Thursday, August 27, 2009

Day Zero Project list

Here is my list for the Day Zero Project that I blogged about earlier:

Love & Marriage
1. set up a standing date night (once a month) and stick to it.
2. go away (1) weekend a year to reconnect
3. travel to Europe to celebrate our 10 year anniversary
4. join my hubby in a sport of his choosing
5. take dance lessons with my hubby
6. give my husband a kiss daily (I know you newlyweds can't believe this)
7. be a more supportive spouse and listen to my husband's problems without trying to always "fix" them.
8. Find a better way to communicate with my husband other than nagging.
9. Sit down with my husband and create a new list of goals for our family; in 5 yrs, etc
10. Regardless of party, presents, etc. on Roy's birthday spend the entire day doing what ever he wants, no griping
11. Meet with a counselor or pastor to address and resolve underlying situations or hardships in our marriage

Me
12. regularly go to church
13. learn to accept compliements
14. start regularly using my bike
15. become a more active person with a workout routine
16. join a yoga class and not worry about my appearance
17. lose 100 pounds
18. quit forgetting my meds
19. consistently eat breakfast
20. organize my closet and get rid of clothes that are too big
21. upon reaching my goal weight enter a 5k run.
22. complete a 5k run
23. upon reaching goal weight let Roy pick out anything from VS and I wear it; no questions asked.
24. buy an actual business suit for interviews
25. buy a bikini for cruise vacation
26. wear bikini on cruise vacation

Household
26. Start recycling at home
27. actually use all of my reuseable shopping bags when I go grocery shopping
28. create a cleaning schedule and stick to it
29. replace light bulbs with new energy efficient bulbs
30. reorganize kitchen cabinets
31. paint the kitchen
32. organize my office and keep it that way
33. donate toys Matt doesn't play with
34. create a budget and stick to it
35. pay off credit debt

Kitchen
36. switch to whole wheat products; i.e pasta, flour, etc.
37. eat dinner at home at least (4) nights a week (0/572)
38. eliminate fast food completely for (1) month
39. try a recipe once a month (0/33)
40. eat (1) completely vegetarian meal as a family once a month (0/33)
41. incorporate seafood into our dinner routine (1) time a week (0/143)
42. eliminate soda completely from our household

Family
43. say grace as a family daily with dinner (0/1001)
44. meet with a fertility clinic to expand our family
45. after (3) tries re-evaluate our situation and make a decision
46. If/when decision is made to no longer try or after additional child is born pack up and donate unused or unwanted baby items to family or charity
47. have Sunday dinner once a month with my sisters' and their families, as well as my mother
48. call relatives that I don't see as much on a regularly monthly basis (0/33)
49. become a more physically active parent
50. take more photos as a family
51. create family game and movie nights
52. trace family heritage for myself and spouse
53. cook once a month with my son and not care about the mess he makes
54. let Matt stay the night at Nanny & PawPaw's
55. visit Roy's Great Aunt in California
56. restrict television view times
57. Write a letter to Matt detailing his history, and our reasons for making him our son
58. Include information on his birth mother and other partial siblings.
59. Write a letter to my father saying all the things I never got to say
60. Visit and put flowers on my father's grave at least once a year (0/2)
61. Visit and put flowers on my grandmother's grave at least once a year (0/2)
62. One day a year take my mother out to do anything she wants; declare it Mom's day (in additional to regular Mother's day)- like she did when we were children
63. Continue the tradition with with my son
64. Every April 24 share a drink with my father (0/2)
65. Every April 24 listen to Ray Price's For the Good Times (0/2)
  
Travel & Entertainment
66. take Matt to see actual snow
67. build a snowman as a family
68. take a family trip to DisneyWorld
69. take Matt on an airplane for the 1st time
70. travel on a train
71. spend an evening at a Jazz Club
72. go on a winery tour
73. go on a triple date with my sisters and their husbands
74. take Roy to the ballet
75. visit the art museum with Roy
76. take a cruise
77. Upon finishing dance class; go out on the town for a night of dancing with my hubby
78. take Roy to dinner at Vic & Anthony's

Expanding My Horizons
79. Re-enroll in college
80. take classes towards my major
81. take a cooking class
82. try actual raw sushi (I have had cooked sushi before-Philadephia roll)
83. learn to eat with chopsticks
84. on scheduled date nights, try new restaurants (no chains) (0/33)
85. blog regularly
86. learn a foreign language
87. go to a foreign film with subtitles
88. read a novel once a month
89. snokel while on a cruise
90. introduce Matt to a new food a month
91. eliminate swear words from my vocabulary

Work
92. Make sure that my family knows they are a priority higher than work
93. Be able to take criticism on my work and not think of it as a personal attack
94. Keeping a positive outlook, and not get bogged down with any co-workers' negative attitude
95. Keep in contact with past collegues and cultivate new business relationships
96. Take additional training when offered or available

Banking
97. Regularly make a deposit into our joint savings account monthly (0/33)
98. Deposit $2 in savings for every completed item (0/101)
99. Deposit $1 for every item not completed. (0/101)

Environment
100. Plant a garden with my son
101. Work on ways to reduce our household effect on the environment

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

The Day Zero Project

My sister told me when I go my blog going that she wanted me to do the Day Zero Project with her.  Here are the guidelines.

The Day Zero Project





The Mission: To complete 101 preset tasks in the period of 1,001 days.





The Criteria: Tasks must be specific (i.e. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable, or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (i.e. represent some amount of effort on your part).



The list itself, is harder than you think. 101 things that you want/need to finish in 2.75 years, is tough to come up with!
 
Right now I have gotten to 61 things that I want to complete.  Once I get all 101 I will post my complete list
 
Till Next time
Mel

Technically Challenged

OK, was able to find the old post, and publish it. :)

From the Front Lines of the Couch

Ok, I'm trying my hand at this blogging thing. I originally typed a very long first post a few weeks ago, but it was lost after I edited. I'm hoping to spawn more working moms to blog or connect as our resources are very limited. The only support groups I ever see are all for stay at home moms. With that said I respect everyone's individual need or opinion for their current mothering situation.

Currently I'm a stay at home mama for this week. For those of you who don't know me I was laid off last Friday, and 2 hours later I received a call offering me a job that I had been interviewing for. I had been praying for strength and help with my impending situation (aka the writing on the wall, given our economy) and really believe that it had an impact on the result. Although my husband does not believe this. We are at odds on our faith. I will talk more about this in posts to come. I will have to make this short as we are sitting down for dinner. I'm inspired by my sister Morgan's blog to do the 101 thins in 1001 days. I have a few listed but not near 101. I will try to complete my list and post it. I find it funny that I have already done some of the things are her list, and also would like to complete some of the others together (i.e. the jazz club). Can't wait to see if she has completed any of the ones on my list after I post it.

Best wishes till I see you again
Mel

Friday, August 7, 2009

Insomnia

Ok- its 12:10 am and I have to be up by 6:30. Busy day tomorrow; follow-up blood work, pest control appointment, wedding shower gift shopping, grocery shopping, cleaning, paying bills... the list goes on and on.


I'm new to this whole blog thing but thought since I'm becoming addicted to facebook I better find something else to do. I can hear my sisters laughing now while reading this, since I believe we all have inherited some form of our father's obessive personality. I haven't seen many if any blogs by working moms; I'm sure they are out there, but like I said new to the blog thing so I haven't run across it.


Currently hearing footsteps overhead so it must be Matthew on his way to the bathroom. We started night-time potty training as well about a month ago. He previously wore underwear during the day and pull-ups at night. When we finish the last package he announced to me that he didn't want to wear "diapers" to bed anymore since he was a big boy now and "diapers" were for babies. I thought what the hay (its a family blog :) we'll give it a shot. There have been a few midnight sheet changes, and I have some how gotten in a habit of waking up at 2AM to check on him but he is doing very well.


Well I better get off of here and try to get some sleep. Roy went to the doctor today and was diagnosed with a sinus infection an addition to an ear infection, so he is currently in bed snoring due to the new meds. Look like I have the couch, until next time.