2016 Goals check in

At work, we have the option of doing a mid-year checkin.  I was reading back through my posts and realized I put 2016 goals together, so I thought I'd record my progress and see if I can re-commit myself to some of these:

Personal

• Get on a regular haircut schedule again (It's been 5 months since I had a haircut, and it looks like it). - FAIL.  I had a haircut in April, but haven't had one since.  I need to call and schedule.
• Get back to being able to run 2 miles nonstop by the end of summer (this is going to be tough unless Nugget starts sleeping more, but a girl can dream). Nope. I ran/walked two and a half miles with the Hubs one night, but I'm going to aim for work out 2-3 times a week instead.
• Finish SB and BW's "baby" blankets (luckily I made them toddler/kid size from the start; I'm cheating a bit here as I just finished SB's; I have a few more hours for BW's). Still have some work to do on BW's, but I made some significant progress last weekend,  Probably have 4 hours or so to go.
• Choose and start "baby" kid blanket for Nugget. I may start looking for "high school graduation blanket" ideas

Work

• Get a promotion (I'm really nervous about this one; I don't have enough confidence in myself). No promotion, but did get a nice raise in March.  Still need to take action on this one.

Household

• Declutter and organize master closet See my last post - this is probably never going to happen.
• Redecorate SB and BW's room to a "big girl room" (I'm super excited about this one, and have even opened my Pinterest app again to explore color ideas. In progress; need to paint and rearrange some shelving. 
• Make our office an office instead of a storage room The office was mostly an office, then we decided to make it a play room so the toys stopped over-running our living room.  So, now I need to paint and get the final "office-y" stuff out of it.

Financial

• Finish paying off medical bills (still some lingering from Nugget's birth and subsequent illnesses) DONE!
• Increase 401(k) contributions 1% over yearly scheduled increase DONE!
• Commit to plan to pay off credit card debt and make substantial dent in credit card debt (this one weighs huge on my mind.  We have more than I'm comfortable with due to the Hubs' stint of unemployment in 2014; the Hubs and I are still working on how to communicate financially after five years of marriage - I think this is still one of the areas that is a work in progress for us, and may be for some time. Still needs to work.  Hubs lost his job after I made these goals and that significantly hindered my ability to make progress on this one.

So, not too much progress, but honestly, I had forgotten about these existence of these goals.  I need to print them out and hang them where they are visible and start knocking them out.

On summer...

I started to type this post long ago, but only made it as far as the title, and now it is September.  Which seems fitting, as that is how our summer went.  it was there for a moment, then it was gone. 

I feel like this summer we finally broke the surface of our drowning in littles and took some big gulps of air.  We still flounder and drop below the surface once in a while, but we're now treading water instead of drowning.  We've found a babysitter we trust as another option besides my mother who we trust to feed and put to bed all three kiddos on her own. We've gotten some (very brief!) time away.  Life is still chaotic and messy and I'm forever behind on projects (my closet will just always be a disaster, I'm afraid) but it feels more manageable.

So, I failed miserably at getting my kids signed up for any "summer activities."  Since I'm a procrastinator, literally everything was full by the time I started trying to register them.  Then I had an "aha" moment.  My kids are in a wonderful daycare center where they get to play outside all day and learn through play, and my work schedule meant any activities would be in the evenings or on weekends.  The activities I was looking at registering (swimming lessons, gymnastics, dance, sports sampler) were all indoors.  Why, for the life of me, would I put my kids indoors in the middle of our relatively short Midwest summer?  So, I viewed my procrastination failure as a blessing in disguise and instead focused on getting outdoors for walks, bike rides, and the playground.  We set up our tiny pool and took full advantage of the neighbor's quick-set pool, ran through sprinklers, drank out of the hose, and enjoyed summer.

And we blinked, and summer was over.   I sent my kids to daycare today in pants and sweatshirts.  Sure, it's getting up to 65 today, but the morning was chilly.  Which I love - I love this time of year, with crisp mornings followed by warm, sunny days.  But it means we are getting closer to the tipping point - the time when my kiddos will be closer to four than three, and closer to two than one.  How is that possible already?  SB and BW have moved to the next preschool room (already?) They just moved from the toddler room a few months ago, and Nugget moved to the toddler room.  She's still bald except for her mullet-in-training in the back, so she still looks like a baby, at least.

Breathing it in

We just recently returned from our week-long vacation, which I'll hopefully squeeze a post in about in the future.  Yesterday was the first day back at daycare for our three little girls, and it was a bit tough on all of them, after having mommy and daddy around 24/7 for 10 days.  Nugget especially had a difficult time transitioning back - after daycare pickup she just wanted to cuddle and snuggle with mama.  She went down for bedtime okay, but then woke around 11 pm and did.not. want to go back to sleep in her crib.  So I sat with her in the chair in her room, and snuggled and just breathed in her baby smell, as soon she won't be a baby anymore.  She would breathe deeply, but then here eyes would slide open, like she was checking if I was still there.  She finally gave in to sleep, but popped up the moment I laid her in her crib and cried.  Since I needed sleep, I took her into our  bed with me at this point.  She snuggled right in against my side and dozed off, although she still wasn't in a deep sleep for a while.  Was I sleeping?  No, but I savored that moment of snuggles and tried to commit the feel of it to memory.  He soft, still covered in baby peach fuzz head on my shoulder, her body curled against my side like it belonged there, her hand spread on my chest for assurance as she dozed.  She has gotten so big all of a sudden and her first birthday is only a few weeks away.  Once Nugget is ready for sleep, she doesn't want to cuddle (family trait), so once she pushed away from me and settled between the hubs and I on her stomach, I knew I could move her to her crib, but even though I'm tired this morning, I'm so glad I was able to sneak in the extra cuddles.  I am 99% sure she is my last baby (I can't say never yet), so I want to remember all these moments. 

Pools

The hubs and I decided, a bit last minute, to do an overnight hotel stay this past weekend.  The kids haven't had any pool time in a long time and we have an upcoming week-long trip coming up and I wanted to try out puddle jumpers for the girls before I take up a ridiculous amount of space in our luggage.  Lessons learned:

1). An overnight hotel stay at a hotel with a "water park" (read: small pool with one slide and a kiddie area) is pricey for a family of 6.
2) Taking a trip to a hotel without my mother is infinitely more relaxing than taking a trip with her.
3) If I have to share a bed with one of our twins, I pick BW (the hubs got SB and battled for space most of the night)
4) Nugget is not a fan of the pack and play and would prefer the nice cozy hotel bed
5) Taking toddlers to the pool is more enjoyable for everyone once they can touch the bottom, because
6) My TWO YEAR OLDS can touch the bottom and keep their heads above water in 3 feet of water.  Is that supposed to happen?

Seriously, being able to feel the bottom was a game-changer for BW.  She is normally our risk averse kid, but once she figured out she could touch she would paddle around in her puddle jumper and even ducked her head below water a few times.  We have another hotel stay planned for 2 weeks with my mom and they will get some more pool time in then -great to see them enjoying it.

So we let SB and BW stay up late and watch a movie, pumped them full of unhealthy snacks, and had a great time.  The week-long trip (with my mother, see number 2 above) will totally be smooth sailing, right?

Only two

I'm stopping by to write for a quick reprieve before jumping into work for the day.  The holiday lull has definitely ceased at work and "slammed" is how I again describe my day to the hubs when I get home from work.

The hubs and I are both very tall, so we make tall kids.  BW, in particular, is off the charts.  at 2 1/2ish, she is almost 42 inches tall and 40 lbs - about the size of the average 4-5 year old.  SB is shortly behind her at almost 40 inches tall and 33 lbs.  This brings about a host of challenges, like having people mistake BW for a 4 year old and expecting her to behave like a 4 year old, and giving us the side-eye if she throws a 2-y-o tantrum.  She's potty trained now, so at least the judgy looks about her wearing a diaper have stopped, but there are some days I want to have a t-shirt made that says, I'm 2, so people know that she is just acting her age sometimes.

However, I think the hardest thing is meeting the emotional and physical needs of a 2-y-old in a 4 year old-size body.   I can still pick both of them up and carry them if necessary, but there are times they want to be held and cuddled by their mama, or they just need a carry because their legs are tired, or because they are TWO.   BW doesn't get carried much, because (1) she's a lot to carry, (2) she isn't a good contributor to being carried - she doesn't hold on and just hangs out and makes you do all the work and (3) she doesn't seem like she needs to or should be carried because she seems older than her age.  I have to remind myself, too, that she is still only 2, and sometimes 2-year-olds needs some carries and cuddles, because.  Even if my back sometimes disagrees. 

Turning a corner?

I am furiously knocking on wood as I type this, but I think we may have turned a sleep corner.  Like Nugget has suddenly decided that she's cool with going to sleep and staying asleep, or putting herself back to sleep without needing to nurse.

If she has accomplished this without sleep training....yay.  I was worried I was getting to the point where my sanity couldn't take it anymore and we'd have to do some form of sleep training.

So, over the past few days, we have gone from 3-5 wake-ups a night to ONE last night.  One.  If I hadn't needed to stay up until almost midnight doing work I would feel so refreshed today, haha.  It also helps that SB and BW did not make a peep last night after a few nights in a row of terrible nightmares.

I'm giving some credit to her new sleep sack.  That thing is AH-MA-ZING.  I want one for me.  More on that in another post.

2016 goals

I want to make things happen in 2016, instead of putting them off or talking about them but not taking action or waiting for them to happen.  I don't want them to be resolutions; I want them to be  goals.  I'm not sure what the difference is really, but I'm aiming for goals.  My first goal is to make a list of goals for four areas - personal, work, household, and financial.  This is my start - I'm not going to share them all, but I'm going to commit to some here, for "everyone" to see.

Personal

• Get on a regular haircut schedule again (It's been 5 months since I had a haircut, and it looks like it).
• Get back to being able to run 2 miles nonstop by the end of summer (this is going to be tough unless Nugget starts sleeping more, but a girl can dream)
• Finish SB and BW's "baby" blankets (luckily I made them toddler/kid size from the start; I'm cheating a bit here as I just finished SB's; I have a few more hours for BW's).
• Choose and start "baby" kid blanket for Nugget.

Work

• Get a promotion (I'm really nervous about this one; I don't have enough confidence in myself).

Household

• Declutter and organize master closet
• Redecorate SB and BW's room to a "big girl room" (I'm super excited about this one, and have even opened my Pinterest app again to explore color ideas.
• Make our office an office instead of a storage room

Financial

• Finish paying off medical bills (still some lingering from Nugget's birth and subsequent illnesses)
• Increase 401(k) contributions 1% over yearly scheduled increase
• Commit to plan to pay off credit card debt and make substantial dent in credit card debt (this one weighs huge on my mind.  We have more than I'm comfortable with due to the Hubs' stint of unemployment in 2014; the Hubs and I are still working on how to communicate financially after five years of marriage - I think this is still one of the areas that is a work in progress for us, and may be for some time.

2016 began with a bang

Well, at least with a banging head, that is.  I woke up to the New Year with a terrible migraine.  We had to push off our family plans because I was unable to function for the first several hours of the New Year, likely a combination of not enough sleep and some yucky sinus virus.

We also rang in the New Year with three littles on antibiotics.  Nugget on a second course for the ear infections that won't quit, and SB and BW were both diagnosed with strep just after Christmas.  Thank you daycare.

I am on the mend, Nugget's last dose of antibiotics was this morning, and I am thankful that our illnesses our minor.

The hubs got me a fitbit for Christmas (I know I'm a bit late to the game). It has led to some interesting revelations. 

1) The sleep function is not entirely accurate.  I'm awake enough during portions of the night to have an awareness of when I'm awake (thank you, reverse-cycling infant), and the fitbit doesn't always register when I'm awake.  The other morning it credited me with an extra 40 minutes of sleep because it didn't register me waking, using the bathroom, putting my contacts in, and taking it off to set it on the counter while I showered.  I wish, fitbit, I wish.  With the inaccuracy, I average about 5.5 hours of interrupted sleep time a night, and I'd estimate that it's crediting me with an additional 30+ minutes of sleep that I'm not actually sleeping at night.  No wonder I'm tired.

2) It's a bit tricky if you are ambidextrous, as I don't have a true "dominant" hand - my hands share the load equally. - righty writes and does some stuff, but lefty does the majority of the other tasks - eating, brushing teeth, etc.  Even though I now have it coded as dominant on my left arm, I still have to remove it to brush my teeth or it counts every swipe as a step.

3) It is fascinating to see how many times I climb our stairs during a weekend.  Our two-story house plus my sleep-deprivation forgetfulness is certainly helping me burn calories.

4) I am terribly sedentary at work.  I am looking forward to when I can get more sleep so I can get more exercise in during the week. I can easily meet the 10K steps at home on weekends with cleaning and chasing after toddlers, but during the week I barely make half that.  Ugh.

I'm looking forward to 2016, although this year our babes will turn 3 and 1. What?  I'm aiming to write down goals this year - personal, work, household, and financial.  I want to make a bunch of things happen and I want to commit to them happening. More on that soon.