I finally painted the shelf!

I think blogs should have pictures.  The subject of this one is pretty obvious!

I’m not the best at writing regularly, but it’s good enough, right? I did do a lot of stuff recently though.

Let’s just start with last month’s list. I may experiment with some fonts, for interest.

• Do that big work thing that needs finishing before honeymoon. Sorry to be so vague, but work and internet don’t mix well. I did that thing. It worked out well. It’s actually an exceedingly boring admin task. It got done
• Throw out a whole bunch of garbage and empty boxes in my house. I did some of this. So, maybe half? I still have some cardboard from wedding gift boxes. In my defense, the recycling room is in the garage of my building, I clean when the boys are sleeping, and I can’t leave them alone to recycle.
• Drink the open bottles of wine from the wedding before they go bad, or give them away. We threw out a half bottle of spoiled wine - out of about 12 bottles! Good drinking me!
• Get some pictures printed of our wedding photo, to enclose in thank you notes. Um… I have the digital prints… I just have to choose and print one.
• Send thank you notes. Nope. None of them. Worst bride ever!
• Read more awesome books. Funny story, I decided to put my plan to read all of the Pulitzer prize winners on hold before the wedding, and just read a light paperback romance - you know, to relax. So right before I left for work on Friday, I quickly pulled a book form my “cheesy-paperback” shelf. Got on the bus for my 45 minute commute, opened up, and realized I misfiled my books, and had picked up a paperback of Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Yup, that one, about rape and slavery. Also a Pulitzer winner - so that’s what I’m doing. I’ve been doing so much reading I maxed out my annual library hold limit in 4 months. Also, I gave up on Beloved.
• Reorganize my kitchen, as we got a lot of awesome kitchen stuff. Nope. Not at all. Gifts are in boxes stacked on the table,
• Give away old kitchen stuff - bye bye grad school plates, hello new plates! REgistry mix up means the new stuff never arrived… but the prmise within 2 weeks.
• Buy a new dining room set to replace the Ikea stuff I bought second hand in grad school. I thought about this? A lot? But did nothing.
• Sign the boys up for activities for the fall. Nope. But I know what to sign them up for…
• Learn to bake using my new stand mixer in apple green which looks amazing. I made pancakes and cookies. Next up, a souffle!
• Send some paintings out into the world. This just requires making it to the post office. I did! I made it to the post office, and just gave some to people in town!

Ok, now here’s where I’m going to list what I’ve done in the past month. Next I’ll do my to do list. I’m reminding myself of the format, not you. Also, I don’t know why my kids aren’t wearing pants right now, but they aren’t. And I forgot to cook dinner.

• Went on a fabulous honeymoon to a nearby resort town. Saved money by driving to a local place, less than 2 hours away. Spent said money on a luxury hotel with a series of hot tubs overlooking the mountains with nice waiters bringing me $12 milkshakes full of booze. That was awesome. Also, we ate a lot of fancy food! And hiked.
• After a long discussion about what we want from life, I decided to pursue full time work at some point soon. The following day, an opportunity arose, and now I am full time…. It’s been an adjustment, but we have a full time Nanny, and we’ll see. My new position has room for several projects I’ve been hoping for - something I couldn’t squeeze in part time, so professionally, it’s cool.
• Cooked a lot. Even better, my husband has been cooking too, and we’re figuring out how to split the housework now that we’re both full time.
• After a lot of thought about home organizing, I went to the library and got out some books. Just so you know, these rarely help. I read a lot of books on how to declutter and organize your life - I could write one. I just don’t do any of those things. But I’m starting small. This afternoon I reorganized W’s closet - moved all the shelves and bars, and made it livable. More to come in the following section.
• I finally painted the damn bathroom shelf white. Now I just need it to dry, so I can hang it. It took months, I feel like an idiot….

And finally, here’s the stuff I want to do:

• Get some pictures printed of our wedding photo, to enclose in thank you notes.
• Send thank you notes.
• Read more awesome books.
• Reorganize my kitchen, as we got a lot of awesome kitchen stuff.
• Give away old kitchen stuff - bye bye grad school plates, hello new plates!
• Buy a new dining room set to replace the Ikea stuff I bought second hand in grad school.
• Sign the boys up for activities for the fall.
• Learn how to make a souffle.
• Make fancy drinks involving egg white.
• Make more ice cream in my new ice cream maker.
• Organize: The goal is to do one room at a time until the whole house is done. Then I guess I start again. First up, the master bedroom and bath.
• Hang out with my friends
• Buy potties to begin toilet training.

And I think that just about does it. Now I have a poo to change. Does it ever end?

Married!

Boys in matching vests, admiring the scenery between photos

Ok, so first things first. We got married! I got everything done, and the wedding could not have been more perfect. I’m just thrilled, and I had a sneak peak at the photos, and they look fabulous. I’ll post some… though I know all my readers are on facebook and/or came to the wedding, so you’ve seen how awesome I looked. 

But now, it’s back to reality. Honeymoon in a few days, then reality. I actually got a bunch of tasks done earlier in the day, so I can start from scratch.

• Do that big work thing that needs finishing before honeymoon. Sorry to be so vague, but work and internet don’t mix well.
• Throw out a whole bunch of garbage and empty boxes in my house
• Drink the open bottles of wine from the wedding before they go bad, or give them away
• Get some pictures printed of our wedding photo, to enclose in thank you notes
• Send thank you notes.
• Read more awesome books. Funny story, I decided to put my plan to read all of the Pulitzer prize winners on hold before the wedding, and just read a light paperback romance - you know, to relax. So right before I left for work on Friday, I quickly pulled a book form my “cheesy-paperback” shelf. Got on the bus for my 45 minute commute, opened up, and realized I misfiled my books, and had picked up a paperback of Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Yup, that one, about rape and slavery. Also a Pulitzer winner - so that’s what I’m doing.
• Reorganize my kitchen, as we got a lot of awesome kitchen stuff
• Give away old kitchen stuff - bye bye grad school plates, hello new plates!
• Buy a new dining room set to replace the Ikea stuff I bought second hand in grad school.
• Sign the boys up for activities for the fall
• Learn to bake using my new stand mixer in apple green which looks amazing.
• Send some paintings out into the world. This just requies making it to the post office

As always, it’s just a start. But, as I am super happy and caffinated today, it feels really doable.

Things are finally getting done! And a new Blog!

We used to have a coffee table.  Now we have a Queen mattress topper.

Let’s dive right in with my to do list from last month:

• Finish sorting my closet - Nope. No progress at all
• Continue the good cooking work - Yes. And I added baking. Muffins!
• Tidy the house for 15 minutes after the boys go to bed, before checking email. Nope. But I binge clean sometimes…
• Email checked. Take all my maternity clothes out of my clothing rotation. It’s really not cool, the boys are almost 2. -Done!
• Enjoy the summer! - So far so good
• Read more good books - Read some fabulous books, working my way through the Giller Prize winners. Follow me on Goodreads for more info.

I have been cheating on this to do list blog with a good old fashioned paper list. And with the lists in my head. So what did I do?

• Made a few tasty roasts
• Roasted several chickens.
• Went through several batches of my new favourite veggie dish, kai-lan with garlic and oyster sauce
• Baked blueberry muffins
• Made a lot of pancakes for the boys
• Registered for neat stuff for the wedding, including a new food processor and stand mixer. In Green Apple, it’ll really brighten up my all white kitchen
• Read a lot. If I can ever make it through “Wolf Hall”, I have the new Jeffrey Eugenides novel waiting to go.
• Good work at work. It’s summer school, but I’m trying out a new pilot project, which is tough but interesting
• Moved the coffee table out of the living room, and moved in a memory foam bed topper. Now we have a toddler play space, instead of a living room.
• Made a new Blog! I will be “selling” my art through the website http://knockoffart.blogspot.ca/ hosted here on Blogger. The idea is, my friends can go online, and I will give away my art. I have too much
• Had my first wedding gown fitting. It’s lovely.

I think I need to post more, but it’s been a busy time. I am not going to put in a to do list, as laundry load 3 (6 of the past 3 days) is in the dryer, and I am patting myself on the back for being… awesome.

The Diet Continues

How’s the diet going? Well! I do have the world’s most unreliable scale, but over a week I lost around 2.5 lbs. It may not seem like a lot but it has the following results:

• All my jeans zip easily.
• I feel better about myself.
• I cooked dinner and made myself lunch almost every day, so that helped on my list.
• I didn’t really exercise - just walked a lot. Which is good, but I need more

Here’s where you come in: I’ve had some feedback about exercise. Yes, I hate running, but I actually hate all exercise while I’m doing it, so there. Now, reader i, who has an awesome blog about exercise videos, you can help me pick out an appropriate video to begin with yoga. My yoga background: started at 17, practiced on and off for years, but haven’t done anything in about 3 or 4 years. So, beginner again.

But food isn’t everything, so here we go:

• Finish sorting my closet
• Continue the good cooking work
• Tidy the house for 15 minutes after the boys go to bed, before checking email. Speaking of which…
• Email checked. Take all my maternity clothes out of my clothing rotation. It’s really not cool, the boys are almost 2.
• Enjoy the summer!
• Read more good books

I think that’s all. Just a quick post…. Bye!

A weighty matter (also, puns are cool)

I have a few things that I have been meaning to talk about - so add to my list, “Blog More”. It kind of helps. By the way, I begin with a photo of S and C being cowboys.  Adorable!
So here are my lists of goals / topics. I will expound in a Blog entry, maybe. Who knows these days?

• Blog more
• Lose some weight - (yup, I’m one of THOSE people)
• Read better books (and this one I’ve been sticking with. Over the past month I’ve read “Anna Karenina”, and some more modern literature.
• Write about my new pet peeve - Financial advisers who suck at month. I mean really, when did it become socially acceptable to admit to being bad at math, when your job IS math? Really!
• Put away the clothes that I washed yesterday. Hang the damn shelf in the bathroom
• Not have my kids watching Sesame Street while I Blog. Too late!
• Write a post about the blogs that I read. I will link any reader’s blog who would like.

List making is one of those things that I do best, but I have to say, a lot of it takes place in my head.

Today I am going to talk about the second item on the list: weight loss. It sucks. For fear of alienating my readers, I’ll make a confession: I’ve never had that much trouble losing weight. At age 24 I had my wisdom teeth out, and developed complications. I lost 10 lbs quickly, and went from average for my height to the low end of average. I kept that weight for years, with no problems, give or take 5 lbs.

When I was pregnant, I was so sick, I had trouble keeping weight on. I saw a prenatal dietitian, who put me on a high fat, high calorie diet, what I like to call the “milkshake a day” diet. With her help, I gained a respectable amount of weight - the minimum for twins. After the babies were born, I lost the weight FAST. At 7 days postpartum, I was at my pre-pregnancy weight. A week after that I was too thin and had to restart the milkshake diet. I switched to whole milk, and had a big bowl of 11% fat greek yogurt for breakfast every morning. I kept this up for the first 9 months of nursing, (yup. Nursed twins for 14 months. I’m crazy), then slowly switched to a regular diet. Awesome.

Fast forward to the twins being almost 2. I’m tired, a lot. I’m miserable, a lot. I eat jelly beans. And cookies. And beer. And more cookies. I love my boys, I love my life, but it’s been a solid month of cold after cold after early morning wake up. I love my job, but (not going into details), it’s just a stressful time of year in my line of work. Also, I took on an extra summer class, and there is a month long overlap, where I am teaching double time. I realized that I can’t really hide what I do, so now you know. I’m a teacher.

Also, my son S loves to share with Mommy. That means that he shoves half of his food in my mouth. (C eats his own meals, thank you very much). S has been a thin boy since he was born, and as an infant, he had jaw and feeding issues. He’s been pretty low on the weight curve, but 50th percentile for height, so we have always given the boys lots of high fat and calorie food. That means when I make them pancakes, I use whole milk and 3 tbs of melted butter. As someone who was raised on skim milk and apple sauce to moisten, this is delicious. So when S puts a whole 500 calorie pancake in my mouth, I eat it.

So I eat S’s meals with him, then I sit down and eat my own. This is an old story - but it still makes me miserable.

But hey, don’t feel that bad for me, I don’t weigh that much. I have a 5 lb range I would like to be in. I am 5 lbs above the top of that range. So, not that hard. So here is my resolutions:

• Lose 5 lbs over 2 weeks. We are 2 days in, and I was down 1/2  lb, then had a party and ate a lot of pie and drank a bunch of wine.
• Lose 10 lbs over 2 months. For those of you keeping track, this will bring me close to my wedding day, and at the bottom end of my range.
• Accomplish this by healthy eating, more veggie and fruit, not a fad diet
• Exercise. Really truly
• By new running shoes, and start running with my friend B.

Honestly, this shouldn’t be unreasonable. So I will try to chart my progress on this blog, but, hey, I may just not write for another month. Whatever.

So hey, here’s one more thing. The more comments I get, the more motivated I am to Blog, and then get stuff done. So feel free to comment (nice stuff only please, my ego is fragile), and feel free to share my blog with other friends, or link to it on your blog. Just stick with the anonymous thing, even though I know both of you, my sole readers know exactly who I am.

Until next time!

Gettin' 'er done

Screw my old to do lists, I’m starting fresh. Let’s begin with what I did this past while (It’s been more than a week, but let’s pretend)

• Booked a marriage officiant! Yes, we are getting married
• Got most of the addresses for wedding invites, invitations in the mail. Not really my doing, but I’m happy to take credit
• Hung out with some friends. I even went to a party this weekend for a new friend, which was lovely
• Read blogs and kept tabs on some of my old friends, including my 2 followers. Yup, I now have two!
• Made fresh healthy food… for my kids. I had takeout tacos for dinner
• Filed my taxes. Yes, this wasn’t optional, but I still am taking credit
• Did a whack of laundry… and magically, all of the dirty hampers are full again. Possibly because my son S is super into putting stuff into hampers. It’s hard to tell what’s dirty and what’s clean….
• Survived a week of hell:
• W, my significant other, spent a long weekend out of town for a family wedding. The following week, he had a week long workshop and about 20 hours of extra grading to finish… by the end of the week. Thus, I did over a week of solid single mom work, and I have to say, it’s tough. It is so tough. I did it, and W finished off all of his work, and so now I am doing… nothing.

So what do I have to do?
 

• Submit some insurance forms. I hate paperwork.
• Tidy my closet… The new game of “pull Mommy’s clothes out of the closet and roll in them” is getting old fast.
• Cook more. But fresh food. Eat vegetables
• Buy less Starbucks out. Starbucks, be less delicious. I’m talking to you raspberry truffle cake pops.

I think that’s all I have right now. If you want me to blog more, leave suggestions of what to talk about in the comments… here are some things I was thinking about complaining about:
 

• Women who knit during conferences
• Attachment parenting
• People who don’t get vaccines.
• People who use the word “statistics” when they are in fact not talking about statistics
• Two sided Hypothesis tests
• Bankers who hate math
• Childbirth fanatics who say that natural childbirth should be wonderful and pain free
• The cable company
• Why doesn’t Netflix Canada have classic Melrose Place?

Back to it...

I know I don't keep up with stuff, like Blogs, but I am revitalized by a week off of work with childcare (the first one ever) where I got a lot done.  So, the old list, and I will comment and add:

• Cook a proper dinner at least 4 nights a week - I think I did this.  Wait, do scrambled eggs count?  I'm going with yes.
• Make (and keep) some new friends this year - Not really.  But, I did spend time with old friends, does that count?
• Plan a wedding - Awesome!  Bought a dress, ordered invitations, started guest list. 
• Organize my closet - Check!  I even forgot this was on the list and yet I still did it
• Make a photo album for my boys’ first birthday (note, I’m already 6 months late) - nothing.  It's paper book you order online with digital pictures...
• Figure out how to get my itunes playlists off my old computer and onto the new -I researched whether the cloud thingy could help.  It can't
• Sell old computer - need to do above first!
• Get out of the house with my boys most days I’m not working - Every day but Wednesday, when it rained and we were all sick.  I also spent one on one time with each boy, thanks to having a sitter.

• Keep up the blog for at least a while.Um.  Not so much,

• Rearrange our home office / playroom / stroller storage - I did unpack a box, and clear off my desk.  I think that counts.

 And to add to the list:

•  Go out alone 1 night this week
• Move the old bookcase out of the living room
• Buy a new table 
• Take box of old junk to Goodwill
•  Hang a new shelf in the bathroom

And finally, to make me feel better, stuff that I did do!

•  Make dentist appointment - check!
• Arrange for kids doctor appointment - check!
• Fix dryer
• Make it to the bank to rearrange investments

So, thanks dear reader(s), if you comment it will inspire me to write more.  So, thanks!

Here I go again... I'm trying here.  What did I accomplish on my list?

• I cooked a few times.  A killer beef stew, chicken, pizza.  Pretty good.
• Left the house with the boys - once.  In my defense, it is really really cold here, and we hung out indoors and watched Curious George
• E-mailed with my best friend since High School.  I've missed her, it's been nice
• Told another friend I have a blog!  (Grad school bestie)
• Put away a ton of laundry, but I let my kids play in my closet again, so it's still a mess

So...  That's a start.  Right now I'm listening to my baby crying on the baby monitor, while watching something mindless on TV.  I would love to add to my to-do list,but what I really want is to check stuff off.  So here is what I will do:  Copy my old list, cross some stuff off and add to it.  Sound good?  Yes is does!

• Cook a proper dinner at least 4 nights a week - Ok 3.  Almost
• Make (and keep) some new friends this year - did something!
• Plan a wedding - Did absolutely nothing
• Organize my closet - it was organized, now it's a mess again
• Make a photo album for my boys’ first birthday (note, I’m already 6 months late) - nothing
• Figure out how to get my itunes playlists off my old computer and onto the new - nothing.
• Sell old computer - need to do above first!
• Get out of the house with my boys most days I’m not working - one day!

• Keep up the blog for at least a while. - check!

And to add:

• Rearrange our home office / playroom / stroller storage

I think that's it for tonight.  I'll try to check in in a few days.  And PS - the baby is no longer crying.  Just left him alone!

First Post

So I've done this before.  I'm very good at starting things, but not so good at following through.  Today, here in this blog, I'm going to try to try to come up with a list of things I need to follow through on  - then I will follow through.  That's the plan at least.  I apologize if I don't follow through - after all, it's what I do.  I'll try though.  So the idea is I would have two kinds of posts - resolutions, and then posts about me keeping them.  Simple?  Not really.

Things I will begin by telling you about my life.  I have twin boys, who are (right now) one and a half.  I am getting married this summer, and no, I have done absolutely nothing to plan the wedding.  I have a job, which I love, and I won't talk about anymore.  So I will start by listing some things I would like to do:

• Cook a proper dinner at least 4 nights a week
• Make (and keep) some new friends this year
• Plan a wedding
• Organize my closet
• Make a photo album for my boys’ first birthday (note, I’m already 6 months late)
• Figure out how to get my itunes playlists off my old computer and onto the new
• Sell old computer
• Get out of the house with my boys most days I’m not working

How does this work you may ask? It’s kind of like New Year’s resolutions, only I’m 2 weeks late and I get to add and subtract as many as I’d like whenever I’d like. Does this things have any rules? Not really. But I will try to update at least once a week, hopefully talking about how well I did. And maybe shame will keep me on hate straight and narrow. It could, now couldn’t it? I think I need to add one:

• Keep up the blog for at least a while.

On that note… Goodnight!