Savvy Toddler Mom

Seriously.  They are my Achilles’ heel.  I actually bought a whole bag for my husband to put in my stocking.  What was I thinking?!?!

I am going to eat them ALL before next year and then that’s it.  No peanut butter M&Ms in 2010.  Say it with me now…

(Playing a little catch-up here, but I’m going to get my 12 things in by New Year’s!)

Me time… I love it, I want it… I hardly ever get it.  Oh, and when I do, I usually spend it cleaning the house, doing laundry, paying bills, etc.

What I’m talking about here is some serious “me time.”  What I want to do, not what I have to do.  Examples: reading, scrapbooking, photography, sewing, daydreaming, etc.  Things that fill the soul and give you time to think about who you are and what you want in life.  I don’t remember the last time I spent any significant amount of time doing any of those things.  Our time is so scarce — spread out over responsibilities with family, work, home, church — I think we lose sight of our “self.”

So, “me time.”  Starting with 15 minutes/day.  Every day.  Take 15 minutes and do what YOU want to do.  If you have longer than that, great.   If you don’t, start with 15 minutes and see if you can grow it.  15 minutes this week, 20 minutes next week, 25 the week after that.

Feed your soul.

Okay, I know this is an obvious one, but after sleep (or lack of it), it is the lack of exercise that makes me feel the least healthy.

So, for 2010, getting 30 minutes of exercise a day is going to be a priority.  Even if I have to run up and down my office staircase during my lunch hour.

And don’t forget weight training!  Cardio burns calories, but building muscles is a faster way to burn fat.  So, weight training at least 2 times a week… to start. (You reading this, CTM?)

I really am going to get 12 things in by the end of the year!

The first thing is SLEEP.  We all need it.  Most of us don’t get enough.  I certainly don’t… and I think the last week has been the worst sleep deprivation I’ve had since the toot was a newborn.  I burned my candle at both ends until I couldn’t function any more.  It wasn’t pretty.

So, the 1st thing of SavvyToddlerMom is getting enough sleep.  Eight hours, baby.

Not too much, mind you… just enough.  Enough to keep me (and you) at the top of our game.  Too much will make us groggy and lazy.

Eight hours.  So, my new bedtime will be 11pm — alarm goes off at 7am.  It’s a plan.

Since I started working full-time in April 2009, I have had little time to blog!  However, I am regularly thinking of things I’d like to share… just at times when I don’t have a computer handy, like in the shower, driving to/from work, as I’m falling asleep.  The funny thing about that is that I spend 90% of my waking time in front of a computer!  Or, at least it feels like it.

I continue to juggle work and my family — husband in grad school and my son, who is now 5!… oh, wait, is there anything else?  YES.  I have spent a lot of time this year just trying to tread water.  I need to get back to living.

My birthday is next week and this year it’s almost a painful reminder of how much my life isn’t what I want it to be.  Don’t get me wrong… a lot of it is GREAT.  Fabulous.  Blessed and lucky and miraculous.  But there are a few big things that loom large when I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep.  All of us have something like that… sometimes it is so hard to reconcile what we have with what we want.

Some of the things I want I can’t do anything about.  Blech.  That’s what Zoloft is for, right?

Some of the things I CAN do something about.  So, forget the 12 days of Christmas.  I am going to come up with my 12 Things of SavvyToddlerMom.  (Okay, it was more clever when I put my own name in, but for the sake of internet anonymity…)

Between now and the end of the year, I am going to identify and make a plan for 12 things I can improve or change.  “Yes, we can.”

These 12 things will become my New Year’s Resolutions — New Year’s Goals — for 2010.

Feel free to do it with me!