2012

I'm a little behind on the New Year's posting because we were out of town and still celebrating Christmas on New Year's day, (and then I wrote this post a week ago and never published it). I've been giving a lot of thought to New Years Resolutions and such, and have come to the conclusion that I'm not making any "resolutions" per say this year. I'm about 6 weeks away from Henry's due date, and as a first time mom I'm trying not to set any great expectations about the period directly after that. Also, it's kind of hard to do the normal resolutions and resolve to lose weight when I know I've still got 6 weeks of gaining weight to do first. ;)

Additionally, our 2012 is shaping up to be a pretty big year, off the top of my head here are some of the bigger events coming up this year:

-We're expecting our first niece to be born any day now!

-A couple of people (not mentioning any names here, but you know who you are), in our family turn the big 5-0 this year

-Henry is due in February, as are our best friends' twins!

-LOTS of our friends are having babies in February, March, and April

-My sister-in-law graduates college and then gets married this summer!

-Our lease on our house will run out in August and we've decided not to renew it, so we're going to have to do some house hunting this summer, and in the meantime we have to narrow down exactly where we want to live

So, yeah, with all that coming up, I just don't feel like coming up with any resolutions that I'm sure will not last too long! Instead I've decided to take a page from Katie's book and make monthly goals instead that will hopefully be more manageable. ;)

So, without further ado, my goals for January:

-Take more pictures! I really slacked off on taking pictures in the second half of last year and there's really no excuse for it, I would really like to get better at documenting this crazy busy time in our life. (This is more like an all year goal, but that sounds like a resolution, so we're going to play it month-by-month).

-Reign in spending and step up saving. This is another all year goal, but I feel like it's especially important this month. I always feel like we hemorrhage money during December, (even though I'm pretty sure we spent less on Christmas this year than last by far), and my normally budget-crazy self is ready to get back into my normal money-hoarding ways. Also, we just got my pre-admission bill for delivery from the hospital last week, and there's nothing like getting a bill for two grand in the mail to really motivate you to stop spending money! The next two goals also fall under the umbrella of this one, but I decided to separate them...

-Start couponing again. I had gotten really good at using coupons this fall, and then around Thanksgiving I skipped getting newspapers like three weeks in a row, (at least), and really fell off the wagon. It has pained me to buy things in the past few weeks that I know I would have had coupons for if I had just been keeping up with it. I'm not a fan of paying full price for stuff!

-Start eating at home more often. Something about December and it's craziness always leaves us eating out just about constantly. Three years ago I remember adding it up that we had only eaten at home 3 days the whole month, and I don't think we did too much better than that last month. I know that we eat healthier food and save a ton of money eating at home, so I'm really trying to keep that up.

-Lastly, finish Henry's room! I worked on it a lot this weekend, and I've got loads of baby laundry going in the washer and dryer right now, (which I have to say is more fun than regular laundry, but it takes a TON of tiny clothes to make an entire load!), and it's really starting to come together. A trip to JoAnn's for some drapery lining, a couple hours sewing, and a few more things ordered coming in the mail and it should be done! I can't wait! :)

And now, because I don't like picture-less posts, here's a picture of our rainbow of cloth diaper fluff...

I ordered some clearance BumGenius prints from Cotton Babies last week, and when they came in I just couldn't resist taking a picture of our current stash. Yes, I know, I'm weird. I just like all the colors and thought they looked so pretty all lined up in the drawer, (you know, as pretty as diapers could possibly be). I think we're up to 15 diapers, there are a couple repeat colors that weren't included in this picture. I've tried to only buy ones that were on sales/clearance etc., and a couple of different types so that we could see what we liked, but I'm really considering ordering 3 more of the artist series BG prints while they're still on for buy two get one free. I just don't want to end up with a lot of the same kind and then have them not work out well for us. Decisions, decisions....

I hope you all are having a fabulous 2012 thus far! Perhaps I should make a goal to blog more since the month is almost 1/3 of the way over and this is my first post! ha ;)

Jennifer