Monday, December 21, 2009

Great. Now what?

Okay. So I've had a baby. But what's next? Despite all my whining, I'm delighted to have Evelyn here. She is so much her own person, just like her big brother. Like Ragsy, it'll be completely fascinating to watch her grow. But, while I was pregnant, there were a lot of things that I set aside for "after the baby is born."

So, I'm making a list of goals that I want to achieve in the next six to 12 months or even longer, not because of the new year, but because a) Evelyn is here and b) I need to actually write these things down and a plan to achieve them, particularly since life just got more hectic, but in a good way.

So far, I have:

Lose 25 pounds. It's great that I already fit into my pre-pregnancy work clothes, but I was planning to lose weight to begin with. I should probably lose more than 25, but that's a good start. And now I have nothing to stop me. Back to Weight Watchers jiggity jig.

Find a new job. I'm bored senseless where I am now. So it's either get used to boredom, make my current job something interesting (not possible unless I take my boss's job), find a new job or make a new job. I think that latter two options are the best and most likely.

Get a financial plan. We have estate planning done, but now we need to figure out how to pay for college for two kids while still being able to retire when we want (when we want not meaning now, even if that really is when we want). I also want to put ourselves on a budget. Just because we have two incomes doesn't mean we need to spend all of both.

Get organized. We live like pigs. Every time someone comes over, you'd think we were in college, cleaning frantically before our parents show up. We can't keep doing this. It's ridiculous. We have to pick up all our crap just to scrub things. It shouldn't be this hard to clean the kitchen or vacuum the floor. And we can't have nice furniture in our bedroom or dining room until we get this clutter under control. Even more, I like having people over, dammit. It's fun.

Find more time for each other. Even before Evelyn was born, we rarely hired a sitter. We need to find one and take advantage of one more regularly.

Find more time for our friends. We both wish we were more social people. We're such hermits we hardly see the friends we do have. It's crazy because we really, really like our friends and every time we see them, we say, "Wow, why don't we do this more often?" The answer is that we perceive ourselves to be busier than we actually are. Okay, with Evelyn maybe that's not necessarily true. Also, our pediatrician said we need to keep her to ourselves for six weeks before we can take her out and about, but even so, it's not like she's not portable. She's easier to cart around than Ragsy (I usually win when I wrestle her).

Write more. I write all the time at work, but it's boring as hell. I need to keep up with my creative writing or I'll keep having this feeling that I'm wasting time.

Enjoy active time with our family. While I was pregnant, I tried really hard to spend a lot of time walking and doing outside stuff with Ragsy. And it was a lot of fun. Plus it's the only reason I fit into my work pants now. I want to make that standard.

Start researching schools. I have no clue what Ragsy will be doing for kindergarten and elementary school. We need to start thinking about it now.

Hmmm... Now for a plan of attack. But first, sleep. Why am I still up when I could be sleeping? Especially with a kid who's not even six weeks old?

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