Delirity

I’m proud to say that I maintained my weight in February. I started out the month fighting off a cold and then got really busy at work, so just maintaining and hitting the gym about 2/3 of the time has been a huge accomplishment! I’ve spent part of this weekend prepping food and gym clothes for the week, so March should be spectacular!

February non-fiction books were Malcom Gladwell themed (though I snuck another one in too). All the Malcom Gladwell books are incredible and, if you’re looking for an audiobook, very well read in audiobook form (by the author!). I highly recommend them.

Planning for our trip to Italy has taken an interesting turn. We still really are going to try to make the trip happen, but it may turn into a 1 week stay in Florence and a few days in whatever cities we fly in and out from. Why? My husband is coming home to me for good in April (mid-April if you want to be nitpicky about it)!

Jesse coming home is really exciting. It does some very interesting things to my other goals… my income will be pretty much entirely spoken for between living expenses for the 2 of us and trying to start up his practice, plus we now have no idea what our life will be like come next May… but I’m hopeful that we’ll still accomplish the goals I set for this year and more (like, say, having Jesse’s practice open and bringing in some money)!

I love the time of winter when the bulbs start pushing daffodils and tulips up out of the ground. Growing up in San Diego, I had no idea about this magic. Portland is a completely different story.

Since I don’t have a yard in which to plant my own bulbs, I’ve taken to forcing bulbs and buying beautiful tulips and daffodils that are just about ready to bloom. I’m thinking maybe this is even better than having a yard with the flowers. This way, I can put them around the house so that I can see them all the time.

This weekend I spent a little time potting up some of my more recent purchases. That in addition to my newly cleaned apartment has made the place soooo much happier!

Bring on the Spring… I’m ready for all the beautiful color in my life!

No, not the song. This weekend Jesse and I were talking about how neither of us have quite yet nailed down our own personal values. I feel like I’m slowly sneaking up on it… slowly figuring out who I am… but I still don’t feel like I’d be able to write a cohesive personal mission statement.

For years I’ve been working on this issue and trying to figure out what ideas and things resonate with me. It’s hard to separate what is me and what I’ve adopted over the years because it’s been easiest or the most prominent in the world around me. I’ve always thought “I’m not necessarily old enough to have it all figured out”… but how long can you use that excuse?

Things I know for sure about myself:

• I value family above everything else
• I primarily have a servant mentality (which I have to make sure to counter so that I take time out to serve myself!)
• I value hard work and honesty

Beyond that… gosh, I don’t really know. I’m still trying to learn about myself. I’m not entirely certain how to go about getting myself figured out, but I think maybe coming up with some questions (and their answers) might get me on the right track. Things I’m going to be thinking about this week:

• What would I do if Jesse suddenly ceased to exist in my life?
• Which of my daily activities seem to contribute to living the life I want to live, which are neutral, and which are detrimental?

Any other good ideas for questions?

In December I lost 10% of the weight I’d like to lose by the end of 2010. In January I lost another 11%! After fighting off a cold the first week of February, I’m just now getting started for the month. Wish me luck!

In January I read 3 non-fiction books (weight loss theme!):

I loved the Jillian Michaels books (and am currently in the 6th week of the weights plan in Winning by Losing which is a major butt kicker), but didn’t really like Bob Harper’s book.

I started adding money to our Italy Trip Fund and also started working on the basic planning for the trip. I’ve learned that you can only book airplane tickets 330 days in advance (so I can’t really estimate airfare yet…), but that you really shouldn’t book things til 2-3 months in advance (so I’m tracking May fares for this year, starting now!). Also, 1 thing I know I’d really like to do is to rent an apartment in Florence for a week. Beyond that I have no idea.

Emergency fund is filled! Also, after a few paychecks (upped health insurance costs + flex spending account deductions) I realized that saving $8000 during the year is actually the reasonable goal… and that if I work really hard hopefully I can manage $10,000 or maybe a little more. Back to the drawing board to see what else I can reign in or cut out!

It’s January 22nd and I’ve completed my goal of finishing up our 6 month emergency fund. It felt really good yesterday to transfer in the last few hundred dollars and then open up another ING sub account titled Italy Trip 2011. I even managed to throw $400 into that account.

It’s really nice knowing that we’ve got money that’s set aside for those just in case moments. I’m hoping that the money will serve as a warning to Murphy that he won’t upset our life too much, so it isn’t worth bothering us… I’d really like all our spare money to go to the trip as opposed to refilling the emergency fund

I’m thrilled to have 1 goal for the year completely knocked out before the end of January!