What Am I Up To?

I have been posting a lot of stuff this past month. Much of it about the family events and what the kids have been up to. As I look over it I realize that most of what I write is not about me. A goal when I started this blog was that I wanted to make the blog "personal" and in it I share about family things. The part that I don't dedicate time to is,... What is Melissa doing? I guess I do this partly because I do not want to be seen as arrogant (like I'm so great, ya-ya-ya), when I was younger and single it was all about me, and now the me of 2008 is about being a mother 24/7. So it is hard to focus on my needs, desires, wants...things are just different now. Here is what I have been doing for my

• Health: I have given myself between 3 - 5 days a week to take (at least 1 hour) and exercise my body in some way; be that Taebo, running, lifting weights, walking, jumping rope, dancing, playing soccer, etc. I have been doing this now since last Dec./Jan. and have seen a real improvement in my body strength and size. I have slimmed down from a clothing size 10 to a 6/8 and have lost about 15 lbs. I am doing well with my health and have hit what they call in the exercise world as a plateau. I am not gaining weight nor loosing it and I need to make a decision; do I want to up my efforts and change up what I am doing to loose that last 5 pounds sitting on me? or not? I still have dreams of a flat stomach, the real question is weather I am dedicated enough to do what it takes to loose it. My soccer injured toe has kept me off the soccer field for 2 months+ now and I would really like to get back out there. I will have to give it a test run soon, my toe is still not 100% as I type this.
• Community involvement: I am secretary on the board of directors for my church Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church and am really enjoying it. Being with others always charges me up and it gives me a chance to step out of the mommy role and have a purpose. It means 1 meeting a month + any other special meetings or trainings, as well as being a visible member of the church community. I like knowing so many people within the community. I will be teaching "Our Whole Lives" classes for the church with Glenn in the coming month as well as teach one weekend a month for the religious education program. I also lead one of the covenant groups at the church and am involved in the younger parents group there as well. I have not been going to Akorren's school, Gilmore, as much this past year. As I am waiting to see who is going to be the homeroom mom for 2nd grade and what things the teacher needs. My involvement here will change depending on what I end up doing career wise.
• Career plans: at this time I am gathering up the needed paperwork to become a substitute teacher for the school district. I also am seeing about doing this for St.Clare (a Catholic) school in the Clear Lake area. I am taking a break from teaching Kindermusik at this time as am I burnt out on it. My Homemade Gourmet stuff is just a hobby at this time as I am actively not looking for parties or booths to do. I am getting by off customer orders and what I purchase. I would not be surprised if this fades out at the end of the year. I am stepping back from this kind of stuff and just trying to enjoy the time I have at home to be with the kids and get the things done that need to in order to have a working household. The other thing I am doing is trying to keep my schedule open for the acting needs that Zhivanna may have. I will be her manager/secretary for getting her to auditions, so that my be what my job entails in the coming year. I still am trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up...in that I mean I know I have a few years ahead of me being mostly at home. It will be about 3 years until Merlova is in school. The logical thing is to get back into teaching as I already have a credential for it and the background. I do keep running the idea through my head about doing something with health and fitness, but that would required extra money to get certified, and that is something I don't have a lot of at this time.
  

I guess that this is enough of an update on what I am up to for now. I will post more later on about the other things going on it my multi-tasking life. I still have so many things to get done and put in order around the home, like finishing all the scrapbooks, going through the filing cabinets and cleaning up the study. Me at gymnastics with my little metal winner.