I made one New Year's Resolution on January 1rst. Being a new mommy, I needed it to be easily attainable-so I chose the following: I will only eat french fries if they are fresh, hot and crunchy. I also gave myself two options upon encountering the soggy cold/room temperature fry-sending it back or throwing them out. So far, I've thrown out two sets of fast food fries (I suppose I could've sent my husband back to Wendy's but I figured they'd still probably come back cold.)
During the rest of January I pondered what other goals I would like to set for myself. I like the idea of trying things that are out of my comfort zone. For instance last year, I took a course on teaching baby yoga-and are you sitting down for this one? I sang karaoke stone cold sober-and about eight months pregnant. Dead sexy, I know.
I'm certain that being a new mother meets all of the qualifications of being outside my comfort zone. I work with kids-but not babies after all. I've been surprised by how quickly I've become comfortable with taking care of baby Cheddar. It's amazing how perfectly babies are designed-as much as I think I should be cleaning the floor (oh hell-puttering around on facebook, really.) I peek over at a smily baby-and I'm entranced for the next half hour.
Still, I'm afraid of becoming just a mother-and afraid of not being enough of a mother. Is there still time for me when I'm already working forty hours a week?
So I decided to start scheduling once a month classes for myself. I LOVE to learn and craft and create things. So far I've signed up for a crushed glass painting, fine silver jewelry fusing and creating caged glass beads. I took advantage of my continuing education money through work and learned new techniques to correct /r/ and lisping and will be taking a three day course on facilitating parent language groups. All of these things still fall within my comfort level-so I decided to add on a physical challenge. I took a suggestion from Beckyanna-and signed up for an indoor triathalon through Lifetime fitness at the end of March.
It's not a full on triathalon-after all I practically just gave birth. But it does include the swimming, biking and running portions. And since it's time based-it will be done in one hour. I'm excited and apprehensive at the same time.
What about you-what types of things do you try to push yourself?
I'm totally with you on the french fry thing. I have now stopped eating them if they are not absolutely perfect. I'm happy to say that I haven't had more than a tester-fry for about 1 year. I say, why even eat something that isn't good... just because it's in the bag. We both know there isn't enough ketchup in the world to fix crappy fries.
ZAs for being the mom and still doing things for you. I believe you are on an excellent track. I too have tried to expand my horizons to give myself permission to be me... and a mom. I struggle to maintain all that I've commited myself to though. For me, I made a pact with myself to try a new recipe every week. I like cooking, and completely enjoy the entire process. However, it's easy to be stuck in the duldrums of food-prep. Instead, I try something new every week and this keeps it sort of exciting. I made an indian curry the other week. I've never even had indian food at a restaurant because I had to smell it every day that I lived in one of our first apartments. It's fabulous... but I still am unsure how much I can stomach because I had to clean up after their food prep.
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