Does that look like spring to you? That’s the view from my kitchen. So yeah, the resolution from yesterday is sort of hooped.

Or is it? March 21st resolution: to not let Mother Nature decide whether or not I get to improve my mood. Pfft to Mother Nature, I say. So because I couldn’t run this morning, I whipped out an ancient Pilates DVD and popped it into the ol’ Playstation (well, I dusted it off, broke the cover trying to open it because it had apparently been sealed by the sands of time, fiddled with the Playstation for ten minutes, and then finally got the damn thing running). Forty minutes of stomach-wrenching workout later, I felt much better. Well, I wanted to vomit from the pain, but other than that.

So in the battle Depression vs. Pilates, the score is 1-o for Pilates. I give Depression a week and she’ll totally give up. HA! Take that!

An update on previous resolutions: I’m not a super huge fan of Jerusalem artichokes, I gotta say. Way too much peeling work for what amounts to a pretty bland root vegetable. Give me a parsnip over the Jerusalem artichoke any day of the week.

…run three times this week. A. is back, the sun is out (don’t talk to me about snow tonight – I do not care to hear it), and my running shoes have an inch of dust on them. I say “run” but really light jogging for about 20 minutes is probably all I’ll be capable of. Sad, really, but that’s what happens when you take a almost two years off. The ultimate goal, of course, is to run a race of some kind. Back in 2009, shooting for a full marathon was not a ridiculous goal. However I think at this point shooting for a half marathon for next year is about as ambitious as I can be.

I’m hoping the running will help with my mood. I’ve been particularly blue lately. No reason – just run of the mill depression that sets in once every few months. Most lame. My menfolk do cheer me up, but depression is a powerful bitch. Chemical imbalances do NOT rock my socks.

Oops, Mr. Budsie is up. Back to it….

…learn how to play guitar. Obviously not all in one day.

I purchased an acoustic guitar back in 2001, when I was working as a waitress at a tiny Thai place and making mad tips. Could I have dumped these tips on my student loan? Sure. But I could also buy an awesome guitar and be a cool guitar player. Hmmm, which do you think 21 year old Ezmy was going to pick?

I goofed around with it for awhile but like most hobbies I took up at this age, guitar playing quickly fell to the wayside in favour of heavy drinking and dancing, both of which were much more instantly gratifying. When I left Toronto in 2003, the guitar somehow ended up at my mum’s place and there it has remained until a week or so ago when Frenchie brought it to Ottawa.

I laughed my ass off when I first pulled it out of its dusty soft cover. Man, the stickers on this badboy. What. Was. I. Thinking? One of them actually says “Let’s Fuck Tonight”. Oh 21 year old Ezmy. But stickers aside, this thing still rocks. And I still have the beginner guitar book I picked up back then too.

So why not, right? Can’t hurt to learn another instrument and this might be fun for Budsie. I’m suddenly getting visions of Budsie and I sitting in the park, me playing fun songs and him running around. Yep, 21 year old Ezmy is vomiting somewhere.

*pictured here with the lovely LG

This time last year, my plans for the third trimester were squashed when I was told that I would be spending the next 12 weeks on bed rest. Lame! At the time I couldn’t even picture The Budsie. Keeping my eye on the prize was tough when all I had to do all day was watch re-runs of the West Wing and stew about labour.

But here he is! One year later and my little dude is here and rocking my green socks. In an effort to put the memory of last year behind me, LG and I took Budsie out for Guinness cupcakes and coffee at The Flour Shoppe in the Glebe. Nom!

Unfortunately, Budsie could not partake in said cupcakes – he was stuck with a St. Patrick’s snack of avocado, cucumber and cheese. Still, good times had by all. And I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed my Guinness cupcake. Guinness is still best in a glass but a good cupcake runs a close second.

In other news, A. comes home today! And it’s sunny! So I’m going to take Budsie out for a stroll to pick up some beer for my man and while I’m out, I’ll think of a good resolution for today….

…always, ALWAYS clean up mashed potatoes immediately after a meal of them with the Budsie. Seriously, who needs Krazy glue when you have leftover mashed potatoes? Budsie was doing potato artwork on our cheapy wooden Ikea kitchen table at lunch today when there was a diaper emergency. Well, you know how those go so by the time I got to the potato pictures, they had hardened into a decorative cement on the table. Four scrub sessions later and I’m still not sure I got it all. So diaper emergencies be damned – always clean up mashed potatoes first.

Oh yes and resolution number two? Try my hand at cooking Jerusalem artichokes. They arrived in the grocery order last week and I have no idea what to do with them. I believe Jamie Oliver has a recipe that could be made Budsie-friendly but I haven’t looked yet and the darn things are just sitting in the fridge getting sad. I must admit that I find new vegetables intimidating sometimes and these artichokes, with their peculiar shape (where to start peeling??) and tough-looking skin, are particularly striking. It doesn’t help that I’ve been generally uninspired in the kitchen lately. Making meals has become more chore than fun and I’m not sure why. Just a funk, likely, but irritating nonetheless.

Right, off I go to polish off the last of the wedding thank yous (!!) and then perhaps an early night? We shall see.

“Fighting In The Middle East” (Wow. Shocking.)

“Carter Gaining Ground In Election Campaign”(poor sod. That went nowhere…)

“Cuban Refugees” (doing what, I’m not sure. Knitting? Unlikely.)

“Earthquake In Ecuador” (eek!)

Oh, and Ezmy was born. So basically best day ever. I mean, aside from the fighting and earthquakes and such.

…put her baby to sleep. Wait, that sounds wrong. I resolve to get Budsie to sleep. By himself.

Right now, Budsie goes to bed so easily…as long as I’m the one who’s around. We have a great little routine that started working when he was about 6 months old: we head downstairs, he goes in this sleep sac and then we cuddle and read a story, he falls asleep during story and I pop him in the crib. Great, right? Yeah well the problem is that if anyone else tries this routine, he screams. And doesn’t sleep. Not so great.

I went through a brief period when Budsie was 7 months old of trying to get him to sleep by himself. That is, I would pop him in the crib, give him his pacifier, say goodnight and close the door. Unlike most babies, Budsie didn’t cry. What he did instead was play. For an hour. I’d keep checking on him and he’d be chatting away and the pacifier would be on the floor. And after a few attempts, I stopped trying because, well, I got lazy. I needed to sleep and I knew how to get him to sleep quickly.

But the thing is, if I’m going to be going out and having a life and all, I need to at least try to get Budsie to go to bed without me. And this starts by getting him to go to sleep by himself. I’m not going to take out the bedtime story but maybe I’ll read the story upstairs instead. I’m open to suggestions on this matter.

An update on previous resolutions: I went out last night and it went surprisingly well. Phew. However, I also forgot to take my eye make-up off last night and now look like I play football. Ah well, can’t win them all.

…meet some new people. In person, not online. Because I meet new people online every day and while this is awesome, it ultimately doesn’t get me (or Budsie) out of the house. So tonight I am going to meet the Kids in the Capital crowd for the first time. I’m actually pretty proud of myself here *pats own back*. We all know how much I hate meeting new people because I’m ridiculously bad at it. But tonight I’m going to throw myself in there and get me some mum friends. I booked a babysitter and everything so I can’t chicken out. Wish me luck.

(To be fair, I have been talking to these ladies for a few weeks so it’s not as though they are complete strangers. But I’ve never met the live versions so I consider this progress.)

Happiness, apparently, was making my bed (??) with my Rainbow Brite covers.

Remember when things were that simple?

Off for a sunny walk with the little man. Resolution post shortly!

…periodically make sure I’m staying on track with my other resolutions. This might seem like a cop out resolution for today but I’ve got a crazy day ahead of me so the most I can add in is making sure that I stick with what I’ve been doing.

So I reviewed the resolutions for February and the beginning of March to see how things were going and found that I have a 75% success rate so far. Woot! Resolutions to work on:

*Eating dried beans: here, I blame kidney beans. I’m not a fan but we have this big bag of them to get through. What I need to do is have a chili party and invite 50 people. Or start making other things with dried beans…like marakas or jewelry.

*Taking my vitamins: But this morning I did. I need a reminder of sorts so I’ve stuck them next to the Brita. This worked when I was pregnant so I have high hopes.

*Reading: I can’t believe this has been so difficult for me. I used to read voraciously. But I’ve just been way more into writing and sleeping lately.

*Losing the damn weight: I’m now plugging things into a food diary to get an idea of where things are falling off the wagon (but more to have a written record that doesn’t lie). Possible reason I’m not getting anywhere: wine and cheese consumption. Curses. But if I exercised more, I could probably cancel these out a bit…more walking = more wine? Motivation!