Thursday, January 13, 2011

Oh my God! Has it seriously been almost two months since I updated this blog? Wow. It must be because I have been sooo busy living this absolutely fabulous life that is just brimming with things to do and see a la important hipster moms like Gwynneth Paltrow and Stella McCartney .

hahahahaha.

Actually, it's been because my priorities just haven't been straight. And I got swept up in that time-and-energy-suck known as "the holidays". And really, how many surveys can I possibly do? But the last couple of days, so much has happened that I feel I could blog about, though everyone else is so why add more to the cacaphony of critique out there on Tiger Mom (I get the no sleep-over, high expectations part; not so down with the name-calling but I haven't read the book, just an article. And we all know the media never conveniently leaves anything out in the name of a good story.) or The Most Amazing Press Release Ever Written which I'm so mad I didn't think of first. Though frankly, even if I had thought of it, I probably wouldn't get around to it in time to actually exploit it before someone else did anyway.

Which brings me to Resolutions 2011. So, I'm a big goal person - not that you can tell from this blog, I know. But here's a secret about me: when I was in university, I wrote down everything I wanted to accomplish before I was 30 - everything from degrees I wanted to jobs I wanted to how much money I was going to make to how many kids I was going to have to where I was going to travel. And I accomplished every single thing on my list. Every single one. And then I petered out. I had my two kids and decided to stay home for awhile and lost all motivation once I found myself pregnant with number three. And I wouldn't trade them for anything, but if my twenties were all about achievement! success! me!, then my thirties so far have been all about diapers! sleep training! them! I've got a few years until I'm forty but girlfriend needs to PREPARE for that by getting up to speed here. So I've decided to make some goals again because well, why not? Some are too personal to put out there into the blogosphere (because I am not all about that overshare that has been facillitated by things like blogs and facebook and twitter. Really, boundaries are important - crucial even - to a healthy self-esteem, I'd argue), but here's a couple I'm working on...

1. Actually lose that f'n ten pounds. I am fatter than I was nine months into breastfeeding my third baby. That is just unacceptable. I want to be energetic and healthy and keep up with my kids! Oh bull. I want to be hot. I want to be a hot mom, a cougar even, in a few years. So what? Vanity can be a great motivator for a lot of things and I never claimed to be all that deep. I will inform you that I worked out three times last week and FOUR already this week and week's not over yet. I want to be my goal weight before my annual checkup in April and surprise my doctor, who's fantastic and always tells me how great I look so I don't know why I have made this deadline. I think I just want the magic number on my chart. And goals have to be measurable and have a deadline so there you go.

2. Organize my basement. I've actually already finished this but I get motivated when I see results so I'm putting it in. It's an ongoing thing as with five people we tend to accumulate a lot of crap but for now, I can get into all my storage areas and see the floor. This is what I have spent the last couple of weeks on and I am going to go ahead and cross it off my list and bathe in the afterglow of a goal accomplished so quickly. Ahhhh....

3. Use the library more. I buy too many books. I have a library card - the greatest invention ever. I should read more library books. Today I maxed
out the number of books I'm allowed to order, which kind of pissed me off but at least I'm making headway!

4. Get some paid work. I'm getting over volunteering for bullshit nonprofits that don't even build houses in Haiti or cure cholera in Haiti or boost Haiti's economic rating. I have an impressive resume and a solid education. It's time I went back to profiting from it.

5. Less food porn, more real life food. If I cooked and baked as much as I read about cooking and baking, I would have been the one to start Smitten Kitchen or Dinner with Julie (only it would be called Dinner with Irene or some such thing) and then I'd be accompishing two goals at once.

6. Update my blog more often. So what if I only have two real followers whom I speak to on the phone at least four times a week. It's good practice. It can't hurt. I think I've almost beat my last record so that's a start.

So, that's it friends, the stuff I'm willing to share publicly anyway. How about you? What are your resolutions for 2011? Do you make them? Do you believe writing shit down and putting it out to the universe a la The Secret or this potentially mythical Harvard University study actually makes a difference?

Oh, and Happy New Year!

1 comment:

Snarky Sister said...

I hear you on number 3 and 5. Now that you've written it down and the world has seen it, you'll have no choice but to complete your goals, otherwise we'll all know you've failed and will mock you. Good luck - I have no doubt you will achieve all of them :)