I Return

Happy New Year everyone!  I am returning to a few things today: work, blogging, training, and taking better care of myself on a multitude of levels. (warning - it's a bit of a long one!)

Where I've Been
On vacation with the family.  Mr. Darcy was able to take the Monday and Tuesday after Christmas off and they closed their office early on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.  The week before Christmas was full of getting things together and finishing up Christmas preparations.  The week after was kind of like a recovery week, but not from a physical event.  We lounged around from Christmas Day until I couldn't take it anymore and melted down from being stir crazy and not doing anything but cook, clean, and sit around on Tuesday.  I had the meltdown late enough in the day that we didn't get to do anything but errands.  But that was okay.  A few errands made me a happy girl.  We also took the girls to see "The Princess and the Frog," which was a great movie.  Of course, when we were playing with some green tree frogs we found this weekend at Senior Darcy's house we had to remind them that you don't kiss a frog unless it talks, dances and sings.  (And I joked that was how I found their Daddy.  They thought that was pretty funny.)

I had a lot of fun playing with the girls.  Ladybug did my hair a few times, with results that were quite amusing.  One of the best things though was Angelfish waking us up on Christmas morning.  "Hey guys, I have something to tell you." Me: "What's that?"  Angelfish: "Santa brought me a motorcycle."  Me: "He did?!"  Angelfish: "Yeah, it's because I was really good this year."  And then later Ladybug telling us that "Santa must have been all out of airplanes by the time he got to our house." Me: "Why is that?"  Ladybug: "Because he didn't bring me one.  But I like the motorcycle he brought."  Me: "Did you ask Santa for an airplane?"  Ladybug: "No.  I thought he'd just know."  But she was happy all the same.

Another favorite was when Ladybug found a picture of her class and started talking to it and telling her friends that she missed them.  Angelfish told her that they weren't there, it was just a picture.  Ladybug said, "I know.  I just wanted to talk to them."  Or when Angelfish told me after I gave her a kiss that "I like your kisses all day long, Mommy."

On New Year's Day, I woke Mr. Darcy up and told him that we needed to start the New Year off right.  A few minutes later, I came back and told him we were going to be "wild and adventurous" in the New Year.  The girls were in on it too and told him, "Yeah, we're going to the zoo!"  So eventually we got ourselves to the Brevard Zoo.  It was rainy and cold, but we had a really good time and the girls loved getting to feed a deer.  We had to explain that it was a deer and not a reindeer though because Angelfish kept saying how much she loved the reindeer.  We saw a variety of monkeys, birds, alligators and crocodiles, tapirs, rhinoceroses and a cheetah before it got too cold and we had to head back to the car.  Then we made an impromptu visit to Mr. Darcy's parents.  We were on I-95 anyway... the girls took a nice 2 1/2 hour nap and were happy campers for their grandparents while we ate the traditional collard greens and black eyed peas so we'll get lots of "cash money" this year.  It was nice to do something completely unplanned - even if none of us had pajamas, toothbrushes, etc.  We made it work nicely and had a great time!

Yesterday, we sort of lounged around and then put together the grocery list and the new table and chairs we got for the girls' play room... and then rearranged the playroom and cleaned and organized it. Then it was grocery shopping and dinner.  Time flew by amazingly fast yesterday.

Where I'm going.
So with the New Year come New Thoughts.  Or just acknowledgements of the thoughts you already had with a willingness to do something about them.

You know it's time to turn over a new leaf when even your New Year's horoscope says that the past few years have been rough ones and you've done a lot of taking care of others and that for 2010 to be a good one, you need to learn to take care of yourself just as well as you take care of others.  The irony of the statement was that a few days before I decided that my new year's goals were to take better care of myself: emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

I once taught a course with a component just about goal setting.  So I know that you can't just say I'm going to take better care of myself.  I must be specific.  So here I go:

I am going to take better care of myself physically by:
1. putting myself before "others" by making sure I take the time to bathe, brush and floss, and eat healthily and in a relaxed manner on a daily basis. I know it's gross but sometimes to get things done for the house or the kids, I skip it.
2. leaving each morning at 7 am to do my training (no more skipping or half-butting it because I hung around to help get lilliputians in the car when Mr. Darcy says he's got it)
3. pushing myself harder (but still listening to my body) when training;
3. taking my medications and going to my doctors appointments;
4. having a mammogram (even if I have to save up for it in case the insurance company doesn't pay for it since I'm only 34... my Mom had a mastectomy.  I need a mammogram.)
5. Cutting out soda, sugars, and as much refined foods as possible.  That's not to say that I won't have any soda or sweets again ever... that would be lunacy because every once in awhile you should have a treat.  It's just to say that I'll be doing without them on a regular basis.

I am going to take better care of myself emotionally by:
1. working on being happy with where I am in life as well as finding the path that I feel I need to be on instead of dwelling on the ideas of "things could be better if...";
2. accepting that my body is what it is and that short of elective surgery there is not much more I can do;
3. dressing each day like I would if I were going into an office or out with friends, make up and hair done.  I feel better when I feel like I look good.
4. buying clothes that look good on me now - slowly over time without breaking the bank of course - not how I'd like to see myself; and trying to get over the size number on the clothing.
5. having fun with my husband and my children instead of always thinking about all the things that "must" get done.
6. reading books for fun again.
7. loving myself as much as I love the other people in my life and realizing that without me putting myself first I can't take care of my lovies the best that I can.

I am going to take better care of myself spiritually by:
1. reading the Bible more.  I'd like to say daily, but for now I'll say weekly (other than while in church).
2. attending church more often.  It's 1/2 an hour away, but it's important enough to make the drive.
3. raising more money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society through Team in Training for cancer research.
4. re-reading the Dalai Lama's Book The Art of Happiness
5. getting more involved in the community, hopefully through Junior League or other ways.

Now, I know that this seems like an awful lot and when it comes to goal setting, the rule is to not focus on more than 3 things at a time.  The good news is that I'm already doing or in the process of doing alot of this.  And the reality is that there really are only 3 things: care of physical, emotional, and spiritual.  It's the implementation that gets a little more complex, but that's how it is with goals - especially with long term goals like these.

And you know what?  I'm pretty sure that it's going to work out nicely and 2010 and the coming years are going to be good ones. 

I already started by running 3 miles on the treadmill this morning at an 11:06 pace for all 3 miles, which is good for me - especially after the lack of training during the month of December.  The day of my Mom's surgery is the last time I remember really having a true workout - and I ran 2.1 miles in 20 minutes because my Dad asked me not to go too far because he was worried about the foggy weather and traffic.  I felt like I had run super hard.  Then I did yoga for about 30 minutes.  Not much else has happened since.

So this year, I'm returning to a lot of things: blogging, training and myself.