A Formspring question (still sitting in my inbox, yet to be answered) prompted me to start tracking how I was spending my time. Actually it’s due to several questions, all along the vein of “I just don’t understand why you can’t graduate/do this/that/the other, you just sit at home all day”. Good question(s). Why do I go to sleep each night feeling like I haven’t accomplished anything that day? I’ve been tracking everything I do for 9 days now (everything except bathroom visits, just go ahead and assume something like once an hour), and I’m still not ready to stop because I’m as of yet still not sure where it all goes. I’ll be posting a nice breakdown at the end of my experiment (when will it end?) as I think it’s rather fascinating to realize how much time goes into showering/dressing, cleaning, blogging, talking to my husband, sleeping, etc.

The downside for my little blog? I feel less motivated to post because I’m embarrassed how much time I devote to That Wife! I’m definitely feeling more motivated to get some advertising put together, as I probably wouldn’t feel so guilty if I could make a bit of money on the side. Regular posting should resume soon though, as I have entirely too many posts I want to write to stay away for long. Midwife visits! Baby shower plans (and a registry)! Why TH is a rockstar husband to his pregnant wife! Plans for my mom to fly down for the birth! Adventures in the kitchen! An excess of exclamation points can’t even begin to describe how ready I am to share this with all of you.

I’m just going to have to figure out how to crank these posts of mine out a little bit faster.

This week (meaning on Tuesday) I committed to not writing any more “real” posts until I cleaned out my inbox entirely (I currently have 171 messages to take care of, all of them from real people who wrote important things and some of them have been sitting there since June of last year), which is why you haven’t heard from me. As That Husband can attest my inbox constantly has me feeling overwhelmed, and raging pregnancy hormones have led me to drag myself to bed crying because another day has gone by without me being able to say I’ve finally conquered it. So I’m ending it today, this week, this month. No more real posts on That Wife until the inbox officially says “0 of 0″ in the top right corner.

Then I can finally stay on top of Resolution #5 on my list**.

*And by “real” I mean the kind you have come to expect from me, either photos summaries of my rare adventures, photo tips, birth/pregnancy mumbo-jumbo, or my views on life that ultimately lead to at least 10 different people feeling like I have personally insulted them, their mother, and their pet goldfish Albert.

**In other news, I think I have models for my concept shoot. And some ideas!

1. Have a baby!

I’m hoping the little punkin has lots and lots of black hair. And blue eyes.

2. Finish college courses except last foreign language class.

3. Lose at least 30 of my pregnancy weight pounds

I’m currently only 10 pounds away from my lifetime heaviest weight, and since baby is currently at 2 lbs max, I know that most of that is f-a-t. I’m going to have a lot of work to do this year!

4. Book at least 10 weddings for Jenna Cole

I want more of this in my life.

5. Clean out my inbox by the end of January. Reply to Jenna Cole emails within 24 hours. Reply to personal emails within 72 hours. Reply to blog comments within one week.

6. Dream up a “concept shoot”. Find models. Find props. Make artwork I can be proud of.

I want something to hang on my wall, something that will leave me feeling inspired and proud of what I can do.

7. Attend the temple at least once/month after the baby comes.

I need the break from the craziness of life that comes when I prioritize going to the temple.

8.  Read at least one non-fiction church related book each month.

For January I’ll be reading this. I’m about halfway through already, and I want to read it all over again as soon as I finish because there is no way I can absorb enough of it!

9. After baby is born, devote an entire day to myself (as I’ll likely miss my birthday due to labor/newborn time!). Get a facial/pedicure/massage, go to a museum, take pictures of whatever inspires me, do no laundry/no dishes/cook no meals.

10. Cook/bake one dish from the Polish cookbook TH’s aunt gifted us.

Achievable? I definitely think so!

What are your goals for 2010? How are you going to make them happen?

On January 1st of this year I committed to do several things. Here is what I did and did not accomplish.

I DID:

Post every day.
Set up a custom domain for my blog.
Make a baby.

Make something adorable (adorable in a 5 year old kind of way?) from the Bakerella blog.

I DID NOT:

Never make my husband say I don’t pay enough attention to him (even with the daily posting).
Finish my classes (everything except my foreign language credit).
Firm up my oven before That Husband inserts the bun (i.e. lose the last 20 lbs before the baby puts it right back on again).
Call someone I care about on the telephone at least once a week.
Read one article from the Ensign each week.
Cook a Polish dish for That Husband (and get a rating higher than 3) from the new Polish cookbook we received from his Aunt for Christmas.

Am I failure because I didn’t achieve them all? I don’t think so! Without these goals I never would have been able to laugh at my ridiculousness with the Thanksgiving turkey pop disaster, might still be blogging from thatwife.wordpress.com, and might not be giggling every time my sweet baby kicks the top of my belly. I’m shooting for 10/10 in 2010 though!

I made it home! Wait, is this still my home? Do I have two homes now, one in Washington and one in Texas?

I guess the best way to say it is that I made it to my childhood home. I don’t know about you, but I always find the experience to be a bit magical. My parents have lived in the same place for over 15 years now (pictures of the quadruple-wide they live in are coming I promise, it’s pretty amazing what my mom has done with two trailers stuck together!), and I love wandering excitedly through the house to see the changes they’ve made since I was last here.

Via Annpar on Flickr

This time I found a Christmas tree (waiting expectantly for ornaments to be hung as mom agreed to wait for me to get home to do it), my childhood bedroom filled with photos and trinkets I love to revisit, my wedding dress (still needs to be sent off to be cleaned), homemade apple cider from our neighbors, a cupboard filled with Trader Joes chocolate, a new car for my mom (I love pressing all the different buttons to see what they do), and

PUPPIES!

I’m not really a dog person, but I do love baby animals of every kind. In the country dogs are allowed to roam pretty free and so when our female German Sheperd goes in heat mutt puppies are usually the result. My mom doesn’t welcome the responsibility of caring for them, but my sister and I get excited about little wriggly bodies to play with whenever they are born. We’ll give them all away (or they will get stolen like last time) and the cycle will repeat itself in a year or two. Tomorrow I’m going to head out into the snow with my camera to give you a little peek at their cuteness.

I’m sure there are many other things waiting around here for me to discover, not including the Christmas presents my mom is so excited about giving to TH and I. I always love to come home and explore the small changes, but Christmas has made the experience twice as bewitching. It’s my first official Christmas spent in my childhood home as a married woman, and the only one I’ll spend without kids in tow. I hope baby feels lucky to be a part of this family, I know I most certainly am.

What’s your favorite part of visiting your childhood home?