Weekly Goals.

Well, I did pretty well with last weeks weekly goal of blogging every day. Unfortunately I fell off that wagon the moment last Sunday came around. The point of my weekly goals is to set up positive behaviors (for lack of a better word) for myself. Doesn't do as much good as intended if I quit the first day I'm allowed. But I'm still proud of keeping up with the goal for a week.

This week hasn't gone so well. I kind of shot the original goal down the first night, so I ended up changing it. First goal was to go to bed by midnight every night this week. Got in bed about 12:15 the first night and then totally ran that one into the ground by staying up to watch a movie with my hubby until 1 in the morning another night. So I changed the goal for this week into getting small things done that I'd been putting off. Baking- check. Put away hubby's clothes that have been sitting around for a week- check. Vacuum my sons room- check (eek!). Clean my car- check. Pick up my wedding dress from the cleaners- check (finally!! But now what do I do with it?). Vacuum my room-... uh working on that one as well as the next one: make my hubby chocolate chip cookies. Think I'll go get started on that one right now...

Have a good weekend!

Spending Hiatus

the challenge is to not spend money on this little guy.

So I have unofficially enrolled myself in the Simple Lovely Spending Hiatus. I say "unofficially" because, let's face it, I suck at not shopping. I think it'll be good though, especially since all the (necessary) super spending that was involved with the wedding last year and Christmas are over. So the idea is not no purchasing at all, but just not unnecessary purchases. So I'm still allowed to buy stuff for my son's birthday party coming up next month and I do have a gift card from Janie and Jack that I'm sure will scream my name if I find something I'm in love with there (went there last week and didn't buy anything!).

But I've surprised myself since deciding to hop on the wagon two weeks ago. Today I went to Nordstrom Rack and bought NOTHING. I surprised myself. I even had a return which has granted, get this... a negative balance on my Nordstrom account (squee!!). I can't tell you how long it's been since I had a $0 balance on that card. Heck, I can't remember the last time the balance was less than $100, not since before their big sale last summer, that's for sure. So other then slipping up last weekend and getting two tops from Gap (buy one get one free + an extra 20% off- seriously, you can't beat that) I think I've actually been doing pretty well. I even tried to look for something to buy at Nordstrom Rack today and just couldn't get myself to purchase something I didn't need.

So it's not entirely my strong will power that's keeping this spending hiatus thing going, I think it's party because I haven't found things that I get that "must have" feeling over. Maybe part of it's just because I've changed my mind set and am looking around my room at all the unnecessary (and some necessary) things that I have no room for. We'll see how it fares for the rest of the month.

I'm moving to North Carolina (not really).

I know that the housing costs are ridiculous in California but browsing a real estate page for Huntersville, North Carolina is making me want to pack up and move there right now. It's crazy for me to imagine that for the same cost of a teenie tiny two bedroom house in the area that we're looking to live in here in California, could also afford us this house in North Carolina. Isn't it gorgeous? Check out the cute little white picket fence on the side! They've got beach over there too- I'm going to start packing ;)

Children and Snacking.

I was reading this post and article over on the Ohdeedoh and all the comments about children and snacking and it got me thinking. Is it really so bad to take a snack out with you if you know it's going to keep your child happy and quiet(er) while you're out running around?

Granted, I don't think it's the best idea to continually bribe my son with cookies and candy every time we run out, but we usually take some cheerios (usually the multi-grain, his fave) or crackers or a banana with us because he tends to get hungry when we're out. Though, he does usually get a treat at the candy store when we go to the mall, but I've finally limited his intake of the dark molasses chips he get's from See's Candy from 3 to 1 for a day.

I did notice a huge difference in my son's mood and ability to keep himself from "falling apart" one day when I realized that I hadn't given him any sugar that morning. It took me a while to figure out that although he might be screaming over that piece of candy that he wants at the moment, he'll probably be over it in 5 minutes and he'll be just fine. Giving him too much sugar to keep him quiet in the car for an extra minute usually come back and kicks me- hard.

So I do see the problem with offering children too many sugary and non-nutritional snacks (especially if they're kindergarten and elementary school children eating Twinkies and Doritos as a snack every day), but I think it's healthy to eat something healthy in between meals, though maybe not every 20 minutes. I'm not going to stop with his healthy snacks, but once he turns 4 he's not eating at Church anymore, even if it means having to take him out because he won't be quiet.

New Music.

I really need new music. I'm debating over Lifehouse's new album or some Brad Paisley album, since I still own none of his.

Weekly Goal.

Ok, so I haven't been great with keeping up to date with my weekly goals, so here goes. I just figured out the goal for this week and it's to blog EVERY DAY. Not necessarily on this blog, but one of mine. And even though it's technically 1 in the morning on Tuesday, I'm still counting this as Monday, since I just figured out that this is going to be my goal for the week. I've done ok so far, but I need to be more committed.

One week my goal was to take a shower every night before bed, which doesn't seem like a big deal, but a lot of the time I just end up falling asleep with a book in bed or in front of the laptop, and occasionally in the middle of SNL. So that was a hard one to keep up with, but once I did, I just felt so much better and relaxed by the time I was in bed. Another week was to drink more water and well, that one didn't go so well. But it's also the week I got sick, so I sort of threw it out the window, although I probably should have been drinking more fluids, not less. Anyway, I'll keep you posted on the results of this week and if I can keep up with this one.

To keep the head Warm.

I'm in love with this little Aviator hat! Isn't it so adorable and retro-vintage? They've also got a superhero one with wings but I like the aviator one the best. Cute kids site that sells vintage-inspired kids items. I so wish I was back in the 40's/50's! The Baby Gardner via The violet Hours.

New Music.

It's been a while since I really felt compelled to run to the record store and buy a new cd. I used to LOVE music. It wasn't just an accessory or something going on in the background, music was my life. A song or an album could completely turn my mood around (for better or worse, but usually better) and I always, always turned to music when I was in a bad mood. It was the one thing I knew would always help.

Not that I think music's not important anymore, but I'm not sure that people really appreciate it as much as it used to be appreciated. In the days of iTunes and Shazaam where you can download a song instantly or look up a song and find out the artist and title before it's even over, people aren't forced to think of music as much anymore.

I remember multiple times when I was so excited beyond belief about a new cd coming out. One time in high school I had to cry and beg my mom to take me to the music store to go buy a new cd the day it came out. I refused to wait until the next day and almost ended up taking a bus (instead, I'm sure I racked up an extra week or chores- but well worth it for brand new music).

Another time a friend and I ditched our first class and waited outside Target for them to open so we could buy 'N Sync's album No Strings Attached (yep, the one that sold over 2 million copies the first week) not only for ourselves but for about 5 other friends. Once I raced all over town to find a new album that came out that day but wasn't very well distributed, and since I refused to take the hour and a half drive back to school without it, I think I missed the majority of my classes that day. Another time some friends and I raced over to Tower Records to get there before they closed at midnight, to buy an album by a new band we'd just seen in concert. Then there was the time I missed an entire day of school to wait outside Tower Records when Hanson's new album finally came out after 3 years.

So, in conclusion, I've fallen off of the music bandwagon. But not so hard that I've stopped buying cd's all together, as the actual cd is as much a part of the whole music experience as the music itself. It's still hard for me to purchase just one song off of iTunes. I figure that when an artist comes out with a single that's good enough for me to consider purchasing, then they probably have more good songs on the album. I think a lot of people loose out on good music because they don't give non-single songs a chance. Why pay for a whole album when you can purchase a single song off iTunes? But some of the best, life-changing songs aren't always released as a single.

So this year one of my goals is to get back on the music wagon (I was a music major for goodness sakes!). There's still one or two artists that I'll run to to music store the day their music is released for, but other then that I haven't gotten much the past couple years. My goal is new music at least every two weeks. So far this year I've gotten Lady Antebellum's new cd (the day it came out!) and The Valentine's Day soundtrack (courtesy of my wonderful hubby!). Then today I was at Best Buy picking up a cd for my husband for Valentine's Day and I heard that Cobra Starship song that's so infectious, "Good Girls Go Bad." I really like that song (and the music video's pretty entertaining) and I'd been considering downloading the song but since I was there and have been in the mood for some new music I grabbed their cd.

So I pop the cd in (there's nothing like the feeling of new music in the car) and start off with song #3 "Good Girls Go Bad." If it's an artist I already like then I always start with the first song and listen all the way though, as an album is something that needs to be listened to as a whole. If it's a new artist, I usually listed to the song I already like and know and then start at the beginning. Let me say, I got through 4 songs and this is the kind of album that is dangerous to listen to in the car because it makes me want to drive fast. It'll be hard to listen to while typing away at the computer because I'll just want to get up and dance around the room or go run around the block or something. Maybe it'll be some new motivational jogging music :)

If you haven't seen the Cobra Starship music video check it out, you'll smile...

New Year.

I'm setting a new goal for myself and this blog that I dove headfirst into and then abruptly neglected once I got busy. Post at least once a week. Here's post 1, by the end of the year I hope to have at least 52 posts, hopefully more. Another of my goals is to spend less time on the computer and more time on scrapbooking/crafting. I know, that seems kind of counter-productive to the blogging thing, so I guess it's really just less time on facebook and more time being creative.

A friend of mine just recently started blogging and with the new year she posted a list of things she's proud that she accomplished last year. I think it's a good idea to not only look at our goals but also our accomplishments, weather or not they were goals, so here I go.

Things I'm proud of or accomplished in 2009:

• I got married! This one had been a long time coming, but once it was decided we were able to pull it off in under 4 months, which was pretty impressive to me (and totally stressful, I don't recommend it if you've got more time, haha).
  
• I found some new music to LOVE. I'm really into music (to me it's as essential as air) and it'd been a while since I'd found a new album that I'd been able to really get. You know where you know every word to every song and you can recite the whole things forwards and backwards. This year it was Taylor Swift's "Fearless" which is now one of my all-time favorite albums.
• My son. I'm so proud of him and amazed everyday. He loves to tell stories with really complicated plots and lots of characters.
  
• My son started preschool last year! It was a great parent participation preschool that we went to for 2 semesters, but are taking a break this coming semester.
  

As for the new year, I'm not very good at year-long goals. Most of the time I'm good at delayed gratification, but for goals I'm all about instant gratification, I like to see results pronto. So what I like to do is create a different daily goal for myself each week. So I get a week of a particular goal for each day. Usually it's random things, like going to bed early every night for a week (not easy for me), drinking enough water each day (something I'm really bad at), not shopping at all (ok, that might be impossible), or cleaning up a particular room over the period of a week so it all gets done. This works for me because by the end of the week I'm bored with the goal and ready to move on.

I'd forgotten that I loved Valentine's Day so much and I'm getting into the spirit early this year by making a "Happy Valentine's Day" sign.