After a frenzied fall, the holiday break has been a nice reprieve. It was insane leading up to the break, with holiday parties and school concerts and semester exams and lots of work deadlines to meet. But everything pretty much dropped off on December 20th. No yelling at the kids about homework. All my cases are on simmer instead of roiling boil.
And the mornings are so relaxed. I can sleep until the sun comes up, leisurely prepare for the day and then head to the office with virtually no traffic. When the kids are in school, I spend at least 1.5 hours in the car in the morning. Over the holidays, my commute, sans the 20 mile look to drop kids, is 30 minutes.
I'm not looking forward to getting back to the grind next week. PS is at the robotics kickoff event right now, which means that the robotics season is officially in full swing and will stay that way until April. On top of all of the craziness we have with all of the other kids' activities.
All of this just makes me ready for summer.
1/5/14
1/4/14
Accomplishments and Plans
2013 Accomplishments
I don’t feel like I did much last year. It felt like a treading-water kind of year. Mostly staying in place, not moving forward or backward. But surely something happened.
1. I tried something new. That would be fencing with my girls. I am quite unathletic and not generally inclined to do something that I am not naturally good at, so this was a big step for me. But I liked it, and it helped me get in better shape! ( I have a bit of a booty now! I have had a flat ass my entire life, but fencing footwork involves a perpetual squat position that is apparently building up my butt muscles. Bonus!)
2. I finally lost all that law school weight. I feel so much better without the extra pounds, although I could still stand to lose a few. Most importantly, I made good lifestyle changes, so I have kept the weight off and my diet is much better than it was before and some other health issues have improved.
3. I continued to build my book of business. My book is small, and not enough to support myself, but I have had at least one decent-sized case that is all my own consistently for the last 3 years—with a few smaller clients mixed in as well.
4. I finally found a new GP who actually addressed an ongoing health condition (GERD). It is finally under control. I considered surgery, but decided to hold off because I don't like the risks. But for now my symptoms are controlled wotj meds and I no longer have the daily experience of having a knife thrust into my chest.
5. Family stuff--the twins completed elementary and moved on to middle school. It has been a huge transition, just based on the increase in business. PS survived her first year of high school and created a solid place for herself on her robotics team. DH won a couple of fancy awards at work, and was offered a new job that we ultimately turned down (after a lot of very difficult contemplation).
2014 Plans
I'll not call them resolutions because resolutions never pan out.
1. Figure out what I want to do with my career. It's been a bit stagnant lately. I need to decide if I want to stay on the course or find another. The figuring out should really be a first quarter goal, with the remainder of the year dedicated to implementing my plan.
3. Make our house homey again. This goes along with No. 2, but is also a separate goal. I looked around recently and realized that we have completely ignored and neglected the state of our home. There are chips and nicks and shabbiness that we've just managed to block out as they slowly appeared over time. So many of our household belongings date back to when we were married--18 years ago! And nearly all of our furniture is more than 10 years old. The house just hasn't been my focus, and it shows.
4. Let It Go. This will be my theme for the year (although I suspect this is in my head because the kids play the song from Frozen about a million times a day.) But it applies to me. I freely admit that I am a high-strung control-freak. And it's a big part of what makes me good at my job. But it's not so good when it affects the other areas of my life. I was just smacked in the face with how my control-freakishness was affecting PS and how much stress it was causing. I can't control everything around me all the time, no matter how much I think otherwise.
I don’t feel like I did much last year. It felt like a treading-water kind of year. Mostly staying in place, not moving forward or backward. But surely something happened.
1. I tried something new. That would be fencing with my girls. I am quite unathletic and not generally inclined to do something that I am not naturally good at, so this was a big step for me. But I liked it, and it helped me get in better shape! ( I have a bit of a booty now! I have had a flat ass my entire life, but fencing footwork involves a perpetual squat position that is apparently building up my butt muscles. Bonus!)
2. I finally lost all that law school weight. I feel so much better without the extra pounds, although I could still stand to lose a few. Most importantly, I made good lifestyle changes, so I have kept the weight off and my diet is much better than it was before and some other health issues have improved.
3. I continued to build my book of business. My book is small, and not enough to support myself, but I have had at least one decent-sized case that is all my own consistently for the last 3 years—with a few smaller clients mixed in as well.
4. I finally found a new GP who actually addressed an ongoing health condition (GERD). It is finally under control. I considered surgery, but decided to hold off because I don't like the risks. But for now my symptoms are controlled wotj meds and I no longer have the daily experience of having a knife thrust into my chest.
5. Family stuff--the twins completed elementary and moved on to middle school. It has been a huge transition, just based on the increase in business. PS survived her first year of high school and created a solid place for herself on her robotics team. DH won a couple of fancy awards at work, and was offered a new job that we ultimately turned down (after a lot of very difficult contemplation).
2014 Plans
I'll not call them resolutions because resolutions never pan out.
1. Figure out what I want to do with my career. It's been a bit stagnant lately. I need to decide if I want to stay on the course or find another. The figuring out should really be a first quarter goal, with the remainder of the year dedicated to implementing my plan.
2. Put our house
on the market and make a move. We've been waiting for years for the housing
market to improve so that we didn't lose our equity. The time has come,
and, from what we're hearing, our area is hot. This is a huge step. We bought
this house on a single income that was significantly smaller than either
of our current incomes. Which means we have a very small house payment
compared to our current combined income. There is a lot of security
there, but it is time. This is very much a starter house and we never intended
to stay here as long as we have.
3. Make our house homey again. This goes along with No. 2, but is also a separate goal. I looked around recently and realized that we have completely ignored and neglected the state of our home. There are chips and nicks and shabbiness that we've just managed to block out as they slowly appeared over time. So many of our household belongings date back to when we were married--18 years ago! And nearly all of our furniture is more than 10 years old. The house just hasn't been my focus, and it shows.
4. Let It Go. This will be my theme for the year (although I suspect this is in my head because the kids play the song from Frozen about a million times a day.) But it applies to me. I freely admit that I am a high-strung control-freak. And it's a big part of what makes me good at my job. But it's not so good when it affects the other areas of my life. I was just smacked in the face with how my control-freakishness was affecting PS and how much stress it was causing. I can't control everything around me all the time, no matter how much I think otherwise.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)