setting things straight for new year

Since I have been a work-at-home mom (WAHM) early this year, everything in my life has been topsy turvy - trying to manage my still full-time work as a medical transcriptionist and running a household and taking care of a toddler. I must admit that sometimes it is harder to be a work-at-home mom than just a full-time stay at home because even if I am working at home, I still have turnaround times to meet, a quality of work to maintain and a quota to reach since we are on a production basis. And there are times that the workaholic in me still thrives to be up and working even in the wee hours of the morning.

Before I became a WAHM, I had laid out all the domestic goddess stuff that I would be able to do - cook healthy foods for my family, learn to bake, finish my scrapbook projects, re-decorate our house, etc. and now eight months into being a WAHM, I have never learned to bake, all my scrapbook projects are undone and I only had one time to re-decorate our house....where was all the free time I thought I have?

Now that 2009 is approaching fast, I have realized that I cannot always function the way I am right now - it is much too stressful sometimes. I think it is time to organize my so-called life and set my priorities, my goals and aspirations for the coming year. When I was in school, I used to make a list of everything I would do - homework, projects and goals and it worked really well for me because I always manage to do the tasks that I should do. I think more than ever, now is the time to make a list again of all the things I want to accomplish for the coming year.

-Take care of myself: Follow a healthy diet and exercise and get back to my pre-wedding weight. I want to be healthy to be able to do the things I love to do and be able take care of my family more.
-Do a makeover of my look especially my wardrobe when I see the effect of the above.
-Organize my financial records - budget, savings, accountancy of the money I spend and the money I earn.
-Save more. Since we are in the process of our application to Canada, we really need to save more than what we are doing now.
-Declutter our house. Things just keeps on piling up - from toys, baby gear, baby clothes, old appliances, old clothes and many more. Maybe we can do a garage sale or an ukay-ukay of the things we have. I am starting to dispose of Joaqui's pre-loved stuff by selling them online.
-Go for our doctor's regular checkups. I think that regular checkups are a valuable tool in maintaining good health. Hubby and I should do this at least twice a year.
-Keep a travel fund and go out of the country. I plan on saving for a travel fund so that when there are promos for low airline fares, we can have that opportunity to travel out of the country as a family.
-Print photos and organize them into albums. We have photos saved since Joaqui was born and only a quarter of them are printed. Sigh.
-Go out with my girlfriends more often. Because almost all us now have a family of our own, we seldom go out and have fun as we used to.

This is a list that I think is realistic enough for me to accomplish. I still have a million of things I want to do in my life but that can wait - I'm taking things slowly but surely now, just one step at a time.

This blog post is my official entry to the Moleskine Philippines Giveaway. I have never won in a raffle but hopefully I will get lucky this time. I fell in love with the Moleskine Notebook the first time I saw it and how I would love to write and write in those wonderful pages.

The Moleskine Notebook is courtesy of Avalon.PH
http://www.viloria.com/go/go.php/avalonph

For the Viloria.net contest rules, please see
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