Spring Shed: Week 1

Posted on March 26, 2013 by imfluffyowl

Hey everyone!

First my apologies to my fellow spring shedders for the late post. You ever have one of those weeks that you just wanna walk away and say, I give up? Well, this past weekend that was me. I had to house sit at my parents all weekend. The first night, we got a massive early spring snowstorm. Because my parents live on the outskirts of town, we get plowed later but they did every street in the area but moms and waited til after midnight the next day to clear it. While that was going on, I was suppose to have a get together for my husband at my parents but no one could get up the street. And while I was trying to get ready for the get together, just hoping we would be plowed in time, I get a call from my grandmother telling me that I may need to call an ambulance for poppy. Because she can’t hear me on the phone, I couldn’t get the information I need, my parents were on the other side of the country, my cousin was MIA and my uncle was away and didn’t bother to let the family know. I couldn’t get in touch with anyone, I’m in a full on panic cause I can’t check on them or track ANYONE, even a family friend, to go check on them and I can’t get the car down the road.

Needless to say, I called my mom in a complete breakdown, unsure what to do. I hated that my grandparents care was left in my hands because no one had the thought to plan ahead for everyone being away. Then Saturday, it was cookie day for girl guides. We picked up the 45 cases of cookies for our Brownie group. By the time I got home from that, I needed to run around for my mom and get a workout in. I was so overtired that I did not sleep (plus I find it so hard to sleep without my husband) and I was up til 7am before I finally got some shut eye. A few hours later, I was woken up by my aunt in Ontario calling asking me to go to my grandparents and call for an ambulance because poppy was having a lot of difficulty breathing. So I spent the rest of the day and well into the evening at the hospital with a grandmother who can’t hear and a grandfather who can’t breath. Then today, finally after a night of being home, I was left to take poppy to his doctors appointment. I really don’t mind helping out, but today is my husbands birthday and I had to reschedule stuff with him just to get poppy to his appointment. I sometimes wish there was more help with the grandparents. I do what I can but I’m only their grandchild. I have to ask my parents to keep me in the loop about their health yet I’m walking into doctors appointments where I have no answers for the doctors because no one tells me anything. I feel bad when all I can tell the doctor is, “I’m sorry, I don’t know. They don’t keep me up to date but I’m the only one available to help right now.Do you want me to call my mom or aunt?”

So yeah, that’s why my first post of the Spring Shed is late. I haven’t had the time or energy to post til now.

But let’s get back on track! This week, I’ll highlight my new goals, then compare them to my old goals and track this weeks progress. As always, if you are interested to follow along, please click on the Spring Shed picture either in this post or to the right of this post under “i’m a proud member of” and join this wonderful group of ladies. Like last time, the whole point of this exercise is to set realistic goals for ourselves, track our progress, provide support and encouragement for each other and mostly to help ourselves become accountable for our goals by publicly acknowledging them. The Winter Shed helped me through the winter months, and it was wonderful to check in and track my progress with the other women. Thanks in part to that, I’m down 30 pounds!

Living a healthier life in 2013 in preparation for “Future Baby B”.

I want to keep this goal the same. It’s well rounded and while its been wonderful so far, it still encompasses what I wish to accomplish. While there are many things I’m doing towards this goal, no one thing is more important than the other. My end goal was and is to live a healthier life. Since the new year, I’ve worked towards changing my diet. Smaller portions, less takeout, no pop, more well rounded meals and I plan to keep at this the same as I’ve done so far. I’m also working out. I joined a 24 hour gym and I’m enjoying the work outs. I also do other things to promote a healthier life. I still occasionally do yoga at home when I can’t get to the gym. And as the weather turns nice and the snow and ice melt and disappear, I plan to start going for walks outdoors with my friends. While I do aim to lose weight, I’m not putting too much effort, energy or goals into this because at some point I will plateau and I don’t want to get discouraged and as long as I keep at my lifestyle change, the weight will do its own thing on its own time. My end goal is still to work towards a healthier Kim.

This past week, I’ve missed a couple of days at the gym but when I do go, I make myself make time for it and I stay longer at the workout when I know that I may miss one. This weekend was a bit of a cheat weekend with Chris’s birthday and me at my mom’s. But today I’m back to my regular eating and I plan to get back to the gym tonight. I’ve noticed over the past couple of weeks that my legs are stronger, I’m lasting longer on my workouts before exhaustion hits and the aches and pains that were always there after a work out are not as bad. Last night when I got into bed, I felt the muscles in my legs tightening but in a good way. I have more energy after my workouts and I’m still adjusting to the gradual loss of sugar and salt coming out of my system since I started to cut down. I find greasy food leaves me feeling gross and like I have a dead weight in my stomach which is helping me keep away from it. My portion control has also dropped. Still resting at 30 pounds lost but people are really starting to notice the weight loss now and it makes me feel good.

To make progress towards resolving our infertility.

This one I plan to keep the same as well. This will be a work in progress until we have a child in our arms to call our own. This goal is forever changing so to set a goal to constantly make progress towards it is as fair as I can make it. I will always be waiting for a report, blood work, test results or for medication to do its thing. But my goal is more so to stay on top of it. To be vigilant with follow ups. The only thing I would add to this goal would be to be more proactive in the community side of it. Get back into commenting and my daily interactions with the infertility community. To get back into ICLW. And to work towards communicating within my own local community of infertility friends. I tried to set up a support group but got no response. I don’t think we are ready for that yet here in Cape Breton. At least not at the level I want it to be. So for now, I want to be a safe space for people to talk to if they have no one else to talk to about their infertility. I’ll talk and share info 1 on 1 until I see the need for more.

This week, I helped a friend who just got a bad diagnosis from her first appointment with her infertility clinic. She hasn’t told anyone but me and she just really needs someone to get her through the down parts of a bad diagnosis. We talk regularly on facebook message and we are planning on having a lunch/tea date just the two of us. I don’t have all the answers, but I can be a good friend and listen. A couple of other friends came out to me about their struggles and I’m doing my best to be a supportive and helpful friend, sharing what I know and I hope that its helping them.

Otherwise, my HSG was last week and my uterus has been declared “clear and perfect” by my gyno! My blood work is showing that I didn’t ovulate the past two cycles but (potential TMI warning) the past couple of days, I’ve noticed that my CM (cervical mucus) is moving towards the desperately wanted EW stage. I haven’t had this in a while so it may be a step towards ovulation getting back on track. I’m gonna purchase a OPK when I’m out later with my husband and see what I get. If I am in fact ovulating, it may also be a sign that my thyroid may be getting back on track. I got my slip to check my thyroid levels from my fertility clinic and I will be going for that blood work next week. So fingers crossed for good results because once those levels are normal, I can re-do my cycle testing again.

To work towards making our house a home.

I want to keep this one much the same. But my goals within this goal are changing a bit. Right now, my goals are to move towards getting the two spare rooms set up and keep my house in a functioning order. Staying on top of the chores. Once we are full into spring, I’d love to paint but it won’t be a priority. I just want to be able to have a clean house so that if anyone drops by for a surprise visit, I can be proud of how the house looks instead of apologizing for the mess. So that’s my end goal. I will also track any projects on the house as I complete them whether it be a pinterest project success or hitting any hurdles with decorating/reorganizing. But the big thing is, I won’t be hard on myself if I don’t hit the extras. This feels more realistic for whats going on in my life right now.

Since I haven’t been home much lately, I’ve only been able to do things like load and empty the dishwasher. But I wasn’t home much. Now that I’m back home, I plan to give the house a good once over in the cleaning department and then when I have the time, to move towards other stuff in the house. I want to make a dog bed for Mia, but time, money and resources will determine that for me.

To make more time for myself.

While this one was originally to read more, I’m going to make a change to it. I love reading and crafting equally and I’ve had to little time for both lately. My goal this time around is to simply make more time for me on a mental level. I’m a member of a woman’s dart league on Monday’s and I’m a Brownie leader, but otherwise, I find I don’t take time to give myself a mental break. So I want to put the iPad down a bit more and take more time to read, craft and do things that will help me relax.

This week proved difficult because my time really wasn’t my own but today and yesterday I was already able to commit a bit of time towards reading and crafting.

I hope that everyone is doing well! I’ll be back later this week with a regular post.

xoxo

Kim

Winter Shed Week 10

Posted on March 16, 2013 by imfluffyowl

Hey guys,

Here it is, the last week of the winter shed. Next week I’ll be joining up for the spring version of this. I’ll adjust the goals here I still plan to work on and add new ones as I feel it. I will spend the week determining my goals I want to accomplish.

If you want to join in on the spring shed, I’ll have the icon and link set up next week when sign up is set.

But since its the last week, I want to look back, not only at what I accomplished this week but what I accomplished overall and if I considered it a success or not.

Living a healthier life in 2013 in preparation for “Future Baby B”.

Last week, I joined the gym. Its a 24 hour gym and so far I love it. i tend to be in a 2 days on, 1 off while my body adjusts to working muscles its not used to working. I weighed myself on Tuesday and found out that since my first weigh in in November, I’ve lost 30 pounds! I feel wonderful and my clothes are loose on me. People are starting to notice the weight loss. This makes it much easier to continue my lifestyle and diet change. I consider this goal both successful and still a work in progress. I don’t want to give up this healthier lifestyle now that I’m getting into a routine with it.

To make progress towards resolving our infertility.

Today was finally the day of my HSG test. While I never want to do that again, I am pleased to say that Dr. D proudly announced with a smile on her face that my tubes and uterus are “clear and perfect”! So she thinks that my biggest hindrance on my end at this point is my thyroid. I’m about 2 weeks out for my 6 week thyroid level check in. My family doctor is still on vacation so I called my fertility clinic and asked if they could mail me a requisition form for my thyroid levels. The secretary is sending that out first thing Monday and she told me that my last progesterone level results are in but she doesn’t have the ok to share it with me. But she will have one of the doctors call me first thing Monday to go over the results with me. So right now, everything is going smoothly in the testing area. I’ll just be happy when my thyroid levels are normal again.

I consider this one a success and a work in progress as well. Things were completed but there is still lots to go in this goal.

To stop making people a priority in my life when I’m not even an option in theirs.

The passion party was great. I was sad that some people said they were coming and then didn’t bother to show or even let me know that they wouldn’t make it, but people will always do this regardless of how much you plan. But for the people that came, we had a great night.

Overall, I consider this resolved. I accomplished everything I set out to do.

To work towards making our house a home.

The house continues to stay functional. But the big news here is that we finally got a dog!

I’d like to introduce you to Mia:

We had this perfect alining of events that led us to finding her. Hubby always wanted a beagle, we needed a dog that was already at least partially house trained and worked well with cats. Chris’s uncle was looking for a dog for himself and seen the ad with this beautiful girl. The owners were moving, she was a year and a half old, house trained and great with cats and free to. A good home. We called that day, went over an hour later and came home with her. She is possibly the friendliest dog I’ve ever met. All she wants to do is cuddle and sleep curled up to us. She won’t lick your face, doesn’t jump all over you, but if you invite her up on your lap she will jump up and sleep there til you want her to get down. We are madly in love with her and in 3 days she’s already a staple in our life. Me and a friend went out and got her a pretty collar, name tag and some jackets. She sleeps with us every night and the cats are slowly coming out of hiding even though they are still hissing at her if she gets too close.

Having Mia has made our house feel more like a home than anything else we’ve done. I consider this goal only mildly successful. I want to revisit this and maybe make some adjustments to this goal.

To expand my reading collection.

I’m gonna claim this one as a failure but possibly adjust this before next week. I want it to incorporate more of my need to alternate between reading and crafting as they are something I do equally.

It’s been a great couple of weeks and this shed had really helped the winter months fly by. Each week I had a goal and it really helped stop the winter blahs from taking over my life.

I hope everyone else is doing well. See you next week for the start of the Spring Shed!!

All The Things!

Posted on February 22, 2013 by imfluffyowl

Lots of little updates:

Infertility Wise:

~Still nothing from my gyno’s office. But that secretary is a bitch so I’ll call the second I start my period (despite time of day) and demand that she schedule me or I report her and the office for their practices. Enough is enough.

~AART called me earlier this week and told me that CD21 bloodwork was ordered for me again. They are mailing me the form so I can go in for blood work. They still want to check for ovulation while my thyroid meds kick in. I’ll know if they are also testing my thyroid when I get the form in the mail. If not, I’ll either call them for the form or set that up through my family doc and just have the results forwarded to AART.

Everything Else:

~We were hit with a sudden storm last night. Not fun. We got enough snow to need to shovel. But the best part of today was when I got up, prepared to at least shovel out enough to get my car out only to see my neighbor going through it with his snow blower. I know he doesn’t mind doing it because we let him keep it in our garage, but damn it if I’m not beyond grateful to see it done and save myself some exhaustion.

~I’ve decided to bake for him and his wife to show my gratitude. Plus I’m told I’m an amazing baker.

~Brownies was tonight. The girls continue to amaze me at how amazing they are. Around late October/early November, we taught the girls about the 4 world centers of guiding. We assumed that because their attention was wandering despite our best efforts to make it extremely exciting. Tonight we talked about World Thi.nking Day which is the birthday of both Lord and Lady B.aden-Po.well. We talked about WAGGGS (Wo.rld Assoc.iation of Girl Gu.ides and Girl Sc.outs) and we tested them on their knowledge of the world centers. The girls amazed us when they actually got most of them right along with their locations. It’s so wonderful to see that they are taking something away from our time together. That things we are teaching them, are in fact, staying.

My inner self was totally doing this.

While my outer self was totally giving the girls two thumbs up.

~I came home tonight with the intention of pricing a guiding poncho for camp in mid-April so I have something to put all my badges and crests on. I ended up getting caught up in with all the guiding stuff. I now have a very expensive order on the go with clothing and fun stuff. Stop me before I buy all the guiding things. I NEED ALL THE THINGS. The site is so shiny and pretty and has fun things I want. It’s the place my wallet goes to die.

I’m trying my best to justify everything on this order. Hey, maybe I earned this treat? Right? Anyone?

And after all this. I’m not even getting the poncho. I realize that it would be cheaper to buy the materials and make it myself or ask Grammy to help me make it. *sigh*

~I finally watched The Lucky One when it popped up on my OnDemand menu. I don’t like Nicolas Sparks books, but I tend to love them when they are turned into movies. I have a soft spot for romantic and sappy girly movies. But can someone tell me when Zac Efron got so freaking hot?! I turned it on expecting a sappy movie with a man that was OK to look at and sorta let it play in the background while I read. Well as soon as Zac came on the screen, I glued my eyes to the screen and they never looked away, not even when hubby came to bed. Damn he got hot.

~I’m finally eligible for my phone upgrade and my shitty iPhone 3gs is finally going to be upgraded to a newer iPhone. I don’t know if I’ll do the 4s or go right to the 5. Depends on the contract. Since I got my iPad, my iPhone usage has dropped dramatically, so it doesn’t matter to me either way. I just desperately need a phone that doesn’t shut off at 60% battery. Especially considering that we don’t have a home phone, just our own separate cell phones.

~Tomorrow is also the next installment of taking the Brownies to a hockey game. We only have 2 girls going along with all 4 leaders which will make it much easier than last time when we had 15 girls to 2 leaders. Mom is coming with me, along with the other 3 leaders, their husbands/boyfriend and one of them is taking their oldest child. So we might get to watch some, if not all, of the game this time.At least bathroom runs will be much easier.

~Saturday is shopping with Grammy. I’m actually looking forward to it. I really enjoy shopping with my gram. We also have some plans in the evening with some friends.

~Sunday, I’m hoping to have a home day where I can actually get some baking done. My father in laws birthday is on Tuesday and I promised to bake for him. I’m also getting a care package ready to send up to Aunt Moe and her husband (the people we stayed with for my last AART appointment). She has MS and she got a less than stellar report last time so I wanted to send up some snacks that I know the two of them would enjoy. They loved my Christmas package that I sent up. I also wanna take a stab at making bread again. If it works out well, I’ll send some over to my awesome neighbor.

~I’m also trying to get the house ready for the beginning of March. I decided to host a passion party and the response has been amazing so far. So much so that I may have to move it from the living room to the basement just to be able to hold everyone. I’m just looking forward to having my friends come over. Some I haven’t seen in awhile and it would be nice to see them.

~Also, I still haven’t used my gift certificate for my hot stone massage. I don’t know why. Have I lost my mind? I have two gift certificates here waiting to be used. It’s not like I haven’t earned it. So I’m gonna call them tomorrow and see when they can take me next week. I think this will help me with the winter blahs and the bit of envy going through me over recent pregnancy announcements and the pending arrivals of others both in and out of the community. Take some time for me to realize that I may be dealing with infertility but infertility is not the whole of my life and to relax and remind myself that its OK to be both happy for them and envious of them at the same time and that at least those in the community get that and take no offense to my less than happy side. You know what? Maybe I’ll even splurge for a pedicure!

~And a completely random but still fun thing…me and Chris decided on our Halloween costumes. I know its really early and we don’t even have anywhere to wear them yet, but we are so excited. Now its just time to get everything ready as I will have to order some things online and talk to my friend about doing my makeup.

Winter Shed Blog Hop: Week 2

Posted on January 19, 2013 by imfluffyowl

It’s week two of the winter shed blog hop! Time to check in on the past week. If you would like to join us in the Winter Shed Blog Hop, click on the picture to your right to read up and join!

To recap, I’ve highlighted my original goals and below each goal, I’ve noted my progress on each this week.

Living a healthier life in 2013 in preparation for “Future Baby B”.

Another week down! I don’t feel as productive as last week but progress was still made. I’m proud to say that I only ordered take out once (last night) because I was far too sick to cook. I’m battling the head cold from hell and I’ve spent the last two days mostly asleep, moving back and forth from the bed to the couch. And even when I went to my parents and they had takeout I opted to make myself something healthy instead so it’s been a good week (despite the sickness and my take out). I will say though that after eating the pizza, I felt gross because my body is adjusting to an all healthy diet. Our grocery bill has jumped a bit but its coming from the money we wouold’ve spent on takeout in the past so its worth it. I can’t wait til spring so that i have access to fresh local produce again at lower costs.

This week at darts, I made fruit salsa and baked my own tortilla chips in the oven to dip in the salsa. Not only was it healthy (diced up kiwi, raspberries, strawberries and blueberries with a bit of sugar and cinnamon) but it was delicious and everyone loved it. A bunch of the women asked for the recipe before we went home.

Tuesday I woke up with a sore throat and a stuffy nose and generally feeling like crap so my 3 meals a day went out the window and any hopes of working out went out the window too. I’m still under the weather and even had to miss Brownies last night. My hubby has been trying to take care of me but his cooking skills cap out at Kraft dinner, Mr. Noodle and toast so when I have the energy, I make food for myself. I still track everything daily on My Fitness Pal and I’m still under my daily limit (even with the takeout last night). So I’ll take the good despite the bad. I’m missing breakfast a bit this week but I’m also feeling pretty gross when I wake up so I think I’m ok with missing a few. As soon as I can stomach it, I try to have toast and tea or a piece of fruit even just to try and go back to bed.

Up next: get over this cold. Beginning of February, I plan to sign up at the gym. February is a busy month for Gi.rl Guid.es so I’m hoping that that keeps me busy and active. I’ll continue to work on the house which is a workout in and of itself. Plus hopefully a surprise I can share next week! (Don’t worry, it’s nothing baby related, I promise!)

To make progress towards resolving our infertility.

Successfully hit my goal of getting $60 put away (actually I got a whole $65 put away!) for treatment. We officially have our first $100 put away for treatment! And I don’t find myself itching to spend it. I ended up winning the even split at darts on Monday so all of that plus the extra money I had put away earlier in the week helped hit the $100 goal I set for myself even though this wasn’t a pay week for us.

Also, AART called me with my results from my CD2 blood work. It was nice to not have to track down my results like I normally have to do. Waking up to a call from them giving me the rundown of my blood work was awesome. Apparently my thyroid levels are still abnormal so they upped my dosage of Synthroid from 50 to 100. Not only did they call me with the results, they are also updating my family doctor for me as well as my Gyno. They reminded me to call my family doc in 6 weeks to have my thyroid levels checked again and to not forget my CD21 and CD23 blood work on Monday and Wednesday. I’m still clearly waiting on CD1 for me to call and schedule my dye test.

And I’ve finally hit a good cycle with my vitamins. No more sickness from it. I have a small snack before bed then have my vitamins, folic acid and synthroid and put myself to bed. By morning I feel fine.

To stop making people a priority in my life when I’m not even an option in theirs.

Friend who I emailed last week finally massaged me and we had a very long conversation that was long overdue. We put everything out there and made the decision of whether we want to work on the friendship or not. I’m happy to say that everything has worked out and what hasn’t, we are working towards fixing. We realized that we weren’t done and that we care about each other too much to walk away. A heart to heart later and we are mending our friendship with goals to work on it and make it healthy again. This makes me happy. I feel lighter now knowing that we are working on things.

I’ve also been in contact with other friends I haven’t talked to in awhile. Schedules are crazy right now, but contact has been made. There is another friend who I really need to get out with, but I have yet to make contact and I think that will be my next goal. She’s in school and working part time so her schedule is messy but once I make contact, she will happily find a day and get together.

To work towards making our house a home.

Sunday, I finally started working on our bedroom. I had yet to put away our clothes from the move. It’s been a mountain on our bedroom floor since we moved in and I just didn’t want to even try to tackle it. So when I woke up on Sunday, I took advantage of our cable OnDemand, put on some movies and started sorting and putting away our clothes. All the clothes that were going in the dressers were put away. All that’s left is the clothes to be hung up in the closet, but I got sick and lost my motivation. So once I’m feeling better, they will get put away.

Monday, myself, hubby and the in laws ripped apart the basement. By the end of the day, it was clean and ready for hubby to turn into his “man-cave”. Next we move the furniture in from the garage into the basement.

I also started recycling. Did I ever tell you how much I hate recycling? Like really, really hate? I couldn’t do it at the last apartment because we really had zero storage room so we just used our garbage bags. Now it’s required for us to recycle and I hate it, truly, truly hate it. There are only two of us so it takes us forever to build up enough recycling to put out. Then of course they only take the recycling bags every other week so if we fill the recycling bags on the off week, we have to keep the damn bag an extra week. I just find it one big hassle. But I’ll begrudgingly do it just to keep the garbage men happy.

My goals for the next week include getting the rest of our clothes put away, doing a dump run to finally get rid of the bags of garbage collected from the move and get a start on my craft room.

To expand my reading collection.

I got a bit more read of LOTR but honestly, I’m feeling so shitty that once my nighttime cold meds kick in, I don’t remember what I read and Chris keeps coming to bed with me asleep still holding the book.

Up next: Just getting back into the habit of reading without it putting me to sleep. Damn you head cold!!

Well I didn’t get as much done as I hoped but still some progress on my part in most of my goals. The big thing this week is realizing that even if it was a “bad” week, there were still positive things that happened and these positive things did work towards my goals. Looking back I see that I did more than I thought and it gives me a good starting point for next week.

Love to you all!
Kim

Winter Shed Blog Hop: Week One

Posted on January 11, 2013 by imfluffyowl

Well the first week of the Winter Shed Blog Hop is here, which means that I can recap on what’s changed in the past week. Head over to my introductory post if you want to read up on the blog hop and my goals. And you can always check out Kathy’s original post on the blog hop over at Bereaved and Blessed. Here’s her Week One post if you want to check in!

To recap, I’ve highlighted my original goals and below each goal, I’ve noted my progress on each this week.

Living a healthier life in 2013 in preparation for “Future Baby B”.

I went shopping this week and when I tried on pants I found out that I’m down a pant size! This made me very happy. The change is great and I think this came from the changes I made in the weeks leading up to the move, what I put my body through during unpacking (its better than any workout out there), keeping my portions down over the holiday and cutting down on holiday “snacks” intake (I was fairly well behaved this Christmas). This week, I started using My Fitness Pal, gave my honest starting weight and I’ve been tracking my food intake as well as my workouts. My calorie intake as well as my sugar, carb, fat and sodium intake are below my daily goal (a good thing!). I also went forward and pre-made breakfast sandwiches and they are ready to be nuked in the microwave each morning until I can get into the habit of eating breakfast every morning. Little steps but all in the right direction.

Next step, I plan on getting a gym membership for the winter months and starting a regular workout routine a couple of days a week. My friend is going to reactivate her membership and hopefully a day or two a week we can work out together and push each other out the door when we just aren’t feeling it.

To make progress towards resolving our infertility.

CD1 blood work is done and I’m waiting for CD21 and CD23 to get here for my next two rounds of blood work. Then I wait for the results from the clinic. Next CD1 I call Dr. D and set up my dye test. Also, I put away my first $40 towards treatment. It’s not much, but I put any extra money I have away to go towards treatment. Every time I have a couple of bucks, it goes in the fund hidden from the world. I stopped going to Tim Horton’s for tea (oh Tassimo, how I love you to the ends of the earth), so that extra two bucks everyday goes to the fund as well. If I put it away and don’t think about it, before we know it, we will have all the funds necessary for our first round of treatment. I’ve also found the best way to take my pre-natal vitamins and folic acid without getting completely sick each time thanks to some helpful suggestions of some friends. I take it at bedtime with my synthroid and by the time I wake up, I’ve slept through the worst of it and I’m feeling good and ready for breakfast. I seem to be sleeping later than normal but I don’t know if its laziness or me needing to sleep later in the day to sleep off more of the gross feelings. Maybe a bit of column A and B? But I’m gonna push to get myself to bed a bit earlier and hope to start getting into a better sleep pattern.

Next week, I want to get at least $60 put away. Then I can say that our first hundred dollars is saved for treatment. I want to keep at this pace. If I do, the money will build fast. Also, I need to call my fertility clinic for my blood work results, have those results forwarded to my gyno and continue to track my cycles. Also to stay on top of my pre-natal vitamins, folic acid and my synthroid.

To stop making people a priority in my life when I’m not even an option in theirs.

I emailed a friend to explain why I was so upset about a situation that happened. I was honest, to the point and left it in her hands to make contact with me. That was 3 days ago and I haven’t heard from her since so it really is in her hands now. I won’t be heartbroken and wait on her every move, I won’t play the pity me card, I won’t let it depress me and consume my every thought like things have in the past. If our friendship matters or ever mattered, she will respond in one way or another, if not, the friendship wasn’t what I thought and I make peace with that. I’m going to enjoy the friendships I have. Otherwise, everything else is going well.

I’m talking regularly with my friends and hanging out with those that are free, my social life is picking up again and when people want to get together, I find myself looking forward to it. Darts is back and that’s keeping me busy on Monday’s, Brownies is back and that’s keeping me busy on Thursday’s, and a couple of times over the past two weeks, my friends have initiated a get together with me and Chris without any push from me. Which is nice for a change. I’m not saying that no one ever initiates anything with me but it does feel much more even lately because part of it is also me learning that every time I ask someone to do something, I’m not pestering them. I sometimes feel that way through no fault of anyone else and I need to work on that. I like the feeling though, of progress.

To work towards making our house a home.

We started working on the basement. Each day we throw out a bit more. When the basement is cleared we will finally be getting our puppy. Today, my plan is to finally put away all our clothes. I miss having a clean bedroom and I finally feel like doing it.

Up next: Go through the cupboard in the kitchen that has all the cookbooks that mom left, figure out who owns what and finally have use of the last unclaimed cupboard in the kitchen. Also, I want to get started with unpacking my craft room, getting it somewhat organized and maybe even move in the chair and foot rest from the garage. There is also a cabinet in my craft room that is filled with books from my childhood. I want to go through them, organize them then pack and store them away in the spare bedroom til we have children to share them with. Here’s hoping.

To expand my reading collection.

Didn’t get very far with this. Still reading Lord of the Rings. Only another chapter or two since last week. But to be fair, Chris and I spent most of the week re-watching older seasons of Bones. I’ll get back into reading when we are up to date on the show (we just started season 6 and we are averaging about 8 episodes a day right now). Plus I always read a bit at night before I fall asleep.

Up next: Finish Lord of the Rings, move onto The Two Towers and then finish off the series with Return of the King. After that, The Hobbit, Angela’s Ashes, finally finish reading Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, then move forward with some of the classic authors and stories.

That’s about it for my updates this week. It’s been a positive week of change and knowing that I was going to be honest and share my progress with everyone, to be held accountable for my goals, was a great push. It stopped me when I wanted to be lazy and order takeout instead of making a healthy meal, it made me second guess buying a donut at Tim Horton’s when I stopped for a sandwich for my husband. I look forward to the upcoming weeks and making progress with everyone!

Love to you all!
Kim

Winter Shed Blog Hop!

Posted on January 7, 2013 by imfluffyowl

Winter Shed- Are You Joining?

I’m proudly joining up with Bereaved and Blessed and many others in a blog hop. The theme for this blog hop is to be accountable in a public way (by blogging) to keep our “resolutions” or “goals” for the new year in place. Once a week, on Fridays, we are going to share our progress.

Since I’ve decided to make changes in my life at the start of this year, I thought this was the perfect way to keep on top of it, to make myself accountable for what I do or don’t do. So I hope you follow along or join us if you want to. Click on that nifty little picture to the left of these words. (Go ahead, I’ll wait for you.)

Alright, everyone back? Good, lets get started.

Living a healthier life in 2013 in preparation for “Future Baby B”.

I could say that I wanted to lose weight, or eating healthy, or even that I want to work out more. But honestly, I want more than that. I made a pact with my IRL IF friend (in real life infertility friend, for those who hate shorthand) that we both want to be healthier. We know that doctors told us that our weight is not hindering either of our trying to conceive, but we were told that its not going to make it any easier either. So now that we are living in the same town again, we are making that movement and choice together. We want to live a healthier lifestyle. We are going to support each other through it, work out together, her sister will join us after she has her baby later this month and we are all going to work together to change our lifestyles into something more healthy. 3 healthy meals a day, stop all takeout, pop, walk and work out as a group, get proper sleep. I’ve proudly went from 50% of our meals being takeout over the past couple of months to about 5-10% now since we moved. I control the shopping so I’ve stopped buying and keeping sweets in the house and try to keep pop and unhealthy juices in the house. This goal is more about changing and keeping a healthy lifestyle over losing weight. Because if I change my lifestyle the weight will gradually come off on its own. I don’t want to be stick thin, I want to be healthy. Regardless of the weight I am.

To make progress towards resolving our infertility.

I want to be a mom. I want to move forward and prepare ourselves for treatment. I want to be ready physically, emotionally and financially for treatments when its time. I want to be able to start setting aside money for our treatments. I want to complete all the tests on our doctors check list. If we can’t start treatment in 2013, I want to be ready to start treatments by the start of 2014. I will push forward and fight to get to that point.

To stop making people a priority in my life when I’m not even an option in theirs.

Self explanatory. This year is about me putting priority on those that are important in my life. Those that are there for me and respect me. I’m not out to please people but to have healthy relationships with those in my life. I may lose some people, I may have to make changes with some friendships (and I will work on it as long as the others are willing to as well), and I may make some friendships even stronger than they were. I need an equal give and take with my friends and trust that the give and take is equal. I need this for my own peace of mind. I’m not out to make enemies, quite the opposite. I want my friendships to be strong and if they are not, I think I have address why I have said friendships.

To work towards making our house a home.

I want to be proud of our new house. I want to finish unpacking. I want to work on projects for the house that I’ve been planning for years. I want to paint, set up the spare room, set up my craft room, rip up that ugly pink carpeting and put down new flooring. I want this house to feel like ours and not like the house I grew up in.

To expand my reading collection.

I realize that as much as I love to read, I have a clear gap in my finished collection that lacks some of the classics. I never did finish The Lord of the Rings. I never read The Hobbit, A Christmas Carol, Little Women or a wide array of classic literature that I should’ve read as a child/young adult. I want to fix that. With my husband pushing me, I started The Lord of the Rings again and I will keep going as I read books that I wish I’d taken the time to enjoy.

There you have it. My goals for the year. I think they are healthy and acceptable goals that can be worked on all year and while there are no hard deadlines, they are goals that will lead to a more positive and healthy life. The phrase that best describes my wishes for 2013 is moving forward. I will take part in weekly updates through the blog hop and share my updates, to be accountable for my goals and to always have that reminder when I want to give up. I hope that you will join us on this journey!