Goal Check-up #1

I want to review my goals for the year at least once a month to keep myself on track.

2. I haven't weighed myself for about 10 days, but as of then I had lost 3 pounds so far this year.

3. I'll be introducing solid foods to Oliver for the first time within the next week. I'm praying it goes well. After my experience with Ian, I am very nervous.

7. Ian knows all the uppercase letters. I want to tackle lowercase letters this month.

8. Nadia is making great progress with her reading skills.

9. Every day I read picture books to the kids.

10. We finished one chapter book that I started in 2012 and then read 5 more chapter books from start to finish. Yesterday we started another one. Even Ian will ask me to start reading Ramona.

11. I bought two photography books, and I am back to shooting in manual mode. Now I need to read the books! I didn't have reading in general as a goal on my list, but I did actually check out three novels from the library recently, and I finished one of those books. I hadn't read any books (for me - I'm obviously not counting the books I read the kids) since Oliver was born until this week.

13. We have rented a car, obtained our airline tickets, and booked our resort for our 9 nights in Florida in May! The kids can't wait!!

14. I'm still nursing Oliver, and I don't see him self-weaning any time soon (thank goodness).

20. Patterning was one of the skills Nadia and Ian worked on this week.

21 and 34. I keep checking higheredjobs and informing Paul of anything I think he might be interested in pursuing. After going more than a month without submitting any applications, we submitted one this morning (#19). We're very discouraged. I hope I am wrong, but at the moment I have very little hope of him getting any teaching job in chemistry by August. He has applied for jobs that he is overqualified for (community colleges that only require a master's degree), and yet we haven't heard anything. I never experienced this any time I was applying for jobs so I admit I wasn't expecting it to be this hard. Maybe it's becauase the economy is a lot worse now than it was when I was applying for jobs. I had a dream the other night that he became a car salesman. That actually is rather funny as I can't picture him ever being a car salesman, but I hoping if he can't be a professor that we can figure out what else he could do instead.

27. I'm not following Ian around the gym as much. I figure since there are only 3 kids in the class, the teacher should be able to keep him on track.

28. I recorded two videos of Oliver and at least three of Nadia in January. That is progress. I need to keep going with that and make sure to include Ian this month! I'm taking the videos so we can enjoy them in the years to come, but yesterday someone from the GSN show "American Bible Challenge" hosted by Jeff Foxworthy emailed me a release form so they can use part of a video I posted on youtube when Nadia was 2 years old reciting the first three verses of Psalm 23. That was such a surprise! Now I wish we still had cable tv so I could see her on tv!

29. I have been doing some purging. The first thing I did was go through a lot of my clothes. Then I tackled (with Paul) the coat closet. If I haven't worn a coat in 10+ years, it needs to be given away! I did give a lot of girls clothes (sizes 2T-4T) from the basement to our neighbor. I kept my favorites just in case that frozen blastocyst proves to be a sister for Nadia. Paul took a load to the thrift store. This week I also got Paul to start working on purging the stacks and stacks of papers that have been on our bedroom floor for the past 6 months. Trust me that has required a LOT of patience on my part as I can't stand clutter. I need to buy him some filing cabinets to get the rest off our floor. Yesterday I went through the kitchen. I have another load ready for the thrift store (saying goodbye to the Magic Bullet for example). Progress! Paul thought I'd want to sell some of the stuff. Nope. I just want to give it away.

30. This week I started a more formal Kindergarten curriculum with Nadia. We started using My Father's World curriculum.

38. I signed Nadia up for an AYSO U6 spring soccer team! We shall see how she does and whether she enjoys this or not. I figure while they are young I'll have they try many different things until they discover what they enjoy the most. It will be her first time playing a team sport. I don't think I'll have her do ballet or tap next year.

39. Last week I started following a program that was supposed to result in Oliver being weaned off of his formula supplements. Day one (Tuesday) went well. I was drinking about 200 ounces of water a day. Day two didn't go well because I didn't leave enough ounces left (on that day he was only supposed to have 19 ounces by bottle) for Paul to give him when I left for choir. Day three didn't go well because we were on the road for 5+ hours for Ian's allergist appointment, which led me to ditch the program. I really enjoy nursing him; I need to focus on that rather than the fact that he also gets a lot of formula by bottle.

P.S. These four photos were taken by my sister, Wendy, at Christmas in Maryland.