2011 Goals Re-Visit - Pregnancy Edition

At the beginning of the year, I set myself some pretty ambitious goals.  Since this is the year of praying to the porcelain god, I've been afraid to even look back at them.  However, Sharon's 8 month re-visit post inspired me; if she can look her goals in the face after all the Murphy that's been going on in her life, surely I can too.  So how am I doing?  Hopefully not quite as badly as this XKCD comic ...

My religious practice has not been a daily occurrence, but I've probably averaged about five days a week.  Even better, I've put a few editions of the Bible on my Kindle account (The Holy Bible English Standard Version (ESV) is free right now, I got lucky and caught The Message New Testament for free a while back) and I've started flipping through them on my phone when I'm waiting for something or just want to read a few pages right before I go to sleep.  I'm keeping my tithing going as well, so I'm tootling along here.

Weight Watchers doesn't allow you to participate in their programs while you are pregnant, so I'm off the hook for that.  There's no way I can do the kind of exercise I was participating in at the beginning of the year; I get out of breath in 10 minutes of walking.  However, I need to move from being almost entirely sedentary to some form of movement, preferably along the lines of 15 minutes twice a day. Unfortunately, heat makes me nauseous, and the weather from now until October is pretty much nothing but heat in Louisiana.  This leaves workouts at the gym, but I really have trouble making myself go.  I am super self-conscious about my body; although intellectually I know that weight gain is normal in pregnancy, just thinking about the fact that I can no longer see my feet makes me want to cry.  Hauling my ugly, fat, out-of-shape body to the gym twice a day to work out requires more motivation than I have been able to scrape up.  It's weird, because I've been overweight before (as much as 210 lbs in law school), and I wasn't body conscious then.  I mean, I wanted to drop the weight, but I figured that that's what the gym was for, and if anyone else had a problem with how I looked, it was their problem, not mine.  Maybe it's because no matter what I do, I'm just going to get bigger and less cardiovascularly able for the next 3.5 months, which is really depressing to contemplate.  I need to be doing this, because being totally sedentary will only make returning to health post-pregnancy harder, but I can't find the motivation.  How did those of you who made it through pregnancy make yourself go to the gym?

On the financial front, I haven't had the energy for any side hustles.  Thankfully, though, it looks like we're going to miss the anticipated period of unemployment this year; Mr. Goat managed to leave his sinking ship company and started a new job this week.  We're on track to fund our Roths by December, and hopefully the markets will be a bit more settled by then, or really in the toilet so that I can find good bargains.  We're adding new baby expenses, but as of today we have $2499.83 saved toward them, and I plan to keep putting $400 more aside each month until the babies come, which should leave us with $3700 in the baby fund.  Hopefully this will cover our hospital co-pays and leave a bit left for clothing, diapers, pump rentals, and other new baby requirements.

I played some piano while I was at the beach, and then promptly stopped playing again as soon as I got home.  I need to get my keyboard set up properly and get playing.  The farm is a project for next year; I just don't have the energy.  Fortunately, we hired a new farm manager that is keeping things running, although we are not going to make much progress this year, as my parents are distracted by renovating their house.  And writing this blog post inspired me to email my friend for the first time since January:)

I've not been practicing with my carry firearms; pregnancy precludes it.  My parents are building me a little berm in the backyard, though, so come October I should be good to go.  Mr. Goat is talking about getting me an Airsoft pistol to plink at some steel in the interim, just to have a bit more fun practice than dry-firing.  (A Texas Star has just moved up to the top of my "want" list for Christmas.)

My house is an absolute disaster area.  We added on a room, and the construction was just finished yesterday, so in addition to a house filled with clutter, every available surface is covered in dust.  I know that a little dirt is good for babies' immune system, but we are taking it to a whole new level at this point.  I have to get the house in decent enough shape that I can sort of manage it until after the babies get here.  Then it will depend - I may need to find the money for a housekeeper, at least occasionally, if my energy doesn't return somewhat once the babies are out.

So, my action plans are:

- Keep tithing and reading scripture

- Add some exercise to my life by going to the gym once a day and finding an at-home routine once a day

- Keep putting away money for retirement and babies

- Get my keyboard set up and start practicing on the piano

- Work 15 mins a day on organizing my house until 7/6.  Mr. Goat goes out of town for work for two weeks then, and my mother is going to come over and help me get my house ship shape in preparation for babies.  After that, spend time every day keeping the house in order until the babies arrive.

It doesn't look like much, but my energy levels are pretty low right now; this will require just about all I have, I think.  I'm making a note on my calendar right now to blog about this on July 31st, and how much of it has been accomplished.  Wish me luck and energy!

My plans for May

Back in February, I noted that I was having trouble following Flylady routines.  Two months of constant nausea and vomiting have not helped; I can say that my house is now unequivocally a disaster.   On the other hand, I'm not even close to 100%.  Apparently it takes 14 hours a day of sleep to make 2 babies; who knew?

So I'm trying to add back to my schedule one small step at a time.  My goal for May is to do the Flylady Beginner Babysteps over and clean for 15 mins a day in the designated areas.  Her habit for May is 15 minutes of exercise a day, which works out as that is about as much as I can do at this point.  This evening I went to the gym for the first time in 2 months and couldn't even make it 15 mins of swimming, I had to stop at 7 mins and walk in the pool for a couple of minutes before I had the energy to finish my swim.  It has to be the pregnancy; even when I started swimming last year after no exercise, I could still swim for longer than 15 mins.

I won't be able to make all 31 of the Beginner Babysteps this month, because I go out of town next week to the Mayo Clinic for more follow-ups and to Grand Isle at the end of the month.  But I should be able to get the first 20 steps done, and 15 mins of exercise every day.  I've done my workout for the day, now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go shine my sink.

Want to be my Accountability Buddy?

Hard to believe that February is almost over!  Only 2 days left of the no-spend challenge, and, barring anything unforeseen, I should clear my food and household goals with no problem (the toy budget was blown a long time ago).  I've got 9 days left on the shape up for march challenge, but that will barely last me into March.  It's been great doing these challenges; somehow reading about other people doing the same thing makes it easier to keep myself on track.

Looking at my 2011 goals, I am doing well on all fronts except (a) practicing with carry firearm  (b) doing Flylady routines (c) connecting with my friend and (d) working on piano.

If any of these match up with something you've been thinking about getting serious about, I'd love to have an accountability blogging buddy.  Let me know if you're be interested.

Kicking off Challenges for Febuary

As I said yesterday, I'm way better at getting things done if it is part of a group activity.  Luckily for me, Sharon and Serendipity  are both leading challenges in areas that I want to work on.

Serendipity's challenge is Shaping up for March.  All participants are to choose a weight loss goal and, optionally, healthy habits, blogging about them to stay accountable, with a weekly check-in at her site.  The challenge runs from February 7 to March 7.  My goal is to lose four pounds, which would bring my BMI back down to 24.9.  I know I'll feel better about myself once the BMI calculator no longer lists me as overweight.  To do that, I will (1) eat within my Weight Watchers points every day and (2)exercise 6X per week, 2 days of Judo and 4 days of swimming, with one day of swimming and Judo so that I can make my 17X gym goal.  So, basically, I'm making myself accountable for my new years resolutions for the month, which will hopefully spur me to a more faithful execution of them.

Sharon is doing a No-Spend Challenge, which I have already begun by making a dinner menu plan for the month.  My non-fixed budgetary items are divided into Food (this covers both in-home and restaurant dining), Household (non-food items like gas, cleaning supplies, and other miscellaneous things that you need to run a household but that you don't eat), Utilities, Medical, and Toys(out of which I pay for my gym and dojo membership).  My goal is to cut spending in Food and Household by half, and to spend nothing in the Toy category besides membership fees.  I'll use the extra money to pay for some routine car maintenance for both of our vehicles, money which normally would have come out of savings, and thus increase my total savings.

Since these are both day-to-day challenges, I'll be posting daily updates, hopefully as addenda to other things, but in solitary splendor if necessary.  I'll start the money tracking from today and the weight tracking on Friday.  Off we go!

2011 Goal Recap - January Edition

Lets see how I am doing:
     A) Continue to Tithe - Paying off a loan in December and having my six month car insurance come due this month messed up my cash flow, so I didn't tithe this month.  I'm on track to pay double next month, though, so I should be caught up soon.
     B) Start a daily religious practice - This is one of those situations where it is something that I actually enjoy doing, so it falls by the wayside.  I'm finding that the best way I get to the things that I enjoy is to make them a group activity or schedule them at a specific time.  Alternately, I need a tracking system.  My church gives out Today in print form, so the plan for this month is to put it by my bed to read every morning, and then check it off in the book as done.  If that doesn't work as a starting point, I'll have to get more creative next month.
2) Health
     A) Eat within my Weight Watchers points every day - I made this 3 weeks out of 4, and lost 1.5 pounds this month.
     B) i. Exercise six days a week / make the check-in list at my gym every month I was out of town for a week, and that really messed me up.  Made it to the gym today, so I am getting back on track.

3) Financial
     A) Have a side business (or multiple) netting 1K a month before taxes by December 2011  Still working on this - need to get some stuff actually for sale by the end of this month.
    B) Fully Fund 2011 Roth IRAs Cash flow issues mean that this fund continues to be $0.  I plan to be on track to put $1K away every month starting March.
    C)  Save in anticipation of (hopefully very temporary) loss of primary income.  I didn't get much saving done this month, but I didn't have to tap into any savings either.

4) Dreams
     A) Get the farm books in order, facilitate farm improvements, and manage the goats.  Our farm manager quit this month, so it has been quite a challenge, but I have been on top of this all month.
     B) Begin again on piano  Haven't started
     C) Re-connect with my Chinese friend I'm glad I put this on here because I had totally forgotten about it until I went through the list.

5) Prosaic
     1) Practice with my carry firearms at least once a month - Ouch.  In my defense, the weather was nasty and I was out of town for a week.  This is another one of those things that I enjoy that tend to fall by the wayside.  I need to find a place for it in my schedule and write it in.  If this is still red next month, I will make myself take a class, so I know I will do it.
     2) Consistently do Flylady routines.  Not as consistent as I'd like, but definitely happening on a regular basis.  I still just have too much stuff.


Analysis: It could be worse, but it could be better too.  I'm having trouble doing consistent/pattern kinds of things like housework and exercise.  Next month, my plan is to schedule out each day beforehand, making sure to include all the things I want to be doing on a daily basis.

2011 Goals

Here we go ...

1) Religious/Spiritual 
     A) Continue to Tithe - one of my big wins in 2010, let's keep the streak going!
     B) Start a daily religious practice - I tried to get really specific about this last year, and ended up burning out. Rather than setting up a to do list, I want to give myself 15 minutes a day where I pray, meditate, read the bible, write in a gratitude journal, sing, or do whatever the spirit moves me to do that day.  Once this is a regular activity, I'll see where my spiritual journey needs to go.

2) Health
     A) Eat within my Weight Watchers points every day - I weighed 169 lbs on the scale yesterday, which puts me 21 pounds over my "thin" weight and 12 pounds over my lifetime weight.  Rather than worry about a time line and a weight goal, I'm just going to eat right and exercise.  I'll re-evaluate in March - if I'm not losing weight, I'll worry about it then.  On that note ...
     B) i. Exercise six days a week - I have Judo 2x a week.  I'll go to the gym the other 4, even if it's just for a light, 20 minute swim.  A sub-goal, because I am this anal, is to ii. make the check-in list at my gym every month.  To get on the list, I must check in at least 17 times a month.

3) Financial
     A) Have a side business (or multiple) netting 1K a month before taxes by December 2011  I've got several ideas on this front, from farm eggs to online jewelry.  I need to just keep plugging away at it until I find something(s) that works.  More on this as events develop.
    B) Fully Fund 2011 Roth IRAs Needed - 10K, currently have 0K - see 3A
    C)  Save in anticipation of (hopefully very temporary) loss of primary income.  It's coming.  The more I can cut from the budget, and the more I can sock away, the longer we'll have before we have to make desperation kinds of decisions.

4) Dreams
     A) Get the farm books in order, facilitate farm improvements, and manage the goats.This year, I am going to take over the farm bookkeeping.  This will free up my Mom to assist the new farm manager into transitioning into his duties, incorporate the new 152 acres into the property, and work on a national lecture tour, which is one of her big dreams.  She's actually speaking at the 2011 Southern Sustainable Agriculture Conference in Tennessee later this month, her first national conference.  I also need to manage the goats more closely.  We've been in growth mode on the herd for a long time, but now it's time to maintain what we have and begin to cull the bottom 10% and replace it with better genetics.  This will require near-daily monitoring to watch for health problems, as well as miscarriages and stillbirths.  It will also require meticulous record keeping.
     B) Begin again on piano  Talked to my dad about this today and we are going to get started again.  My goal is still to be able to accompany at my church on the piano when our current organist is out of town, busy, or sick (our back-up organist is very talented, but she's over eighty, and won't be around forever).
     C) Re-connect with my Chinese friend  We got busy and it stopped happening, but she's a sweetie and I need to spend more time with her.  Also, it's fun to speak Chinese, at least until I run out of words :)

5) Prosaic
     1) Practice with my carry firearms at least once a month This was a big fail for me last year.  I was late getting my Louisiana permit application in last year (long story), so I don't have a valid carry permit and probably won't get one until mid-March at the earliest.  The silver lining is that this gives me time to brush up before I am carrying again.
     2) Consistently do Flylady routines.  Last year, I decided to give up having a housekeeper and do my house myself.  When I follow her routines reasonably consistently, my house is acceptably neat.  I am not trying for Martha Stewart neat, just reasonably not dirty.

Accountability 
In an effort to give myself some accountability, I'm going to review these goals monthly on the first of every month.  Wish me luck (and good health too, please).