How I did it: Last year our time was really off because we took my son and he kept needing to stop and feed and get changed. This year, he was happy to just chill out and look around. Though I must admit I am surprised that it took so long, I expected to be around the 1hr 45 minute mark. We didn't really train and were pretty lax about our preparation -- didn't really train at all. It was a lovely day and a lovely walk and I'm happy I met my … Read how I did it…
How I did it: I started by making a real effort to have fruit at breakfast -- not for breakfast but at breakfast time. That gave me one or two servings. Then I changed jobs. My new job has a cafeteria and instead of having a bowl of salad and a big plate of "hot food" I have a big plate of salad and a little bowl of "hot food."By being conscious of my veggie intake I found it really easy to fit my five servings in and regularly get … Read how I did it…
How I did it: As you can see at www.hollyiswhere.blogspot.com, I struggled at the beginning of the year to get started. This goal hung over my head. It was hard to figure out what to write about -- being a new mother, wanting to change jobs, looking for a new job, taking a leadership course. Then I realized that I didn't have to write big long thoughtful posts every day. In fact, I realized that I often really enjoy reading short little posts from… Read how I did it…
How I did it: I put my name on "official" daycare lists when I was five weeks pregnant. These daycares accept babies from three months. My son is now 11 months and I find that I am number 697 on one waiting list and 234 on another. SERIOUSLY!!I had applied all over and couldn't find anything. I watched Craigslist for some postings but many felt like their philosophy was very different from mine.We aren't terribly structured people but I want a place th… Read how I did it…
How I did it: My husband pointed out that this one goal is not like the others. "You can never know if you were a good mom, and it takes forever" he argued. Then, "Of course you are a good mom, look at how healthy and happy your son is." He's right. Being a mom isn't something that has a magic end date -- even when I die I won't know if I've truly been a great mom. So right now, I think I've been a great mom, the best my son could have asked … Read how I did it…
How I did it: I was off on maternity leave and I really wanted to come back to work refreshed and feeling like everything in my non-work life was in order. Instead a kitchen renovation and other things really threw my plans in the air. We're on our third Friday of the kitchen being done "any day now" and it's wearing on me. I want a place to find my teacup, I want to eat fresh summer food from my own kitchen.The weather was also horrible before I … Read how I did it…
How I did it: I invited a friend to join me on a local mountain. It was a lovely sunny clear day. You could see Vancouver but were up near the clouds. We are athletic-ish (but not terribly athletic) and went on a trail to the lodge and back. It took about three hours including a hot chocolate stop. It was super fun! Read how I did it…
How I did it: We took a trip to Beijing and booked a tour at our hotel. We talked to the clerk who seemed really knowledgeable. They offered two tours. One was to a very restored section of the wall but the other was a hike on a section that was a bit farther out of the way. So we got up early and took the dinky little tour bus. To start we had to get up to the wall as it was built on the top of the mountains (to make it harder to get past). We de… Read how I did it…
How I did it: First of all, I'm so lucky to have friends and family who are so generous giving presents to my son. I am totally overwhelmed by the love we've felt.That said, I feel we need to thank everyone who has put such effort and feeling into selecting presents. So thank you cards it is!What a huge task! I tried to keep up with them but between having a new baby and disliking handwriting it's been a struggle. I finally wrote my last outstanding ca… Read how I did it…
How I did it: One of the hard things about being a new mom is figuring out what to do. The days can pass in a blur of diapers, bottles, naptime and housework. At three months I started taking my son to Movies for Mommies every two weeks as well as going to the Community Health sessions for parents and infants. While they were both drop-in fun, they weren't a longer term experience.So I signed up for Merry Music Club and LOVE it! The teacher is fan… Read how I did it…
How I did it: I followed a recipe in "How to cook everything" but to be fair, I think I WAY over-kneaded the dough. So it was pretty tough.I also did something to my pizza stone that caused it to smoke so bad the fire alarms would have gone off. They didn't go off, of course, because we had disconnected them from a previous incident last week and they broke. (Long story, they work now) Read how I did it…
How I did it: I've done the Sun Run a lot. It's a nice little 10 Km run around Vancouver. If you are thinking of coming to the city in April it is a great tradition with about 40,000 runners on cherry-blossom lined streets.But this year was AWFUL! Last year I ran three months pregnant and we told the parents and in-laws after the run that we were expecting. This year we ran in the "stroller" section at the back with the baby.It took so long for the rac… Read how I did it…
How I did it: I followed a recipe for bread from Mark Bittman's book. I've spoiled yeast recipes before by using yeast that was a bit too old, so I made sure my yeast was fresh.It took time more than anything - time of doing nothing but waiting for the dough to rise. It was so neat to watch and every couple of hours come back and see what it had done next. I found that resting it on top of my husband's subwoofer was a great place because it was ni… Read how I did it…
How I did it: I had a tonne of books waiting to be read and worked hard through the first half of the year to read them. However as I became more and more pregnant it became hard to get the energy and concentration required to read anything.But, after the baby came, I had to spend lots of time nursing and feeding him. That gave me time to read books with my Kobo e-reader. So I finished 30 books over the year. Read how I did it…
How I did it: I flew to Australia, the flight was long and I had a stopover that made it even longer. I arrived in the afternoon and couldn't stay awake. Unfortunately, I woke up at 2 in the morning and couldn't get back to sleep. So my friend and I went for a walk to explore the neighbourhood. He lived near Cairns, but far enough away that it was out of the way. It was really exotic and cool to listen to the sounds of insects and toads that … Read how I did it…
How I did it: I really thought breastfeeding would be incredibly difficult. I've heard so many stories of mom's bawling their eyes out with the baby crying and no one getting any peace or rest.My little preemie had both a tongue tie and a really bad case of jaundice. The tongue tie meant he had problems latching and the jaundice meant it was imperative to get more food in him through supplementation.We supplemented with donor breast milk for the first … Read how I did it…
How I did it: We got pregnant. Then we signed up for prenatal classes. They were fun and were supposed to be completed four weeks before the baby arrived. We got to the pre-labour class, the two labour classes and then, before we got to the class that deals with "what the heck do you do after you've had the baby" we had a baby. Our classes were in the same wing of the hospital as our room for baby so we took the baby down in the bassinet with… Read how I did it…
How I did it: Umm... sex is the traditional way to create a baby. After that make sure you eat properly and get good prenatal care. We had a bit of a scare when the baby came five weeks early and very quickly (12 hours), but in the end Baby is healthy and growing and wonderful! Read how I did it…
How I did it: This was a goal that felt like it would never get done. When we bought our place in 2008 we started planning to change the floors. Then we decided we needed to do the kitchen too. So we changed the carpet upstairs instead. Then our strata had a rather large assessment so we paid that instead of getting new floors.Finally we hired a designer to help figure out how the whole downstairs will go together and what it would look like. The … Read how I did it…
How I did it: In a panic. The baby came 5 weeks early! Five weeks. I had plans to get everything ready and have the house a little bundle of calm and peaceful happiness. Instead everything was everywhere, the baby clothes from the store weren't washed -- weren't sorted. I had no diapers. But I thought I had five weeks!Panic! Once the washer arrived, things started settling down and we finally, finally got everything together Read how I did it…
