resolutions resolved.

i'm not a big new year's resolution maker. i prefer to set goals - and if it happens that i need to do that at the beginning of the year, okay, but mostly the goal setting is a year round, non-stop kind of thing.

my biggest goal of 2009 was to keep my pregnancy from becoming the only thing i blogged, facebooked or twitted about. and, for the most part, on june 4 most were surprised to see amely's beautiful face here.

besides that, we, as a family, wanted to declutter our apartment some (didn't happen), spend more time in god's word (we joined a wednesday night bible study) and get into more of a real routine because our work, study, play time is so bizarrely dispersed throughout the week (not a chance, my work schedule has shifted no less than 6 times in the past 3 months!)

after amely arrived, i needed sorely to get back in shape. it hasn't happened but we're working on it. the doctor's finally gave us the go-ahead to put amely on a less fattening formula (to supplement the breastmilk) in october and me the ability to stop the bodybuilder protein shakes (to fatten up said breastmilk) in late november. now with the baby properly gaining weight, i can probably get myself in shape in 2010.

my biggest goal - and something that is really important to me - was to read more. the dominicanrepublic has a poor culture of reading (for many reasons) and i want my children to grow up reading. the only way to get them to read is to be a good example. it's hard to me to get my hands on books - they're expensive and there are no public libraries and i don't really like reading in spanish anyway. so i beg, borrow and steal whenever i can. it leads to reading A LOT of books i'd never REALLY read on my own, but sometimes i'm pleasantly surprised. i read my students' school reading to better help them and read a lot of blogs. go figure.

this year i've read somewhere around 30 books. proud! next year i'd like to get my hands on more than that - but with two now mobile children, i doubt that it'll happen.

i've got some new goals in mind after my monthlong break from work. if they happen to kick in around new year's i'll post my "resolutions" here.