I promise this will be the lengthiest post I will ever type…
If you’re anything like me, you’re up at 1am on a Sunday, escaping into your computer screen while a full night’s work awaits you in the next room. Laundry, dishes, clutter…signs of life. If you’re like me, none of that stuff will get done before you invariably pass out next to your sleeping husband and toddler son on the barely-fits-us-all queen sized bed. Monday morning will come, and you will wake up and realize that you still have no idea how to get your toddler to fall asleep in his own darn bed. But none of that will matter when he perks up a little, turns toward you, opens up his eyes and says- "french fries..?"
A sign of the times, I suppose… 
If you’re like me, you have over 1,000 digital photos on your laptop computer waiting to be processed, printed, downloaded, scrapbooked- anything! Unopened bills grace your dining room table, unfinished knitting projects wait quietly in baskets on your bookshelf. Your car’s registration is overdue and you can’t find your debit card ANYWHERE.
If you’re like me, you have the very best of intentions. You try to maintain a healthy diet by eating fast food only four times per week (scaled back from seven). Organic vegetables share space in your shopping cart with Oreos and Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper. And if you’re like me, you sometimes justify that eating all three at once makes a balanced meal. You own the VHS set of Tae-Bo tapes, you went to hypnobirthing classes while you were pregnant, and you are in a serious relationship with T.V. You hate your hips and thighs, and refuse to wear shorts because your calves have gotten fatter ever since high school cheerleading ended. (Ah, the glory days!) If you’re like me you did okay losing the baby weight, but haven’t done anything about the undefined jelly substance that moved in once the baby moved out. You go to church, well, religiously. But can’t seem to squeeze in time to read the Bible or have a decent chat with The Almighty. You wish that the two of you were as tight as you are with the remote.
If you’re at all like me, you have goals and secret wishes and hopes and desires that seem…just barely out of reach. It feels like such a compromise to wake up every morning and not feel like you’re at your best, to not feel vital- to not feel like an integral part of the universe at large. If you’re a dork like me you started a blog about this over the New Year but for whatever reason discontinued blogging and now feel silly adding to the blog since it’s been so long and all the good blogs have bloggers who’ve been blogging since 2001 and you feel like a wannabe…
If you’re like me… It’s time for us to cut the crap.
As of now, my life is changing. And I hope that, with my example as encouragement, yours will too. This blog is my shout into the sky that from now on, my To-Do List will be fulfilled, my plans will be carried out and my life will be better. I am blogging to hold myself accountable to this statement, so that even if no one ever discovers my promise, my computer will know. And every time I plop myself down in front of it, my Google homepage staring back at me questioningly: “So where are you going to go today?” I will know the answer. And I will blog my progress every step of the way. And maybe, just maybe, that empty search engine will spur me on.
I’m inspired by Scottish author/mountaineer W.H. Murray, who once wrote:
“…Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: ‘Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.’”
My goals: (Some short-term, some long-term, but all progress toward each goal will be tracked on a regular basis. This list may be added to from time to time.) In no particular order…
- make dinner at least six nights per week (anything prepared solely by microwave does not count)
- decide when to start Aidan in preschool (2 or 3) and *find* a preschool for Aidan (start touring and getting info)
- start exercising (3 times per week, 30 minutes each time per Dr. Laura’s recent advice to a caller)
- lose fifteen to twenty pounds (by summer or risk the six-month hostile takeover of the capri pant)
- read my Bible daily (try it from end to beginning, like a normal book)
- get a cat* (start saving ASAP, try to be ready to bring a cat home by Christmas or next Valentine’s Day)
- get finances in order (set budget, make envelopes, pay bills, take care of debt)
- move into the new house by March 16, 2006 (don’t leave it all til the last minute either)
- decorate each room in the new house one by one (be frugal)
- purge my life of stuff I don’t need (extras: clothes, shoes, random junk, Aidan’s stuff, Russ’s stuff, house stuff)
- watch less TV (goal: 1 PBS show per morning, 2 mainstream shows per night, 2 PBS shows on Saturday afternoon)
- read more (not just magazines, Miranda! go for the classics: The Target Bookmarked Books)
- earn my bachelor’s degree (aim for English, Lit, Creative Writing, something like that)
- finish knitting project (black scarf) and start knitting regularly- try to find a pattern for those awesome booties
- see three new places this year, starting with San Francisco
- start scrapbooking again and really utilize my new craft room
- organize family photos somehow so that our story is preserved and not lost to a family of moths
- have another child by the end of 2008 (no pressure, right?!)
- learn to speak Spanish well (or you will never matriculate in this neighborhood)
- begin yoga or another form of meditation
Okay, so that’s a start. Hold me to it and, with any luck, this list will be whittled down in no time. Watch for regular additions and updates on my goals.
“…He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6
*I understand that most true vegans and animal-lovers would not condone the solicitation of a typical cattery, however I am moved by this specific cattery’s crusade to end the in-breeding and sweat-shop-like conditions of the cat-breeding industry, and I personally find their mode and method to be humane and loving. I also have a young child and although my (wonderful) first cat is a rescue, I have to go with my motherly instinct and bring in a new family member who has been bred for health and physical well-being. Toby, my rescue cat, has had some health challenges and I don’t want to risk taking in a shelter cat or kitten who may or may not have good health or a long life ahead of him/her at this point in time. Perhaps it will be a possibility for our family sometime in the future when it would be easier to care for a special needs kitty. I of course condone and support the loving adoption of shelter and/or rescued animals to good homes.
