My "TO-DO" list

Some goals for myself:

- floss my teeth more often :S

- starting in the new year, be more diligent about sending birthday cards back home. cards are wonderful to receive!!

- eat more (local!) fruits and veggies. starting next grocery shop

- eliminate paper towels from the household (and using cloths instead... which i plan to buy towels from value village and cut up into cloths. upcycle, yay!)

- start using 100% recycled toilet paper... "If every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber toilet paper (500 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 423,900 trees"

- thrifting! i've read such wonderful things in other blogs.. i haven't done it yet, mainly because i find all the racks so overwhelming. but what a good idea, especially for baby and maternity clothes! i can expand my wardrobe on a small budget. wonderful.

- look further into cloth diapering. i found a good article about the dangers of disposables.

- learn to meditate. any good tips?

- find some really nice, natural soaps, lotions [found a great one - nov. 20], shampoo/conditioner

- oh! find a nice, local, natural shop that would sell the above. is there such a thing in vernon?

- (way further into the future) live in sustainable housing. once we find (and can afford) the house of our dreams, i hope to gradually include solar powering, etc. into it to leave less of a carbon footprint. plus, get rid of the pesky electricity bill! hehe

In other news...

I don't know if I mentioned... we're going to vegas for christmas this year (38 sleeps!) and that basically marks when we're gonna start trying for a baby! i'm sooo excited. and of course, i'm hoping to conceive right away. i've learned so much in the past week about natural things that will help have a smooth pregnancy. i think some people think i'm crazy for looking into so many things before even being pregnant, but i think it's prepared-ness. it's what i do! and i think it helps me avoid a lot of un-needed stress in the future.

if all goes to plan and we conceive in the early new year, that means i'll be quite pregnant in the summer.. and i love the idea of spending the summer in a bikini with a big belly sticking out. of course i'll still be working a ton (hopefully, anyway. i hope i can handle working [as close to] full time. if not, then i'll have more time to enjoy my pregnancy!) but when i can, i'll be at the beach/in the backyard.

i've discovered the book stores in the okanagan are sucky! recently i've discovered many books i would love to read, but they're not available. huff. do i have the patience to trump through a used book store looking for such things? hmm...

one thing i'm alittle worried about once i'm nearing the end of my pregnancy is a lack of close friends and family around. actually for the whole pregnancy this will be a little saddening. no one face to face to share the excitement with (other than hubby, which of course is very very wonderful for the two of us to experience). does that make my mom and dad sad? to not be able to watch their first grand-baby grow in person? i plan to do lots of picture posting, etc. on here, but they're not computer nuts like i am. will they keep following? will we all make an effort to video chat more? will they come for visits? we definitely plan to go home for christmas next year (hopefully with a new little one, if things go according to plan) but what about when the baby is actually born.. will i be surrounded by loving faces? and after baby.. can i handle everything on my own? *sigh* i will have to do my best to stay positive when the time comes! and who knows, maybe we'll have visitors! but not too many... lol..

<3