New Year!

New Year's is one of my favorite days of the year. You notice I say New Year's, NOT New Year's Eve. I'm not a fan of the whole staying up really late and watching the BORING ball drop and then being exhausted and sick the next day. I like the following day when everyone else is sleeping off the night before. Its a holiday when nobody does much, which is perfect for this homebody, especially after all the busyness that happens in the preceding month.

It just feels so NEW. And since I'm always making mistakes throughout the year, its nice to turn over a new leaf. New Year's resolution blog posts are lame so I'll just talk about... "things I hope to do/am looking forward to this year."

-My sister in laws wedding! Yay. Weddings are so awesome. And of course, gotta find stuff for it on Etsy! Here's one I LOVE.

-My other sister in law graduating and starting a bakery. And she wants me to experiment with her in the kitchen the summer/fall. So excited for this. Baking is fun, but even more fun with a friend.

-Along those lines, I really want to get in the habit of bread baking this year. I want to perfect a few basic bread recipes. Don't you love the holes in this one? Yum.

-Another kitchen goal I have is raising the number of vegetarian dinners we eat a month from 4-5 to 6-7. Cheaper, healthier, and oh so much fun to play around with. Hoping to draw a lot of from two of my most unique cookbooks: More with Less and The Brilliant Bean.

-I'm looking forward to moving this summer. Our lease will be up and I am so OVER this apartment.

-The BeefyGeek and I have decided that in order to prevent me from growing old before my time, I will be changing occupations this summer. Either cutting my hours, finding a new job, or going back to school. I will have been three years nannying in August, and as much as I love it, its getting to be time I moved on.

-Doing some yoga! Last January I started walking 5 days a week, and I've kept it up, with a few interruptions. Go me! This year I want to add more stretching/resistance training, partly in preparation for babies... the better shape I'm in beforehand, the easier pregnancy and labor will be.

-Getting more organized. No joke. Every time I have even a little feeling of "I may be pregnant," one of the first things I do is check my bathroom closet. Somewhere in my mind there is a voice that says, "if you can't keep this is order now, you won't after a baby's in the picture." I recently got rid of a lot of stuff, but I know there is more to cleanse. I also want to figure out a better system for bill paying/paper organization. Here's an inspiration photo of some nicely stacked sheets from a beautiful website, well worth checking out if you've never seen it.

-I want to do more art this year. I haven't really made time to create lately. I miss it. Such as... basket weaving? I love these baskets. I'd love to be able to make them for myself. Or maybe just buy one. I love the bassinet.

-Read through the Bible with BeefyGeek. This is our year! Hopefully posting updates on our progress here will keep me motivated.

Probably more, but that's it for now. I hope this post is too horrible. I'm super sleepy and my fingers are cold. Not a good writing combo. Plus BeefyGeek is playing Arkham Asylum and its so cool its distracting...

Wouldn't that Save you?

Christmas is about a superhero. And its not me. I wish I could save you. But I can't

I wanna rock-n-roll
I wanna give my soul
I'm wanting to believe
I'm not too old
Don't want to make it up
Don't want to let you down
I want to fly away
But i'm stuck on the ground

So, help me decide
Help me to make up
Make up my mind
Wouldn't that save you
Wouldn't that save you
Wouldn't that save you

Watched it all go by
Was it really true
Is that what it was?
Was that really you?

I'm looking back again
Tracing back the threads
You said i was a mess
Or was it just in my head

So, help me decide
Help me to make up
Make up my mind
Wouldn't that save you
Wouldn't that save you
Wouldn't that save you

Something's gotta break
You gotta swing the bat
Too many years of dying
Why is that?

So, help me decide
Help me to make up
Make up my mind
Wouldn't that save you
Wouldn't that save you
Wouldn't that save you?

Matthew Perryman Jones

Two Paychecks

OK, so. For the first two years of our marriage Jon was in school. And I could not wait for him to finish. Mostly for selfish reasons. I didn't want to be the sole bread winner anymore. I wanted to be able to cut my hours, finish school, have babies!

However, now that he is done and working. There are whole new problems arising that I, in naivety, did not anticipate. For instance, if I drive off to take care of baby Lana and forget to soak the beans. There is no one here "studying" who can soak them for me. Logical conclusion of the matter: no chili for dinner.

And as for the whole cutting back my hours thing? Not happening. You have a couple of giant car repairs and you realize two good size paychecks might be nice for a while. On top of that, full time work is pretty impossible to find these days.

But... there are good things. Beefygeek feels a lot better now that he has a job that he loves. A job that pays, no longer an extended unpaid, uncredited internship. Its so good to see him excited about what he's doing. I never realized just how much not working was weighing him down. Another big plus, education no longer takes up 65% of our budget pie chart.

Another big change came when my Nannying family that I've been with for the past two years had to cut my hours in July. (Due to unemployment) So... I had to find more kids to follow around.

And I did. The most prominent of which is the before mentioned baby Lana. She's 7 months. She's chubby and dimply and almond-eyed, and altogether munch-able! I tell ya, she's so adorable I have fleeting notions of "borrowing her," not that I ever would of course. I wouldn't be able to feed her, in my milk-less state. But still. She THAT cute.

It makes me seriously consider skipping the whole "finishing school" thing and jumping right to the "babies!" Because really, I'll always have a brain. But this whole childbearing age thing doesn't last forever. I know. I'm only 22. But that means if I get pregnant now, I'll have the baby at 23, which is pretty close to 30, which is only ten years til 30, which is awful close to 50, when my womb may just dry up!

Irrational, I know. But come on, I'm practicing for the pregnancy. ;-)