It's been one week (since you looked at me)

Because a little Barenaked Ladies never hurt!

It's been one week since I posted about my problem with Stuff and Things. I wanted to accomplish the following:

• I'm going to leave my office desk tidy every night. 
• I'm going to pick out clothes for me and C, and pack lunches and diaper bags the night before.
• I'm going to continue to strive to have a clean sink before bed.
• I'm going to cook one weekday meal on the weekend.

I have succeeded! Wahoo! I'm creating a new night-time routine that has worked for the last seven nights, and I'm so pleased about it. I'm a little bit surprised by how free I feel, given that I am working with 'more' restrictions. It means that I don't go to bed quite as early, and I may even be a few minutes late leaving the office, but it's less to worry about in the morning. That is always a good thing.

In the next seven days, in addition to continuing to make a habit out of the earlier goals, I'm going to:

• Put clean clothes away with 24 36 hours of washing (must. be. realistic.). 
• Make a donate box and put something in it every day.
• Gather up things that belong to our friends and return them.
• Put the pot lid organizer we bought 2 months ago to use.

This is going so well that I feel inspired to make this Year of Less thing a weekly feature. So, join me as I try to simplify a little!

PS. This whole thing started because two weeks ago, I cleared the books out of the stereo stand that we use for an entertainment unit. Someone was beginning to pull them out and eat them... So, I boxed up the ones I want to keep:

And in their place is a diaper box that makes a mighty fine toy box (and toy, itself!).

Whelmed.

I'll say it straight - life with Charlotte is awesome, but the rest of life is, well, a little (over)whelming at times. I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm actually overwhelmed, though, more like I feel cluttered in my soul. I feel distracted, frazzled, a little lost.

I think a large part of this cluttered feeling is caused by the clutter that surrounds me at home (and, frankly, at the office. Ok, and in the car, too.). Because, let's face it, I have a stuff problem. Some people have drinking problems, I have stuff problems. I have too much of it. I can't let go of it. I have struggled with my stuff for years and years. I really need to come to grips with it.

I started reading this blog, The Year of Less, and I started looking at organizing stuff on Pinterest, and just the thought of having fewer amounts of more organized stuff makes my soul feel a little lighter. But it's not enough. I need to break down and DO something about it, instead of just thinking about the stuff. Post-maternity leave, I set a goal of going to bed with a clean sink - that helps me feel better, especially when I actually accomplish that goal.

And so, I bring to you: Joie's Year of Less. A loose plan of attack to make my soul feel lighter, my house look cleaner, and myself happier. I'm trying to use SMART goals, so hopefully this won't become yet another CLEAN ALL THE THINGS dream.

To start, I'm just going to make a few small changes:

• I'm going to leave my office desk tidy every night. 
• I'm going to pick out clothes for me and C, and pack lunches and diaper bags the night before.
• I'm going to continue to strive to have a clean sink before bed.
• I'm going to cook one weekday meal on the weekend.

Four goals for the remainder of September, two of which I already do half-heartedly.

I can do this.

June VA-VOOM

A_Leo said it best:

Yesterday as I was going through my Google Reader, I came across this post from Keight at Put Up Your Dukes.

Immediately I shared it with Joie. We didn't even discuss, but I knew she'd sign up, so right away I emailed Keight. Last night I got an email from Keight outlining the point system, what the winners win and the rules, and I was super excited.

This is just what I need! Hopefully it keeps me motivated this month, but I must admit, I have a feeling it's going to be a wee bit depressing when I see how much other people are doing and how little I am. Think positively! It's go time!

She was right, of course, I did sign up. And I contributed my $10, along with at least 40 other people. While I don't stand a chance of winning it all (hello, already the leader has a disgusting 72 points, while I have a mere 17), I figure MAYBE I might be able to place 8th, and at least get something?

Ultimately, though, this is crazy good motivation. I have a slightly competitive nature, and yesterday I actually went for a walk with the express goal of getting further ahead of A_Leo. Sorry kid.

Warning: no Charlotte

But, a major personal milestone: I ran my first post-baby 5k. And I did loads better than I ever hoped I would!

Honestly though, I'm pleased as punch. It was a small race, probably about 160 people, and it was f-l-a-t. I ran with a very friendly couple for most of it. M ran it also, and did well, too; he only beat me by 90ish seconds.

At the end of the race, I 'poured on the sauce' and tried to beat a 10 year old to the finish line. I did not beat him. Or his father. Let's just pretend I did that so he would feel a great sense of accomplishment, 'k?

Hiking, Baby! (Hiking Baby!)

God I love punctuation. Both of those are true: Hiking Baby went Hiking, Baby!

I'm trying to walk more. Sometimes, I succeed. Other times, I succumb to the siren song of sweet snuggles (apparently I also love alliteration). This week, I decided I'd try to get up to the woods every day. No way was I taking a stroller down those paths, though. So, Charlotte enjoyed the woods from on high:

 I am sporting a stylish Army green fleece of M's.  I never thought I'd say this, but boy am I glad he has 15,000 jackets, because they zip over me and the baby and there's always 14,999 going unworn at any given time, giving me pick of the litter.

Charlotte fell asleep with the first 20 minutes of our first three walks of the week. That enabled me to take ridiculous pictures of neat plants:

Soon to head out on our fourth walk. There's one trail left to do...

2012 garden planning

Since I am now fairly certain I will simply remain pregnant for the duration of 2012, I figured I better get cracking on planning my garden. Maybe making plans to over-extend myself will encourage this baby to make a more timely appearance!

Did you hear about the USDA's hardiness map changes? The Albany paper spoke with the ED of Landis Arboretum, which isn't far from our house, about it - I'm not terribly surprised to hear that the Arboretum will be selling two Zone SIX plants at the spring plant sale (we've always been firmly in Zone 5). In the article, Fred notes that successfully growing a Zone 6 plant will be dependent upon your local conditions. I know that our local conditions make it so that even a Zone 5 can be pushing it, but that's largely because we don't have many sheltered flower beds. Every winter a fierce wind comes whipping down the hill, and it's brutal on tender plants.

Anyways, this got me wondering - if things are warming up, should I consider moving ahead the planting of my garden? All the old-timers say to plant the garden Memorial Day weekend, but really, that's always seemed late to me, like I'm missing out on some quality growing time. Still, for the past few years I have based my seed start dates on the traditional planting weekend.

So I did a little research (aren't you surprised!). The Farmer's Almanac publishes a chart of what they consider to be the best planting dates for seeds, and another for transplants. Here's the transplant chart for my ZIP code:

Ignoring the moon favorable dates for now, we see that nearly everything starts with a planting date of May 15. That is nearly two weeks earlier than the traditional planting date.

But that wasn't enough for this intrepid planner, certainly not! I dug further and discovered the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Freeze/Frost Occurrence Data. This is way better. It tells me when there is a 90% chance, a 50% chance, and a 10% of 36-, 32-, and 28-degree temps. Why am I only just discovering this amazing chart?

Keeping the dates from NOAA in mind, the Almanac's suggested transplanting dates seem totally reasonable. This is awesome. Combined with a season-extending hoop house/row cover thingamabob I received as a Christmas present, I'm definitely going to get a head start on summer. The only bad thing is, I have less time to figure out seeds and seed starting. Guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend!

Adaptations

Have I mentioned that I like running? I hate thinking about running, and I don't like running when it's hard (like, on a hill, or if it's humid), but overall I can genuinely say that I enjoy running.

For the past two years, by this point in the summer I was running 6-8 miles at a time, without too much concern. You know, other than not aggravating the femoral head bursitis I developed. But now that I have this to contend with:

I'm not running nearly as much, or a quickly, as I used to.

That is not to say that I was a fast runner in years past. No, friends, so far my PR in a long race relied upon 10:27 minute miles. I'm pretty slow. But as my track coach in high school said, I've got heart. I can plod on with the best of them. And really, I don't even get that whiny!

This month, though, my longest run has been 4.6 miles. I ran it in around 53 minutes. It kind of bothered me. I mean, what is the point of even running, if I'm going to be so slow (for me!)? But thanks to a pep talk from A.Leo, suddenly, I'm ok with it. Whereas in years past, my motivation was to continue getting PRs in races, this year, I'm content just to complete them. And since I'm running with a little friend now, my motivation is just doing the right thing. If that means slowing down, and even walking, that's cool, too.

I'm really excited to run complete the Army Ten Miler at 23 weeks pregnant. And with a little encouragement from/for A.Leo, I'm hoping to do the Stockadeathon 15k at 28 weeks.  If only that cute girl in the red t-shirt was joining me for the ATM - we could have a re-do of this photo. I'll for sure look a little different!

A.Leo, me, and my dad post-ATM last year. Thanks, A.Leo