happy wednesday, humans.
it's a cold, sunny, distractable day with the the looming threat of an IKEA trip in our near future.
henry & lewis are chilling at home on winter break. i'm here at the office, finding every bit of minutia to distract me from all the tasks glaring at me on my to-do list. it's a funny thing, eh? it feels as we are actually programmed to resist doing whatever it is we are asked to be doing unless said thing brings us great joy.
i'm starting to think about 2018 and goals. in past years, i've focused on organization and health. i've probably done it in the wrong ways. and this year feels like a whole new challenge with a tiny human person who needs feeding and looking after. despite the extra hoops to jump through, i'd really like to be successful this time. it's a balance, really, between setting goals low enough to be able to accomplish, but high enough to aspire to... without setting them too high as to be un-accomplish-able and therefore demoralizing. and with the ultimate goal of actually making myself better. that's the bottom line. i just want to be better.
some general goals that need additional brainstorming to make them tangible and do-able:
(1) get our house in shape. i function when things are orderly and have places. we are slowly getting there, but we still have lots of things to go through and organize (read: get rid of). we've lived in our house for a year now, and we are just starting to get the rhythm of working out spaces. it has been a compromise between function and aspiration; for example, we recently de-commissioned the guest room we thought we'd have in our third bedroom in favor of a main floor office. it feels good to respond to function and use spaces as they best work for us: hail efficiency! but also -- and go ahead and take a shot if you're playing the take-a-shot-every-time-they-say-entertain-in-house-hunters-game -- i would really like to have folks over and enjoy our space.
(2) get my body in shape. pregnancy was a bitch. six months post-partum and i'm struggling. i've been successful in the past with moderating my intake and slimming down a bit to a healthier size. i've also loved weight-training, yoga, and zumba in the past. i would love to figure out how to incorporate eating well and moving into my day-to-day life. the biggest thing i need to figure out (said every new mom ever) is sleep. lack of sleep has really wrecked my immune system. if i can get a good sleeping pattern going (hahaha, i'm laughing just thinking about this, but in the spirit of aspirations), maybe i can move on to the eating and moving.
(3) get that money organized. i'm our little family's CFO, although that doesn't mean i'm all that qualified for the role. we make ends meet, but we don't do a whole lot of saving. we've tried a number of techniques that haven't been all that great. we have finally decided on a more conceptual rather than explicit strategy; hoping we'll figure this one out soon.
(4) get connected and give where we can. despite not having a traditional go-to-church-on-sunday mentality, faith and spirituality are important to us. we were lucky to quickly find a church with whom our beliefs were aligned when we moved to NYC, however, we haven't really been connected since. neither henry nor i care how this 'looks' despite relatives' grievances, but we have agreed that it would be great to find a community... without having to tolerate generally backwards-thinking, self-centered, American religious bullshit. it feels like a tall task, and i'm not looking for perfection, but it sure would be great to find. ultimately, we want to serve our community and strive for social justice. if we can figure out (3), we'd love to also give of our money.
(5) read. not much to say here other than it's my favorite pasttime and i don't have any time for it (see above comment about sleep). would love to figure out how to pencil in even 20-30min each day to read something i enjoy.
to be continued. ➼
