A Voice from the Darkness...

So...

Um... yeah.  It's been awhile since I posted, ya know, anything.  It's been a very busy year so far, with organizing a spouses' club event and finishing a degree and, oh yeah, the child raising and the cross-country move.  And a major emergency dog surgery, did I mention that?

It may be awhile before I can post regularly again but I just wanted to say "hi" and "I haven't forgotten the blog".  I'm still enjoying reading friends' blogs when I get a chance and hopefully I can be more active on here soon.  Lots happening around here with a baby and a dog learning and relearning to walk, as well as job hunts and a new house to organize and decorate.  Better info soon!

New Year

The holidays have flown by in a rush for us.  LO's first Christmas was lots of fun; both grandmothers and two aunts were here to celebrate with us!  This was our first Christmas at home (seriously).  Being a military family, we live away from our extended family and, from the time we were engaged, have traveled for the holidays every year.  As much as we love traveling and seeing family, it was great to have our Christmas and start (or continue) some holiday traditions of our own.

With all that behind us, it's time to look ahead to a new year.  2011 was, in my mind, the year of baby.  I spent 9 months pregnant and 2.5 months adjusting to our new family routines.  We rearranged furniture & schedules, did lots of medical appointment, traveled for baby showers, bought and received tons of new baby stuff,  and generally got ready to be parents.  Speaking of which, if you're a parent (or have ever encountered a young child), you have to check out this blog post about an 11-Step Program for those considering parenthood!  Lessons 3 & 5 had me laughing so hard that I was in tears!

2012 will still be pretty baby-centric but my major goal this year is to find time for my interests.  January starts off with a bang - I go back to school next week.  With just two more classes to go, I can see the proverbial light but I'll admit to being apprehensive about finding enough time to do the work required.  Despite that, DH and I are both on schedule to graduate in March and that means, because we are in online classes and won't "walk", a graduation party this spring!

Some goals for this year:

Finishing my M.S. Systems Engineering degree.

Taking a quilting class

Finishing my existing, short-term sewing/cross-stitching/crafting projects by June (I made some good headway on this in 2011).

Organizing our Stuff (more about this in a later post)

Reducing debt and expenses & financial planning (we accomplished all of our financial goals for 2011!)

Losing the baby weight (8ish pounds from now)

Being healthier: Getting back to my fit weight (8 pounds below pre-baby weight), exercising a couple times a week, eating more veggies

Of course, the humdinger in all this is July 2012: the military move month.  Moving will wipe an entire month (or two) from the calendar.  It seems simple... pack your stuff in one place, unpack it in another... but it is simply not that easy.  Added to that, I'm hoping to earn a job at our new location.

It's going to be a busy year!  What plans and goals do you have for 2012?

Life in Slow Motion

Wow, have I been out of the loop lately!  Since my last post our sweet little boy has made his appearance in the world.  That's right, I'm officially a mommy now!  And frankly, after 1.5 months, I don't know how other moms stay up with so much!  Friends assure me that schedules do slowly get better, so I'm trying to be patient until that day arrives.  I'm discovering how to do all sorts of things one-handed and have developed a new appreciation for the internet, since I can surf and type (slowly) while nursing.

In the mean time, I've been concentrating on three things: reorganizing my house (how did things get this messy in 6 weeks!?), prepping for Christmas, and small wins.  My kitchen & dining room are reasonable again and the floors have all been vacuumed in the last week.  This gives me hope for next month, since I'm hosting my favorite event, book club!  I love having a few hours just to chat over books and catch up with my friends.  It's one of the few events I don't mind cleaning for, too.  Now if only I was further in this month's book than page three...

Our Christmas tree is decorated and my village is set up.  I have part (a very small part) of the Department 56 North Pole Village collection.  It grows by a couple pieces each year but just can't compete with my mother-in-law's (yet!).  Hers is enormous and takes a whole day to set up; mine takes about an hour.  I love the thought behind all the little designs in the buildings and accessories.  My village is set up in the dining room (hence the priority on cleaning) and helps spread the holiday cheer around the house a little.

Most of my days, though, are concentrated on small wins and building a feeling of control.  For instance, today I'm updating my blog!  Yesterday I made it to a doctor's appointment on time with the LO and managed to run an impromptu errand to pick up milk.  Until now, I haven't been able to manage any of that on my own.  Sometimes I'm a few minutes late but once I was over an hour late to meet with a friend (thankfully she was very understanding!).  I'm a busy person who needs control over my schedule and every little victory in that department is meaningful to me right now.  

In short, if you haven't heard from me lately, I've been busy learning to be a mom and trying not to push myself too hard.  It's been a very different experience for me to concentrate on only one goal for six weeks.  I got the okay yesterday to resume exercising and it sort of set off a bell in my head that it's time to reenter my life.  Regaining some control over my schedule is going to be very important over the next few weeks as I pick back up with the rest of my life: lunches with friends, blogging, spouses club planning, holiday parties, and, in January, my last two grad school classes.

And I promise, those email/phone calls/facebook replies are coming soon.  Along with my terribly tardy thank you notes... but that's a post for another day!

Money Thoughts

As I mentioned in my last post, we've been a little, well, indulgent of ourselves lately.  Being hugely pregnant is inconvenient in a lot of small ways that add up financially.  It's easy to forget that my energetic "stay at home" schedule (ironically named) allows me to save us a lot of money.  It doesn't make up for my previous salary (not by a long shot) but it does let us to live reasonably on a single income.

For instance, I cook most nights (probably 5-6 nights a week) and DH cooks at least once a week.  My cooking is generally more made-from-scratch and vegetable-intense, requiring more prep time.  However, since I've been in my 3rd trimester, I'm usually too tired at 5:30 to be on my feet for another hour.  This has led to DH cooking after he comes home from work (usually 10+ hours) and quicker meals... i.e. more expensive.  While still couponing and meal planning, our grocery budget went up by ~20% last month and is on track to do that again this month.  We won't discuss the eating out budget!

I expect this to change in a few weeks, when I have a little more energy or can at least devote my energy to particular activities, rather than being struck by tiredness at random times.  In the mean time, I'm reading through a blog I found via a friend on Pinterest: 31 Days to a Better Grocery Budget.  It's always good to refresh my brain on finance topics, even when I've heard the majority of it before.  31 topics is a lot (and some I disagree with) but there are a few techniques I need to remember in the coming months.  I may post more specifics about this soon.

I've also been thinking about Christmas presents after reading this Yahoo Finance article today.  The first step for me is always determining how we can rearrange our money to pay for presents.  Only then do I pick who we're buying for (mostly immediate family these days) and what we can afford to do in December (lots of Christmas party invites every year, not to mention travel options).  I usually do our Christmas budget in September.  That may seem early (and sound boring) but it lets us anticipate expenses and use October & November to save for presents and travel, rather than trying to fit it all into December's budget.  I actually enjoy this task because it easily halves my stress level during the holidays when I know what we can and can't afford; plus, it's enjoyable to think about all the fun we'll have at Christmas time!  I think I'll be spending one day this week catching up.

In the past few weeks, lots of my friends have mentioned money being extra tight.  Are you doing anything extra these days to make ends meet?  Any financial wins lately?

Pre-Baby Thoughts

Being out of school and (temporarily) physically limited leaves me a lot of time to sit around and think during the day.  My brain is pretty good at quickly bouncing around on many ideas.  Lately, I've been thinking about a lot of family-centric topics: baby's impending arrival and the changes it will bring, finances, fitness, the holidays, food, housework, craft projects... the list goes on.  I started this blog to help me explore some of these wanderings in a more coherent way and so far, it's been very useful to me in that regard.  As a bonus, it's also garnered some great feedback from friends.  So here's some glimpses of my latest brain-musings... let me know what you think.

• How DH and I have changed over the years: We've been married for just over 5 years and together for 7.  5 years ago we were way over our heads in debt, with very different views of housework & daily living; neither one of us was good with credit cards and we definitely weren't ready for kids.  Today we've got a handle on our financial situation (which is steadily improving) with a more open communication about daily life and our expectations.  Along the way, we've found a lot of common ground and compromise (e.g. having friends over for dinner satisfies my introverted needs and his extraverted ones at the same time).  I don't know if we're truly ready for kids (is anyone?) but we're definitely ready to take on the challenge in a way we couldn't have 5 years ago.  I'm grateful that we've learned and grown together.
• Recommitting to our financial goals: We haven't strayed off our plan too far this year; we're even ahead a bit in some regards.  However, we've been very lax about a few areas and somewhat indulgent of convenience over savings as the pregnancy has progressed.  I'm hoping that post-pregnancy I'll have a little better self-control and that when we do our financial review in January, we'll find a few ways to speed up our debt repayment.  Baby will probably affect this in both directions: more motivation to do better but also less available cash.
• Our health: Maybe it's having a child that's pushing this issue but DH and I have talked a lot about improving our physical fitness recently.  Besides eating well, I can't do much in that department for a few more weeks, so I'm starting to mentally plan out my "return to fitness", beginning in November.  So far, it mostly includes daily weigh ins on the Wii Fit, more home cooking and less convenience foods, walks with the whole family (including the dogs), working up to working out on the Wii Fit at home, and trying to restart Zumba classes after the holidays.
• Housecleaning: Yup, nesting and OCD combine to create a mental image of a house that desperately needs some TLC.  We're steadily working on this.  Baby's room is 95% done (and 100% clean) and I cleaned the desk (i.e. major disaster area) last week.  DH even cleaned the whole kitchen, stove included, over the weekend... with no prompting from me (this may be the most amazing moment ever in our domicile-maintaining relationship).  There's still plenty to be done though, including the dreaded bathrooms.  What perk of working do I miss most?  Paying someone else to clean my house.

That's enough thinking for now, off to take care of dinner.  What's percolating through your brain lately?