A new beginning

Yeah, I know it's the middle of March. I didn't make any New Year's Resolutions. I wasn't ready to commit to anything at all. Now I feel like more than just wanting, I actually have the motivation to do stuff.

The past 9 months have been especially difficult for me. I figured out that once I hit the 6 month mark in my pregnancy I can't do much anymore. We were incredibly blessed to find Danielle - a girl in our ward who lives just down the street - who was willing to come and help out for very little money. Once Oscar was born, Brent and I both decided that to preserve sanity we wanted Danielle to keep coming.

Now, Oscar is almost 7 months old, the kids call her Dan-oh or Dan-yoh, and she's right this moment washing dishes in my kitchen. I'm totally in love. I'm pretty sure I couldn't do another pregnancy without her (or someone very similar). Life-saving. Or at least sanity-saving.

So, changes.

1. Last night I actually enforced the kids sleeping in their own beds. First time ever. Of course, Amelia got up in the middle of the night and Brent comforted her through the night. Like for a few hours. Sadly, that woke me anyway (I'm a super light sleeper), but at least I didn't have to hold on to her all night long so she didn't throw herself off my chair onto her head while she was sleeping. I'm going to continue to enforce. As much as I would love to snuggle with my kids all night, I just can't sleep. And that's not an option.

2. On Saturday I went to the open casting call for Biggest Loser. I didn't get a callback. But like my cousin (who went with me), I figure if I can commit to a show, I should be able to do the work on my own. As nice as it would be to have someone pushing me hard (and I totally know I could lose like 150+ pounds), I need to just buck up and get to work. I have the tools I need. I've started blogging again on my saygoodbyefatty.blogspot.com blog again in anticipation of this particular change.

3. Blogging. Yeah, this one is already obvious. Another way to be accountable.

4. Organizing my house. I'm going to start collecting stuff for a giant yard sale this summer. I'm going to finally decorate my living room and bedroom. I'm going to re-do some of the work Darla helped me start when I was pregnant and get the rest of my house in order. News of disasters in the world (and broken kitchen pipes, dang it) make me want to be MUCH better prepared.

5. Gotta rip the carpet out of the office. This is a necessity because of the recent flood we had. 30+ year old carpet and padding means that getting wet is a really bad thing. Sadly, that's the room in the house that most desperately needs organizing. And it's packed with stuff. This is going to be a huge project.

6. Time to get back on the wagon with churchy stuff. You know, daily scripture reading and prayers. FHE, etc. I need to do this for myself. I need to do this for my family.

7. At the back of my mind for a very long time has been the desire to do couponing. I know someone can spend a LOT of time doing it, but I'm pretty sure that it would be worth my time and would help us out financially too.

8. In about 2 years, when our family debt is almost gone, I want to go on an adventure. And I'm not talking about a vacation. I want to move. Like to South America. Or Florida. If Brent's still working for the same company, then all we need is an internet connection. Time to work on the organization (yard sale - get rid of all our extra stuff), in addition to the debt and long-term plans.

Yeah, I'm excited. Oscar has been taking a nice long nap and he's starting to stir. I guess I should get dressed while I still have the chance. If I hadn't lost the cord to my camera (again!!!), I'd be posting pictures. Maybe I'll post some older ones (next time - Oscar is awake).