A new year

Happy New Year from still-snowy Colorado!  We've been told that having snow for Christmas here isn't that common, and we've also been told that when it does snow here in Colorado Springs, that it melts very quickly.  Well, we got snow on Christmas Eve and it's still hanging around, thanks to temperatures that have been below normal.  By the end of the week, though, we're supposed to be back up in the 40s, which will feel good to me.  I'm not used to starting the 20 and 30 degree days in December any more.

Anyway, I've been pondering what 2013 will bring for us.  After the whirlwind that was 2012, I hope and pray our year is at least slightly less eventful, and full of happy days spent with our three (THREE!?!? THREE!!!!) kids, watching them grow before our eyes.  We will have almost certainly a chunk of the year without Daniel, as he will either be going to WOC school or he will be deployed for a while.  He's not on the deployment list right now (the band is slated to go later this year, but as his duty station at that time is uncertain, they've left him off for now), but if he doesn't go to WOC school, the First Sergeant will be adding him, so he gets that experience.  I'm not worried about that at this point, though, since when and how long is still up in the air.  I've learned through my five and a half years as an Army wife that it's sometimes impossible not to think through all the possibilities, but worrying about any one of them is just plain silly.

It seems that at the beginning of the year, so many people are making resolutions and deciding to make some (sometimes temporary!) changes for themselves.  I have been planning out my "new year resolutions" for, oh, about six months.  I've been waiting for Caroline's birth and the end of my pregnancy, as well as the "all-clear" from my doctor (which should come at my appointment in two more weeks) to get back to all the things I'd been doing before.  It just so happens that this coincides with January this time, so I'm ready to make some changes, but more because I'm finally able to (or will be able to very soon) and not so much because it's January. 

All that to say, I've been thinking about the following things and can't wait to get back to them. 

Blogging:  My poor blog has been quite neglected this year.  In 2011, I wrote over 90 posts.  In 2012, I didn't even write half that many.  Granted, the addition of two children this year may have had something to do with that, but it's also in large part due to the fact that I just haven't done as much this year, at least as far as daily activities go.  We've been so consumed with babies and a new place and pregnancy and babies that all of my "me" things have just been sidelined, as have family adventures.  And, frankly, I just haven't had as much to write about or process through.  But I've been missing the time to get my thoughts down.  And, I figure that if I don't write down much of what happens this year, by the time the kids are a few years older, I won't remember very much - if anything - about the year we're embarking on.  *grin*

Body:  I have about 15 or 20 pounds of baby weight to lose to get back to my pre-pregnancy/post-weight loss weight.  I know it will take a while to get my body back to where it was after I'd lost the 30ish pounds I had previously shed, and I don't want to put too much pressure on myself too quickly, but I know how to do it, and I"m going to.  Period.

I also am so anxious to get back to running.  I didn't run here at all during the pregnancy, so I've got a lot of re-training and re-learning to do, but I'm so eager to get back to it.  I don't have a goal for myself at this point of a certain number of miles for the year or a race to tackle, but in general my goals are to return to and then better my previous level of cardiovascular endurance, as well as focusing on core body strength.  I'm hoping to be able to find a routine for myself involving running and other cardio, as well as the strength training of yoga/pilates, but I've got a few more weeks to figure out how to manage that before I can jump in full force.

Soul:  Since moving here, I had intended to join a Bible study group, and with the pregnancy and expecting an infant, I never felt comfortable joining one over the fall.  Since I haven't heard a full sermon since Caroline's been born, I'm finding it even more important that I can find a Bible study group to join, as well as prioritizing my own personal devotions.  It may sound silly to some to say it this way, but I miss Jesus.  He and I have been through so much together, and I miss having the strong connection to Him I've had over the past three years while we went through the adoption process.  I need Him no less now than I did then.  We clung to hope while waiting for Levi, knowing that God was in control and Jesus was walking every agonizing step with us.  Now, I need wisdom and patience and love in quantities I can't muster up by myself.  I need more of Jesus, and my husband and my kids need me to have more of Him, too.

Mind: Finally, I'm hoping to grow in knowledge this year.  As I went through Caroline's pregnancy, I found myself contemplating the future quite often.  I began to think of what my days should look like once our kids get a little bit older.  Would I want to go back to work full-time once our kids are in school?  Would I stay home full-time, even if they weren't with me?  Up until we moved here, I'd been doing medical transcription from home, but Caroline's pregnancy coincided quite conveniently (?) with a significant change in the need for people in that field, thanks to voice recognition software and digital patient records.  I have come to the conclusion that I do want to work and contribute to our family in that way, as well, but that I want a job that will be part time and as flexible, or almost as flexible, as my previous job was.  I want to be able to participate in activities my kids participate in.  I want to be able to go on field trips.  I want to be able to be at home in the afternoons when my kids get home from school.  And I want to find a job that involves interaction with people.  Sitting at a desk alone is not my idea of an ideal job, so finding something similar to what I'd been doing (despite the fact that I'm so grateful I was able to do that work when Lucas was an infant and toddler) isn't what I'd want.

I started asking questions and doing research.  My sister, who works as a freelance editor, gave me the good advice to decide what I like doing and see if there would be a way I could make money doing it.  After months of pondering the last several years and trying to decide what things had been the most rewarding for me, I started to think seriously about getting certified to be a personal trainer.  Teaching and training myself to be healthy has been, aside from reading the Bible in 90 days twice and bringing home three babies, the single most rewarding and exciting thing I've done in the last 10 years that Daniel and I have been married.  In fact, one of the races I ran in 2011 was with a friend who hadn't run in a long time and wanted to get back into it. I was capable of running faster, but running at her pace and being able to encourage her through the entire race was something I"ll never forget.  I LOVED being able to do that.  I loved being in the gym and pushing a friend to keep going or to work harder (and, of course, I loved having that accountability and encouragement for myself, too).  So, in the next few weeks, I'll be ordering some study materials and getting CPR certified.  I'll start the process of getting certification through the American College of Sports Medicine to get their Personal Trainer certification.  I hope that by Caroline's first birthday I'll be ready to start some very part time hours working at a YMCA or a gym on post to start helping others make the same sorts of transformations I made before - and intend to make again in the next several months.

Clearly, I have a lot of hopes and dreams for this year, but, Lord willing, it will be a year full of happy, healthy, productive days.  I'm looking forward to seeing how it unfolds.