kapachino

Category: goals

  • maternity leave to-do list

    I love making goals. I’ve done them yearly, monthly, with other time limits (like the 101 in 1001), and with no time limits. All kinds inspire and work for me, but I also know when to cut back because I don’t like setting unrealistic expectations. This year I am considering seasonal goals starting in the spring, but first I have maternity leave! There is a lot of recovering and adjusting going on so far, but I know I won’t be in pain for too much longer and with Meredith going to daycare most days I should have more time than I am used to. Here is what I want to accomplish before heading back to work:

    coffee table

    The current state of our coffee table, where I am camped out for maximum relaxing.

    >send out birth announcements

    >send thank-you notes

    >blog the birth story

    >catch up on project life

    >complete my holiday minibook

    >watch some TV: on my list of shows are Downton Abbey (I’ve only seen season 1), Game of Thrones, 30 Rock (I’m in season 5), and Sherlock.

    >redo the nursery to make it more gender neutral

    >stay up to date on Liam’s baby book

    >complete his birth cross stitch

    >see a dermatologist

    I really do think I can complete all of these, but we’ll see. So far I’ve been pretty good at the TV-watching goal. :)

  • november goals update

    November goals were hit and miss, but I did make progress!

    1. Prep holiday minibook – Well I didn’t end up having to do much prep since I ordered one premade, but it’s ready to go!

    2. Photo a day – Totally failed on this one. I don’t think I’m ever going to attempt another photo a day because I haven’t completed one yet.

    3. Document a day in the life – I did this on Instagram and will place it as an insert in my Project Life.

    4. Address the dresser situation – This goal is more than halfway done! We got a new dresser for our bedroom for free from a friend of my mom’s. It’s the perfect size and although it could use some refinishing in the future it is completely inoffensive and a big improvement from what we had. I will share pictures of the space as soon as I complete some more improvements. So we moved our (now) old dresser into the guest room, but I haven’t moved any baby stuff into it yet. I think going through all the baby stuff will wait until after Christmas.

    5. Install bedroom curtain rods & outlet covers – So my dad came over and did all the outlets and covers, and he did a curtain rod in our front room but I didn’t have the right supplies to do the bedroom because the rod wasn’t as long as I thought! So now I need to pick up a new one to get this done. Maybe next weekend.

    I’m getting really worn out already with this pregnancy and prepping for Christmas, so I’m not making any additional specific goals right now other than my holiday to-do list and pregnancy to-do list. I’m also not sure if I’ll be doing any goals for next year from the beginning since things are going to be changing so drastically for us, but I’ll be reevaluating as I go. As always I will keep you updated!

  • holiday to-do list

    20131127-070054.jpg

    Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I’m super excited about it; it’s such a low-pressure, relaxing holiday. I also love that it ushers in the true holiday season and my mind is already there. As Meredith gets older the activities and traditions of it all are becoming more important to me. This year I’m also trying to stay on top of things and not wait until the last minute like I usually do, mostly because of my increasing fatigue and discomfort. So here’s my list of things to do before Christmas:

    + decide on cards (actually I think I might skip cards this year and just send out birth announcements instead)

    + finalize wish list and send to family

    + buy and wrap all gifts (I really want to do most of the buying online this weekend if I can, but I want to get Meredith’s stocking gifts in person.)

    + decorate the house

    + put up lights outside? (We don’t have any outdoor lights right now, so I’ll probably try to buy some on clearance after Christmas and save this for next year. But I really wish we could have lights outside!)

    + Christmas tree farm fun (going this weekend with David’s family. We visit Santa, ride the train, buy an ornament, and help family cut down a tree since ours is fake.)

    + fill advent calendar (I made it last year and one day I’d love to fill it with handmade ornaments for a special tree, but this year I’m thinking chocolate!)

    + finish my niece Karley’s stocking

    + complete holiday minibook (more on this soon!)

    + see the lights in River Oaks (every year I say we’re going to do this and every year we don’t…but this year I think Meredith can actually enjoy it so I really want to make it happen!)

    + shopping with Dad

    + Messiah singalong with Mom

    + make cookies and drink lots of peppermint mochas (I mean…I’m gaining weight anyway, right?)

  • 30 weeks + pregnancy to-do list

    DSCF4533

    Symptoms: Oh man, I am just really tired all the time. Of course it’s worse during the week when I’m working but even when I’m just resting over the weekend I never really feel refreshed or energized. Sometimes I get short of breath for no reason, or I feel like the blood has drained out of me. And right now I have a cold that is super annoying. I have aches and pains, mostly in my upper ribs, but they are bearable. Overall I would say that this has been an easier pregnancy than my first, but the fatigue is just way, way worse.

    Medical stuff: Not a lot to report really. I passed my glucose tolerance test, and my blood counts are normal now that I’m taking iron. Only thing is…I’m gaining weight fast. Like five pounds in the last two weeks. I think it’s time to make healthier food choices. :-/

    Movement: Quite frequent. It’s more like full body rotations and pressure than kicks at this point, but sometimes he will kick upwards sharply and actually hurt me. Meredith never did that! I guess he’s trying to make himself stand out already.

    Clothes: All maternity stuff except for my scrub pants. The shirt in the photo above is my favorite. I got it for cheap at Ross and it’s cute and comfortable and not too tight and long. I want more like it.

    Preparation: I still have not done anything further. This is getting scary because it’s holiday time so I have that stuff on my plate as well, and significantly less energy for all of it. So to get me on task, here is my official second pregnancy to-do list. The ones that are starred are the absolute musts.

    >make the nursery gender neutral (mostly just involves changing out accessories)

    >reorganize nursery to fit baby + toddler stuff

    >get a new master bedroom dresser, relocate current dresser to guest room to use as kid clothes storage (this might be happening over the weekend)

    >acquire a second car seat for each car*

    >stock up on newborn and size 1 diapers*

    >get baby stuff back from my sister-in-law (but this will wait till the end probably, since she still uses some of it)

    >go through our baby stuff and see what can be reused

    >choose a name* (I thought we had settled on one, but last night David said it wasn’t sitting well with him, and I’m open to choosing another but I just have no idea what! Who wants to name this baby for me?)

    >do maternity leave paperwork*

    >prepare birth details: hospital bag, plans for dogs, birthday cake (I’m so not concerned with this stuff right now)

    >prep birth announcements (would be nice to do this beforehand)

    >get a good pedicure

    Am I missing anything big? I mean it would also be nice to get some clothes for him (we have exactly one baby boy outfit) but if it comes down to it he can wear girl clothes. Even though David is really against that. :)

  • november goals

    I thought that today I could share cute photos of our Halloween adventure, but remember how Meredith is two? Yeah, the evening was a little rough. I barely got any pictures at all and let’s not talk about how hard that is for me to let go of. Moving on, and instead let’s talk about monthly goals.

    First a recap of October’s goals:

    1. Make a fall garland: did it, and shared it.

    2. Go thrifting: did it, only found a few small things but it was fun.

    3. VBS: did it and didn’t miss a single week.

    4. Choose blanket colors: did it, and my mom purchased the yarn & started crocheting!

    5. One craft just for fun: did it, but it didn’t turn out quite as good as I planned so I didn’t blog about it.

    On to November!

    november goals

    Holiday minibook: I want to get all my supplies in one place and the minibook put together before December so it’s easy for me to just add photos and extras as I go.

    Photo a day: I’ve been slacking on taking photos so I decided to do a photo a day challenge. I love the “from where I stand” photos so that’s what I’m going to do, starting with day one as you can see above. I’ll post them all to Instagram and hopefully it will get me thinking creatively regarding pictures again.

    Day in the life: At the beginning of the year I intended to do this once a month but it only happened twice before I got pregnant and since then I haven’t picked it back up. I want to do it again this month and evaluate how often to repeat it.

    Dresser situation: We need to play musical dressers around here. We need a new one for our bedroom so that we can move our current one into the guest room and use it to store extra baby stuff. So part of this goal is also to reorganize the toddler and baby clothes I have to make space for baby boy’s things.

    Bedroom: A few nagging tasks need to be done in the bedroom, putting up the curtain rods and installing new outlets. This isn’t hard to do, and I have all the supplies, but it is kind of tedious and annoying.

    And that’s all. Once again there is nothing life changing here but mostly fun stuff as I get back into the habit of monthly goals.