Happy new year! We had a lovely January 1st around here – Josh was off and we spent the day doing some glorious decluttering (seriously, I love this) and hanging out with some friends visiting from colder realms (perk of living in a tourist destination although strangely no one ever seems to come by in the summer . . . ).
I will do a ‘how things are going’ post soon, but wanted to finish up the 2018 goals series by revealing my Q1 (Quintile 1 – as you may recall 🙂 ) list!
PS – click to enlarge for a clearer version of any these notebook pix if desired!
As the focus for this Quintile is maternity leave / home / family, I tailored most of my goals to fit these themes. Once I wrote the list above, I added a ‘habits’ and ‘bucket list’ section, since those are such different types of aspirations.
The list:
1) Focused time with A&C daily. This is generally for when I have childcare; otherwise it will be hard! But on days when we have our nanny or Josh is off, I want to try to spend time with A&C either together or separately. I often end up spending some time with A after C goes to bed, but C (as many middle children probably do . . .) gets the shaft and I really want to make sure he feels valued and special and gets his own time. SO – any day that we have our nanny, I will bring him into his room (technology/phone free) to do some Special Mommy Time with just him — playing with his toys, talking, reading, etc. I don’t think it has to be long – even 15-20 minutes – but I think it’s super important and easy to overlook in these New Baby Days (and weeks, and months).
2) Family dinners on Sunday, generally cooking (or perhaps takeout if it’s with friends — I do love the Playdate Dinner although Josh has lately preferred hanging out as a family at home, so we do both). I have been cooking more than ever in the past 10 days or so, mostly because our nanny has been on vacation! And I forgot how much I enjoy it though I think I’ll enjoy it even more as a weekly (not daily . . .) thing. We don’t do family dinners on most week/work days (though I will be eating w/ the kids most nights on maternity leave) but I love making Sunday a little more special and putting effort into the meal. Plus, when else do I get to use my favorite cookbooks / magazines?
3) DIA method / exercise 5x/week. I am trying the DIA method workouts to help close my diastasic/fix my core post-baby and plan on doing some kind of gentle workout most days. I’m not really feeling like running yet, so I think that will wait. I want to focus on yoga, barre, walking, etc. I just have this desire to give the running a break for a while, maybe even until I’m done with breastfeeding! I know I will be able to pick it back up again when I am ready.
4) Outline ebook. Yep, I think I am going to try to write one this year! Not sure if I will attempt to create a proposal for a regular (published) book first, but I’m considering it. The topic . . . PLANNING. Yep. After recording the Planner episode of the podcast, I realized I had a LOT more to say on the topic. I think maybe even a book’s worth (or ebook). Anyone with advice or experience in this realm – please feel free to share resources/advice!
5) Kon-Mari our home. (Round 2, since we completed most of it in 2014-15 or so!). We’ve already started with C’s toys, A’s clothing, and man – it feels soooo good. I think maternity leave is my chance to do this right, if I go through one category a day — I already created my master list (I’ll share this eventually) and am super-excited for this.
6) Combine A&C’s rooms. By maternity leave, I need A&C in C’s current room (we’re getting bunk beds!) and G in A’s current room. This project feels daunting but doable. I am reminding myself that I can do it in steps – I don’t have to move all the ‘stuff’ at once, but we really just need to get the bunk beds and go from there. Luckily both rooms are good-sized, especially C’s. And #5 above will help make this easier!
Daily habits:
– Read something daily (a book, instagram or a magazine doesn’t count!)
– Focused time (20 min) with A&C (from above, to reinforce that I want this to be a daily thing)
– Spend less than 90 minutes daily on MOMENT (because this is sort of a foundation habit for me — if I am not wasting time on my phone everything else in my life seems to improve)
Bucket list:
– Take A&C ice skating – we have a rink nearby and I think they are ready! We can go as a family and G can hang out in the Ergo.
– Read 10 books (seems like a good maternity leave goal to shoot for!)
– Listen to a full album every day (just sounded fun!)
– Have 3 date nights (though G may come along for some of these . . .)
Okay, off to see if I can handle 3-on-1 today with no school. Bonus points: it’s raining! Wish me luck . . .
Let’s go 2018!
BOBW Episode Update: Mini-episode on G’s birth / immediate postpartum days is up! Listen
here or on iTunes, stitcher, or your fave podcast app.
mother of 3 // MD // south floridian // ESFJ // upholder.
into: planners, great food, running, reading, writing, mornings, podcasting, and coffee.
12 Comments
So enjoying your posts about adjusting to life w/ 3 littles – our 3rd is due this summer and we’ll be doing the bunk bed transition, too. I’d love to hear which bunk bed you choose.
I”ll let you know!!!
Love reading more in depth about your goals and how you organize them all etc. Also, LOVE the idea of your e-book. You can totally do it. I published my book in Jan of last year. I self published so I am happy to answer any questions about that, if you ever go that route! (I don’t have the platform or audience needed to get a traditional publishing deal and didn’t want to spend the time growing my audience, I just wanted to write the book!).
I just love the idea of breaking the year up into quintiles and setting small, manageable goals for that time period. I would be very interested to read a book by you on planning!
Love your planning posts! Some great inspiration for me.
Random question: I think you”ve mentioned that you make yearly photo books. Is that right? I”m on maternity leave and have a goal of making photo books, one for each of the last five years and then being caught up so can do one at end of each year. Except…I”m finding it so overwhelming! Do you have any tips? Do you use Shutterfly or something similar? A template? Any tips on culling photos etc?
Okay, the pic of your 3 at the bottom is the sweetest!!!
I also love "weekend cooking" as I call it – cooking where i can switch on a podcast, everyone leaves me alone and I can create 🙂
I”d love another post about your process for Konmari etc!
It is so interesting reading your mat leave goals just as I”m wrapping my 6 months of leave up. This baby is my one and only and we live in a big, walkable city so we”ve gone to lots of coffee dates, baby walking groups, and just generally wandered with baby in the sling. I”ve read loads of books which definitely makes late night feeds more bearable. I”ve also got some big sorting projects around the house done, although mostly in the last two weeks when my husband has been off. We currently have a double oven in our sitting room waiting for installation and paint samples on the walls so a bit more to do.
I”ll return to work in a few weeks so my q1 goals are all about the transitions- finishing my PhD corrections and moving from PhD to post doc, transitioning baby to take bottles and adopt a new daily routine (so, so lucky, my dad is here for a few months to do childcare so nursery won”t start until he”s 11 months), moving us to the guest room and sorting out baby in his own room. And I suspect sone sort of sleep training as we”ve never recovered from the four month sleep regression. Fitness wise, I”m looking forward to getting back to yoga 2x a week. I kept up my practice until 39 weeks and have been pleasantly surprised how much strength i maintained.
My kids really want bunk beds but unfortunately my almost four year old wants to be the one on top instead of her brother who just turned 5 (he also does NOT want to be on top). I think we may need to wait a bit because it doesnt strike me as safe enough for a 4-year-old to be on top. Is annabel going to be on top? Any thoughts on the safest bunk bed models?
I think A will start on top 🙂
Happy New Year and belated congratulations Sarah! Just wanted to recommend MommaStrong for addressing diastasis recti, pelvic floor, and core issues related to pregnancy. DIA is good, too, from what I hear, but I much prefer the MommaStrong approach as it is rooted in functionality rather than aesthetics. It’s $2/month, too, which is awesome. I find the cueing excellent (I have a background in anatomy/physiology/functional movement). I’ve been doing it since August and have seen a huge difference in my physical health.
I loved spending 1:1 time with my big kids on maternity leave! Now I find my 3rd (of 4) is the neglected one. I started having starbucks dates with him. He gets a milk and I get a coffee and we sit and chat. We have them on Fridays and he has been missing them over the holidays even though I have been home from work so I have likely been spending more time with him than I usually would. We will definitely resume our dates this week.
Enjoy your leave!