Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Malone's Lunch



A lot of moms I know are jumping on the Bento bandwagon. I think that's great- I'm all for moms doing whatever they need to do to get their kids to eat well. Malone has a Bento style lunch box for school mostly because I wanted the option for variety that the different compartments provide.

Here is Malone's lunch today.




The top small container has cut watermelon, the bottom small container has Trader Joe's Ginger Cats, and in the large container there are frozen peas (one of Malone's favorites), a piece of string cheese cut into thirds, and rosemary roasted chicken breast. He also has a yogurt.

Most days, 95% or more of his lunch is consumed. It would be much easier for me to make him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich everyday, but I'd rather him eat like this- well balanced and with a lot of variety!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Update: Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

Some of you may remember that I wrestled with the idea of going back to work last summer in this post. To make a long story short, I went back to work full time the week of Halloween. And while I am getting used to not having as many hours with Malone or to get things done in a day, it was absolutely 100% the right decision.

I was able to start full time from home with the company I was already working with. It's a great company to work for, the work is interesting, and the employees are treated well. It is a challenge to remain focused and on task while working from home, but for the most part I've been able to really separate home life and work life.

Malone is enrolled at daycare center that I am thrilled about. I'm not going to lie, his transition was really rough and it took about 3 weeks for him to really settle in there. His "school" (that's what we call it) went above and beyond to facilitate his transition including bringing in an extra teacher into his room in case he needed to go for a walk outside (which was about the only thing that he didn't freak out about).

In the earliest days of his transition, he carried around his lovey (a cat) and a book that had a picture of a mom and little boy (that kind of looked like us). Now, he wakes up in the morning and asks to go to school. It's amazing how resilient kids really are.

There are times I miss my SHAM days. I miss the activities Malone and I attended during the week. I miss my SHAM friends- it's harder to get together with them now. But, the extra money is nice and we've fallen into a great routine.

I made the right decision and am really lucky that I was able to get a job at the company I wanted to work for.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

New Year, New Goals.

I'm back. Have you missed me? Because I've missed you. Life got a little hectic after my last post (more on that tomorrow during my 2009 year in review post).

I've decided to have 11 goals for 2011. I'm not calling them resolutions- some of them will be pretty easy to stick with, others are major lifestyle overhauls. But that's what the new year is for right?

So (insert drum roll here) here they are in no particular order.

1. Join Twitter and tweet. Honestly, Twitter is completely baffling to me. I don't get it. I recently talked to a friend who said she felt the same way until she joined.

2. Lose weight. Right now I'm 184.4 pounds (thank you handy dandy shiny new scale). I'm tired of picking out adorable cute clothing and not having them look great on me because of my chunk. Also, for the long term it needs to be done.
2a. Move more. Goes along with #2. This one is going to be the biggest challenge, I think. Run a 5k race.

3. Blog at least 4 times a week.

4. Read 52 books in 52 weeks. I'm going to let Middlesex count as one as I'm only about 1/3 of the way through it.

5. Save, save, save! Mike and I have dream of being homeowners. One of the easiest ways to do this is going to meal plan better and eat out less.

6. Drink more water. It's surprising how often I reach for something other than water to drink. It's free, it's good for me, the consumption of it has GOT TO increase!

7. Complete a craft project each month.
7a. Purchase a sewing machine and learn how to sew.

8. Get rid of the clutter. We have a great living space (minus the super old windows and the sucky heating bill) but little storage space. Combine that with a curious toddler who likes to empty drawers and you get a house that has pockets of clutter EVERYWHERE. I might even get bold and post before and after photos.

9. Nine goes along with eight, make our space more pleasing to the eye- hang pictures on the walls and replace some outdated home furnishings.

10. Purchase a fancy camera like a Cannon Rebel. I've got a pretty good chunk of money set a side for this already.
10a. Learn how to use it.
10b. Purchase and learn photo editing software.

11. Spend more time doing and waste less time on the internet. With some of the above goals, I think that is doable!