We're off to a slow start.

Major changes don't always happen on January 1st. Sometimes they take a little time to get warmed up.

To begin with, 2011 rolled in during a weekend this year - and weekends are always a little chaotic around our house. With Daddy home from work on the weekends, all vestiges of my girls' usual routine is flung out the window. So we enjoyed an alternately crazy and lazy weekend, and I looked forward to the return of normalcy on Monday morning.

However, Monday wasn't quite typical either. We decided to take one more week off from school, to put the house back together after the holidays, enjoy the news, and just recoup from the insanity of the past few weeks. Very slowly, things are being picked up, put away, washed, swept, vacuumed. Only one ungodly task remains for the week: de-junking the junk room and moving one little girl down the hall.

Yes, as of this weekend, my girls will have their own separate bedrooms. I would prefer to leave them in the same room, but bedtime fights have become the norm, and they've been getting on each others' nerves more and more during daytime hours as well. Ever the sensitive one, I detect the slightest bit of jealousy toward her little sister from Rachael...and think that having her own space may help alleviate a bit of that. It's not all because of Rachael, though - Milly is a little hothead, and needs some private "cool down" room quite frequently as well. So, we're cleaning and throwing out and giving away, and moving the bunk beds down the hall to create a room that's just Milly's. (Rachael will be the proud new owner of a queen-sized bed from her Gramma - she's super excited, and I hope she still loves the idea when she sees how the floor space in her room will be diminished with the larger bed. However, I grew up with a queen bed in the very same bedroom, and managed just fine.)

I am under no delusions whatsoever that it will be an easy transition. In fact, I'll be surprised if they don't wind up in bed together, in one room or the other, more often than not. As much as they fight, and as crazy as they make me, they really do love each other.

So cleaning and rearranging are the theme of my week...I had even entertained notions of taking down the Christmas decorations this weekend, but only after the bedroom situation has been resolved.

How about those goals for 2011? Well, I've blogged a little, and still have that giveaway that I need to get posted this week. I've scrapped one more page for my nephew's album, and have a good idea for the next one. I've Facebooked less, but could check in less still. And I spent the first Sunday of the new year at the church where I feel most at home, albeit with only Rachael accompanying me, and even visited a new Sunday School class that I'm looking forward to visiting again soon.

Oh. I've also learned that I can walk a 20-minute mile on the treadmill and not fall over dead. I know, a 20-minute mile is hardly bragworthy - but it's more than I've done in quite some time, and it's a start. Actually, it's an improvement, as the mile took me 30 minutes on Monday, 25 minutes on Tuesday and only 20 today. I wish I could say with confidence that I'll make it in only 15 tomorrow, but I rather doubt it. Baby steps! But steps nonetheless.

I'm reading a great book (on my new Kindle, which I love) that's helping keep me motivated to hit the treadmill - it's called Half-Assed: A Weight Loss Memoir, by Jennette Fulda. Jennette began her journey at 372 pounds and lost 186 of them - on her own, by diet and exercise. Her story is amazing, but she's still so very real...and so many of her comments could have come from my own mouth. (In fact, I may have to share a couple of them before long, but that's a different post.) I only learned after buying the book that she's a blogger as well, at Pastaqueen.com - which makes me very happy, since I'll still have her blog to read once I finish her book. It's one of those reads that's so good that you start feeling sad about halfway through, knowing that it's going to end too soon and leave you wanting more.

Anyway...life will really shift back to "normal" mode next week, when we resume homeschooling and Gene starts a new semester as well. Once again, there will be two full days (consecutive days, at that) where it will be just me and the girls until well past their bedtime. I wish one of the days weren't Wednesday, as that messes up my church night (Milly will NOT stay in her class at church, and taking her into my own class is just too distracting for everyone) but it's only for the semester...maybe he won't be in school on Wednesdays next time. We also have the first Girl Scout meeting of the new year next week, so I'll be receiving a healthy dose of reality in a hurry...best to chill a bit and prepare for it this week.

(Speaking of Girl Scouts...it's cookie time! Have you ordered yours yet?! Yeah yeah, I know...but hey, a troop leader feels the cookie pressure like no other. We have 14 girls and minimal funds - we need your support so we can keep doing fun things!)

Coming up next...that giveaway. Who wants some nifty Snapware? Stay tuned. :)