SuperIma Sunday Check-In

It's time again for Leigh Ann's SuperIma Sunday Check-In!

Last week's goals:

• Finish reading a book: Did it! I read Mudbound by Hilary Jordan. As I said, I picked it because it's the "One City, One Story" selection for my hometown of Pasadena, CA. Dude, heavy. So heavy. Such horrible, horrible racism and tragedy. Following it up with a recommendation from my mom for a guaranteed light-hearted, clear-the-palate romp, Easily Amused by Karen McQuestion.
• Do cardio 6x: Well, as predicted, the blizzard kind of derailed this goal. I was stuck at home for two days due to snow, so I only got 4x of cardio done. I'm still calling it a victory, though, because (1) I can't control the weather, and (2) I still did a lot of shoveling on the days I was home, and I think that burns something like 9,000 calories per hour. (Possible exaggeration for calorie-burning rate, fairly accurate estimate for this week's calorie-consumption rate.)
  

This week's goals:

• Each day, do some small thing to bring joy to an otherwise blah winter day. This does not count exercise, because I think exercise is important for beating the winter blues, and I'm still going to do it (okay, Mom?), but I'm not sure exercise is an activity that brings me great pleasure. I want to try to do something pretty and happy each day. I got a jump on this yesterday when I made a trip to Walgreen's to get these adorable Sally Hansen stick-on nail polish decals that Ashley recommended:
  
  
  The calendar says winter, but my adorable butterfly nails say spring!

You guys, they were so incredibly easy to apply! And I mean, if you know me IRL, you know that I have the shakiest hands ever, like to the point that people are often asking me if I'm okay. I was skeptical about my ability to apply these, but it was actually really easy and quick! The kit was $10. The decals dry instantly, and promise to last for 10 days! (Thus far Ashley confirms no chipping after about a week.) And they have a variety of colors, including your standard solids, plus flowers, animal prints, and pink camo. Yay for inexpensive nail happiness!

Okay, so that was yesterday's happy thing. Today I'm making cookies for a Super Bowl party, and I'm gonna mix in M&Ms in the various team colors. Tomorrow I'm making my house all pretty and good-smelling, and making fun snacks, for a playdate/wine-drinking event I'm hosting as part of my effort to see other human beings during winter.

[BTW the above is supposed to be indented to match with the other bullet-point stuff, and the fact that it isn't bothers me, but I can't figure out how to do it.]

• My second goal is HUGE. Leigh Ann wants you to set a goal for something you're going to give up, and this week I'm giving up mom guilt. Okay, so mom guilt isn't the kind of thing you can give up cold turkey in a week. But, I think if I stop and make myself aware of all the stupid little guilty things that are eating me up all day, every day, that will be a good first step to eradicating (some) mom guilt. And I know there are some people who say guilt is a good thing because it forces us to correct our negative behaviors, but I mean, come on, there is good guilt and just totally unnecessary guilt. If I accidentally left my kid at a gas station and drove all the way home without realizing it, the guilt I felt about that would be healthy because it might force me to pay better attention to his whereabouts in the future. (Note: The previous incident did not actually happen.) However, I cannot be beating myself up for every little parenting misstep day in and day out, such as Why don't I have a better policy for the amount of fruit snacks my kid is allowed to consume in a day? So, starting with the fruit snack thing (which happened this morning) and ending God-knows-where, I'm making a list of the things I feel guilty about. The list will be called the Guilt Graveyard (term borrowed from the way-too-sparkly iVillage). After all, isn't awareness the first step to overcoming a problem?