The Baby Shower

Today, I spent most of my day at a baby shower. One of my friends, whom I met 8 years ago when I moved to California and I have been told (and would agree with) is very much like me, is due to have a baby next month. She's a sweetheart and lives down the street from us. Her DH works with Dave too, so we interact a bit with that too. It's her first baby and she's trying to figure it all out.

Going to the party was great, because it meant I got to see her and several other friends I haven't seen in awhile. It was also kinda awkward, though. I met my friend (and actually, all of my friends here in California) at a church I used to attend. We were very involved at the church and both of my girls were dedicated there. We left a year and a half ago and while I kept up with some people, others (many others) fell by the wayside. It wasn't intentional, but I guess its stuff like that which shows you who are your friends and who are just people you see regularly.

Many of the people at the shower fit in the second category. I spent much of my time playing "catch up" where people ask what's going on in my life. It's small talk, I know. But I hate small talk. I suck at small talk. I'm not a people person and being social makes me very uncomfortable. Fortunately, I managed to get at a table of people who are my real friends and not a group of  those I hung out with. The new mother is one of the women I consider like a sister and two other of my "almost sisters" were there too, along with one of my extra mothers. I sat with them and the sisters and I caused our own small amount of trouble (especially for my extra mom, who was running the games!).

I did do something for my goals, though. I'm part of a writer's group for moms and I joined the goals group they have going. It started today and I put out there my goals. Now to help keep myself accountable. Partially that's what this is, a place to keep myself accountable.

Oh, speaking of accountable, I lost 1 lb this week. The real question is that simply a weight fluctuation or weight loss? I also found another very good reason to lose weight. My 10 year high school reunion is happening later this year. I don't have any details beyond the fact that several people from high school are making loud noises on Facebook about having one. High school was probably the most miserable 4 years of my life, with middle school's 3 years being a very close second. In the intervening 10 years, my life has changed for the better, including the fact that I got out of there! I really want to go to the reunion, though. I want to see my friends from that time, but I also want to show off the fact that I'm certainly not the same person I was 10 years ago. But I cannot walk in there being 60 lbs overweight. Because that will overshadow any "wow" factor I have for anything else. So now I want to lose 60 lbs by June 11 (figure that's the earliest they would have the reunion, hopefully later in the year). Well, when I stuck it in a calculator, it says I can lose probably about 30 lbs by that point. I can see what I can do, but my goal is 60 lbs by June 11. Let's see how it goes!

New Year, New Blog

I am a Stay At Home Mom. Yes, I said it. The thing is, though, that I'm not very good at it. In fact, I'm very bad at it. I'm a good mom. I'm not so good at taking care of the rest of it. If you walked into my house right now, you'd find that my kitchen is cluttered with stuff (again). My dining room is clean, but only cause I swept it this morning in frustration. The girls have laundry that's been in the basket for almost a week but still hasn't been put away. And don't even glance in my bedroom!

To be honest, I'm not very domestic. I'm just not. But I want to change that. So I'm going to. And while I'm at it, I'm going to blog about it. One thing we've done as a family is set some goals and I want to focus on meeting them. So we're going to. And I'm going to blog about them.

So what are our goals? Well I'm glad you asked!

My personal goals:

1. Blog here (Mrs. Undomestic) and HERE (my baking blog) daily. This one is simple. Get on here and blog! This will also include promoting the blog.

2. Make enough money every month from various work projects to cover both car payments and the car insurance. Right now I work for a couple of content mills along with monetizing the blog. I have calculated how much I need to make daily to cover the expenses, not counting weekends. The new goal is to actually get it done!

3. Keep my house clean, not just halfway, almost clean like it is now. I'm a fan of the FlyLady system (which I don't follow well). I even own her book! I'm going to follow this to keep my house clean.

4. Complete a novel. I love to write and I have always wanted to write a novel. My goal is to actually get it done this year and find an agent to sell it.

5. Lose 60 lbs. I need to get down to about 155 to be a happy camper with myself and with what is considered healthy. This includes eating well and exercising daily!

6. Read my Bible daily.

Family Goals:

1. Become healthier. Dave, my husband, needs to lose weight too. He won't "Go on a Diet" (yeah for being male!) but he will do a lifestyle change with me, so we're doing this as a family.

2. Read a story to our girls every day. We often read, but I really want to get a book read to them every day.

3. Work on preschool stuff with Sunshine (my 3-year-old) and homework/school stuff with Beautiful G (my 5-year-old). Beautiful G is in half-day kindergarten right now but by the end of the year she'll be in first grade. I really need to get Sunshine more prepared for kindergarten than Beautiful G was (although she was fine, I felt like she could have been more prepared).

4. Save up for the down payment of a house and buy it! Dave and I am finally to a point where our credit will allow us to buy a house and we are sick of living in apartments where we can't do things like send our kids to play in the yard. We're Americans. We have the American dream of a home. And we're going to do it!

Yup, that's it. 10 things I really need to do this year (well, 9. Two are more cross-overs of each other). This blog will keep me accountable and give you a chance to see how I'm doing. I'll be posting how we do and other stuff that relates to home (like coupons, great deals, and other fun stuff that you could use in your home and family life).