lately

There is nothing worse than sugar cravings in a house devoid of treats. Which would have been me last night, since David just started a whole foods/low-glycemic diet and I'm not cruel enough to keep sweets around to taunt him, but thankfully I had some lovely homemade white-chocolate covered hazelnuts left from a foodie gift basket from my friend Alissa. I loooove her foodie gift baskets. If I couldn't munch on these delicate, lemony, vanilla-laced goodies, I would have been really grumpy. Normally I would just bake myself some cookies or banana bread when my sugar addiction attacks, but again, I'd place that in the cruel department when it comes to the treatment of dieting husbands. Yesterday I posted about some motivation I've had toward New Years resolutions. I realize how cliche it is to write about resolutions this time of year. Can't help it--I've fallen too deeply into this optimistic momentum so many will shrug off as quickly-fading with the winter into spring, to be long-forgotten. Not so, I say. For one thing, my resolutions will build on each other. It's not like I'm giving up something I enjoy that's really bad for me, like brownies or something; I'm improving the ways I'm already living.    Summed up: //Writing everyday \\Drawing/painting every week //Meal planning/prepping weekly on Sundays \\Paying more toward student-loan principle every month //Cleaning everyday \\Sleep-training Roger Yesterday I did pretty much everything except paying extra toward my loans, but the frugal choices I make each day do go toward that goal. So not buying myself a latte, and eating all my meals in, was essentially completing the list. These habits are things I can keep up fairly easily throughout the course of a month.    And committing to really sleep-train Roger in a consistent way is already way more successful than I had expected. Yesterday, he took not one, but TWO good, long naps, both beginning in his crib without me nursing him to sleep. And last night marks the second night in a row he went to sleep in his crib at home without being asleep prior to being laid down. Last night was rougher than the first night because I put him to bed a little earlier, but the effort paid off. I had to rub his tummy to soothe him a few times (how I knew to do that is one of life's mysteries: mother's intuition) but once he was settled he staid in his crib until his early morning feeding, and then straight back. Hallelujah my bed is mine again! I can't wait to see the fruits of this sleep training in the coming months. Can you say me-time?! How about the thought of rolling over freely in my sleep? Aaaah, wonderful. Roger is such a perfect kid, this sleeping on his own thing is really the icing on the cake.    First drawing of the year! My boys at work had a half-snowday  and we did art together in the afternoon. They asked me if I printed this from my computer. I could have kissed them both, but they are 6 and 7 and wouldn't have appreciated it.   A happy, well-rested Roger. I asked him to clap, and didn't gesture or anything, and he just did it! So smart.

new year

I wrote most of this on the road driving home from Minnesota Saturday night. That it took me a day and a half to get it finished is a pretty accurate example of how much effort it takes to blog regularly! But I press on...


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We are driving home from our final family Christmases of the year. It's 10:15pm on Saturday and we left my parents' at 5:20. This is supposed to be a four-hour trip, but thanks to a standard Great Plaines winter windstorm, we've been driving like dripping molasses through a veil of blowing snow. We're finally about 30 minutes from home and I'm going to be so relieved to be home- to sleep in my own bed, eat my own food, make my own coffee to my own specifications. Traveling always makes me thankful to get back home again, which has nothing to do with whether or not I enjoyed my trip. I just love my home, you know?

Being among family and enjoying the unending supply of foods with no real nutrient value (monkey bread, eggnog, fudge, you get the idea) which we all seem to silently agree are staples of our holiday experience, always leaves me with a strong need of dietary purification. And hearing about my relatives' lives, their careers and achievements, goals and disappointments, and change in general, tends to remind me that we have an entire new year fresh to be plotted. So much potential! It's no wonder to me then that so many start fresh with resolutions to get healthy or achieve more or gain fulfillment in new ways at the beginning of the year. 

One of my dear friends and I were talking specifically about New Years resolutions, and how she has gone from being a resolution cynic to a resolution-maker herself. Last year, as a challenge to herself and to the notion that nobody ever fulfills their resolutions of January by the time December closes, she made a few specific goals for herself and committed to do them as often as possible, not giving up even after days when she failed. She was amazed and pleased to see how much she accomplished with that motivation spurring her on, and noted that even in areas where she didn't technically follow through completely with her goal (example: drinking green tea everyday) she still did it more than when she had no set goal. 

Such an optimistic view- seeing resolutions as opportunities. I'm going to run with it. I'm a few days late for setting some official resolutions, but that's ok! Better late than not at all.

Here are some of the resolutions I'm making for 2015:

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Write {something} everyday 

Plan and prep 5 weeknight meals every Sunday {inspiration and logistical model: the fresh 20, which is the book associated with the website}

Paint/draw at least once a week

Clean every night instead of one huge cleaning marathon every weekend 

Put extra $$$ toward student loan principal every month

Night-wean/sleep-train Roger

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So far I'm making slow but steady progress on most of these. Look at me, I'm writing right now! And miracle of miracles, Roger went to sleep in his crib on his own last night! He only cried a little as he fought the fatigue until it overtook him. I'm over the moon, this is such a HUGE step for him. And before tonight, his crying always escalated to the point where I couldn't let him work it out. It's like, whoa, ok he really is capable of self-soothing now! At last! Now I'm going to do everything in my power to keep this going.

What have you found is a good way to keep a resolution? It will be interesting to see how well I keep so many resolutions at once this year.

Happy Monday!

holidays

Is Christmas indeed over? For real? What? How did that happen? Well,we still have two family Christmases to attend this weekend, so even though it is a new year, it will still be Christmas 2014 for us. And with Christmas, another birthday has come and gone and for the first time I'm realizing I am not eternally youthful. 28 isn't old, but it isn't even "young adult." It's just adult. And each birthday comes faster than the last and before I know it my gray hairs will have multiplied to cover my head and I'll have permanent smile lines and grown children. That's actually a lovely thought.

David humored my birthday whims and cleaned the apartment for me and helped me cook the foods I wanted most: meatloaf (my mom's recipe,) mashed potatoes, and roasted Brussels sprouts. He let me pretty much dictate the day, and being the homebody I am I chose to bake my own cake and rent Guardians of The Galaxy for when Roger went to bed. The cake blew my mind, if I say so myself; it was Ina Garten's recipe for dark chocolate cake, and I made a simple peanut butter frosting for both layers and a dark chocolate ganache for the top. Heaven. And people ask me if I mind making my own birthday cake!

 

We had to pause the movie umpteen times with Roger's frequent waking. I really need a plan to help him figure out how to get himself back to sleep. Right now he assumes every wake up = milk time. It's not the easiest arrangement for momma.

Our Christmas the next day was simple and sweet. We really didn't go commercial at all this year- no gift exchange, just a little present to ourselves in a DVD copy of 2013's best movie (in our humble opinion.) Then we headed to the home of the family I nanny for, where we got to hang out, drink eggnog and cider, eat a lot of good cheese, play board games, and share a nice meal of lasagna with them and some of their extended family. We really feel like we've been adopted in as extended family too--it's such a unique and wonderful situation and I am very aware of what a blessing I've got in "working" there. Providence has smiled upon me, being out-of-state from all our blood-relations.



Roger is a child, which means we can dress him however we want for maximum cuteness. So here he is eating a red pepper while wearing his festive duds.

I won't drag this post on even though I have much more I could say-- we've got some packing and cleaning to do before we hit the road tonight--but I will say we had a wonderful and unexpected experience celebrating New Year's Eve with some new friends from church. Roger even woke up for the midnight sparkling-juice toasts, without being too grumpy, and consequently let his momma and daddy sleep in this morning! A great way to start 2015.