Although 2014 was a good year, there are definitely changes I’d like to make in 2015, starting with this blog. As of right now I have a whooping 19 blog posts done for last year. That bums me out big-time. I use this blog as my online diary and we print books out at the end of each year and we’re hoping someday we’ll have an entire set of the books with the story of our lives in them to pass down to the kids. I have so many pictures from last year that I haven’t even looked at, but I am starting to go through my photos and edit them and it is my goal to get all of those pictures, at least, up on the blog. I’ll write as much as I remember about the days I took them, but at least the pictures are better than nothing. And then I hope to keep up on it much better this year, although with having a job and adding another kid to the mix and possibly moving God knows where, that might be tough. But I’m going to attempt it anyway. I’m bound and determined to get last year caught up too, but I’m going to be back-dating all of my posts so they probably won’t show up in your feeds. If you want me to email them to you, let me know and I’ll add you to the list!
Speaking of the blog and all my photos and editing, that’s another thing I’d like to work on. I really want to improve in my photography, including the actual picture taking and figuring out my camera more and then editing in Lightroom. This blog was a lot easier to keep up with when I didn’t know much about photography and didn’t edit any of the photos. It adds significantly more time to the blogging process when I want to edit the photos before I put them on here. This year I would LOVE to upgrade my camera to a full frame (preferably the 5D Mark iii), but considering that camera is about $2500 I’m not sure that’s going to happen. Although, when we had Abbie, we got my first DSLR, the XSi, and shortly after we had Ben we upgraded to the 60D, so it would just be keeping up with tradition if I upgraded again with baby #3. I love the 60D but I take a lot of photos inside and I have to bump the ISO up SO much to be able to have the shutter speed above 1/120, which I need considering I’m shooting kids or dogs (aka – moving targets). But if the ISO is above like 800 the photos have a ton of noise in them and that bugs the hell out of me. (See below for examples.) I still get decent pictures, but I like crisp, clean shots and these are far from it.
I also would love to work on de-cluttering my house. I am the queen of holding on to things I don’t really need to keep because I always think of the what-if’s. But let’s face it, I’m not ever going to be the size I was in high school anymore and having some of those clothes is more depressing than motivating at this point so I could probably unload them. We have so much stuff that we don’t use that I should just get rid of. And my main motivation is our potential move this summer. We were close to our weight limit when we moved from Italy to here and since then we’ve purchased another kitchen table (and I’m using the old one as one of my sewing tables), a solid oak antique desk for Abbie, a huge 3 piece sectional couch and lots of other little things that add up in weight. I can almost guarantee wherever we go next we won’t be living in a 3100+ sq foot house and we’re not going to have room for all our stuff so we might as well downsize now. I’m hoping I can put some things in my parents basement/shed for a while until Mark is out of the military and we’re not moving every 1-3 years. This will be a tough one for me, but I’m going to try!
I would also love to be more active this year. Right now it’s a little tough with being pregnant and all, but after I have this baby, I would like to be more active. I have dreams that I can actually run for any real amount of time. I have never been good at running and I have never enjoyed it. If I could get to the point where I could actually jog a mile without stopping and without feeling like my lungs are going to explode or collapse or both, I would consider that a win. I’d love to someday do a 5K, but that is a long way in the future. I have pretty much zero endurance and I would like to build that up by walking/jogging and maybe swimming. This will probably be the hardest of all my goals because I tend to not make time to exercise and I can only imagine that might get more difficult with 3 kids.
I would also like to have more patience with my kids and really work on the way I talk to them and handle them when I’m tired/stressed/busy/etc. My kids tend to get the brunt of my pissy-ness and I hate that. I want to learn to take a step back when I feel tension building and then handle the situation and my emotions the way I would like my kids to handle them. They are little sponges right now and I really want to be the best example to them of how we should act and how to be kind and if I’m flipping my lid, I can’t expect them not to. I’ve been reading articles regarding the way you talk to kids and how it affects them and I’m much more aware of what I’m saying now or how I’m coming across to my kids. I’ve already noticed I’ve been able to hold back a few times and not flip out on them. I’m far from the perfect parent, and I never will be perfect, but my goal is to become better and to bring myself up to a level I’m comfortable with and I’m not there yet.
Last but not least, I love buying fabric. I have a pretty healthy stash of fabric, but I never DO anything with it. I have lots of plans for it, but actually sitting down and sewing something doesn’t ever happen. I don’t make it a priority so it just doesn’t happen. I love making things though and I love giving homemade gifts so I’m hoping to use at least some of my stash this year. I haven’t even made my own kids quilts yet so if I could make them their own full sized quilts I would be happy with that. And I think I’ve decided I’m going to pay someone else to quilt them for me since that part really stresses me out and trying to get a full sized quilt through my little machine sounds like hell. I love piecing the tops together so I figure if I can at least get 3 tops done and then pay someone else to do the hard part it’s a win/win. I get to use some of my stash and don’t have to do my least favorite part of quilting.
Lofty goals for 2015, but I’m really looking forward to this year! Big changes are going to happen for us as a family and looking forward to seeing what’s in store for us and meeting our newest addition!
PS: All of these pictures were taken Jan-March of 2014… Better late than never.
1 comment:
I always send the big quilts out!! There is just nothing smart about doing those giant things at home. And on that note I miss sewing. And I laughed at your need to get rid of things. I love getting rid of stuff, the less there is the happier I am! But J is a huge pack rat. :-) Happy to have you back blogging.
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