Yes I am a little bit late to the party but hey, we have a whole year to do these things, why rush into them? Also, the baby kind of gets in the way and time disappears in a whirlwind of nappies and toothless grins.
I don’t have anything groundbreaking I want to achieve this year, last year was quite a biggie with having a baby, renovating the house and turning 30 so I’m making my goals a little more straightforward.
Help Eva become a little person
This is what I’m devoting most of my time to this year for obvious reasons! I want her to be the happiest, healthiest little sausage she can be. We’re starting swimming lessons this week and I’ve started a new parent and baby group so she has babies her age that she’ll see every week and grow up with.
She is getting more personality by the day and it is amazing too see, I spend most of my time telling her she’s delicious or sending Joe photos of her while he’s at work. Next mountain to climb (after we’ve tackled the four month sleep regression…) is weaning, eek!
Cook more interesting recipes
We got into the habit of having boring meals towards the end of the year. Before Eva was born and I was on maternity leave I used to cook something different every day but since she’s been here, she’s kind of distracted us. We have a pretty good routine down so Eva is in bed by 8.30 every night, I bath her, feed her and get her in bed while Joe gets in from work and makes dinner ready for when I come down. We’ve been working our way through Jamie Oliver’s 15 Minute Meals and 5 Ingredients books which have been great so far. Joe’s really enjoying learning how to cook new things and I’m loving having something different and full of veg every night. I’ll mention them on my Instagram stories if you fancy having a nosy at what we’re eating!
Sort my teeth out
I am finally taking the plunge and getting braces! I hate my teeth, well, I hate a few of my teeth to be fair on the rest of them. I had a brace when I was 16 and was so, so happy to have straight teeth for the first time in my life but it only lasted a year when my wisdom teeth came in and wreaked havoc in my mouth, thanks guys! I thought it would be best to do it while I’m on maternity leave so I don’t have to worry about having a lisp in meetings or taking them out in front of people to eat, vain I know but whatevs. I’ve been saving up for a while so I can do it and found Your Smile Direct who I’m going to go with, it’s like Invisalign but they deliver everything to your door and you don’t need to go for check ups, ideal when I have Eva to cart around everywhere. Plus it’s a lot less expensive which is music to my statutory maternity leave pay ears. I’ll make sure to document it on here if you’re interested to hear more!
Sort the house out
Being in the house all day has really made me want to keep it clean, tidy and organised. I manage to keep it relatively clean and tidy during Eva’s nap times but there are areas of the house that are out of control like the clothes situation in our bedroom and the dining room aka the Pomme Pomme warehouse. So my aims for the first bit of the year is to go through all my clothes, donate what I don’t want anymore and discover things I’ve forgotten about which I’m sure there are loads of. My other aim is to sort out the Pomme Pomme storage situation, it’s currently taking over the dining room which is not ideal when we need to start feeding Eva actual food pretty soon! We have a cellar I can use for storage, I just need to box everything up now the Christmas rush is over. There’s lots of other little jobs like organising the kitchen cupboards and drawers, sorting bathroom storage and sorting Eva’s room but they can wait until later in the year.
Renovate our bedroom
Our bedroom hasn’t been touched since we moved in over two years ago, it’s still the odd shade of green it was when we bought the house and has damage on the ceiling from when the roof leaked before we bought it, it just hasn’t been a priority. But now we have Eva we want it to be a place we can all snuggle up in and watch films on a Sunday morning and somewhere a bit more grown up we can escape to when she’s sleeping. The plan is to get wardrobes built in to the alcoves each side of the chimney breast first, our main issue is a severe lack of storage meaning our clothes are everywhere. Joe isn’t one of those men who only has a tiny wardrobe, that man has more clothes and shoes than I do so the volume is a little bit ridiculous! We’re also planning to paint the walls, strip the floors, plaster the ceiling and move everything around a bit to create more functional spaces in there. It’s a big job but it needs to happen! We’re also pondering knocking through the living room and the dining room to create one big room so there may be a bit more to add onto the renovation list.
Get back to work
I’m planning to go back to work around July and although I love spending time with Eva, I am looking forward to going back to work. It’s likely I’ll go back to a different role as my old one doesn’t really exist anymore but that’s fine with me as I want to go back 3-4 days a week and my old role wasn’t one that could be done part time. I’m not going to focus on it just yet though, I’ll wait until closer to the time as things move so fast and change so much at The Hut Group where I work!
Travel
I want to take advantage of being on maternity leave and travel with Eva this year. We’re going to the Lake District for our first family holiday at the end of the this month and we cannot wait! We also really want to get Eva on a plane just to get her used to it as well so a short flight to somewhere in Europe for a holiday would be perfect. We have family in Kent and Wales so we’re planning to visit them over summer too so Eva can go to the beach and paddle!
Get back into my blog and Instagram
I’ve been pretty rubbish at updating my blog and social media since I’ve had Eva, she takes up more time than I could ever imagined before she arrived! But I’m embracing that and planning a series on parenthood so let me know if there are any topics you’d be interested in hearing about. I’m determined to update my Instagram more too so I’ll be looking for inspiration!
That’s it for what I’d really like to achieve this year, there will be so much more I’m sure but these are the areas that are most important to me. What are you aiming to achieve this year?
