Jennerosity

This is part of annual Blogging series called Reverb. The intention is to reflect on the past and manifest your best intentions for the future. To read my intro post (updated with links as I publish them & time allows) see my post on The Prompts.

Rest – what can you do to ensure that you rest and refill your energy stores?

One of the things I definitely have learned about motherhood is that you have to be ready to take rest when the opportunity presents itself. This means adjusting your own preferences and taking naps if and when necessary. This is something that I’m already finding a huge challenge. Even on days when Locutus does decide to take a longer nap, I have difficulty sleeping during the daytime. I also struggle with the concept of deserving that rest. It’s easy to slip into the idea that I should be using that time for housework or other projects instead.

I’m also worried already about transitioning back to work since I’ll have even less time to keep up with housework and rest.

Some things that I can do…

• Hire help – right now my mother helps with housework, but I think I’d like to hire someone to do the major cleaning tasks when I go back to work.
• Rest even if I can’t nap – even those times that I can’t fall asleep it’s still important to stop for rest. Even if I just lie down in a dark room or do some reading, that downtime is important.
• Exercise – it helps to give me some ‘me’ time and clear my head. Even a half an hour of walking can help clear my head and restore some energy.

Really that’s all I can manage for the time being. Let’s hope that it is enough!

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I’m keeping these posts brief on purpose. If you have questions or want me to go deeper into any of these thoughts, please leave a comment below.

This is part of annual Blogging series called Reverb. The intention is to reflect on the past and manifest your best intentions for the future. To read my intro post (updated with links as I publish them & time allows) see my post on The Prompts.

12 Things – What are 12 things your life doesn’t need in 2012? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these things change your life?

We did almost this exact prompt last year and I thought it might be interesting to repeat it.

1. The blue tub of clothes – This tub has been hanging around for a long time. Some of the items have a plasticky smell to them. It’s a tub I have been quietly ignoring for some time because it has sentimental items in it: my dad’s old leather jacket and my old band vest spring to mind. But right now the tub just kind of migrates to different spaces taking up room. So it’s time to deal with the contents.
2. Forgotten memories – I’ve got several old boxes of super8 film from my dad that hasn’t been seen in years. I know there are ways of scanning & digitizing them I just need to get the project done.
3. Unused credit card accounts – I know it might have a negative impact on my overall credit score, but keeping small balance accounts alive, for which I don’t even have the card anymore, also presents a liability for credit and identity fraud. So once I’ve gotten my credit report done, I’ll work on eliminating these.
4. DVDs I don’t love & want to re-watch – We’ve got a seriously large collection that could stand some pruning.
5. Our large globe – I love travel paraphernalia. But we just don’t have the space for a globe. It’s been sitting in a closet and we either need to find space for it or get rid of it.
6. Games people don’t play – I’ve got a number of Game Boy Advance and DS titles that don’t appeal to me. An extension of this is pledging only to buy the types of games that I enjoy.
7. Holey sweat socks – I have an abundance of socks and the collection really could stand to be thinned out.
8. Books on my ‘to-read’ shelf that I won’t actually read – I started out using Goodreads as an inventory system for all the books my husband and I owned. But I stopped before cataloguing them all. And I was putting all the books my husband had in his collection on my to-read shelf just so people wouldn’t get the false impression that I had actually read them all. But I should really delete them from Goodreads. Especially those Terry Pratchett books.
9. Unsolicited Parenting Advice – This is the only item I’m really not sure I can stop since I have no control over it. But it’s definitely something I’d like to banish from my life!
10. Guitar Hero Peripherals – We play Rock Band. ‘Nuff said.
11. Two Scrabble Sets – The hard part will be deciding which one to keep¹ deluxe edition (bulky but nice) or regular (smaller but plain). Also, should I just turn one set into crafting materials?
12. 12 Books from my to-read shelf – Sticking with a theme here, I’m going to read at least 12 of them this year.

This post was surprisingly challenging and had me stumped for a couple days. If anyone wants any of the things I’m eliminating (scrabble set or globe in particular) let me know in the comments or by email!

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I’m keeping these posts brief on purpose. If you have questions or want me to go deeper into any of these thoughts, please leave a comment below.

1. especially since all the cool kids play lexulous on Facebook now anyways [↩]

This is part of annual Blogging series called Reverb. The intention is to reflect on the past and manifest your best intentions for the future. To read my intro post (updated with links as I publish them & time allows) see my post on The Prompts.

Release – what negative things do you want to release next year?

I have to say that I generally feel pretty lucky because my life is filled with way more positive things than negative. But here are the negative things I would like release from. I’d like to release my perfectionism and worrying. I’d like to let go of the idea that I am not enough. Lastly, I’d also like to say farewell to the fat kid who still lives in my head and foster a healthier attitude toward food. I think if I can release even one of these things this year I will be carrying a much lighter load compared to year’s past.

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I’m keeping these posts brief on purpose. If you have questions or want me to go deeper into any of these thoughts, please leave a comment below.

This is part of annual Blogging series called Reverb. The intention is to reflect on the past and manifest your best intentions for the future. To read my intro post (updated with links as I publish them & time allows) see my post on The Prompts.

Work – Do you know what work you are called to do in this world?

I can always tell when I’ve done the work. The problem I’m finding is that it doesn’t line up with any traditional job or career path. And I’m not sure if it’s possible for the two things – the ‘work’ and the job – to ever align to my satisfaction. I’m not even sure I’m able to properly articulate what my ‘work’ is. I just can feel it when I’ve done it.

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I’m keeping these posts brief on purpose. If you have questions or want me to go deeper into any of these thoughts, please leave a comment below.

This is part of annual Blogging series called Reverb. The intention is to reflect on the past and manifest your best intentions for the future. To read my intro post (updated with links as I publish them & time allows) see my post on The Prompts.

Question – What question would you like to explore next year & why?

The question I will explore next year is what role my job has in my identity. Who am I & who do I want to be? I need to know if I can be a mom and something else as well.

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I’m keeping these posts brief on purpose. If you have questions or want me to go deeper into any of these thoughts, please leave a comment below.

This is part of annual Blogging series called Reverb. The intention is to reflect on the past and manifest your best intentions for the future. To read my intro post (updated with links as I publish them & time allows) see my post on The Prompts.

Body – What about your body amazed or intrigued you this year?

One of the unexpected delights of pregnancy for me was my skin. After decades of struggling with psoriasis, it all but disappeared during the nine months I was pregnant. Everything except two tiny spots cleared up.

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I’m keeping these posts brief on purpose. If you have questions or want me to go deeper into any of these thoughts, please leave a comment below.

This is part of annual Blogging series called Reverb. The intention is to reflect on the past and manifest your best intentions for the future. To read my intro post (updated with links as I publish them & time allows) see my post on The Prompts.

Private – Do you separate your private self from the public? How does this impact your relationships?

I definitely have a public face that I have to maintain for social situations. Secretly, I wish I could be more upfront and drop all the pre-tense.

My public self is always fine and never in a state of needing. Show no weakness. Allow no opportunities for the other to exploit or think any less of you.

The public face that I do put on is mostly to help those forced and more shallow relationships get on. While it helps those I think it also is harmful to others. Holding up that public face can be tiring and it’s usually this closest who suffer from the stress that this fatigue causes.

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I’m keeping these posts brief on purpose. If you have questions or want me to go deeper into any of these thoughts, please leave a comment below.

This is part of annual Blogging series called Reverb. The intention is to reflect on the past and manifest your best intentions for the future. To read my intro post (updated with links as I publish them & time allows) see my post on The Prompts.

When – When are you your best? How can you take advantage of this fact?

I am my best in the mornings. Especially if I’ve had a full night’s sleep. That is when I have the most energy to get things done. If my morning starts off well then it sets the tone for the rest of the day.

I already try to take advantage of my natural rhythms by doing things right away in the morning. That’s when I write most of my blog posts. And I also usually try to tackle the most important things right away. That’s even more important nowadays since I might have so many interruptions that only one thing gets accomplished at all.

Mornings are also my favourite time of day to get a workout done. Right now, it’s turning out to be logistically easier to workout in the evening after Benevolance is finished work for the day. But, I’m finding it’s very easy to talk myself out of it if I’ve happened to have had a difficult day. It would be nice if I could make it possible to workout in the mornings again too. But I may just have to accept that this is one of the areas that I’ll have to compromise on until Locutus is a little bit older.

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I’m keeping these posts brief on purpose. If you have questions or want me to go deeper into any of these thoughts, please leave a comment below.

This is part of annual Blogging series called Reverb. The intention is to reflect on the past and manifest your best intentions for the future. To read my intro post (updated with links as I publish them & time allows) see my post on The Prompts.

Nourish – What was your relationship with food like in 2011? How would you like that relationship to change going forward?

My relationship with food was complicated as usual last year. Full of the same sorts of issues eating junk and too much in general.

I started off wanting to lose weight. For obvious reasons that didn’t end up happening. I handled the loss of several beloved food standbys fairly well. And I had no pregnancy cravings, which (according to one theory) indicates that I was getting enough of all the basics.

Going forward I’d like to return to an even healthier attitude towards food. Oddly enough, i think the key for me improving the relationship and feeling healthier again is to be adding things instead of dieting. The things I need to work on:

• more water
• more vegetables
• breakfasts!!!((This is probably the biggest disappointment in my change of lifestyle. I no longer find it feasible to make my standby of oatmeal for breakfast even though it was super healthy. Looking for a good alternative but I haven’t really found anything that feels right.))
• eating more frequently throughout the day
• cutting out soda/pop
• planning & making more home cooked meals

So you can see most of it is things I need to bring in to my diet and lifestyle.

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I’m keeping these posts brief on purpose. If you have questions or want me to go deeper into any of these thoughts, please leave a comment below.

The meeting of my Discussions and Dollars money club over the weekend went very well in general. We were there for talk about organization but 3 of the 4 members of the group are already well organized. The other member admits it is his weakness, but for now being disorganized isn’t holding him back from his financial goals. So if and when he wants to change that, he knows where to go for guidance.

One of the things I realized about the club is that right now everyone is getting value from simply setting aside that time and discussing our personal finances with each other. It’s also a good spot to review our financial decisions and have some public accountability for setting financial goals. I had been feeling like the club wasn’t providing enough impetus for people to challenge them, but it doesn’t sound like that’s what the other members need. So I won’t be stressing about making sure we pick great topics each time. I’ve got a few ideas to make sure that the club doesn’t just devolve into a totally informal chat, but I’ll discuss that with the other members at the next meeting.

The other thing we realized is that the online forum isn’t really meshing with our style. So we’ll arrange meetings by email instead. I put forth the idea of putting a page up on my blog containing some different resources if the other members are interested in it. I’m also probably just going to start emailing them some of the best articles I find that cover relevant topics.

Now I’m off to work on some of my goals for next year.