Please don't let my child inherit this trait

I'm a worrier.  I worry about everything under the sun.  Hell, I worry about the sun!  (Did we remember the sun block!?!!?!?)

Seriously, Mom, just chill out!!!

This is nothing new.  Going off to college sent me into a panic for a full couple of years preceding the actual event.  Waiting for my flight to Spain to study abroad, I fainted in the airport bathroom.  Job interviews were enough to take me out for about a week at a time.  My first year of teaching basically involved me making it through each class to collapse in a pile of nerves after my students left my classroom.

Now that I'm a parent, I even worry about how much I worry.  (Not to mention that there's a lot more to worry about now too!)  I don't want Evie to live her life consumed by anxiety, but I know that I'm not setting a very good example.  I never want her to hesitate to say how she feels, or to miss an opportunity to do something great all because it might not work out the way she plans.

This is one of my biggest dreams for Evie.  Someday I hope that she'll be confident and never second guess herself - the total opposite of me.

Of course, I want her to have my amazing sense of humor and style.  :-P  But I really hope she knows how to relax and go with the flow too!!

Like what you see?  Spare a couple of clicks for me!!

Want to link up with Toddle Along Tuesday?  Click the button.  This week's topic is "Traits you want (or don't want) your child to inherit."

So, I'm on Twitter...

I did it; I joined Twitter!!!  I'm known as Mama2Evie. 

At this point, I have no clue what I'm doing, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. 

To my fellow blogging mamas, if you're on twitter, leave me a comment with your screen name (or whatever they are called in the twitter world)...I'd love to follow you and keep up with your posts! 

Eat Pray Love - Book Review

So, I know everyone in the world has already read Eat Pray Love, but I'm a little behind the times.  I saw the movie sometime last year, and I had been interested in reading the book since then.  My sister knew I wanted to read it, so she gave me the book for Christmas. 

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin, 2006) is the true story of a Gilbert's struggle to cope with her divorce. In order to pick up the pieces, she decides to travel to Italy, India, and Indonesia over the course of a year to learn about pleasure and faith, and how to find a balance between the two.

The book is divided into thirds, each third focusing on a different locale.  In the Italy portion of the book, the author describes her quest to learn Italian while living on her own in Italy.  While in Italy, she faces her depression head on.  For the previous few years, she had been dependent on anti-depression medications, and she manages to learn to live without them in Italy.  Italy is mostly about pleasure...specifically food.  I was so jealous while reading this part of the book.  I've always wanted to go to Italy, and the author described it in a way that made me want to go there even more. 

The second section of the book takes place in India.  The author lived at an Ashram in a small Indian town while learning about God and meditation.  Because I saw the movie version first, I was surprised by the deep discussion of God in this book.  The movie doesn't focus on this aspect of the text.  The descriptions of meditation were really interesting.  I've always wanted to learn more about meditation, and this book was very informative. 

The final third of the book takes place on the island of Bali in Indonesia.  Here, the author studies with a Balinese medicine man to learn how to balance these two new aspects of her life.  This is the "love" part of Eat Pray Love, and I don't want to give too much away.  ;)

The downside was that I had already seen the movie, so I kept picturing the author as Julia Roberts.  As always, there were discrepancies between the book and the movie, and as usual the book had much more detail.   Overall, I thought that this was a great book. 

Another weekend away...

Well we returned home this afternoon from another weekend away.  (That makes 6 out of the last 7 for those who are counting, i.e. me.)  Most of this time spent away has been to visit family for the holidays (we were gone the weekend of Christmas, New Year's, and the week after New Year's all for holiday/family stuff), or to visit friends, and there was our weekend in Wisconsin Dells.  This weekend, my mom, my middle sister, Evie, and I drove 4 hours south into central Illinois to visit my youngest sister. 

M decided to stay home to give us our "girl time."  We didn't do much.  We actually spent most of Saturday afternoon vegging out on my sister's couch watching "Legally Blond."  It was nice just to hang out with my sisters and my mom.  My sister who we were visiting got married last April and her husband is currently working on his Ph.D.  (That's why they live in Illinois.)  He was in and out all day from studying and working in his lab.  My other sister is pregnant with her first and due in April, so this will be the last time we could all go visit for a while. 

Evie entertained her aunts and grandma with her crazy toddler antics all weekend.  They were able to see her try to dress herself in person for the first time.  And they witnessed her game where she tries to scare people by running at them and yelling boo.  They were also really great by taking care of Evie for a while this morning so that I could sleep in until 7:30...I haven't slept that late in months!!

Evie was very good on the drive.  She really does pretty well, and I can't complain.  I was also fortunate to have the help of my sister and my mom in the car with me this time.  It's great to be able to visit family and friends, but I'm really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed the next few weekends.  I'm just really happy to be home!!

Resolutions - 1 month in

At the beginning of January I wrote a list of 4 goals to work at in 2012.  It's one month later, and I've actually been doing pretty well.  I thought that writing a follow-up post would help keep me honest.

So, here are my results:

• Weight loss: I'm officially down 4 pounds from January 3rd.  That is about halfway to my goal of losing 9 pounds. I've been watching what I eat and I've been working out a lot more.  I joined the gym in town back in November, and I've been going to step classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and  Saturdays.  I've been walking/running on the treadmill on the other days after Evie goes to bed.  It's become a habit and I'm really noticing a difference.
• Staying organized: I've been keeping up on housework much better.  M has been helping by staying out of my way (and keeping Evie out of my way) every Sunday so that I can put the house in order for the upcoming week.  That way, I just have to spot check throughout the week.  It's been working for us, and I feel a lot better about coming home to a de-cluttered house.
• Making more time for myself:  I actually feel like I've been doing pretty well with this.  I thought that this would be the hardest one for me to keep, but going to workout is a total stress reliever for me, and I feel better about myself for doing it.  So, I guess exercising has killed two birds with one stone!
• Making more time for M: I'm embarrassed to admit that this is the goals that I've had the hardest time with.  We've been out of town for 5 of the last 6 weekends, and that really cuts into the amount of time that M and I spend together. When we're around, we stay up "late" (10:30, alert the authorities!!!) and watch TV and just hang out together.  It may be a little lame, but I look forward to it.  Things will settle down here in February, and I'm hoping to have a better report about this goal at the beginning of March.  

Most people don't keep their resolutions past January 31, so I just have to keep plugging away at it.  Writing them on here has helped.  It's always in the back of my mind.  ;)