Bless my heart, I certainly get an "A" for creating the longest goal list in history. Some years even I can't live up to my own expectations.
Well, I managed to work out throughout my entire pregnancy. I was still on a spinning bike at 36 weeks -- and not just phoning it in (shout out to my girl Jillian Michaels, ha!) -- but actually pushing myself. I was convinced this would "help me have an easier delivery". If that was easier then, holy shit, I'm glad I didn't take the hard route.
I wanted to run, really I did. But I am incontinent now that I have birthed three children. I found this out the hard way (three times) jumping on the trampoline with my kids at gymnastics. Good god. You'd think I would have learned the first two times, but I really thought it was a fluke. And running while pregnant should actually be called "peeing your pants for three miles". So yeah, I gave up on that goal early on.
I definitely maintained perspective and kept my cool (for the most part) when life got tough. Living out of a hotel with three babies pretty much was the bottom of the barrel and I broke a few times then. But overall, I really enjoyed our life and my kids last year. Even though it is beyond craziness
all most of the time.
I never ended up with a sitter to help with one-on-one attention for the kids. The sitters that seem to work best for our family are college-aged and their breaks really interfere with us getting into good rhythms. But the kids get out to activities four days a week, which is a feat in and of itself. And I take all three with me and it seems to be working. So I guess it's a half success.
Joe and I rocked out meal planning and cooking at home...until the baby was born. We still cook at home, but we really took for granted how much I used to be able to get done while he was at work. Grocery shopping is now an impossibility. The double carts are a major PITA to push and I would have to wear the baby with two screaming toddlers. Oh, and Reese throws the groceries out of the cart and Ryan eats everything I put into the cart. It's a nightmare. Three is just a whole other adventure.
Not only did I not make more time for myself, but between the house and the baby, I actually had less time for myself. And it's shown. I'm definitely exhausted some days. I really hope to build in time for myself this year.
As far as boundary setting goes, I did set boundaries. And in the end it meant that a few people were locked out of my life because they have no regard for boundaries whatsoever. It didn't make me any happier, although it was nice to be living in a drama-free zone since these people were MIA. But in the end, your family is your family. So something has to give and, unfortunately, it looks like that will have to be me again.
Not only did we put away for the twins' college funds, but we saved enough to put away for Lola too. I am really proud of this. It wasn't easy. Especially when we were getting toward the end of our build and we were beyond broke. I mean, don't swipe the debit card because there's no money in the account broke. We never once tapped into the money we set aside for their college funds. This is so important to me. I worked three jobs in college and then three jobs after college to pay for and pay off my education. It was such a burden and I missed out on so much having to work instead of getting to hang out with friends or go to a game, etc. I really want to make sure that we are able to relieve or at least help our children with that burden in the future.
As far as closing on the houses, clearly that didn't happen in September. What was I thinking making a goal of something that was completely out of my control? It's the type-a in me. I seriously can't help it.
