I've seen so many yearly review posts on blogs in the last day or so. It's really gotten me to thinking about the past year as far as blogging goes. Because I've been feeling kind of down lately and like I haven't accomplished the kinds of goals I had hoped to, I've decided that it's probably a good idea to take a look at the past year objectively to get a fresh perspective on what I've actually done. Here goes.

Going Places

I was lucky enough to start off the year by heading off to Nashville for Blissdom in February. I got to meet and travel with one of my favorite online friends, Angela Moore, as well as hang out with some fabulous bloggers. I also got to see Harry Connick Jr. perform. Swoon!

In May, I was fortunate enough to be asked to spend the day getting to know Chevrolet. It was an amazing day because I got the chance to learn about the new cars from Chevy and experience them up close. I also met a great group of bloggers from Pittburgh and the surrounding area and established some really wonderful relationships. And we were able to visit some local sites like Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater and Seven Springs. It was so nice.

That day with Chevrolet carried on to a future relationship when Chevy so generously donated a 2011 Traverse for me and three fellow mom bloggers to drive to the Type-A Mom conference in Asheville, NC. We had such a great time. I really bonded with my fellow Pittsburgh area mom bloggers and learned so much at the conference, connecting with tons of fabulous women and enjoying Asheville food and culture.

Brushes With Celebrity

2010 really was the year of celebrity encounters for me. I had the opportunity to meet or talk to a lot of very cool, well-known people. First, I'll mention that I had the chance to talk to Dr. Oz - twice. I was able to listen in on two teleconferences and ask one question of him each time. The first time was in June. Sadly, I was so busy with summertime activities and the kids being home, that I didn't take the time to write anything up. I won't make that mistake this time. I just talked to him last week about his weight loss program for the new year. Stay tuned for info on Dr. Oz's new weight loss program and some insight on his own food weaknesses very soon!

I had some fun encounters with a couple of my kids' favorite Nickelodean and Disney stars. We were able to attend a Pittsburgh grocery event and meet Reed Alexander, who plays Neville on iCarly. He was promoting his new cookbook, and he was absolutely adorable and sweet. The kids loved him, too!

The kids and I also ran into Rachael Bell, who plays Addison on Disney's Suite Life on Deck at our local grocery store. Seriously, we did. She happens to live in our town and goes to the local high school She was such a sweet girl. The kids were shy about meeting her, but she was so gracious and friendly.

Speaking of child stars. It was very cool to be able to interview Candace Cameron Bure, of Full House fame. I was inspired by her drive to be a healthy mom to her kids and her commitment to her faith. It was very nice to talk to her. In fact, she has a book coming out, and I believe I'll be interviewing her again by email very soon. Keep an eye out for that!

One of the greatest thrills I had this past year was when I talked to Carol Evans, the President of Working Mother Media. What an inspiring woman. She started out selling advertising when Working Mother magazine first launched in the '70's. She's worked her way up, all the while raising her own children. Carol had lots of advice for women in the workforce as well as moms who stay at home.

Professional Achievements

Whew! This post is getting very long, so I'll try to wrap things up quickly. While I haven't had the kinds of professional writing achievements I had hoped to reach this year, I have made some fabulous partnerships and earned a bit from my own blogs. This has inspired me to consider branching out and growing my own online projects. I think this is truly where my passion lies and that I've been avoiding pursuing my own projects out of fear, all the while searching for something more secure. Success is worth the risk. I plan to keep this in mind as I move forward into 2011.

So I guess I didn't have such a bad year, after all. I totally recommend taking some time to analyze your own year in review. You may be surprised at how far you've come. Tell me, what was your greatest achievement of 2010? What are you most proud of?

Wow! It's been a long time since I've blogged. I took a bit of time off because my whole family was sick with some kind of yucky flu for a couple weeks. I have to confess that I actually started it and then shared it with everyone else. Usually, it's the kids who bring it home from school. But this time, it was mom. So I took some time to lay aruond, drink ginger ale, and administer cold medicine.

Taking Time Out

The last week or so, I've been taking some time to once again reevaluate some things. The past year that I've been blogging has been wonderful. I've learned so much and made so many online friends. But I've realized that I'm not where I had hoped to be professionally by this time. I started blogging as a springboard to freelance writing. I wanted to get myself in the habit of putting words down on a regular basis and learning to handle the fear of putting myself out there. I've done that, but I haven't accomplished what I'd set out to do.

I've gotten some paid writing jobs, mostly blogging gigs. And I've enjoyed them greatly. They've taught me about choosing content, dedicating myself to posting daily, how to work with a virtual boss, how to write concisely, and how to invoice. What I haven't done is score good paying gigs on a regular basis, as I had hoped I would by this point.

My New Outlook

After taking this down time to think things through, I'm feeling better about where I'm going. I've started researching writing markets and planning out queries. I'm also taking time to get some business cards printed and make some connections in my local community. I've arranged to put the baby in part time daycare when school starts back up for the older kids. My amazing husband is supporting me in this decision, even though we really don't have the extra funds in our monthly budget for childcare. We're doing the daycare thing on a trial basis. If I'm not able to bring in some worthwhile income with my writing within a few months, I'll discontinue daycare.

I'm also working on developing a new blog project with an online friend. I'll tell you more about it when it's off the ground, but it has to do with advising college students. That's what I did in my professional life before leaving the traditional workforce to become a work-at-home mom. I've blogged about higher education for others; I think it's time to take the leap into starting my own blog using what I know to help others.

Feeling Optimistic

I"m feeling very excited about my new professional outlook. Taking some time off these past few weeks has really helped me to put things into perspective. I know that I have the ability to use my writing skills to earn a living, and I plan to move forward in a more productive fashion than I have been. Not that I regret anything I've done over the past year. I'm glad I took the time to test out the waters, do my research, and meet amazing people who've inspired and motivated me to succeed.

And I'm thankful that my family has stood by me in this exploration and that I've been fortunate enough to be able to take this time to explore. I'm looking forward to what lies ahead.

 

Everyone's been asking how I'm managing to avoid wheat and milk in my diet. It certainly isn't easy, otherwise I would have stuck with it ages ago. But it is possible to eliminate wheat and dairy products from your diet with a little planning and creativity. Thankfully, my allergies aren't as severe as some, people's but they do cause me to feel fatigued and to get frequent headaches. I'm feeling so much better since eliminating the trigger foods, and I believe I am actually losing weight! So here are some of the ways I'm sticking with it this time.

Variety

Any diet is hard to stick to if you have to eat the same thing all the time. While I am eating ALOT of salads these days, I try to mix it up by adding different things to my salad. Last night, I had a taco salad with leftover taco meat, salsa, and tortilla chips. Of course, I had to skip the cheese and sour cream, but it was pretty tasty without them. Sometimes I have tuna or chicken salad on a bed of lettuce. I'll add almonds, raisins, or apples for a bit of sweetness.

Texture

No, I don't just eat salads! When I'm craving something crunchy or salty, I'll eat tortilla chips or rice cakes. You have to be careful about things like flavored rice cakes though. Some of the most common milk derivative ingredients that people may not be aware of are whey, casein, and caseinate. Check the ingredient list carefully.For example, I can't eat even the cheddar flavored rice cakes, but the caramel ones are good to go.

Another thing I like to snack on now is cereal. I can eat Corn Chex or Rice Chex. Kix are also good; they have a new honey flavor. I've tried adding soy milk, but this is something I just can't get accustomed to. So I eat it dry, and it provides a nice breakfast with a piece of fruit or a crunchy snack during the day.

Flavor

A girl's gotta have chocolate. And, believe it or not, I can. One of my favorite indulgences is Pierre's chocolate sorbet. Yummy. And it contains no dairy. Even my kids love it. It's creamy and rich, giving you the illusion that you're eating ice cream. You can also buy a frozen treat made from soy instead of cream. Almost as good. I like the chocolate peanut butter kind best. I mix it with soy milk and a scoop of real peanut butter in the blender for a really good smoothie.

Another favorite of mine is cheese. While I can no longer snack on cheese and crackers, I've found a great substitute. Veggie Cheese is quite good. My recommendation is to get the pepper jack or other flavor, as it masks the texture a bit. I add Veggie Cheese to my omelettes, and you'd never know the difference.

Convenience

Finally, as a mom, probably the most important thing in sticking with a change in eating habits is convenience. I've started eating Lean Cusine dinners. They're really surprisingly good. I bought them on sale, and I was a little nervous because I bought ten. I'm so glad I did. Being able to grab one and put it in the microwave and have a healthy meal in five minutes keeps me from grabbing something that doesn't fit in my diet. I had to be careful when making my choices, but I was able to find ten different meals containing no wheat or milk. Remember, variety is important.

There are lots of things you can do to improve your diet, even if allergies aren't an issue for you. I've found that making these substitutions isn't as hard as I thought it would be. And the extra effort is definitely worth it. I think I may even be able to button my old jeans soon!

It's official.  I didn't win either of the contests I entered over at MomDot.  But that's okay, the kids and I did have tons of fun doing them!  I was entered into a random drawing of five finalists for the blog header contest, but my number wasn't picked.  You know what, though?  I actually do like my flowers.  My blog doesn't look like anyone else's, and I think that's cool.  I was pretty bummed that my hideous earrings didn't win me the cute Little Windows jewelry.  But check out the winner - her earrings deserved the ugliest jewelry ever award!

Now onto what I'm NOT losing - weight!  The email tips from Self.com are not at all the motivator I expected.  I thought I would get a daily exercise and diet tip, but what I received was a how-to for a particular exercise move.  Not that I can blame my lack of willpower and willingness to get off my butt on Self - that's all me, baby!  But I HAVE been focusing on my writing and on making contacts in the media world.  I'll update you on that soon!  Maybe once the kids go back to school NEXT WEEK, I can start trying to improve my diet.  It's hard to resist when they're coming to me every hour saying, "Can we have a snack?  We're STARVING!"

Well, I've been working on my goals for about a week now.  And, actually, things have been going quite well.  Okay, moderately well.  My biggest downfall has been that dirty four-letter word, my diet.  Food is my weakness.  Especially sweets.  My husband swears I'm going to become a diabetic.  He's probably right.

But at least I'm aware of my food issues, and I've taken steps to nip them in the bud with my favorite strategy, finding a book about it.  And I've found a fabulous book.  Not the traditional weight loss program we've all tried (Atkins, Weight Watchers, South Beach, yada yada yada . . . ), and you know you've tried 'em, The Writing Diet: Writing Yourself Right-Size   by writing guru Julia Cameron (author of The Artist's Way) actually seems different.  I'll admit that I haven't finished it, but just reading the first few chapters has made a difference already - I can't wait to read the whole thing.  When I do, a complete review/progress report will follow.

This book doesn't make you count calories or points, measure your food, or cut out everything even remotely tasty.  Cameron focuses on using the creative outlet of writing to tackle your food issues.  Lord knows I have issues.  The chapters I've read so far are "The First Tool: Morning Pages", "The Second Tool: The Journal", and "The Third Tool: Walking". 

The three tools alone are just the "baby steps" I needed to get me motivated.  If you'll remember, I'm allergic to wheat and milk, which makes eating right darn near impossible.  But it's not impossible with some creative planning and tactical grocery shopping.  So after filling the cupboards with foods I can eat and looking through my wheat and dairy-free cookbooks, I was ready to tackle the tips given in the book.

The Morning Pages are basically a free-write you do each day.  The premise is that letting the words flow onto the page will lead to insight into your daily struggles and problems.  My writing led me to see that I'm really struggling with a loss of identity since leaving my job as well as feeling a bit lost due to lack of structure.  So I'm focusing on my new job title of aspiring freelance writer and sticking with the routine I set up in my goals.  The Journal is basically a food journal.  But you don't just record what you're eating; Cameron encourages you to write about your feelings or thoughts regarding the food.  This leads to more insight.  Per her suggestion, I've also taken out my journal when a "Snack Attack" hits.  And it's actually helped me to avoid bingeing on the yummy things I shouldn't have.

My favorite part, so far, is Walking.  Just twenty minutes a day, according to Cameron, will not only improve your body, but also promises to lead to a flow of creativity.  I was skeptical about this.  I've always enjoyed walking.  In the past it's helped me to clear my head.  But by focusing on creativity rather than all my worries, I was actually able to come up with the idea for a whole new format for my blog, which I will unveil next week.  I mapped out the whole thing while on a quick, twenty-minute walk.  I totally recommend checking out this book.  It's a whole new way of looking at weight-loss.

 

The second part of my list of goals focuses on interpersonal issues and is a lot less concrete in nature than Part I.  Though I still incorporate specific and realistic objectives, they seem to be less measurable.  These goals are about overcoming longstanding tendencies and habits as well as looking at the ways in which I interact with others.

4.  I will be more productive in various areas of life (household obligations, writing, activities, etc.): 

• by taking a shower and getting dressed every day.  Also, I will do my makeup - after all, I am a Mary Kay lady!  Getting dressed as if I have a job to go to helps get me going.  Working in my pj's, though it sounds appealing, just doesn't work for me.  I know this.  So it just makes sense to dress as though I have things to do and people to see because I do!


• when I designate two to three days per week for specific tasks.  I know I'm not likely to spend every day cleaning (I hate cleaning!), but if I designate one day for laundry and one for vacuuming, I'm more likely to get them done and out of the way.


• by delegating certain tasks to the kids.  They're 7 and 9.  They can take on small household chores.  This will teach them responsiblity as well as aid in the saving of my sanity.  Win, win.  Yay!

I hate multitasking.  I hate it because I'm bad at it.  But I need to face the fact that today's world is multifaceted and fast-paced.  I think I spend more time feeling guilty about what I don't get done than anything else.  But I truly feel that if I start every day with a plan, I'm much more likely to get more done.  And feel better overall.  No, I don't think I have to accomplish everything on my list - remember, I'm being realistic.  But with a little planning and keeping my goals in mind, I think I can accomplish more.

5.  I will maintain and nurture my support networks:

• by talking to at least one friend on the phone each week.  I have lots of wonderful and supportive friends, but I find it gets so easy to forget that in the frenzy of everyday life.


• by utilizing technology such as email and social networking to keep up with close friends.  I just signed up for Facebook and MySpace.  I'm not very technologically inclined, but we have such fabulous means of communication, why wouldn't I want to use them to make my life easier?


• while visiting at least one friend each week.  Technology's great, but there's nothing like getting together face-to-face.  I have the best time with my friends, most of whom have kids.  So why not pack the little monsters up in the van and go spend some time with other moms?  Again, saving my sanity.  I'm beginning to see a theme here.

6.  I will work to spend quality time with my husband as well as with my kids:

• by taking time to sit with him on the couch at the end of the day three to four times a week.  It's so tempting to just sprawl out on the couch, exhausted, after the kids go to sleep.  We should at least be exhausted together. 


• by making an effort to discuss the occasional issue when it arises, or shortly thereafter, rather than letting it go and grow.  Things don't just go away because I choose not to deal with them.


• by encouraging him in his own interests and pursuits outside of the family.  Poor man never gets any time to himself.  I think that women inherently need more of this, but I suppose men are entitled as well.  So I'll remind him to do something he likes to do every now and again.

There.  I've made my goals public.  I'll also print them out and post them near my computer where I can revisit them throughout the summer.  Reviewing your goals not only helps to make them stick, but also lets you know when they may require a little tweaking or revision, should you find things aren't working.  I will revisit and revise my way to goal success!