Retrospection, Introspection, Prospection

Thought I might do a little reflecting today. In the end of 2009, I blogged (not on this site), and made some goals for 2010. They were:

1) Show my husband I appreciate him more.
2) Less eating out, more eating quality food at home.
3) Get more involved at church and make some real friends there.
4) Discipline myself to somehow start working out.  
5) Balance my work-home time better, without feeling overwhelmed in either 

Hmmm... how did I do? Well, I think I did pretty well at showing Marc he is appreciated. I did get more involved at church. I wouldn't say I necessarily have real friends there yet, but I definitely made some solid acquaintances. At least I am no longer wandering around there feeling like no one knows me at all.

I am not sure how we did with eating out less. I think we sort of crashed and burned on that one... but I didn't expect to spend the majority of  2010 pregnant. That certainly threw a screw in the works, in many things really, particularly #5. It is really hard to not feel overwhelmed at work when you are planning for maternity leave or returning from maternity leave, and I spent most of this year in "planning for maternity leave" mode, while also trying to stay on top of all the current stuff. Needless to say, I most certainly did not achieve balance.  I didn't really manage to consistently work out while pregnant, but I didn't gain that much weight, and I lost it pretty darn fast. During maternity leave, I joined stroller strides, which I think I will keep up with this when I am off of work, but I really still need to find a good consistent way to work out during the school year. Sadly, it must be something that doesn't cost any money at all, because there is no room in the budget for a regular fitness expenditure. I'm not very disciplined, so it needs to be scheduled and preferably involve other people (for accountability). Any ideas from the peanut gallery (the many many people who tell me you read my blog but never comment)?

And now... my goals for this year. (I never make resolutions, but I do like to set goals).

In 2011, I would like to....

#1) Balance my work-home time better
Yup, that one needs to be carried over. Perhaps I can actually manage to achieve it this year! I really need to find some way to not completely let school rule my entire life from Feb-June and Aug-Dec.

#2) Cross at least 4 things off my buried list. 
There are 50 items, so I better do at least 4 this year!


#3) Manage our finances well: Pay all of our bills, preferably on time, give more to the church, and somehow make a dent in our debt.
We really don't have much debt, but this year is going to be a very tough one financially with paying for both kids to be in full-time day care (at least until June, then Vinny goes to kindergarten), and it could be very easy to get financially behind this year. It would be really easy to give less to the church, max out our credit cards, and fall behind on bills, but I want to somehow not let that happen. Gonna be a lot of sacrifices.

#4) Be a quality friend to my few quality friends
I'm gonna be honest- I don't have a lot of time for friends. Work and family pretty much take up the majority of my time. But friendships are really important. In the past, it hasn't mattered that much to me who my spare time is spent with, as long as I am fostering friendships of some kind, but I think I should expend that effort better. Instead of feeling bad that I am not close to more people, I am going to remind myself constantly how lucky I am to have good friends, and I am going to be a great friend to those people.

#5) Exercise Consistently 
Okay, this one is kind of a carryover too, but it is important. I need to figure out some way to get into a consistent routine of exercising so I can maintain a weight I am happy with. Sounds so much easier than it actually is.