Lessons Learned in 2010

As the year draws to an end, I feel I the need to reflect on lessons learned in this past year.  So here’s a list along with a little nugget about why it was a good lesson for me.

1.        Getting in shape and healthy is a slow, tedious process.  I learned it takes consistency and hard work.  It’s not enough to say “I’m going work out”.  You have to do it with force and purpose.  You have to eat right, lift heavy and do cardio with real effort.   It’s not enough just to do one of these things or even two out of three.  It really takes all three to make it work.

2.       Starting a business takes time.  It really takes time to get your name out there.  BlueStarBaby.com has been open for over a year now, and we’re just now starting to get moving.  This was great Christmas season, and I’m thankful for the people that help make it happen.

3.       Being able to stay home with my daughter is a privilege that I’m very thankful for.  I recently started doing some part time contract work.  Even with just working two days a week, I can certainly feel the crunch on time.  It makes me sad, when Montana tells me that she doesn’t want me to work and she’s only two.  Kudos to all you working moms out there.  I don’t know how you do it.

4.       Never, ever, ever use Monistat-1 day treatment.  My vagina has never been so pissed off at me as it was when I used this medication.  The chemicals are too strong and can cause real damage, plus it ended up not taking care of the original problem.  I’m really surprised this product is on the market.  Do yourself a favor and go to the doctor and get a pill or use the 3 or 7 day Monistat.

5.       Finally having my daughter potty trained is a new found freedom.  I don’t have to lug a diaper bag around anymore.  Enough said.

6.       When people are acting crazy, it’s best just to keep your distance until they calm down.  The only thing hanging around crazy is going to do, is make you crazy too.

7.       Nothing good comes from going out to eat.  I have yet to figure out why I do it so often.  It costs too much.  It’s always going to jack up your calories or nutrition for the day.   Even if it does fit into your calories or nutrition for the day, you’re still going to gain weight due to retaining water.

8.       Appreciate your spouse.  Ok, I already knew this.  But it’s never a bad thing to remind myself of it.  I appreciate Bob is so many ways.  He’s strong where I’m weak and he makes me want to be a better me.  I cherish those little moments of hand holding or an impromptu dance in the kitchen.

9.       If there is something bothering you health wise, get it checked out.  All the people I know that has died of cancer, has said they wish they would’ve had (moles, lumps or any number of ailments) checked out earlier.  There is only one you, don’t take any chances.

10.   To be thankful for everyone in my life.  That includes past, present and future.  Your contact with everyone in your life makes you who you are.  Even the people I don’t get along so well with add something special to my life.

And there are ten lessons I’ve learned this year.  I’m sure there’s more than ten, but it just seems right to stop the list at ten.  What special lesson have you learned this year?

The holidays are always so busy.

We've been on the go go go a lot lately.  So, here are a few highlights.  We are now offering items through an American made marketplace called www.Petriot.com.  So far, I've been getting good results from that site.  It's best described as a small Amazon for just American made products.  So it's pretty cool.

I started training for a part-time contractor position through where my husband works.  They need some help with running reports, so I'm going to go in there a couple days a week to help them out.  We definitely need the money right now.

This is for my geek friends, Cataclysm for World of Warcraft has been released.  So far, I'm liking it pretty good.  I don't get to play as much as I would like but I'm still having fun.

As far as getting into shape, I started Stage 3 of The New Rules of Lifting for Women.  They have a section called Body Matrix.  Basically, you time yourself doing 24 squats, 24 lunges, 24 jump lunges and 24 jump squats and you do the set three times.  Let me tell you, I thought I was going to die.  I did this Monday and it took until today for my legs and ass not to be sore.  I also did my measurements and pictures for the month of November.  Overall, I was down 1 1/4 inches, but it was in my neck, forearm and chest.  All the places that I couldn't give a hoot whether I lost there or not.  However, I'm glad I wasn't up in inches anywhere.  I'm going back to eating in a 250 calorie deficit, maybe that will help some.

Finally, I got the carpet shampooed today.  As you know, this means someone is going to pee, puke or poop on it within 24 hours.  YAY!

Holiday Sale at www.BlueStarBaby.com

Are you looking for that something special for your baby or toddler?  How about supporting American labor through this holiday season?  Check out http://www.bluestarbaby.com/ his holiday season.  We feature American made baby products.  We have apparel, bedding, bathing items, toys and much more.  During this holiday season we have several baby and toddler products at rock bottom prices.  We are giving free shipping on all orders.  Give yourself peace of mind this holiday season, by buying Made in USA products.

Catching Up on Sleep

We are very slow movers when it comes to doing house and yard projects.  For example, we had our house built 6 years ago.  We still haven't really done any landscaping, a very large portion of the house is still just white walls and we have the cheapest vinyl blinds in the windows that we got just so people couldn't look in.  I guess we can usually just find better things to do with our time.

Over a year ago, we re-did our bedroom.  We got new furniture, painted the walls and bought a new bedding set with curtains.  We did everything but put the curtains up.  We just never thought of it as a big deal.   I mean we had the curtain rod, curtains and valances but we were just too lazy to put them up. 

Finally, after all this time we got those curtains up and I must say, they look quite nice.  But the real treat is that our bedroom is actually dark at night.  I never thought it was a big deal before, but now that they're up there's a real difference. 

I guess I should tell you that one of our back door neighbors has a motion sensing spot light.  The thing is really bright and it turns on with every little rodent that goes by.  We have a ton of rabbits in the neighborhood, so the damn thing is on and off all night long.  I never really thought about it since once I'm asleep, my eyes are closed and therefore dark.  But let me tell you, I apparently have been lacking sleep for 6 years.  Since we've put those curtains up, I've sleep the longest and hardest than I have in the past six years.  Now I'm wondering, just how do you catch up on six years of sleep deprivation?

The Low Down

I'm going to start with what's going on right now in my life.  I stay at home with my daughter who is 2 1/2 years old.  I have an online retail store specializing in American made baby and toddler products, I'm also working on getting into shape and finally I'm working on homeschooling my two year old.  I also pick up other odd ball projects along the way.

I'll start with http://www.bluestarbaby.com/.  This is my online retail store.  I will tell you, it's been very tough in this economy to get it going.  Everyone seems to want to buy cheaply made items from China.  However, I knew when I started this project, I was not targeting the Wal-mart crowd.  We are looking to do a major overhaul of the website, but that is a long process in itself.  I will say that on Black Friday I will be launching free shipping on all items.  So, if you know anyone who has a baby or one on the way, feel free to check us out.

Next is getting into shape, I've been working on it for over a year now.  I started off at 201 lbs.  I'm 5'3" so that's a pretty big girl.  I've never been one to be overly conscience about my weight, but I was terribly concerned with being out of shape, as in not being able to do the things physically that I wanted to do. 

It started with a gym membership in the Fall of 2009.  I'll admit I half-assed it for the first couple of months.  I was kind of lifting weights, doing water aerobics and the elliptical machine.  But I didn't know what I was doing and even though I thought I was doing something, I wasn't doing much.  I lost 5 lbs. in those first two months. 

However, after Christmas 2009 I decided it was time to quit screwing around.  My husband convinced me to start lifting heavy.  By that I mean, lifting as much as I could for 6-8 reps.  That's when I started noticing the change.  I was still doing my own workout but it was working for me, so I didn't care.  I would switch up my workouts every four to six weeks, but that was usually just and exercise or two.  I started using http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ to log my food and http://www.bodybuilding.com/ to log my measurements.

This summer I decided to work on the Couch to 5k (C25k) program.  I personally like the podcasts from Suz at http://www.kissmyblackass.org/.  She uses hip hop in her podcasts, which was more up my alley.  Now C25k is supposed to be about a 9 week program, but I'm not very consistent with it.  Especially now that it's getting cold.  I'm currently on Week 7 of the program.

My strength training program has changed now for winter as well.  I'm using The New Rules of Lifting for Women and I'm currently on Stage 2 of that program now.  I'm supposed to be doing High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) along with it, but I'm still working through C25k and after those weight training sessions, my body just does NOT want to do HIIT.  So, I started at 201 lbs and I'm at 165 as of this morning.

Why am I doing all of this?  Well, for me.  I have goals, you know.  My first goal is to run a 5k.  I've not picked one out, but you can bet your butt that it'll be in the spring when it's warmer.  I'm also looking at doing the Warrior Dash http://www.warriordash.com/ in June.  That is, if I don't get knocked up first. (We're just not preventing.)  I'm not sure about what I want to do fitness wise after the warrior dash, but I think maybe a beginner triathlon.  I do know that one of my big goals is to completely section hike the Appalachian Trail.  So, that's where I am as far as looking forward on my fitness goals.

Finally, I'm working on doing Pre-K homeschooling.  I'm using the Calvert curriculum available through www.calvertschool.org.  I've decided to go through this program because I felt it was a good road map for education.  My daughter was 2 1/2 years old when we started.  I bought the program with the intentions of using it over a two year time span.  I figure since she's two, we'll do "school box" for a couple of days during the week.  Sometimes we don't stay with the curriculum, but we're always working on something. 

So that's it.  My big three projects going on right now.  I hope I didn't bore you too much with it.  I'm sure my future posts won't be near as long and tedious.  I'm also sure that I'll be adding smaller projects on top of these.