Happy 2009!

Happy New Years Everyone!

I normally never make New Year Resolutions, one doesn't always tend to keep them. Instead, I thought I would make a list of things I would like to do. They aren't goals per se, just things I'm hoping to do or look forward to this year.

1. Learn to be a good mummy!

Yes, the kid will be coming sometime early spring, and with that, a lot of adjustments. Over the years, I've learned to be a much more patient person, but I think learning to be a parent will stretch my limits even further. Many people have said so.

I think I will stretch and grow in other ways as well. If you know me well enough, you know that I tend to be a very anal and organised person. I'm a planner. I like to make lists. I like to know that everything is in it's place before I start anything. The kid's going to throw everything in for the loop, I won't have time to plan and organise, much less execute these tasks. Let's just see how much of my old ways I'm going to have to either let go or at least modify.

2. Greening my home

Hubby and I have spent a portion of 2008 greening our household, but we could do better. To learn to be green takes a lot of research: there so much information out there and so many products touting to be "green" that one really needs to sit down and determine for themselves if it's doable for their lifestyle. When I mean green, I mean not just things that we buy and the environment (which are important), but overall lifestyle, the foods that we eat and how we take care of our bodies as well.

Another challenge of course is tied with #1, greening the household with the kid. I've been telling everyone that I'll be trying to use cloth diapers over the disposable ones when the kid comes, and all the responses that I've gotten so far were pretty negative: they either laugh or someone would tell me that they've either tried it themselves or know someone who did, and failed at it. Only one of my co-workers told me that he and his wife successfully used cloth diapers for almost two years with their son. My usual retort is that convenience has a high price and a high toll on the environment, and to do something like this takes time to research, asking people for advice, and lots of perseverance. I have no illusions that this is going to be easy, but I have to at least give it the good old college try.

I've also been thinking for some time about starting my own green blog, separate from this one, but threw in the towel when I found out I was knocked up. It was too much for me to assimilate at once, and to set up a blog like that properly takes a lot of effort and research. I only have energy for one thing right now, and that's the kid. But that doesn't mean I won't be blogging about all things green here.

3. Spend less money

Going on mat leave is a bit worrisome financially. Even though I've been saving like mad, it's a little disconcerting not knowing how much the kid's really going to cost. We'll be going down from two incomes to about 1.25, so it'll have to be an adjustment on our expenses as well as our savings.

The big question a year from now is daycare costs. One of the things that I will need to really get my butt in gear with is signing up for several daycares. Nonetheless, I anticipate that full-time daycare will cost over $1,000! Eeep!

There also a temptation to buy stuff (and less than necessary stuff) for the kid. It's hard to figure out what you need and what you don't need when there are some many more baby and kid products out in the market nowadays.

4. Start re-learning the piano again.

I purposely went out and bought a weighted electronic full-keyboard piano last year and lugged it all the way back from Calgary, so I could re-learn the piano. I really like playing, but it does take a bit of time and discipline to even be passable.

I also made a very tough decision to sell my bass guitar. I love playing the bass, but I've forgotten how to. After some thought, I knew it would be simpler for me to re-learn the piano than the bass (as I still remember the basics and had 10 years of piano lessons), and the kid's not going to give me time for both. I'm still hoping that some time in the future, I will pick up the bass again, but for now the bass has gotta go. A friend of my said that he'd find it a good home for me. Sob.

5. Learn to cook!

This is for the benefit of Hubby, who has been bugging me to learn how to cook for some time now. I was going to start once Evil Homework was finally done, but by the time EV was done, I was about 2 months pregnant and fighting nausea and fatigue, so that went out the window. Here's hoping for a better year for this particular goal.

6. Blog at least once a week.

We'll see how much time the kid lets me blog this upcoming year. I'm still hoping to put something up once a week if possible.