2010: Choose for Me, Phase 2

Okay, I'm finally going to try to write something. I have no idea what this block has been about, but as life has been good I've decided to take it as a good thing.

I am going into Phase 2 of Choose for Me this year and I wanted to spend a little time focussing on those goals. This year has, thus far, been a great time to finally make things happen and clean things up. Phase 1 was awesome and included camping trips, river trips, wedding receptions, birthday parties, a weekend of SXSW and a long weekend spent in San Francisco. A BIG shout-out to my Mom who helped make those things happen. Without her we wouldn't have had the freedom to do most of it. But as Izzy said the other day, our "vacation is over". And really, what better timing as we are broke, Izzy is at a fantastically fun stage and quite honestly, I'm worn out from the fun and ready to re-establish some kind of routine (I use the term "re-establish" loosely, as I can't remember the last time we actually had a routine).

All that said, today is the day I deemed the beginning of 2010: Choose for Me, Phase 2 (the get shit done and save money version). Here are just a few things I hope to accomplish by the end of this year:

* Get a job. I've been saying this for 2 years now, but the time has finally come. I need to get out of the house, Izzy needs more structure, education and friends and we need more money!

* Go back to healthy eating. When we lack routine, we lack discipline. It's time to go back to planning meals and cooking every night. This has always been a challenge for us, but it's super important to both of us that Izzy grow up healthy and unfortunately it's our job to make it happen.

* Start some sort of exercise routine. I've considered yoga, pilates and and kickboxing. Hopefully in the next several years I'll have done all 3 - but realistically I need to pick something and go with it. Every picture of myself I see lately just makes me want to crawl into a hole. My extra weight is actually becoming physically uncomfortable and quite simply, I'm tired of it.

* Create! I'm broke, I want new fancy stuff and the only way I see to make that happen is to learn to start making it myself. I'd like to get back into making jewelry, as well as some yard art and some original stuff to decorate our house.

* SAVE! Above all else we need to start saving again. If Suze Orman says one needs to have 3-6 months salary in savings, we are 7 months behind. The credit cards also got used in our last couple of trips, so we need to work at having those paid off by this time next year. Luckily we never stopped contributing to Izzy's CSA, and I just checked it the other day and almost fell out at how much we had saved (not a drop in the college bucket - but not bad considering how terrible we are at saving.)

There are a TON of small details involved in Phase 2, but I think this is a pretty accurate summary. I'm feeling more confidence than usual that it can all be accomplished, only because this year has already been so different from other years in the past. I'm feeling hopeful and optimistic. Capable and oh-so-ready.