June 1st is the new January 1st...

Those resolutions that I made back in January, like everyone else's, had fizzled by February. What's a girl to do? Try, try again! Instead of pointing all of the "reasons" for not making progress, I'm just going to restart my efforts on June 1st.

Happy New Year to me!

52 bites...

Recently, I've been looking ways to be more organized. The more I think about it, I also want to find ways of being more productive as well. I'm in the rut of waiting until the weekend to get things done around the house. Unfortunately, that means that a large amount of the weekend is spend cleaning the house instead of having fun with family and friends.

I've been reading the Simple Mom blog for a few years now. I've even read Tsh's book. Unfortunately, I haven't made it a priority to implement the great ideas that she has. Well, recently Tsh released an e-book called One Bite at a Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler. It contains some of the same information found in the Organized Simplicity book and on the blog, but it's set up as 52 small projects that can be executed one at a time and in any order. I'm going to use this little book to help reach my resolution to be more organized.

Resolutions

It's been a few years since I've made new year's resolutions. It's also been a few years since I've blogged here. It only seems natural that I might try blogging my resolutions!

My resolutions this year look much like they have in the past. By never fully achieving these goals any making them part of lifestyle, I'm doomed to see them reappear over and over. So here's the list for 2012:

1. Get fit and exercise more. AF and I ordered a treadmill. Once it get's here, I'm going to start with 30 minutes a day. I'm sure I'll start with walking, but hope to move on to running.
2. Eat more fruits and vegetables. I like to think that I eat fairly well, but I've been noticing that most of my snack involve dairy. I'm going to make more of an effort to include fruit or veg as part of my snacks throughout the day. I'd also like to sneak some into breakfast when possible.
3. Be more organized. This weekend, I took a load of clothes and cast off good to Goodwill. It felt great to reclaim some of the floorspace in the basement. I'd like to keep it up. By the end of the year, I'd like to have all of my closets serving an actual purpose other where I stuff things when company comes over.
4. Improve overall health. I'm going to make an effort to visit every doctor this year. Since having G, I've only made time to visit my OB. This year, I need to find a new GP, dentist, and eye doctor.
5. Drink less coffee. I usually only drink coffee in the morning, so I don't think I drink a lot of coffee. Unfortunately, I've been suffering bouts of insomnia. I'm going to cut back on coffee to see whether it's one of the roots of my sleepless nights. I'm drinking tea at the office, but I still get coffee on weekends.
6. Drink less alcohol during the week. Like coffee, I don't drink a lot of alcohol. However, I think that the drinks I have each night are contributing to the pounds I've put on over the last year.
7. Create a morning and evening routine. I'm still have no sense of organization about my mornings. I want to develop a short list of things that I could do before bed to make my morning easier and a short list of things to do when I get up to make the whole day go more smoothly.

Wish me luck!

it's been a while, huh?

I'm finally done with wedding season! BF and I have been to 3 weddings in the last 5 weeks. One in W. Virginia, one in Charlotte, NC, and one right here in DC. All of them were great, but I'll be happy to have a few quiet weekends at home.

Then, last weekend, BF and I went to look at a new apartment. The two of us have been living in the same apartment for about two and a half years. We found our current place through Craigslist, and quickly fell in love. It's in a rowhouse on a quiet street...Well, since moving in, we've had one problem after another. It started with a leaking ceiling that ruined boxes of stuff within a month of moving in. Then, there are the huge heating bills during winter...Oh, well, the point is that it was time to look for a new place.

So, we'll be moving next month. This apartment is about the same size as the one that we have and all Utilities are included in the rent. And, it's in a managed building with an office in the lobby.

809...

Equifax says my credit is excellent! Last week, I got one of my free credit reports. For an extra $6.95 you can throw in your credit score.

Last time I found out what my credit report/score, I thought I was doing pretty well. I had a score in the 760s. Since then, I have finished paying off my student loan and I have paid off all credit card debt. All the hard work has paid off.

a good nights sleep...

Over the weekend, my fiance and I went shopping for a mattress. It's one of those things that I knew we needed, but he thought we could just let slide. Well, after months and months of coaxing, I convinced him it was time to make the investment.

We had gone into a store in our neighborhood the previous weekend, with little luck. The salesman was very helpful at first. We told him what we were looking to spend and he showed us a few beds...all of them out of our price range. When we finally picked one that we liked, he told us the mattress would be $100 more than we said we wanted to spend. Then he asked us about delivery. Since we live about 10 blocks away, we told him we'd pick it up from the store. For some reason, he didn't like that Idea. He just started telling us what we could do to get free delivery...as if that would make us feel better about the price. Turns out they don't deliver on Saturdays and they wouldn't schedule a window of time, so one of us would have to take a whole day off. It shouldn't be a surprise that we walk out of there. No Sale!

So Saturday, we went out to the 'burbs. At the 2nd store, we were helped by a younger guy...probably mid-twenties. We told him how much we wanted to spend, and he instantly directed us to two choices that were in the right price range. He didn't try to up-sell us at all. Then, when he found out that the one we wanted wasn't in stock, he called other stores to see if we could take it home that day...no luck. But, he put in an order for it to brought to the store on Tuesday, with no hassle about having it delivered instead.

Last night, we picked up the new mattress, and I had the best sleep I've had in years!

mid-year round up...

Since I've passed the half-way mark, I figured it would be a good time to take a look at those resolutions for 2005. I think I'm doing pretty well so far. The first half of the year has been focused on getting rid of debt. So, now that I've finished paying off my student loan and credit card bills, I can focus on other things that I need.

I am going to wait until September to take a look at my credit report. That's when DC is eligible for free credit reports. I plan on getting all three at once, plus my FICO score(s). I got my credit score last summer, and thankfully, it was pretty good. So, I'm very interested to know what it looks like now that I've paid off all of my debt. I'm also hoping that the credit reports will help me determine if I should cancel some of my credit cards. Regretfully, no one ever told me that having too many cards is bad...even when you don't carry balances on them!

It's also about time I went through my closets and started getting rid of some stuff. I never had "spring cleaning" day this year. Right now, I have a lot of clothes that don't fit correctly. Most importantly, I have a stack of skirts and pants that I bought with the intention of hemming. So, I just need to sit down and fix these items.

All-in-all, 2005 has been a good year. And, I still have 6 months to go!