Now that Anna is one year old, I feel like we finally are getting back to "normal." Of course, it is a new normal, but I'm very happy with that. In Anna's second year we are planning to take a few vacations, I'm going to read some actual books (not just What to Expect the Toddler Years), and I am actually taking steps to lose the weight I gained while pregnant (that I already lost while we lived in Korea--so frustrating to have to do it all again!), and I've got plenty of "projects" around the house to work on (and some actual photography work). Hey, maybe we'll even hire a babysitter and Craig & I will get out of the house once or twice a month!

I have read one non-parenting book this year: Bad Girl Creek by JoAnn Mapson. I read it for the MOPS bookclub. And then the meeting never happened. And I've never heard anything about the book club again. So I'm on my own. Sad as it is, I think I'll start with Angels & Demons by Dan Brown and then finally read The DaVinci Code. I loaned out the The DaVinci Code several times while we were in Korea but never actually read it myself. Everytime I got it back, I was in the middle of something else. Then I got pregnant and I only read pregnancy/childbirth/baby name books. Then Anna was born and it was just parenting and sleep books (and a whole lot of board books!). I will no doubt be turning to my dear friend Sharon for some reading advice soon. Although I do still have a few books on my shelf from our Okpo book club that I haven't read. (By the way, I did not like Bad Girl Creek: it was too contrived and predictable and I was very disappointed with the lives the characters ended up with by the end.)

I have lost 7.5 pounds since January (6 of those since I joined Weight Watchers Online on February 9th). I am attempting to do the Self Challenge again this year, but so far it's just not happening. I'm having a hard time getting to the gym consistently, but I guess that's part of what the challenge is about--finding a way to incorporate exercise into your daily life.

I have found some interesting places online to self-publish books and I want to do a "blook" (a book with content from a blog) for our time in Korea and for Anna's first year. Those are pretty major projects so I don't know how long that will take, but when I finish those I will be sure to post the results here!