I thought it would be appropriate to do my January monthly recap and my annual life lessons post for my birthday all in one! You can check out all prior years here.
January 2024 Monthly Recap
Life
Friends continued to visit this past month to meet our baby and it has been such a joy! Every week we have multiple guests and it fills my heart to see our baby be loved by the people we love.
I’ve also been really focused on getting out of the house and bringing the baby to activities. We love going to local libraries and it’s been a good way for me to start to make friends in the area.
The baby has been getting more and more interactive, so most of my day is spent on the floor playing!
My parents, brother, and I had a night out in the city to celebrate my brother’s and my birthdays. We had a delicious meal and it was fun to be out with my original family unit 🙂
One thing I’m proud of this month is that while Joe went away on a business trip, I took care of the baby solo! It was great that my parents were able to come over and help me do bath time with the baby (4 hands are better than 2 for that activity!) and my mother even took the day off on my birthday to take care of the baby while I enjoyed a massage.
Books
This was a month of re-reading. I re-read three books from one of my favorite young adult series that I read growing up, Bloody Jack. For me, it’s the perfect escape and I wanted to start out the year with something I knew I would love.
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After reading “Expecting Better” I knew I also wanted to read “Cribsheet” by Emily Oster and a friend recommended it. I love getting learn about the actual studies and data behind common guidelines and this book delivered on many parenting topics that are important to me.
I especially got value out of the advice around childcare. The author says not to think about your childcare options as nanny v. daycare, but rather to decide between your absolute best case scenario for a nanny and your absolute best case scenario for a daycare.
Life Lessons at 29
The biggest shift in the last year of my life is my relationship with time. I’ve always valued time for the potential productivity I can find in each hour. I pride myself on what I can accomplish and my ability to focus. But…I always felt I had more time, nearly unlimited time, until this year.
There are a few reasons for this shift. The first, and most obvious one, is becoming a mother. I now live and die by when my baby naps and for how long. I move faster and more efficiently to get things done during this nap time than I ever have before, and I let far less things distract me because there is never a guarantee for how long I will have available before I need to be with him. I make the most of my time to a degree I didn’t before.
I also have seen just how much my baby has grown and changed in four months. It is mind blowing and has made me pause each day to try and capture in my memory exactly what he is like because I know I will miss this precious one, two, three, four month old so soon.
The second is that I’m in the last year of my 20s. When I reflect back on where I started my 20s (in college, single, dreaming of my career) to where I am now nine years later (living in a house I own, with my husband and child, in a job I love) I appreciate just how much can happen over the years. And it doesn’t solely come from the “predictable life path” that I described. It also has to do with all the places I’ve traveled, relationships I’ve built and lost, failures and successes. A decade is an eternity and the blink of an eye all at once.
This view that time is precious makes me feel motivated and inspired. Rather than feeling like time is slipping away, I’m more excited than ever to make the most of each moment I have.
My life lesson this year is not revolutionary (let’s be honest, they never are 😂). It’s simply that time is our most valuable commodity and it’s my obligation to myself to maximize, enjoy, and appreciate each hour I have.
I’m planning to write a more in depth post about motherhood, work, and time. My thoughts are still formulating and I’m excited to dig into this concept, especially before I finish up my maternity leave and head back to work.
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