New Years Resolutions

Can you believe it's almost 2014? Good Lord, when did that happen?! Like everyone else on this half of the planet Earth, I too usually make the standard NY resolutions:

1. Lose weight (lose last 10 baby lbs to be exact)
2. Get organized (this is never ending for me though seeing as I'm so...ahem...particular about things)
3. Learn not to procrastinate (at work, home, with difficult situations...)
4. Spend more time with family and friends
5. Save money -  in all seriousness, I did not realize having a baby was going to be so EXPENSIVE and therefore this resolution truly needs to happen. Like ASAP. Like, I have serious spending problems that are spiraling out of control (Starbucks every morning, say what?!)
6. Manage my stress in a more healthy way

Etc, etc, etc. You know the drill. 

Rather than subject myself to the above resolutions that are so broad and unobtainable (hey, just being honest here) I have broken these down and added some more easily managed ones:

1. Go to bed by 9:30 pm at least two nights a week
2. Don't bring work home...weeeeelllll, don't bring work home two nights a week
3. Starbucks only once a week (GASP-my local barista just had a heart attack)
4. Sign up for one race a month. Ok, I love running. But I don't make time for it. My boss had this resolution last year and said it worked well for her and forced her to make time to run (hey, at least once a month!) and she's the busiest person I know. If she can do it, I can do it. Hell, you pay to race - don't want to waste money!
5. Sit down with Sean and come up with a budget. Baby steps, right? We've never really had a budget before so this should be interesting.
6. Be to work on time at least 3 days a week *** Cue the laughter*** So for 2012 the big joke among my friends was that I made the resolution to be on time to work at least once a week. I'm chronically late. I just am. In 2013 it was to be on time to work 2 days a week. Now I'm moving on up. I figure by 2015 I'll be on time every single day. Again, baby steps, people.
7. Take more pictures! Life passes by so fast with Conrad that I want to be able to savor every moment (if I get brave I may add "upload all pictures" to this list..but lets not go overboard here).

And I think for now, that's certainly enough. I'll see how January goes and then perhaps move on from there.

What are your thoughts on New Years resolutions?

Friday Five

Linking up this week with Darci & friends for this Friday's Five!

1.   Christmas of course! We had a cute little Santa’s helper on our hands. While Conrad didn’t understand the whole Jesus’s birthday, Santa brings presents, we all eat and drink a lot thing, he sure did like the lights, paper and bows, and Santa figurines. And we liked how cute our little elf was running around saying “Danta, Danta, Danta!”

2.   We finally got over a double ear infection so now our once fussy, crabby baby is now a happy little guy…as long as he’s fed! He must be going through a growth spurt or something because he wants to “eat eat” all the time.

3.   We had our first…poop in the tub incident. We thought we may have escaped it after going 14 months without one and BAM…there it was. Disgusting! I’ll spare you the details but it was no small feat in cleaning up and I hope to not ever have to do that again.

4.   Christmas pictures with my family. Since I did not get much time off for Christmas this week, we spent the weekend before with my family and then Sean’s family came to our house for Christmas Eve and Day. When we went to my parent’s house we had Christmas pictures taken with my parents…and this, by far, is my favorite one:

Santa?! I KNOW him!

Cousin cuties!

5.   New Years is almost here! We are spending NYE with some of our best friends; they are bringing over their two year old boy and after the kiddos go to bed we are feasting on yummy food and champagne. We’ve spent a lot of crazy New Years with this couple in the past and I have a feeling that this year will be much more low key since we are now…ahem…over 30 and have kids.

Thankful Thursday

This Christmas week I'm most thankful for our Lord God, Jesus Christ! His unconditional love, forgiveness, and sacrifice are qualities that all, regardless of faith, should strive to have and I'm so blessed to know and be known by Him.

Especially now that I have my own little guy, I wonder how Jesus was as a baby and little boy. He was, after all, human! And I sometimes think about how Mary was as a mom...did she struggle with the same things we all did? I remember last year at this time, Conrad was only two and a half months old and I thought I would  go insane with all his fussiness and crying. I posted the following quote on Facebook and got about a billion "likes" and comments from all my fellow moms out there:

"I wonder if baby Jesus ever made Mary want to down an entire bottle of Pinot at 12 noon?"

HA! She was human as well and I'm sure had to deal with poopy diapers, breastfeeding, and sleepless nights! I mean, I know the song says "The little Lord Jesus no crying He makes" but hey, a baby's a baby.

All jokes aside, this Christmas was an amazing one and I'm so thankful for such a special birthday. I can't wait to someday tell Conrad the real Christmas story and have him understand what a precious gift we've all been given.

Merry Christmas!

 From our family to yours...