Happy New Year! Can you believe how fast 2018 just disappeared? I hope your holiday season was as lovely as mine was.

All of my posts over the last year have mostly centered around being pregnant or about having my baby. (!!!) It’s been an amazing and often intense time of life but I’m loving it. Even though little Henry is the center of our universe right now, there are so many other things I’d love to share and I’m really going to try to share all the good recipes and fun stuff I have going on in my head! I was sad to say goodbye to 2018 because it was an incredible year! But I know there is so much good waiting for us in 2019!

2018 was a BIG year for me and our family! We started off the year with Brady transitioning into a new job and doing some house hunting. We saw Henry for the first time at the beginning of February and found out that he was a boy just a few weeks later. We put in an offer for our first home at the end of February and settled at the end of March when I was halfway through my pregnancy. We spend the next few months enjoying our last bit of time together as just the two of us while doing some home renovations. We welcomed our first baby boy in August and ever since we’ve been loving spending every day watching him grow and learn new things. It was a whirlwind of a year and there’s so much more that made 2018 a special year for us.

I had some nervous thoughts the other day about getting fit before my next pregnancy. I’m afraid that if I lose a bunch of weight now… how I’ll feel gaining it all back the next time I’m pregnant. I didn’t have negative feelings this last time because I knew how much I’d gone through to get pregnant with Henry and I was just so happy to see my growing child. I want to feel just as joyful about my growing baby/belly next time but I’m afraid I’d feel like I was losing all my hard work. I also don’t want this fear to keep me from doing anything about it! It’s just some thoughts I had.

I don’t have any specific resolutions that I want to make this year but there are some things I definitely want to be working towards. As per usual I am looking out for my health – I want to become fit and eat healthier. I’ve already made a start towards both of those. I’m focusing on meal planning every week – which is also FANTASTIC for sticking to a budget instead of meal planning while picking things up off the shelf – you always forget something and you almost always buy too much. And since the weather has been nice, it’s been a part of my daily routine to go for a walk with Henry. It’s starting to dip into the lower 30s now so I don’t think we can walk quite as long before his little nose turns into an icicle but I’ll keep trying to get out. At home I’m squeezing in little sets here and there of strength and resisitance training as well since I don’t just specifically want to lose weight but I want to be strong.

I started gaining weight and “got fat” when I went to college which was in 2010. I think it’d be great to be back down to a healthier weight before I reach 10 years of being overweight in 2020 so I’m working on it.

My sister and I have been talking about running a half marathon together so if I can convince my body to do it, we’d like to run the Chicago Half in the fall! When I say convince my body, I’m talking about post-surgery mom bod. Being pregnant takes a toll but having a c-section really messes with all the insides. Brady and I were trying on running shoes recently and even a quick jog around the store gave me some abdominal pain for a while after. That specific type of pain comes and goes but it’s very slowly improving. I’m hoping that with time and some conditioning, that it will be settled enough by the time I’m ready to start running. Right now I’m doing a lot of walking to help my body remember what it was like to move. If all goes well, I’m thinking as the nicer weather comes around (in March?) that I’ll be ready to start into the running which gives me about 6 months to build up to a half marathon. I’d really like to run the whole thing if I can because I know that I can cover the miles, but can I cover them while running the whole time? Anyways, there’s a big goal for the year.

Otherwise some goals I have are for working on our home. We bought our house knowing that the entire house would need an update at some point. It’s a great home but it was over 50 years old and had never been renovated. We got a lot done before Henry was born but there’s still a lot we’d like to do. My goals are a simple redo of both bathrooms, a kitchen refresh (which is already started), finish decorating our main spaces, and to be completely unpacked, organized, and uncluttered (which means getting rid of a lot of the fluff)! That’s a lot to do, but a year is a long time right?!

Another thing I’d like to get around to hinges on the above projects. Once we’ve unpacked everything, our office room will be set up as my art space where I can finally start painting and creating again – a big de-stresser for me. I just watched Project Runway: Junior and I’ve been inspired to pull out the 2 (or 3?) sewing machines I inherited from my mom and make this the year that I finally learn how to sew. *Fingers Crossed*

In the end, I really just want this year to be a year of fun and memories. Henry is growing fast and I want to be sure that we’re taking all the opportunities we can to foster his growth but enjoy times as a family. I’m so looking forward to the warm weather when we can get out and go on picnics, go camping, family walks, hiking, etc. I predict a super fun year ahead!