Happy (early) Canada Day, fellow Northern Nellies! I hope your weekend is full of BBQs, beers, bonfires, and … other B-items? Baseball games? Oh right, and beaches!

In the spirit of taking better care of myself, here are some goals I have set for July …

1. Continue kicking ass and taking names with Weight Watchers Online. I’m still in shock by how quickly it became a habit to eat salads and other assorted healthio-goodness. I’ve still been horrible about taking my iron supplement, but I feel a lot less faint, so the healthy diet is definitely helping.

2. Tackle one organizing or decor project a day. Even if it’s a small one, like organizing a single drawer. It might sound counterproductive to be adding stuff to my daily to-do list, but doing things like this is like Prozac to me. You get the instant high of completing a task, plus the longer-lasting pleased feeling of getting to enjoy the results of it.

3. Do one thing every day that is just for me. I can’t put a set time length on this, like 30 minutes or an hour, because that would be impossible to commit to on the really busy days. But I will take time to do one thing for myself every day, whether it’s painting my nails, reading before bed, running to the store alone, or even just spending a little time browsing on Pinterest.

4. Do one new activity with D every day. Some days this might just be learning a new song or playing a new game (we just discovered Eye Spy), but I’ve also been doing a lot of Pinterest-found projects with him lately — like the baking soda one — and we both really seem to like the “new” element. The other day it was just playing with dry oatmeal, funnels, and measuring cups, but I couldn’t believe how much he liked it.
5. Savour C and her babyhood. I had always figured D would be the one that had to adjust to sharing attention, but really it seems like C is the one who often gets put on the back burner while I deal with D (and his loud, persistent wants/needs/moods). C is now at the age when she’s becoming more interactive, and I want to be focused on enjoying this really cute time — before she can crawl or run away from me!

6. I want to find more ways to be a better wife, because I feel happier when things are really good between me and Darling Husband. I’d like to say my goal is to have more date nights, but our current situation means that DH is working almost every single night (literally). So I will instead focus on doing nice things for him (like packing a really good lunch with a note, surprise, etc.), being softer and less nag-y when I DO get to see him, and carving out whatever minutes of peace we can get together to talk and relax.

7. I want to cut myself more slack when it comes to housework pressure. I’ll still be OC and anal about some things — like clutter on the counters! — but I want to ease up on others. I shouldn’t be beating myself up if the clean laundry or clean diapers aren’t put away until the next day. I shouldn’t feel unsettled if the kids’ rooms aren’t perfectly tidy, or if there’s a pile of stuff gathering on the hutch. I don’t have that many visitors, and the ones who do come over (friends) certainly aren’t judgemental. I need to do enough to keep MYSELF feeling content with the state of the house, and stop forcing myself to do EVERYTHING like I’m expecting a surprise inspection or something.