#364daysofhealthier

For those of you who don't follow me on Instagram (@cehblanton if you want to), I've embarked on a resolution of #364daysofhealthier. As the hashtag suggests, this year I'm trying to focus on getting myself into a healthy state of being - mind, body, soul, and spirit. Last year was definitely the YEAR OF BABY.

It was a hard year y'all. The pregnancy wasn't terribly hard, but the delivery was. Jack had to be delivered by emergency c-section and for someone who is a planner, the sudden decision that he had to be delivered NOW really set up those first few days and weeks and months to be really hard on me. On this side of things, I am going to be brave and confess that I had Post Part Anxiety/Depression and thankfully with a team of doctors, family, friends, and time, I'm in a much much much better place now than I was even 3 months ago. But one of the things I learned from that was that I do need to steal some time away from being mom-phdstudent-wife-cook-cleaner-etc. for myself.

And that's what this year is going to be. A kind of reset, not to reset myself for who I used to be (my acupuncturist says I need to let my old identities go), but to set myself for who I want to be, especially for my family.

I'm not sold that making resolutions actually work, but I do believe that setting out roadmaps to where you want to go can be useful. I've created a working list of things I'd either like to accomplish or at least try this coming year. I'll be reflecting on what I've done at the end of each month, with the hopes that I'll get some feedback and maybe something I've tried will prompt someone else!

Comments

The Syllabus for the Next 18 Months

I decided at some point in the last week that I wanted to make a checklist of 30 things to do before I turned 30. Creating a list of 30 things is harder than I imagined it would be. But, to quote Julie Andrews (which I suppose is actually quoting Rodgers & Hammerstein), "let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start." There's nothing magical about turning thirty. I imagine that on July 2, 2015, when I wake up, my eyes will still be blue, my fingers will still number ten, my instant desire will be to go back to sleep. That said, it is one of those watershed points in life. The idea of approaching thirty is both reassuring and daunting. At least I'm theoretically past the point of having a quarter-life crisis. What I want to do is be able to look back at my 20s and tell my future kids about all the adventures their parents had before they were thirty. Creating this list isn't going to create those adventures. We've already had s...

Claire tries cooking! Pineapple Chicken Quesadilla and Figgy Balsamic

We are the typical American family when it comes to food habits. In that, we eat a rotation of approximately the same 5 meals: - Chicken Tacos - BBQ Chicken - Sauteed Salmon - Spaghetti - "Meatloaf" Pies Every once in a blue moon, I'll add something "fun" to the mix: - Stir Fry - Pretzel Chicken - More different fish - Roast Chicken Fun meals ceased to exist once baby boy showed up, but now that he's able to sit in a high chair AND has a bit of a schedule during the day, cooking is incrementally becoming an easier task. Last night I found a slow cooker magazine (yay Better Homes and Gardens!) and realized that I'm bored with the same 5-6 meals. Trying to find new permutations of said meals is also a task I don't completely enjoy. Only Tuesdays should signal a specific food (e.g. Taco Tuesdays). So here goes a novel experiment - I'm going to try and cook something "new" once a week. Full disclosure - I'm a big fan of...

Book Review: Inspired by Rachel Held Evans

I was anxiously awaiting the email that arrived. The day before, via facebook, a notification had been posted to fill out a form, hit submit, and cross your fingers to receive an advanced copy of Rachel Held Evans' new book, Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again, and being a part of the book launch team. The email arrived, as did the golden ticket (aka the PDF of the advanced copy). To put this in perspective, I have been an RHE fangirl since 2012 when I first read A Year of Biblical Womanhood. I was just out of seminary, recently married, and trying to figure out life. The humor in her writing amidst her earnest questions about what the Bible calls women to be versus what a conservative, evangelical society told women. I loved it. On top of that, my church had RHE come in 2014 and I was able to meet her (and be her chauffeur) and she was just as gracious and funny as her voice in her writing posited her to be. I never had the same...

Like and Love, Ramblings of a Theologian in Progress

Search This Blog