New Year's Resolutions

Stolen from George Takei

New Year's Eve found me somewhere I haven't been in a long time - at a party. Yesterday afternoon, Finn and I loaded up and headed to my sister's house for a slumber party.  Once the boys were in bed, the grandparents were left to hold down the fort, and the rest of us went to one of the neighbor's house for a lovely New Year's Eve party.  I wasn't too sure how long I would last (especially without alcohol to fuel my need to watch the ball drop) but I made it up until midnight, and then even later when J and I went back home and stayed up late talking about our family.

Morning came way too early, but it was an early that started with my little boy snuggled up close to me.  It wasn't long before he heard his cousins downstairs and demanded that we go down to join them.  It was such a joy to see them all interacting.  Finn is just old enough to play with them, and he worships D, his oldest cousin, so much fun was had by all.  It was noisy, either with laughter or shouts or tears, and occasionally maddening, but still so much fun.

I napped with Finn this afternoon, and as I dozed, I thought about the clean slate of the year ahead.  Over the past few months I've made huge steps towards getting my life ready for baby #2, but I've still got a long ways to go.  I know one of the realities of having another child is going to be that I will feel like my life is out of my control at times, and I'm going to have very little free time to myself.  If I'm going to not just survive it, but also manage to enjoy it, I'm going to have to change a lot.

 I've cleaned out the guest bedroom, and started to imagine what it will look like when it becomes Finn's big boy room.  One of the biggest disappointments about this house is that it doesn't give me as much play room as I'd hoped for Finn (though it is much better than my condo).  This weekend I decided that it was time to embrace the clutter, and accept the fact that my house may not look "pretty" for the next few years, but it will be functional.  I rearranged the living room in a way that gives a lot more space for storage of Finn's bigger toys, and gives more room for play as well.  It's not pretty, but it's comfortable.  I've tried to organize all the toys - they've just been thrown into bins in the past, but starting now I'm making a rule that all the pieces of toys, puzzles and games must be kept together, and I'm going to try to find some sort of organization for all the other toys. They toys will be enjoyed much more if they're organized, and the clutter will have some sense of order to it, as well.

I've also bought myself a magnetic weekly calendar.  Each week I have certain things that must be done - I need to spend a certain amount of time on work stuff, I need to do bills once a week, I'd like to read blogs and perhaps write a blog post a few times a week, and starting later this month I'll need to add in time for studying for boards. And then of course there's things like laundry and other household chores. I'm going to put all these tasks on magnets, and each week put them on different days of the week, and try to stick to it.  I decided on magnets so I can easily rearrange if something happens one night and I end up not getting everything done, or decide to do a blog post on my night that I'm supposed to study. It's going to take some experimenting, but I think it might be something that works well for me.

Finally, I'm going to have to start following a budget more strictly.  I've been lax the past few months, but I can't afford that anymore, especially if I end up needing IVF.  I'm going to go back to making lists for my weekly trips to Target, and not buying anything not on the list (a book here, a cute shirt there - it adds up quick!) I'm going to get back to taking my lunch to work most days, too.  I could easily save $250 a month just by doing those changes right there.  After this 2ww is over, and I know what sort of expenses I'm facing in the year ahead, I'll be sitting down to go over my finances and come up with a much more focused plan.

I've never been one to stick to schedules, or be overly organized, but it's time I changed that.  It turns out that life as a single mom is much easier that way!