UPDATE ON THE MAMA

Today may not be the best of all days to do an update on myself, but the boys are both sleeping and I feel like having my fingers glued to the keyboard right now, so here it is. What yours truly has been up to in the recent past and present-day:


1. Still working on my book, and I'm still pretty stoked about it. I've written 210 pages so far, and I really love the way it's turned out. The rest (about 100 pages left to write) is all up in my head - it's just a matter of pounding it out. I have no IDEA if it'll amount to anything, or if anyone besides my mom or husband will enjoy reading it, but my original goal was to finish by the end of April (which will probably turn into the end of May, honestly), and to seek out a literary agent and attempt to have it published over the summer. In this particular instance, ignorance is bliss, because I think it's likely that getting your book published is just as difficult as getting a record deal musically, but since I'm not as familiar in this arena of the arts, I'm not biting my fingernails over it. And shockingly, I have ideas in my head (and some chicken-scratch drafting done) for two more books after this one...we'll see. My boys are keeping me pretty busy these days (all three of them :) ) Regardless, when this project is finally finished, I'll have written an actual BOOK, and that feels pretty cool. I'm brainstorming ways to celebrate once it's completed. Any ideas?

2. I don't remember the winter season ever effecting my mood before, but this year these colder, cloudier months are just giving me the blahs. I've always been a perfectionist and I've always been hard on myself, but not THIS hard. I've been wishing for warmer weather and more sunshine since January. Getting out to the park and in our backyard with the boys is something I'm longing for like never before. I'm also ready for easier access and more options to exercising. That chases my blahs away better than anything else.

3. As of this week, I'm joining back up with my praise team to sing in their rotation at church, which means practices on Wednesday nights again, and I'm REALLY excited about it. I took a much needed break from several activities back in the fall, and I'm just now starting to add things back in. I'm really ready to get involved in something musically again - I've missed it something awful, though the break was good and important for our family.

4. Also as of this week, I'm getting back into....JAZZERCISE!! Our community center offers it on the perfect days and at the perfect time for our family's schedule, and this is the ONLY type of exercise I've found that I like (and despite the totally dorky name, I don't just like it, I LOVE it!). I thought about getting an elliptical machine (because I don't mind it so much either), but truth be told, we just don't have room for it in our little house, so until we move into a bigger space, I'll be jazzin' it up. I've been having a hard time getting motivated to stay active. Michael has been a real sweetie about it, and has even been doing our work-out DVDs WITH me at home for a few weeks, but it's just not cutting the mustard. So when I mentioned getting back into my old faithful, Jazzercise (which helped me lose all of my baby weight after Bennett), he told me to go for it. So I will. Any takers? You don't have to wear a leotard unless you just really want to. Promise.

5. Jasper John is turning ONE in less than a month (*tear*) and I've been planning and working on his little party for the past couple of weeks in hopes it won't sneak up on me and make me feel totally overwhelmed.

6. I've set two (technically three) daily goals for myself to help improve my overrall health and wellness: 1. Drink 8 cups of water daily. 2. Go to bed early (asleep by 10:00) 3. Get up early to spend time with God and exercise. So far so good. On the days I actually do all of this as I intended, the day seems to run so much more smoothly, I enjoy my boys more, and I have a lot more energy. So this is going to be my focus for a while concerning myself.

7. I'm digging our Bunco group. Meeting with the girls once a month to play is a ton of fun. And although I can pretty much guarantee I'll never go home with so much as a dollar from the games, I sure do love the fellowship and time to be a silly girl. If you've never played, or never joined a group like this, I highly recommend it. Along these lines, I'd love to go play Bingo again (it was HILARIOUS last time we went) if anybody's interested.

8. Overrall, I still feel busy, busy, busy. I know I wrote up above about NEW things I'm ADDING into my life, but they're things that I want/need, so for the rest of this school year and over the summer, I'm going to really be thinking about my priorities and praying and asking God what He would have me do. I really miss ladies bible study, and I miss feeling like I've actually got the time I need to get things done. Maybe this is just a part of having little ones, but I feel restless, like something needs to change. So I'm reflecting on it, thinking about it, listening for God's voice to tell me what's next. Have you ever had the feeling that change is in the air, or right around the corner? Anticipating something different? That's kind of where I'm at.