Five for 2008

Like 2007 and 2006, here are my annual goals for 2008. I deviated from the previous structure a bit, but this year is going to be such a rollercoaster. I didn't want to overextend myself

1) Knit myself and Shannon a sweater each. I don't know how parenting and kid knitting commissions are going to impact this, but that's why it's a goal and not a prediction. I have some conflicting design ideas for my sweater but at some point, I just need to choose one and go for it. If the sweaters don't get done, I hope to at least make a little time for knitting, be it a sock or a scarf or just a swatch.

2) My food resolution this year is to cook more. Pregnancy changed my relationship with food in a bunch of ways. One way is seeing how I don't eat as well as I had thought I did. There were days where I was stressed out by the prospect of feeding myself, days when I didn't eat any vegetables, and then there were the many lunches I bought due to the lack of cooking the night before. Regardless of the reason, the result was hunger, crankiness and spending too much money. This is going to be more important since our eating out budget is going to be severly restricted with the new budget for the kid. So the goal is more home cooking with more veggies for both dinners and lunches.

3) I'm not sure how TV and exercise are going to fit into my new parenting lifestyle, but I'd like to make some time every week for myself. Be that for a walk, taking the dogs to the river park, or watching a bit of TV/DVD/movie. Something that is for me regardless of how the parenting gig is going. Also, I should help Shannon find some time every week for herself that isn't related to vet school. I'm not going to have a weight loss goal for my new post-pregnancy body because it's just not a big priority. I think maybe after 9-12 months, I will look at my weight and see what I want to do about it. Maybe I will never reach the ideal I have in my head. Maybe my 30s will be the decade for me, I don't know. But right now, I also don't care much.

4) Speaking of Shannon, I sure would like to still be together at the end of 2008. I don't forsee us breaking up but as I keep reading, babies change relationships. My relationship goal is to stay connected as individuals as well as parents this year. But what will it feel like being mothers? How will we treat each other? How much stress will we be able to stand and how can we relieve it without turning on each other? How will we share parenting duties when our schedules are going to be so different? Maybe we'll need some outside help. Maybe we'll find ourselves closer than ever. We might end up different people at the end of the year, but I hope we will still choose to be together and share our lives. (She agreed that this was a worthy goal).

5) Document the first year with kid via blog, journal and pictures. We've got a page a day journal for 2008 to jot down notes. I don't know if it'll end up being something we share with the kid in the future. But I think it will be helpful for us when we are caught up in the daily minutae of trying to figure the kid out. I'm going to blog still but having a paper journal might be nice as well. As for pictures, I hope to take weekly ones at the minimum. In the beginning, it'll be daily as the reality of having a kid sets in. I'm guessing Shannon's new Flickr site will become filled with baby shots as well. I also hope to mail out some kind of crafty birth announcement, have a baby book at least begun during the first year, and maybe get some creative/alternative (read non-JCPennys photo studio) family photos done. I doubt this kid's life will do undocumented.

I don't have a kid goal explicitedly because it would be morbid even for me to write "6) Don't kill baby, especially if you go postal due to postpartum depression" but I suppose that's my unwritten goal for 2008. I'm hoping I don't need psychiatric help, but hey that's why I'm keeping my job with the bitchin health insurance. For just such events.