over $600. My insurance doesn’t pay for either of them so I’d rather pay as little as possible out of pocket. I hate going to the dentist…

Today’s Challenge: When was the last time you saw the dentist? If it’s been a while, schedule yourself an appointment.