2010 Goal Check-in: March

I set a lot of goals for 2010, and to keep myself honest, I thought I'd do what my blog friend Sam does and do a monthly check in. It's a great way to make sure that those goals don't get forgotten in a few months and I stick to working towards them.

*I want to try and remember to call my child by his ACTUAL name instead of Bubba. It's so embarrassing when people start talking to "Sawyer" and he doesn't respond because he has no idea who "Sawyer" is!

Still working on this, but I did better than I did last month. He will now respond if you call him Sawyer, which is a GREAT improvement. Before, he would ignore you because he did not know who this "Sawyer" character was.

*I want to try to eat less and move more. I will NOT be going on a diet. I decided I love food too much. I also will not be implementing a formal workout plan. Moving will involve cleaning house and taking the baby to the park, among other things.

I started running! Yay! I didn't start until halfway through the month, but here I have two weeks of running under my belt. I finally started Couch to 5K and it was BRUTAL. The first day I wanted to die. Every part of me hurt, even my eyelashes. My chest felt like it was on fire. My ankles were screaming in pain. It was horrible. It took me three tries to be able to get all the way through day one of the program without cheating and resorting to walking when I should have been running.

I am noticing that my right knee is REALLY bothering me though. I hurt it when I was working at the hotel (almost 3 years ago come May, I think). I slipped on a wet (unmarked!!!) floor in the lobby and landed in a kneeling position. All my weight slammed onto that one knee and it was a marble floor. I was carrying one of those giant coffee dispensers on the way to the kitchen to get it cleaned out and luckily managed to not spill it all over! I was okay when it happened, slightly sore by the end of the work day, and could barely walk by the next day. I ended up having to go to urgent care and have physical therapy for a month. Ugh. It hasn't really bothered me since, until this week.

The knee is mostly just a nagging minor pain, except of course when I'm actually running or when I'm on the stairs. THEN it straight up hurts. I've been advised by friends who run and have spouses that run to a) stretch, both before and after (duh, Sara, right?) and also to to b) take ibuprofen before and ice it after. We'll see how it is next week.

Luckily, I at least know I'm wearing the right shoes because I did this gait analysis a couple of years ago where you walked across this pad that showed how you distributed your weight on your tread. They also had me walk and jog on a treadmill while a camera analyzed how my steps fell. Then they recommended certain shoes with a certain type of support, and I bought those. I know it was two years ago, but since I haven't really worn them much, I think they're still okay.

*I want to quit making excuses and drag my lazy butt out of bed on Sundays to go to church.

Another successful month for this one!

*I want to pick one of my many cookbooks each month and make a new-never-tried-it-before recipe each week from it.

This month I made friends all over again with The Pioneer Woman. I made her Perfect Pot Roast and it was DIVINE. It was the first time I'd ever put any of my All-Clad into the oven. I knew I could do it, but I was a little freaked out by the idea. Now I regret not doing it sooner. That pot roast was so tender I was able to cut it the next day, COLD, with a spoon.

I also made pizza dough and Potato-Leek pizza. They're listed as two separate recipes in the book, so I'm counting them as such here. Also, since the dough is something you have to make ahead, I made it on a Saturday and the pizzas were made on Sunday. That's two different weeks!

If you haven't tried P-Dub's pizza dough, you're seriously missing out! It was so flipping GOOD. This was also my first time ever cooking or eating leeks. They were sautéed in bacon fat, and they were delicious. I used the other half of the dough to make a spinach and four cheese pizza that I found on Kate's blog. SO GOOD. I know I'm saying good a lot but man, you didn't try them.

Huh. I guess that's only three. Ah, well.

*I want to take catechism classes and do my first communion and confirmation.

This is happening this month! Not next Sunday, which is Easter, but the following Sunday, I will be making my first communion and confirmation. I made my first confession on Thursday and it was not bad at all. I seriously thought it would take like half an hour, but it was really fast.

*I want to eat out/eat processed foods less. We've been doing better about this than we were before, but we could do better.

We've been eating a lot of processed foods. I've been lazy and cooking only intermittently. A big part of my problem is that we haven't been to the grocery store. I don't want to do meal plans or a big shopping trip without my coupons, and I haven't taken the time to sit down and just clip and organize them. It's really hard with Grabby-Hands Bub around. It also takes a long time, and I just can't keep him busy for a big chunk of time like that so I can do it.

I did re-read Fast Food Nation and am currently reading The Omnivore's Dilemma. You know what's sad? Even though I know that a McNugget has 27 ingredients (Wendy's nuggets have 30!!!) and even though I know what meat plants are like, and even though I know all this bad stuff, not only about the food, but about the business practices of these restaurants, I still just want some damn fries from Mickey D's sometimes. Sick.

*I want to get the baby baptized.

This will be done after our confirmation this month. I need to make an appointment to have it done. I would really like the deacon who performed our wedding ceremony to be the one to baptize the baby, so we'll see.

*I want to have people over for dinner more often. Maybe a board game after? Is that weird?

We had the baby's soon-to-be godparents over for dinner. It was actually the night that we had the pizza. I stuffed them silly!

*I want to try one new thing (beside the cookbook goal) each month. It could be a new food, a new craft, a new life experience - it doesn't matter, as long as I've never done it before. Then, I have to blog about it.

Ostrich and lamb gyro meat. Yum. o_O (will probably be the last time for both of those) I also had the aforementioned leeks and attended my first Passover Seder, where I had horseradish for the first time. There was also my first time cooking en papillote and my first "adult" toy party. Finally, there was my first time attending mass on Palm Sunday, and starting Couch to 5k for the first time.

I think I have "try something new" covered!

*And of course, I want to work on incorporating domesticity into my life

Same as last month - I didn't clean a whole lot. That whole "lack of inspiration" business really kicked my butt. I need to stop making excuses and just do it.