My One Word for 2010- How I'm Doing

It’s mid-year and I’m revisiting my One Word for 2010 to see how well I’m living that word out.

If you didn’t catch it from the graphic over there, my word for the year is NURTURE.

With that word, I described five ways I’d try to nurture in 2010. So how am I going? Well, here’s my update for the first half of the year:

Nurture my newborn… through breastfeeding longer this time around.

Score! I’m VERY proud to say that this one exceeded even MY wildest expectations. With Big Roo, I suffered through mastitis, stabbing pain and engorgement. I made it until about 2 months and then switched him over to formula during that third month. I just couldn’t do it any longer.

This time around, it’s more like I envisioned breastfeeding would be. In fact, I wrote a post about why I thought it was easier at the Triangle Mamas blog. I’m four months in and going strong. My goal was six months but I’m going to knock it out the park and shoot for a year. And I actually ENJOY it, something I didn’t have the pleasure of experiencing the first time around. So lucky.

Nurture my family… with both patience and attention.

To be honest, I’m not where I want to be with this one. Having two kids flipped our routine inside out, backwards and upside down. And hence, my patience gets lost in the middle of dinner preparation, baby feeding and preschooler antics. I’m patient on some days – not so much on others. I’ve tried to give Big Roo some one-on-one attention when the baby is sleeping but I know I can do better. I find myself saying “just a minute” to him a lot and I’m making an effort of epic proportions to stop saying it so much.

As for the hubs… date night? Huh? Unfortunately, we have no money for date night. We HAVE managed to sneak away to a movie a couple of times while a grandparent was visiting (or we were visiting the g-parents). We’ve been decent at watching movies at home though and just chatting. However, on my summer bucket list is to watch a movie WITHOUT our computers in front of us. Sad, but true. I also wanna challenge Daddy Roo to a game of swordfighting in Wii Sports Resort because I ROCK AT IT.

Nurture my creativity… through scrapbooking our life stories and building my blog.

On the scrapbooking front, let’s just say my supplies are mostly collecting dust. I’ve managed to scrapbook FOUR pages in six months. Four, people! Luckily, I’ve been good at taking pictures and documenting our life. I record milestone dates, firsts and funny sayings from Big Roo (gems like “are you scared of my pee pee?”). And next week (or the next), I plan to capture “A week in the life” of us… pictures of the everyday so we remember what things were like at this point of our lives.

As for my blog, I’ve grown and then grown some more. I’ve written in a way I haven’t done in years of being in the corporate world. And I’ve made connections- so many connections it’s hard to wrap my head around. So, I’d say I nailed this bit of “nurture.” My only challenge is that I don’t get so engrossed it in that I neglect the nurturing of family.

Nurture my body… through more frequent exercise.

Bueller? Bueller?

What can I say? I work part-time and have a newborn and a three year old. I’m lucky to shower on the days I don’t work. I’ve done SOME exercise like walking, the occasional aerobic video and of course some easy hikes.

However, I’m crazily jumping into a pool of ice water with this one. If you didn’t know, I’ve been a group exercise instructor for 10 years. I called up my coordinator last week and said I’m ready to get my class back (I teach kickboxing every other week). I go back in August. It’s a start and I’d better be in kick butt shape by then to, well, kick butt. How’s that for motivating myself?

Nurture my career… through networking and social media.

Can I say “Bueller” again on this one? I’ve gotten just about no where with this one. I’m not sweating it though. I’m only four months into juggling the extra responsibilities that come with having a baby in the house again. My job is paying the bills but I’m not going gangbusters with trying to network and build connections. Oh and that Poken I mentioned in my original post? Possibly the dumbest thing I purchased last year.

Luckily, some of my local bloggy friends ARE marketers so how’s THAT for multi-tasking? They are awesome ladies and we have three things in common right off the bat- we blog, we have kids and we love marketing. Quite the trifecta.

So, do you remember the resolutions or commitments you made to yourself at the beginning of the year? Where are you succeeding? What needs work?

Tagged as: adjusting to two kids, halfway on the nurture wagon, nurture, one word