New Year - Self-assessment

So I don't want to talk about New Year's Resolutions - I have a bunch of specifics, but really, what I'm aiming to blog about here covers them (eg: learn to cook; get healthier; lose weight; spend lots of quality time with my kids; still find time for me).  That said, wanted to post a few links here to things I'd like to remember/try.  All of these are courtesy of Chatelaine.  I don't subscribe - but I'm on their email list.  Usually, I just surf through their stuff - but this one had a bunch I read.  So here they are:

1.  11 New year's resolutions worth keeping.  Hit's on a lot of what I'm going for (except maybe wearing more colours - not sure on that one).  Eg: focus more on my kids; get healthy; be kinder etc...  I also like that it tells me to go on Facebook :)

2.  Five ways to boost your metabolism.  I'm currently trying to up how much water I drink daily and have already been adding lemon.  I liked the suggestion here to add cayenne pepper as well.  It's a good taste and if it boosts my metabolism at the same time - meh!  All the better.

3.  An easy detox to cleanse your body for a new year.  I've been reading a lot on detoxes in the past few days.  Not sold yet (among other things, I'm not ready to give up coffee along with all the other stuff I'm now trying to avoid in order to eat more healthy) - but this one seemed more simple than some of the others - so bookmarking for future reference.

Getting There

I find I spend my life "getting there."  I clean the house, but never quite finish - but tell myself I'm getting there.  I clean out my inbox - sort of - and tell myself I'm getting there.  I take up running to get in shape and while I'm getting there, I never seem to quite hit the spot I hope to hit. 

You get the picture.

So this is my third attempt at blogging.

The first time I blogged it was for a literacy organization I was involved with.  It was great - I learnt the basics, blogged about something I was passionate about, and got to be creative.  After about a year and half or so I stopped volunteering, so that was the end of that.

Then last maternity leave I tried mom blogging and got hooked for about eight months.  Then I returned to work and it stopped.  I think for a few reasons: 

1. I didn't blog from work and by the time I got home and got the kid to bed I mostly just wanted to pass out myself.
2. Blogging took a lot (a LOT) of time (ie: not just writing; but finding followers, following others, creating a blog button, figuring out templates, etc...).  Basically, it started to feel like a chore (ie: I haven't blogged in a day - oh no!  I need to think of something to write!).   This then meant I ended up writing just for the sake of writing (can't miss that Blog Carnival!) and spent more time on the internet talking about my blog rather than writing on it.  Which led to the other main reason I stopped....
3. I got a little fuzzy on the point of it all.  Was it to find community?  Was it to post about my kid?  Was it to find resources?  Without a specific goal, it fell into the pile of stuff that was "nice to do", but with limited time to myself, it didn't make the top of the list for how I wanted to spend that precious little time I had to myself.

So that brings me to this time.  I want to have a space to jot down the stuff that is going to help me with my current goals.  And I want a spot to also be able to map progress to keep me accountable.  These goals are:

1. Learn to cook.  I started in October.  I took some classes.  So far so good.  But I wanted a place to jot down the recipes I liked and tips etc...  I can collect stuff on Pinterest; but I can't write my own stuff there.  So I'll do that here.
2. Get healthy and fit.  I joined the gym in September and have been going about 3-4 times a week religiously.  I ran a 5K and 10K this fall.  I need to stay motivated to keep going.  I will specifically need to stay motivated when I go back to work in May.  I need to figure out how to improve diet as part of this goal as well (tieing back to goal #1).
3. Be the best mom I can be to my two daughters (3yrs and 5 months).  So that's food, education, entertainment, the works... Part of learning to cook is so I can feed my three year old.  We're also raising them bilingual, and I'd like them to be happy, active, healthy kids.
4. Learn to stay calm and not get overwhelmed by everything going on.  I toyed with naming my blog "I'm Not Going to Scream" because there are times that I find myself repeating that phrase under my breath while dealing with two uncooperative kids (or any number of other frustrating situations) to avoid doing so.

I'm not going to focus on "getting followers".  I'm not going to use a pseudonym.  Rather, I'm going to focus on what I want to learn/do and find and post stuff that helps with that.  I'm not going to pressure myself to post x number of times a week.  I'm going to post firstly for me.  And if anyone else finds it helpful, or worth reading, I'm honoured.