Category: Family

Wow! It has been a while!

On By jackiblosblackisIn PersonalLeave a comment

I have not been on here in a hot minute! I LOVE blogging and just some how it fell to the complete back. I miss it and I 110% plan on getting back here regularly. Now, about the time I fell off here, I entered the world of Instagram. I suppose it still gave me taste of what I was missing out on. However, I can get much more in depth here. That is what I am completely lacking. I am coming back with the same post I write up at the beginning of every year.

Looking Back on 2019 and Looking Forward to 2020

Since I dropped the ball with my site. I did not keep track on how I was doing with my goals in 2019. Let’s see how I did without making myself accountable at all.

  • Renovate two room in the house (if I can I would like to include both bathrooms as well).

HA! I actually fairly quickly dropped this off. I will do some kind of catch up post I am sure. I got my Little Monster’s room done in total. Little pieces here and there have been done but not what I was planning on doing.

  • Get the outside cleaned up and the driveway redone. The yard had been started and it just needs an actual attempt.

I got some real progress here but its not quite finished. I also did not get the driveway done. Some financial things came up and I just did not have the money to get it done.

  • Missy in swimming lessons (locally).

Finally! I did this goal. My Little Monster very much enjoyed going and she passed!

  • Start taking the weekly local yoga class in the fall.

I forgot about this but no. I am still happy doing it at home when I have a chance. I might get to the class but I am not pushing for it to be honest.

  • Have Missy enrolled in some programs.

We have done a few things (aside from swimming). She had an awesome friend and unfortunately they are moving a way.

  • Visit NiaNia and YeaYea.

We were not able to do this. I am aiming again for this year. No matter what it has to be done by before she gets into school. Which in reality is only a couple years,

  • Continue working on myself and striving for an organized (realistically) life.

ALWAYS. This will always be there. This is not something that is ever done for a person. At some point and at some time, a person grows in some fashion. We evolve.

  • As always try and keep the blog updated ha-ha.

We all know how that worked out…

  • I have always had something about debt on here. Now that it is paid off, I still would like to have a money goal(s). The big ones I want to do are making the maximum extra mortgage payment and to match what I have in savings. This is very ambitious of me and as long as I get part of each I will be happy. That mortgage payment though I need to make by June so it is not like I have a full year to save up for it.

No, rather I went backwards on this. Things happened and well. I will get things figured out. I just need to get a break really. Even if that does not happen I will make it work. I always have and no reason to quit now.

For those who may not know. I do not make resalutions but rather goals. Maybe they are the same thing in the end. I do not feel heartbroken when I slip up. I feel sad about some of the things above but not defeated over it. With that being said. Lets come up with some goals for 2020!

  • Immediately I want to put my Little Monster back into swimming lessons come summer.
  • I am looking to get the remainder of the outside finished. The parts that do not have to be contracted out. Plans just need the action now.
  • Really trying to make it to China by the end of this year.
  • I want to be more organized time management wise. I am not ashamed that this is an area where I need much more practice at.
  • I want to get back to this blog regularly. I do not want to lose my foothold with Instagram either. I am there and just need to at least keep up with where I am while bringing this back into the picture.
  • I need to get this whole financial situation thing sorted. I mean I just want it sorted once and for all. I hate having the back and forth. I want a happy medium!

Really I think that is it for now. It’s all pretty achievable and I may decide to add more as the year goes on. Life can be unpredictable and sometimes we just need to roll with the punches. Bring on 2020!

Upgrading My Life

On By jackiblosblackisIn PersonalLeave a comment

I am trying to push myself to use my devices more. I know that sounds weird right!? I want to use them more productively. My ‘Got Done’ list I have moved to OneNote. I have moved or created a variety of things there. I am also taking advantage of the dictating option that is available with the phones keyboard. I have no idea why I did not use this sooner. Actually, I probably got annoyed by the typos. It seems they are not that bad and I am dictating for myself so I have not even gone back to fix them.

I’ve been organizing my make-up and I wanted to make notes of when things were purchased (unless I knew when they were opened and/or swatched) as well as the expiry date. This felt like a breeze and I did everything that went into my vanity. I still need to do the products in the bathroom. The real test will be continuing to use the list. The goal of this is not to use products that have gone bad. It is also to keep myself accountable of what I have in use. This will also be a future post coming soon.

I have purchased an activity tracker (Fitbit Flex 2). Once again it should help me stay accountable. Weight loss would be nice but I think I have a bit of a distorted view on how active I am or my sleeping patterns. Distorted in the sense that some days I over estimate and some days I under estimate. It will just be nice be able to see a pattern if there is one I can fix, to have a better estimate to go off of rather than my brain, and to not to have to try to remember to try and track it all. Now, this is still an estimate though. I was not expecting for something to be super accurate. The ultimate goal for this though is not weight loss but part of loving me. The activity and the sleep both affect my mental and physical being.

Maybe it is not huge for a lot of people out there, we do live in an age of technology. I am from that generation that went from nothing (a little bit of exaggeration there) to everything in a very short amount of time. I semi feel resistance to it but only to an extent. It just does not make sense on why I am not using it all the my advantage in my personal life. I use it for entertainment, for hobby, and for work. I am hoping and think that using the full extent that I am comfortable with, I am either going to finish (get in the habit) something or I can just scrap the idea all together.

 

Self Care

On By jackiblosblackisIn PersonalLeave a comment

I recently went to the doctor’s due to a chronic problem I’ve been having. I am talking about at least four years now. My shoulder, neck, and head just give up on me pretty much ha-ha. The first time I truly seen someone about this was me going to the emergency. I was in SO much pain that I could not move my head and cried so long/hard that I could not keep crying. I went in because it scared me that somehow I seriously injured myself. I was told it was a muscle spasm and given the same anti inflammatory I already took in a stronger dose.

We forward two years. I got headaches and shoulder pain. I jump between reasons why it’s happening. I may have seen my primary care once and was told to try and find a way to relax as a first step. But at that two/two and a half year mark, I went to emergency again. Not so much because I wanted too but because Mister insisted on it. Things had gotten so bad. I guess my symptoms resembled a migraine and that is what I was treated for. Now I can say the treatment worked as they gave me painkillers and Gravol (which knocks me out). I was left with my shoulder and (apperantly) migraines being seperate issues. I got some medication but never really felt like it helped. I also became pregnant only a few months later.

Honestly I cannot remember if it continued during the pregnancy. So much was happening and I had so many other aches. It absolutely has been happening since Missy’s birth though. I finally decided that I cannot just hope for the best and I need to see my primary care. The results were not bad but nothing is really going to change.

It is a muscle spasm(s) and what I need is self care (or self love really). It is where I apperantly carry my stress. It is great that I do not need medication but I was kind of hoping for a quicker fix or a bridge to help. My headaches (not migraines) are caused my my shoulder and neck. If I get that under control my headaches will be under control.

The problem I currently face is things are going to be so much more stressful before the become less stressful. That seems to be the way life goes generally. I just do not always feel like I have enough energy to push through it. Change is hard but it is possible. Being able to recognize the signs my subconscious sends me would be fantastic too ha-ha. Self care seems to be what I am always prescribed 🙂

This Week to Come

On By jackiblosblackisIn Baby, Cleaning, House, OrganizationLeave a comment

Now I was planning on doing this last week and that fell apart quickly. I want to do a week following my cleaning schedule… my attempt to keep the house together anyways. I have used this style in the past when I lived in the duplex and I liked it a lot. I just need to get back in the habit of it is all. My weeks start on Sunday. So, Monday I will post what was done on Sunday and what was not done of course. I will also include my ‘Got Done’ list. Something I really like but has not become a habit yet. I want to give it one more real shot.

Now I do not list something to clean every day because it is nice to just have a break or to deal with something that would take a way from what is listed. I also want to include my ‘Got Done’ list because I may not get a room completely done but I may have done a lot of other things that day. For example, last Sunday I did start doing what was ‘scheduled’. I than realized how earlier it was still in the evening/night so I decided that I should put the paint colour on Missy’s walls. That took about six hours. The next two days I was down for the count. My shoulders were completely killing me. I was too far behind to continue with the plan.

Now while I brought up Missy’s room. I do have it half way done. After I finish the last bit of painting I will make a post about the progress. The second post after that will be the putting together of her room. That one may end up in two parts as I will be ordering (well NiaNia will be) some bookshelf things once I know the space and area I have to work with.

Lets all have a week where we seem to have our ducks in a row!

Looking Back on 2018 and Looking Forward to 2019

On By jackiblosblackisIn PersonalLeave a comment

Happy New Year!

I do a goal/objective list every year and I also look at how the previous year went. This will be my 3rd or 4th year doing it. No reason to switch things up now. If your would like to check out 2017/2018 you can view it here. I also do quarterly updates through out the year ( I did miss the 3rd quarter in 2018 though) to keep myself accountable. Also to view where I wanted my focus to be and of course to keep you all updated on if things needed to be changed.

Lets take a look at 2018:

  • First and foremost I want to get Missy into swimming lessons. I am not a strong swimmer and this is something she should know how to do. It is a safety thing.

I did not put Missy into swimming lessons. She was not old enough to be registered for our local summer ones. The ‘city’ (does not really seem like a city in my opinion) the lessons fill up insanely fast. I will be moving this to 2019 and if I remember correctly she will be old enough. As long as we have an instructor that can teach that young.

  • I want to get our front and backyard all pretty and cleaned up.

This did not happen. I did get somethings done but I was way to ambitious. I also new that when adding it onto the list. We will see how things go this coming year. While it did not make things pretty. I removed three trees from my driveway, one was not healthy and the other two were right next to my neighbours house. I just kept picturing them falling over and well the bedrooms are on that side too.

  • Setting up the garden and green house.

I did do this for the most part. I did not get the garden bed soil switched out but I will be doing that sometime this year. I will not be planting anything in it either but leaving that for next year. The green house had plants but it needs some repairs and well my plants did not do all that well.

  • Keeping Missy’s Christmas/Easter Cactus alive. It is her first plant and her Grandma bought it for her.

I think it is still alive ha-ha. I am going to re-pot it (again). I need to check out the roots. It is just not thriving and I feel like something is going on below the surface.

  • As always trying to keep up with the blog.

I think I did great at the beginning of the year. After that things seemed to taper off though.

  • Have my debt paid off (even with taking mat leave I am sure I can do this).

I did have this done at the near the beginning of the year. I mean there are still things like the mortgage and car loan. Which I acquired in 2017, so it was not part of the debt payment plan. There is now a little owing on one of the credit cards but that also is recent. I am hoping to make an extra payment on the mortgage this year though.

  • Seriously getting my life organized. I mean it is now more important than ever to get things to become habit. And good habits that Missy can grow up seeing.

Middle of the year I was doing pretty good with this. Missy’s screwed up her sleeping schedule which in turn screwed everything else up. I may have at least found some things that worked though.

  • I want to get at least two rooms renovated. Probably the office and Missy’s room. There is nothing big that needs to be done. Pretty much just painting and adding working pieces to the rooms. I am only saying two since I want to focus on outside.

Ha-ha right. Maybe by the time this is posted I will have Missy’s room nearly finished. I knew the office was not going to happen in 2018 but was trying to get my room down instead.

  • I also need to make sure I focus on me some this year too. My health really depends on this.

I did that here and there. Somethings I started doing to ‘treat’ myself but also makes my life easier. I do feel like I should make a post about this all on it own.

If I look at 2018 and what was actually accomplished, it does not look like much. The year is gone and there is nothing I can do about it. I am also not going to beat myself p over it either. All I can do is strive to be better in 2019. With that being said lets take a list at those goals.

  • Renovate two room in the house (if I can I would like to include both bathrooms as well).
  • Get the outside cleaned up and the driveway redone. The yard had been started and it just needs an actual attempt.
  • Missy in swimming lessons (locally).
  • Start taking the weekly local yoga class in the fall.
  • Have Missy enrolled in some programs.
  • Visit NiaNia and YeaYea.
  • Continue working on myself and striving for an organized (realistically) life.
  • As always try and keep the blog updated ha-ha.
  • I have always had something about debt on here. Now that it is paid off, I still would like to have a money goal(s). The big ones I want to do are making the maximum extra mortgage payment  and to match what I have in savings. This is very ambitious of me and as long as I get part of each I will be happy. That mortgage payment though I need to make by June so it is not like I have a full year to save up for it.

All of what I have listed is quite achievable but it does not include work things or the unexpected. As long as I can work towards these things, that is all that really matters.

Do you have any goals or objectives for this new year?

Don’t forget to like us at Chocolate Milk Cows on Facebook!