Getting Organized

My Lily turned 2 last month and I'm already noticing a lot of changes with this milestone. Mainly with myself. I get to sleep a lot later. This morning I slept in until 8! I have more time to myself since she's become more independent and has fallen hopelessly in love with Dora. Whenever I need to get some things done with work or do dishes or laundry, I can plop her down in front of the TV and she'll be amused for 20 minutes. It's not my favorite thing to do but it is nice to have a few breaks, for both of us. I try to limit her to 3, 20 minute shows a day. So with these changes I finally feel like I'm ready to start taking care of myself again i.e. eating better, losing weight, exercising, and BLOGGING. Blogging has always been my therapy but it is something I've gotten away (far away) from. My last blog post was almost one year ago. I'm not going to turn this entry into one big recap about what I've been doing all year. Needless to say, I've been busy. I'm just going to start from here and hope I have a few readers out there or maybe I'll get a few new ones.

For the past two years, I've been utterly consumed with taking care of my daughter and stopped taking care of myself or even caring about myself. It really is a challenge as a mother and wife to devout some time to yourself. There are so many things I need to do in a day, plus I have a full time job. I can see that the process of losing yourself in your family life happens slowly over time. In fact, I hardly noticed it until a few weeks ago. Partly it was because I was so tired and at the end of the day I just wanted to go to bed. I cook a lot and with that comes a lot of dishes. About two weeks ago I informed my husband that I would be cooking less...for him. I will continue to cook healthy, home made (mostly), organic food for our daughter but when it comes to him, a few nights a week he's on his own. As much as I'd like to say that Lily eats what we eat, that doesn't always happen and I end up making something for her, something for us and a big mess for me to clean up and no time for myself. So that's one change. The other change is I joined weight watchers two weeks ago and I'm down 3.6lbs. We're going to Florida in the middle of February and I would love to lose 10lbs before that. My goal is to lose 30lbs. I'm also trying to keep my house cleaner (now that I've got a little helper) and try and teach Lily to pick up after herself, keep the laundry and dishes clean and just get into the overall habit of keeping things tidy. It's amazing how much better you feel with a clean house and when things are organized. Some of the other changes are: drinking less wine, going to church and thinking more about God and being a good person (stop gossiping and focusing on negative people and energy), and working out. I'm trying to keep my goals realistic and I'm starting small but this is the first time in a long time that I'm actually even thinking about myself. I see how Lily copies things I do and say I want to be a good role model for her. I know that if I take care of myself she will see that and learn to take care of herself.

Oh and I plan on taking a lot more baths.....