Pride and the Holidays

The first thing you should know about me is that I LOVE CHRISTMASTIME. I don't even mind when the local radio station starts playing Christmas music more than a month before Christmas. I mean, I don't listen to it 24/7 until after Thanksgiving, but when I need a little Bing Crosby or Nat King Cole fix - it's there.

That being said - one thing that I battle during the holidays is pride. I want to be able to do it all. I want to be the mom with fresh baked Christmas cookies, the advent calendar, the decorations, the presents, the parties, the cards! But guess what? If I am struggling in the day-to-day responsibilities, I should probably take a step back and NOT pre-plan my Christmas morning menu. Maybe I ought to take care of the laundry pile first.

This year, I am purposing to be more laid back. I am a perfectionist by nature and I need to focus on making sure that the basics are taken care of before I jump onto the next Polar Express to decorating my whole house for Christmas. 

Laundry done, bathrooms cleaned, dishes done, dinner on the table. Those are my every day goals. Those have to come before designing the perfect Christmas banner or scouring the Internet for the perfect gift(s) for my husband.

Please don't misunderstand me - those things are important, too - but if I choose to neglect my basic responsibilities, I will become overwhelmed, and eventually will find myself curled up in my bed eating peppermint chocolate M&M's, wrapping Christmas gifts, while my house is in shambles! (This might happen anyway)

Two things I am letting go of this year are:

1. Christmas cards. It just didn't happen, and honestly, I will be glad to have the money I would have spent on cards for gifts!

2. Advent calendar. I had high hopes of making the cutest little calendar with fun little gifts for each day. Thanks, Pinterest, for tempting me. But seriously...Molly won't know the difference this year, so I'm skipping it.

So there you go. I can't do it all during the every day routine, so I need to own the fact that I can't do it all around Christmas either - and I'm not going to make it look like I can, because I think other mothers out there need to know that it's okay if your stockings don't all match and you don't do the most creative Elf on the Shelf ever. Oh, and don't even get me started on Elf on the Shelf.... :-p

a [small] transformation

As I sit here with a soft brace on my ankle, foot propped on top of ice for the umpteenth time this week, it dawned on me that I had not yet blogged about my newest venture: RUNNING! Okay, well...jogging. I don't know if it counts as running yet.

While I currently have a sprained ankle (due to over-pronation and bad shoes), I am proud to say that my sister-in-law Katelyn (<--- click her name to view her SUPER awesome blog about the 101 in 1001 project) and I have ALMOST completed 'Couch to 5k'! We both toyed with the idea of running all summer, but neither of us have ever been runners, even in our chosen sports through high school, we avoided running at all costs!

It's taking us a little longer than 9 weeks to complete the program, mostly because we've hit a few "roadblocks" along the way - sickness, and my injury. BUT, my new shoes should be here any day, and my ankle feels exponentially better today than it did even yesterday!! 

Pre-race photo ops:)

About a month ago, we ran in our first 5k, held at Vernon Powell (shoe store). We didn't run the whole thing, but ran a good portion of it. I can't wait til we sign up for our first real run-all-the-way 5k!!

Yes, I know the left picture is me being goofy, but that was my highest weight after Molly was born. I'm about 40 pounds lighter now! (And that's after I had already lost 25 pounds post-pregnancy!)