2012 goals & 2011 year in review

This ridiculous post has been open on my browser for 10 days. This phenomeon of blog-post-procrastination of mine is listed below, because I am tired of my inability to publish regularly.  Stop being so perfectionistic - it's just a blog, Erika. So, I'm finally going to publish this! It may not be interesting to anyone other than my mom, but it's a way for me to go back and keep track of my own progress throughout the year. I tend to forget my own goals.

Speaking of goals, I'm going to try something new this year.  I have a little mental graveyard of resolutions made in years past. Maybe they were unrealistic, or bad timing, or just plain silly. My list for this year is going to be referred to as 'goals', as perhaps the terminology will soften my anxiety about whether or not they get done. These are things I would like to accomplish in 2012, but I am not going to flog myself if I don't. In fact, they might be better accomplished next year. It's a respectable task by itself for me to get all my thoughts out of my head, and on paper (or the web, lol) so that's what this list is. This is unusually long for my blog posts, so feel free to skip over to the pictures if that's your fancy. :)

Here they are in no particular order:

Find and research our next home. Driven by the hunt for a better school district, we would like to move in the next 1-2 years. Preferably to a single story, contemporary stone or brick rancher on at least an acre. ISO 4+ bedrooms, hardwood floors and the character that older homes usually possess. Must have fireplace (a real one!), a garage and a yard. In a close, child-friendly neighborhood. Anything else - a plus.  Above all, the house has to have a lot of natural light. I am a photographer after all. :)

Take better care of myself. I am OCD about Emma's doctors appointments and her fluoride treatments and her nutrition, etc. But when it comes to me, I get lazy. I haven't been to the dentist in @(#**$ years. I'm scared.  Until we moved to California, I had been to the same dentist for virtually my whole life.  He came to our wedding!  I'm terrified to go anywhere else, and yet, I can't bring myself to drive to D.C. to see him. He's probably going to retire soon. I really need to get on it. Mom, you have my permission to bug me on this one. 

In addition, I need to find a good dermatologist, an ENT (to find a solution to my chronic post-nasal-drip), a thyroid specialist, and a few others. Did I mention I'm 35? Did anyone mention that your metabolism turns to crap when you turn 35? Do they have a doctor for that? :)

Take better care of myself - part II.  Part of this goal is to get back into two things I love: running and yoga. I have missed regular yoga classes, and I finally found one at my local gym that is great for me. I can go to 2 classes a week and incorporate it into my running schedule. As for the running, my sister cajoled me into signing up for a half-marathon in April. I paid the money, and I downloaded the app onto my phone.  My training schedule is on the calendar for all to see, and my new running shoes are coming in the mail today.   I guess this means it's on like Donkey Kong. God help me. :)


Research and find and Emma's kindergarten.  Directly related to the first item, I would like to find a great school district for Em by the time she starts kindergarten. Luckily, we have a little time. The cutoff in Maryland is September 1st, so she misses it by 3 weeks. That means, she'll start kindergarten in the fall of 2013. Fine by me - but I would prefer to find a school that she can plug into and stay in for the remainder of her schooling. Western Howard County has great public schools, so that's where we'd like to end up. If we haven't made the move by then, I think we'll send her to a private (Catholic) school. That means, we would like to become involved in the parish, and that means we have a lot of work to do.


Photography goals. This is such a scattered list, but I do want to keep pursuing my business. This year will probably be the year to make the switch to Lightroom. It took years, but I have perfected my ACR/Photoshop workflow.   I'm terribly anxious about learning a new workflow, but I have heard so many people have done it, and would never go back. I'd also like to attend some PPA workshops, buy a new lens, and take a little more of a 'fashion' photography approach to my posing/images. We'll see. The big thing for me is just to keep myself out there. I tend to get intimidated by other photographers' progress, and it holds me back. Be gentle on myself, and above all, BE myself.  Those are my goals.

Plant a garden. We got our toes wet with this idea last year. Roger and Emma planted a few simple vegetables in containers on our back deck. Eggplant, basil, tomatoes, and lavender. They all did remarkably well for such simple living arrangements (and overly eager squirrels). Maybe this year we'll try a few more. We have to practice now for when we have our big farm and grow bushels of corn and live off the grid. :)

Get Emma in her own bed. Regularly.  If 2011 was the year of the paci, then 2012 is the year of the bed.  9 times out of 10 we have a visitor in our bed a little after midnight. The problem? Is that it's not really a problem. She is a happy little bedmate and rarely interrupts our night.  It's so easy.  She climbs in, we snuggle in together and everyone sleeps happily until 7 or 8 in the morning. She doesn't even roll that much.  So why even bother? Well, it does have some drawbacks - mainly that it's really really hard for me to try and wake up a little early (to have some 'me' time). I might set the alarm with the best of intentions, but inevitably, I'll always chose sleep, especially nuzzled next to her warm little body.   If we have another baby, it might make things complicated, so it's something we keep talking about working on.  It's a work in progress. :)


Read more.  This was something I was terrible at in 2011. When you're working for yourself, and working from home, it's a constant juggle. You're always 'on'. If you're not doing family/house stuff, you feel as if you should be working. At night, the time I could be reading is usually spent in front of the computer. Occasionally, I watch tv, but aside from a few regulars, I really don't watch much.  I'm part of a great book club, that pushes me to read things outside my normal mystery comfort zone, so it's going to be good to exercise the old wrists.

Fearless blogging.  It seems everyone has a blog now. Some of them are really good.  And some of them have a gazillion readers. Gah! How do these people do it? I mean, there are blogs written about how to get more followers of your blog! I realize that this started out as a little family blog. We were living in CA at the time, and most of our family was back east and curious at how tiny baby was growing. But I've encountered blogs along the way that develop real relationships with its readers. Neat! I'd love to think I have something to relate to. Anyway, the only way to start is by blogging more often. So I'm really going to try!


Thrift more. I really want to try and make a concerted effort to buy used whenever possible.  My first instinct is to rush out to a big box store if I need something, but the truth is, it's likely already out there - for half the price - in just as good condition.   I suppose I could turn this into a giant political statement about our society's excess, materialism, consumerism, landfills and waste, but really, it's just about the thrill of the hunt, and saving some money. Thrift shops are like libraries to me. There's just a whole experience involved. I love to scout out the good ones, the trendy ones, the cheap ones. If I end up reducing my overall 'global footprint' then that's a plus.

Get an EZ-pass.  It's been on my 'to do' list for 6 months, and I keep forgetting to do it. Between road trips to NYC, the new Inter-County Connector and the bay bridge/beach, it's a nobrainer. So....I'm going to put it on here so I stop forgetting! **You'll be happy to know that while this post was being written, I finally crossed this one off my list!**

Emma's baby book.   This is embarrassing.  I still don't have a baby book for Emma. For the first 3 months after she was born, I took the obligatory 9,384 pictures of her - all on a crappy point-and-shoot. The pictures are grainy, every shot used the flash, and there are 45 versions of the same pose, each picture only slightly different than the previous. I got my SLR for Xmas that year, and my life changed as I knew it. I was now taking 18,391 pictures of her each month.  The point is, I got totally bogged down in pictures.  And I just let it build up.  I was new to photography, so I couldn't bear to delete anything. Well, four years later I have a much better workflow, and a much better perspective on which picture I should keep and which one I can delete. In fact now, I have some months with only 8 pictures, but they're all keepable and album-able. So my goal this year is to have an album to give to her before she turns 5. My baby's turning 5 this year!   Nooooo!!

Baby.  Speaking of babies, we'd love to have another baby.  Le Sigh.........That rascally stork doesn't seem to pay us any mind. Infertility ain't for sissies, and this isn't our first rodeo. It was a crazy journey the first time around, so we took a much more relaxed approach the second time around, assuming it wouldn't be an issue. Well, apparently life has other plans.   It didn't happen last year, or the year before that. After just 'seeing what would happen' - we realized it wasn't - and started working with Shady Grove. We tried a little of this and a little of that. We got all the way up to In Vitro. We can't afford IVF, so my goal for this year is to try and a find a new set of doctors who are willing to work with us. I am 35, so I am now in the lovely (and ridiculous) category of 'Advanced Maternal Age' (whatever that means).   Hopefully, we can find someone willing to figure out a little more about what's going on, and in the meantime, we'll still take a relaxed approach to it all.  At some point, we might have to make peace with it not happening, but 2012 is a long year, so keep your fingers crossed for us. :)

Well, congratulations if you've made it this far.  I can't believe I am finally publishing this.   With that, here's a little photo recap/year in review for 2011.  Happy New Year!

January 2011 -  stuck indoors, the primates feast on lots of jarred peanut butter. 

February 2011

March 2011 - I took an image, and added a pencil filter to it in Photoshop.

April 2011 - Jacob's Bar Mitzvah.  Gotta love a photobooth.  :)

May 2011 - Boulder, Colorado - Rachael's graduation

June 2011 - Father's day on the boat

July 2011 - East Hampton, NY

August 2011 -  Bethany Beach, DE

September 2011 -  FOUR!! 

October 2011 - Halloween/The Child Bride (gulp!)

November 2011 -  Festival of Trees (Baltimore Fairgrounds)

December 2011 - Margot (2) , Emma (4)  and Emma (her namesake)