Resolve is for Carpets

As you all begin making your way back into the office this week, make it a point to ask ten of your coworkers what their New Years resolution was. I guarantee at least nine of them will answer with some variation of diet or exercise. Not that there's anything wrong with wanting to better yourself, and what better time to start that journey than now, but this year I couldn't be one of those people making the same old commitment I always do.

Here I sit, 41+ weeks pregnant, and the last thing I'm allowed to do right now is hop back on the Weight Watchers bandwagon (which, for the record, has always worked well for me and I highly recommend it). Once Maddie is born, which should thankfully be sometime this week, I do intend to get back into the swing of things as best I can (especially since we don't know right now if I'll have to deliver via c-section or not yet), but zooming back to the gym definitely isn't the first thing on my mind right now.

What I've been engrossed in for about the last three weeks has been a severe case of nesting. My house is as spotless as its ever been, almost everything that can be organized has been placed in plastic bins, labeled with my spiffy new label maker, sorted into magazine files, purged from the home completely, donated, trashed, recycled, upcycled, you name it. If there were a poster child for people who actually follow through with the things they've pinned on Pinterest, it would be me. Point blank, with a baby more stubborn than her mom and dad combined, I've had a lot of time to obsessively Martha-dize my home while I wait not-so-patiently for her arrival.

But circling back to New Years resolutions, I couldn't think of much I was willing and/or able to commit to right this moment other than continuing with my new ways. They say if you do something for 21 days in a row it becomes a habit. That's all well and good, but I'm fairly certain my mind-over-matterness can out-lazy the pants off a well established habit any day. So instead of resolving to change my eating habits (which have to be adjusted to accommodate a breast-feeding baby anyway) or resolving to go to the gym four days a week, I'm just going to keep Resolving my carpets.

I'm sure with a brand new baby in the house (in addition to the cat, dog and husband I already look after every day), keeping up with my cleaning schedule (because of course there's an excel spreadsheet involved) is going to be a bit of a struggle. But having a clean and organized home, even if I only get to go through the motions a few days a week, will help cut down on my stress level severely. We enter our house through the kitchen, and when the kitchen is a mess it sends shock waves to my brain every time I walk through that door. I'll have enough to worry about once baby is here, so I'm pretty sure having my home as spic and span as possible will help keep my mind less on the dust bunny in the corner and more on the baby in the play yard.

I plan to use this blog as a medium for my first year as a new mom, my three months as a bonafied housewife before it's time to head back to work post-maternity leave, and the occasional mental breakdown I'm sure I'll have from having to drop my daughter off at daycare three days a week. And once baseball season starts back up I'll be mixing in some of my freelance columns as they're published as well, if nothing more than the simplicity of keeping everything I write in one spot. Again, organization and simplicity, my friends.

Heck, anything to keep my mind off of the fact that whether or not I'm willing to admit it, I'm a grown up now is welcome.

Holy crap, I'm going to be a mom.

I need to go vacuum something. Pin It Now!