Bust the Move 2017!

Ok- I'm READY.

If I felt that I lost my "give a damn" last year, I found it again this year.  

I'm turning 40 and as we used to say in the good ol' days, it's time to bust the move.

FIND MY EXERCISE GROOVE--

One thing I've realized lately is-- exercise needs to be social for me.  I'm lonely living out here in the country.  I'm also not athletic, I'm competitive and completely out of shape.

The best I've ever done with exercise was when Todd and I joined a gym together in Texas.  We exercised every morning before we woke the kids up.  The gym was only a few minutes from my house.  We did fitness for life intervals- 3 days of interval running and 2 days of weights.  It was scheduled and I was always trying to show Todd how tough I am, so I got into shape quickly.  My other favorite was working out with a personal trainer.

Todd exercises up at his school gym now, for free.  There is a local gym here, but I don't want to go by myself.  I have friends in town who 1) exercise beach body at home, 2) go twice a week to a dance/aerobics class, or 3) go to an early morning kick-butt workout class.  There is also a local yoga class or a larger YMCA gym with daycare that is 20 minutes away.  Because it's beautiful here, I keep telling myself that just going outside everyday is the answer.  But, it's cold and snowy and lonely outside.  I'm pretty much a complete extrovert!  I tend to be casual friends with a lot of people instead of really choosing my tribe.

I'm also scared of my body.  It's hard to push yourself when you're afraid of dying.  It's time to let go of that!  

I need to find my groove- this year!

(I'm going cross-country skiing for the second time this week with a group of friends.  That's a start!)

STICK WITH IT SCRIPTURE STUDY--

I feel so flighty lately with my scripture study.  I read inspirational talks one day, plan my Sunday School lesson the next, read actual scriptures the next.  I'm tired of being flighty.  I started a Book of Mormon commentary and I'm going to read it EVERY morning, first.  If I read something else that day, it's bonus.  I need some consistency.  I'm also going to kneel and pray every morning and night.  No excuses, no laziness, no pray on the go.

GET SMART MASTERS--

I'm studying right now for the GRE and applying to Grad School for School Psychology.  I have no idea if I'll get accepted, I only know I really want to try.  It feels SO good to study for the GRE.  It feels like my brain is waking up after a 20 year snooze.  When I tried to do a sample test a few weeks ago, I couldn't even do ONE problem on the quantitative side.  Not one!  My teenage kids are helping me study and it's been painful and fun!  We have laughed more together over math questions this month than any other thing.  And, lest I deceive you, the qualitative vocabulary questions are equally ridiculous.  Honestly.  They use words nobody has ever heard of (like HEGEMONY).  

As a side note: studying for the GRE has not been good for my marriage.  Because nobody knows what HEGEMONY means except the Professor.  He knows everything and it's really annoying.  He also is a more impatient teacher than one would expect from a professor.  His quick explanations are harder for me to understand than the questions themselves.  So, YouTube, Anna, Jakob, and Drew are my preferred tutors.  

EXTREME MONEY MAKEOVER--

Todd traded me chores for finances.  Ha! He actually begged me to takeover finances promising he'd plan and cook all the meals, clean the bathrooms, and do the laundry if I would do the money.  I decided if he would plan and execute family chores I would call it a fair trade.

And, I LIKE doing the money.  I've always been frugal and I love seeing how much we can save.  I'm a severe realist compared to Todd's optimism and I have no problem saying "We can't afford that."  

We honestly should have made this trade years ago, but I had a really hard time with the idea of doing the finances when I am married to a business professor.  

This year, I want to really, really live within our means with padding!  I want savings I top of a padded budget.  Which means if our car breaks, I don't want to use savings to pay for it.  I want a CAR BUDGET in addition to savings.  I want our savings to just go up, not up and down.  And, because I'm allocating our money more specifically, we won't look in our checking account in January and think we have extra and look again in December and not have enough.  I'm trying to plan better.  That's my goal.  

We also paid off our van and our credit card.  I hope we never have another credit card balance or car payment.  Ever. 

HAVE FUN WITH MY KIDS!!--

There are so many things that I want to do with my kids that I never do because I'm always doing things that I need to do with them.  I'm so sick of that!  I don't want my interaction with my family to constantly be about putting away their laundry and picking up their backpack!  

I want more mom-dates this year.  My kids are really fun and so am I-- we need more positive, bonding, joyful time together!  I don't want to watch them play sports, I want to play with them.  I don't want to just hear about some fun thing they did while I'm washing dishes, I want to live life with them.  I'm tired of running to the store for them when they're at school, I'm going to wait and take them with me more.

We brought Anna on our date night last night and it was really fun.  We need to do that often!

2017-- I'm ready for you!

Let's do this.