Looking ahead to 2015

 

Although 2014 was a good year, there are definitely changes I’d like to make in 2015, starting with this blog.  As of right now I have a whooping 19 blog posts done for last year.  That bums me out big-time.  I use this blog as my online diary and we print books out at the end of each year and we’re hoping someday we’ll have an entire set of the books with the story of our lives in them to pass down to the kids.  I have so many pictures from last year that I haven’t even looked at, but I am starting to go through my photos and edit them and it is my goal to get all of those pictures, at least, up on the blog.  I’ll write as much as I remember about the days I took them, but at least the pictures are better than nothing.  And then I hope to keep up on it much better this year, although with having a job and adding another kid to the mix and possibly moving God knows where, that might be tough.  But I’m going to attempt it anyway.  I’m bound and determined to get last year caught up too, but I’m going to be back-dating all of my posts so they probably won’t show up in your feeds.  If you want me to email them to you, let me know and I’ll add you to the list!

Speaking of the blog and all my photos and editing, that’s another thing I’d like to work on.  I really want to improve in my photography, including the actual picture taking and figuring out my camera more and then editing in Lightroom.  This blog was a lot easier to keep up with when I didn’t know much about photography and didn’t edit any of the photos.  It adds significantly more time to the blogging process when I want to edit the photos before I put them on here.  This year I would LOVE to upgrade my camera to a full frame (preferably the 5D Mark iii), but considering that camera is about $2500 I’m not sure that’s going to happen.  Although, when we had Abbie, we got my first DSLR, the XSi, and shortly after we had Ben we upgraded to the 60D, so it would just be keeping up with tradition if I upgraded again with baby #3.  I love the 60D but I take a lot of photos inside and I have to bump the ISO up SO much to be able to have the shutter speed above 1/120, which I need considering I’m shooting kids or dogs (aka – moving targets).  But if the ISO is above like 800 the photos have a ton of noise in them and that bugs the hell out of me.  (See below for examples.)  I still get decent pictures, but I like crisp, clean shots and these are far from it.  

I also would love to work on de-cluttering my house.  I am the queen of holding on to things I don’t really need to keep because I always think of the what-if’s.  But let’s face it, I’m not ever going to be the size I was in high school anymore and having some of those clothes is more depressing than motivating at this point so I could probably unload them.  We have so much stuff that we don’t use that I should just get rid of.  And my main motivation is our potential move this summer.  We were close to our weight limit when we moved from Italy to here and since then we’ve purchased another kitchen table (and I’m using the old one as one of my sewing tables), a solid oak antique desk for Abbie, a huge 3 piece sectional couch and lots of other little things that add up in weight.  I can almost guarantee wherever we go next we won’t be living in a 3100+ sq foot house and we’re not going to have room for all our stuff so we might as well downsize now.  I’m hoping I can put some things in my parents basement/shed for a while until Mark is out of the military and we’re not moving every 1-3 years.  This will be a tough one for me, but I’m going to try!

I would also love to be more active this year.  Right now it’s a little tough with being pregnant and all, but after I have this baby, I would like to be more active.  I have dreams that I can actually run for any real amount of time.  I have never been good at running and I have never enjoyed it.  If I could get to the point where I could actually jog a mile without stopping and without feeling like my lungs are going to explode or collapse or both, I would consider that a win.  I’d love to someday do a 5K, but that is a long way in the future.  I have pretty much zero endurance and I would like to build that up by walking/jogging and maybe swimming.  This will probably be the hardest of all my goals because I tend to not make time to exercise and I can only imagine that might get more difficult with 3 kids.

I would also like to have more patience with my kids and really work on the way I talk to them and handle them when I’m tired/stressed/busy/etc.  My kids tend to get the brunt of my pissy-ness and I hate that.  I want to learn to take a step back when I feel tension building and then handle the situation and my emotions the way I would like my kids to handle them.  They are little sponges right now and I really want to be the best example to them of how we should act and how to be kind and if I’m flipping my lid, I can’t expect them not to.  I’ve been reading articles regarding the way you talk to kids and how it affects them and I’m much more aware of what I’m saying now or how I’m coming across to my kids.  I’ve already noticed I’ve been able to hold back a few times and not flip out on them.  I’m far from the perfect parent, and I never will be perfect, but my goal is to become better and to bring myself up to a level I’m comfortable with and I’m not there yet.

Last but not least, I love buying fabric.  I have a pretty healthy stash of fabric, but I never DO anything with it.  I have lots of plans for it, but actually sitting down and sewing something doesn’t ever happen.  I don’t make it a priority so it just doesn’t happen.  I love making things though and I love giving homemade gifts so I’m hoping to use at least some of my stash this year.  I haven’t even made my own kids quilts yet so if I could make them their own full sized quilts I would be happy with that.  And I think I’ve decided I’m going to pay someone else to quilt them for me since that part really stresses me out and trying to get a full sized quilt through my little machine sounds like hell.  I love piecing the tops together so I figure if I can at least get 3 tops done and then pay someone else to do the hard part it’s a win/win.  I get to use some of my stash and don’t have to do my least favorite part of quilting.

Lofty goals for 2015, but I’m really looking forward to this year!  Big changes are going to happen for us as a family and looking forward to seeing what’s in store for us and meeting our newest addition!

PS:  All of these pictures were taken Jan-March of 2014…  Better late than never.

Looking forward

The thing to do, especially in the blogger world, is to make New Year’s resolutions.  And you all know I’m all about lists, so this really is right up my alley, partially because I like to check things off my lists as I accomplish them, and partially because putting it on here is going to hold me accountable for it.  And I wouldn’t call these resolutions really, they’re more like goals I have for this year.
1.  Get Abbie potty trained.  I’ve been half-heartedly working on this and it’s not going very well at all.  This probably isn’t the best time to potty train her since she’s already adjusting to having Ben in our lives, but I KNOW she’s ready to do this and it’s just a matter of her being stubborn.  And the reason I know this is because when we took her to the nursery at church last month, she told them she had to go potty and actually peed when they took her.  I’ve been putting her in training underwear at home, trying to get her to go on her potty, but more often than not, I’ll ask her if she has to go potty, she’ll say no and leave the room and go pee in her pants and then come back with new underwear and pants and ask me to change her.  GRRRR!!!!  It’s beyond frustrating and I don’t really know how to deal with this.  Anyone have any tips??
2.  Expand on my photography skills.  I love taking pictures.  I like the challenge of trying to get the shot I’m aiming for and I like having all the photos of the kids and places and people to look back on.  I’ve been shooting mostly in manual mode lately and I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of how to get the camera to do what I want it to do, so it’s just a matter of getting faster at it and better.
3.  Be more comfortable in my own skin.  I’ve talked about this before – about how most of my friends here have a very “polished” appearance.  They have the super cute skinny jeans with the nice pair of boots, along with nice fitting shirts, accessorized with scarves and necklaces, bracelets and earrings.  Their hair almost always looks great and their make-up is perfectly done.  I, honestly, have never been like that.  Ever.  At least I don’t feel like I have.  I’m all about comfort and convenience, so put me in a pair of jeans (preferably loose fitting), and a big sweatshirt over a t-shirt, along with a pair of tennis shoes, and I’m good.  Pull my hair back in a pony tail so it’s out of my face and, on a good day, put on a little mascara, and I’m good to go.  That’s how I’m comfortable, until I get around a room full of my friends who are dressed up and “polished”.  Then I feel quite frumpy and like I don’t fit in at all.  I either need to conform and get a new wardrobe or repeatedly wear the three things that might make me fit in with the rest of them, or I need to get over it and just be comfortable with the way I am.  This one is going to require some work, and some soul searching.
4.  Spend more time on my marriage.  Mark and I have a good relationship.  I’d say we’re both pretty happy and he truly is my best friend and the person I’d rather spend time with more than anyone else.  But with that being said, I think we get complacent in our marriage sometimes.  We tend to be more like roommates than spouses and we fall into these ruts where we get so caught up in daily life that we forget about “us”.  He turns in to daddy and fighter pilot and I turn in to mommy and maid and we don’t really put any effort in to our marriage because it’s all going in to being parents, working and running the household.  Anyone that has kids knows that having 2 little ones can suck all the life out of you pretty darn quickly and when you finally get them to sleep all you want to do is crash yourself.  And while iPhones are a great things, they’re also the devil too since Mark and I both spend more time messing with our phones at night than we do talking to each other, mainly because that’s our ways of catching up on what’s going on everywhere else.  I’m going to try really hard to spend at least 30 mins a night just talking with Mark and discussing whatever, without the distraction of kids (ha, yeah right) or electronics.
5.  Get healthy.  This is my main goal for this year.  And it’s not so much about losing weight (although I definitely do want to shed a few, or 30, pounds), as it is about being fit.
This picture was taken in September of 2003.  (That’s me jumping my horse, Billy.)  I remember thinking I looked horrible in breeches (riding pants) back then and I wanted to lose weight.  What the hell was wrong with me?  I weighed a good 50+lbs less than I do now in this picture, and I was really toned from riding all the time and working at a barn teaching lessons and taking care of 30+ horses.  I want to get into this kind of shape again.  My goal is to attend at least 1 exercise class a week and to completely the Couch to 5K program.  I want to be able to run 1 mile and still be able to breathe and move the next day.  Right now I couldn’t run 1/4 of the way around a track without stopping, and quite honestly, I hate running.  There isn’t any part of it that’s fun for me, but I hear that once you can actually do it that it does become fun.  And I spent $700 on that jogging stroller, so I need to justify that purchase by actually using it for jogging.  I want to get rid of the jiggling and the wheezing when I run and to lose weight.  The good news is, 3 weeks post partum and I’m within 8lbs of my pre-pregnancy weight.  The bad news is I have a good 35-40lbs to lose to be at my goal weight.  Wish me luck!  I might need it…

October 2011 goals revisited

This month has flown by for me, as I knew it would.  Time flies when you’re having fun, right?  Thank GOD my husband was all about getting the house organized, since he’s done more of it than I have.  I feel guilty about it, but Mark says he likes doing this kind of stuff around the house.

1.  Get the ENTIRE house cleaned from top to bottom before Mark returns from his deployment.  - Pretty much got this one done.  It wasn’t organized, but it was pretty clean, thanks to paying someone to clean most of it before we got back.
2.  Reorganize the kitchen and put things I don’t use much on shelves in the basement to free up space in the cabinets.  I didn’t get this done as much as I would have liked.  I put some stuff away, but still have more to go.
3.  Unpack all boxes I shipped to myself and get things put away.  I got over half of them unpacked, but still have more to go.
4.  Wash all baby boy clothes and get it all organized by size in plastic containers. DONE!!!  (Thanks for the help mom!)
5.  Reorganize our storage rooms in the basement to make everything easily accessible.  DONE!!! (Thanks to Mark, who did 90% of this.)
6.  Clean up downstairs living room (which is currently being used as a storage room in part of it, and the guest room in another part of it).  Take all storage items and find places for them in other storage rooms.  DONE!!  Again, thanks mostly to Mark and my mom.
7.  Get Passat ready to sell and advertised.  Not done, but for good reason.  More on that later.
8.  Get Abbie a big girl bed and dresser set and get that put together and in her room.  Partially done.  We have her mattress and box spring ordered.  They’ll be delivered in 2 weeks, but we have to order her headboard, which will take 2-3 months to arrive.  The joys of living overseas.   And we still need to get her a dresser.
9.  Move crib and changing table from Abbie’s room to baby boys room.  Not done since Abbie is still using them
10.  Turn current office/ craft room into baby boys room.  Baby boy’s room is currently empty, which is a feat in itself.  Once we get Abbie’s bed, we can move her furniture to his room.
11.  Reorganize all of Mark’s and my clothes.  Move one of our dressers from our bedroom into storage or downstairs living room to make room for glider and bassinet in our room.  Again, partially done.  I have most of our clothes organized, but still have more work to do. 
12.  Look into moving our wardrobe down to Abbie’s room and getting an Ikea closet organizer for our closet area to free up some space.  Mark and his brother moved the wardrobe to the garage for us, but now all the clothes that were in the wardrobe are in a huge pile where the wardrobe used to be.  We still need to get a closet organizer from somewhere.

13.  Plan November trip to London!!  We leave in 5 days and this still isn’t done.  Oops.
14.  Turn downstairs living room in to guest room/ play room/ office/ craft room.  Yes, it’s big enough to do this, it’s just going to take some creativity.  Mostly done!  We just have more organizing to do and have to move more toys down there.
15.  Take a big trip to Ikea to get different closet storage for our room, storage unit for main floor bathroom and Abbie’s new bedroom set. We haven’t had time to go to Ikea yet.  This will be moved to my November goals.
16.  Finish quilt and return sewing machine before I leave home.  Still not done.  RATS!  I need to finish that quilt!  Hopefully in November I’ll be able to get it done if I get my machine all set up again.
17.  Get all cards written and sent on time.  They’ve been done, but usually not sent on time…  Oops.
18.  Enjoy time with my husband after being away from him for almost 7 months!!!!  I’ve definitely accomplished this!

October 2011 goals

I have to admit, just thinking about everything I need to do in October is stressing me out.  I feel like I have so much to do before we leave for Italy, as soon as we get to Italy before Mark gets home, and then after Mark gets back too.  I definitely won’t have much idle time this month…
1.  Get the ENTIRE house cleaned from top to bottom before Mark returns from his deployment.
2.  Reorganize the kitchen and put things I don’t use much on shelves in the basement to free up space in the cabinets.
3.  Unpack all boxes I shipped to myself and get things put away.
4.  Wash all baby boy clothes and get it all organized by size in plastic containers.
5.  Reorganize our storage rooms in the basement to make everything easily accessible. 
6.  Clean up downstairs living room (which is currently being used as a storage room in part of it, and the guest room in another part of it).  Take all storage items and find places for them in other storage rooms.
7.  Get Passat ready to sell and advertised.
8.  Get Abbie a big girl bed and dresser set and get that put together and in her room.
9.  Move crib and changing table from Abbie’s room to baby boys room.
10.  Turn current office/ craft room into baby boys room.
11.  Reorganize all of Mark’s and my clothes.  Move one of our dressers from our bedroom into storage or downstairs living room to make room for glider and bassinet in our room.
12.  Look into moving our wardrobe down to Abbie’s room and getting an Ikea closet organizer for our closet area to free up some space.
13.  Plan November trip to London!!
14.  Turn downstairs living room in to guest room/ play room/ office/ craft room.  Yes, it’s big enough to do this, it’s just going to take some creativity.
15.  Take a big trip to Ikea to get different closet storage for our room, storage unit of main floor bathroom and Abbie’s new bedroom set.
16.  Finish quilt and return sewing machine before I leave home.
17.  Get all cards written and sent on time.
18.  Enjoy time with my husband after being away from him for almost 7 months!!!!
Wish me luck!  I’m going to need it, especially considering my SPD, all the stairs in my house and the fact that I’ll be 31+ weeks pregnant.

September goals revisited

1.  Take pictures for friends that I’ve been meaning to shoot all summer and never found the time.  It’s now or never!  - I tried to get one of the photo sessions done, but we got rained out.  Now I have 3 set up for the last week I’m here..  Yikes!
2.  Organize and ship all of the things I need to ship back to Italy by the end of the month so they will meet us there when I get back.  This is going to be a HUGE task, but I don’t want to leave it until the last minute before I leave for Italy.  - I’ve actually done pretty good with this.  I mailed 19 boxes so far and have probably 5-6 left to pack up and send.
3.  Make an entire baby quilt for a friend, from start to finish, quilting included.  Again, if I don’t get this done before I leave, I’m not going to get it done at all.  - I have the quilt put together, but I need to quilt it and then bind it.  Hope I can get that done this week!
4.  Keep up on all my birthday/anniversary cards and actually get them sent out on time!  And also write letters to my grandma, friends I haven’t seen, and a few of Mark’s relatives. – I’ve managed to get all the birthday and anniversary cards done, but not any of the “non-necessary” cards.  Maybe I’ll have time to get those done next week.  Ha.  Yeah right.
5.  Work out my arms 3x’s per week for 15 mins each time. – I’ve lifted weights 5-6 times this month.  Not as much as I would have liked, but I was also gone for a full week so that didn’t help.  I haven’t really seen an improvement in my arms either.  Rats.
6.  Finish the book I started mid-August and need to return to my friend before I go back to Italy.  - I’ve read a few more chapters but still have over half of it to go.  I might have to take it with me and ship it back to her..

I didn't do as well as I'd hoped on my goals this month.  I wish I would have finished the quilt completely and worked out my arms more, and finished the book.  Now I have to add those things to my "to do the first week in October" list, which is already jam packed full of stuff to do.  Better luck next month!

September 2011 goals

I’m going to start making monthly goals on here and then at the end of the month, I’ll recap to see what I got accomplished and what I didn’t.

1.  Take pictures for friends that I’ve been meaning to shoot all summer and never found the time.  It’s now or never!

2.  Organize and ship all of the things I need to ship back to Italy by the end of the month so they will meet us there when I get back.  This is going to be a HUGE task, but I don’t want to leave it until the last minute before I leave for Italy.

3.  Make an entire baby quilt for a friend, from start to finish, quilting included.  Again, if I don’t get this done before I leave, I’m not going to get it done at all.

4.  Keep up on all my birthday/anniversary cards and actually get them sent out on time!  And also write letters to my grandma, friends I haven’t seen, and a few of Mark’s relatives.

5.  Work out my arms 3x’s per week for 15 mins each time.

6.  Finish the book I started mid-August and need to return to my friend before I go back to Italy.