Saturday Sampler: Sleep, Balance and Goals

He who fails to plan, plans to fail.

~unknown

I am not sure why this only occurred to me today, but it appears the majority of my posts for the last three months have been done on a Saturday. A passing thought was to rename my blog to Saturday Sampler, but I am far to ambitious to limit my thoughts to one day a week, but you may have to deal with my slacker style for a while longer until I get back in the groove of posting more frequently.

Moving on. This week was particularly difficult for me. I had two separate dates with my niece to hit the gym and canceled both times! I was just too tired. The first time I cancelled becuase I had fallen asleep at 8:15 PM and our date was for about 8:45 PM and the second time, again our date was for 8:45 PM and I couldn't possibly stay awake. So what is this sleep phenomenon? I have been sleeping 8 plus hours per night. Last night I slept 10.5 glorious hours!

In talking with a co-worker yesterday, we discovered it is our job. The last three months I have personally stepped up my game at work. I wrote or reviewed 40 performance evaluations in September and October...really the drafts were coming in way earlier than that. Reading reviews and going through the exercise of writing a few myself made me realize I had even more capacity to improve than I was opening my mind to. Then I got my performance evaluation. Sure I was doing plenty of things right, but I have been in this new position less than a year and still have a lot to learn. I am also feeling quite driven to accomplish my daily tasks in an 8 hour day. Some days I work more than that, but I want balance. I do not want to HAVE to work 10+ hr days to get the work done or to be good at my job. I would be better at my job with more time in, but I have a family and want to have a life. Life however has been tough. The mental energy I expend at work has resulted in one tired momma! We do dinner, bath time, wind down a bit, then I barely make it through the kids bed time before it is my turn. That means no time lately for workouts, hardly any time for the hubby and net result: unbalanced. Need to get it all back in to balance. FAST!

Ok, I am painting a dire picture here, Super Hubby called and got a sitter and we went out dinner this week, last weekend I helped through a shower for my future SIL and next weekend I have a girls weekend planned. But it is the daily routine that seems to escape me. I wish I only needed 6 hours sleep. I wish I was a genius and then my brain wouldn't have to work so hard at work. Better yet, since we're wishing, let's go ahead a win the lottery and not work and have all the time in the world to be a wife, mother and professional fitness gal. A girl can dream...

Moving on. Some INSPIRATION from blogs this week:

• Michelle over at Michelle Does Germany is doing 12 Dates of Christmas with her Hubs, Awesome idea and some thing I might try to do with my hubs in 2012 but over the course of the year. We see each other every day for lunch, so don't feel bad for us that we don't spend so much couples time the evening with me going to bed at 9:00 PM.
• Amanda at Run To The Finish posted about Coach Andrew Kastor's Mammoth Running Camp. This would be a dream for me! I love mammoth, believe it or not with my inconsistency, I really do love running and I love being coached. Some day when I feel like my running is in a good place and I would get more out of the camp, I would totally throw down the cash for this one. Check it out HERE.
• Anne Marie at Goals For The Week writes down her weekly goals on book mark she uses in her organizer. Love this idea. Earlier in the year I wrote down my goals, stuffed them in my wallet and took a peak every now and then. All those goals were achieved. I have fallen off that wagon and needed this reminder, thanks AM!

I am feeling more motivated between yesterday and today so I am going to try and build on that. I swept and mopped the floors, did the laundry, did the dishes and wiped down all the counters. I have a master plan for going through our stuff and making lots of donations over the next week or so. Step one is to write down my plan. My first goal is to de-clutter as much as I can before the new year. It helps not to feel weighed down and my family will appreciate this as much, if not more, than I will. My second goal, which permeates everything else is to figure out how to squeeze it all in. I know I can't do everything, but I can do enough of the things I need and love to feel more balanced overall.

Big Picture: Goals aren't firm all the time, they need to be adjusted and re-evaluated. With a 4 yr old, a 2 yr old and a new job...I just needed more adjustments this year than before.

Why I Kick A$$: Did you miss the part when I totally cleaned house last night? Yeah, totally felt like I was nesting. Happy to wake up to a clean space.

Thankful Three

1. For my hubby being on his 4 day fishing trip. He needs the break and apparently it makes me want to the clean house.
2. For a niece who called and asked again this morning for a gym date. Yay! don't give up on me.
3. For a sitter today to run some necessary errands.