• Three Choices I made this week:
• One: I chose to show up at work and get as much work done as possible. Early part of my week was day and night meetings.  but I showed up. I did my part to the best of my ability.
• Two: I chose to buy lots of warm clothes. I think we are readier than we were.
• Three: I chose to do my December Daily. I planned a bit more of 2017 but still nowhere near ready. Oh and I am almost done with Christmas shopping.
• I read/learned: I finished Hungry Heart, Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares, Salt to the Sea and the sequel to a book that came out this year ( i got to read an early version.) I’m reading This is your Life Harriet Chance! at the moment. I watched the two episodes of This is Us waiting for me on the Tivo and loved them both.
• I celebrate:  getting cold weather clothes for all of us. Shopping is a big struggle for me.
• I am grateful for:  my husband. I am just so so grateful for him.
• I focused on my health by: nothing still. If i were less honest, I’d remove this section but I think it needs to stay.
• I made art:  december daily baby!
• I let go of: nothing this week. I have been having a tough time on and off. Sometimes I feel totally fine and other times the smallest thing can set me off. It’s crazy, I tell you.
• Core Desire Check-in:
• Kind: I’ve been kind to Nathaniel’s school this week. Went to a parent meeting, listened and made some plans.
• Strong: I was strong with work still and my meetings and the shopping. that was strong and brave of me!
• True: I was not true to my wishes around planning for 2017. I am not sure what it means that I just can’t seem to get it together.
• Generous: I was generous with the boys and Christmas presents.
• Brave: I was brave to do the shopping. I was brave to go to work so much.

Here’s to another good week! 🙂

Weekly Reflection is a year-long project for 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.

• Three Choices I made this week:
• One: I chose to rest all week. I barely touched the computer.
• Two: I chose to listen to a lot of books while I worked on puzzles. I loved the peace though it wasn’t so great for my posture.
• Three: I chose to do nothing this week and I think it was with mixed results. I needed it so I am not complaining but it was also a reminder that structure and plans and schedules work better for me.
• I read/learned: I read a lot of books this week. I finished My Year with Eleanor, The Year of the Runaways, The Course of Love, Homegoing, On Living, Today will be Different, Hag-seed,  Buffering, and The Spy. I am reading Crosstalk at the moment.  The last  Stanford Election 2016 class has finally been posted and I can’t wait to listen. Jake and I watched Search Party on TBS and I watched the Gilmore girls on Netflix of course. We didn’t get to see Fantastic Beasts or Moana. We’ll have to do that in the coming weeks.
• I celebrate:  having a full week of downtime. oh and a lovely spot bonus at work.
• I am grateful for:  books. i love reading more than pretty much any other way to spend my time alone.
• I focused on my health by: nothing. i didn’t this week at all.
• I made art:  no art this week either. unless putting up the christmas tree counts.  but here comes december daily.
• I let go of: being productive, being healthy, or just about everything else this week.
• Core Desire Check-in:
• Kind: I’ve been kind to myself this week. I wanted to take the week off and i did.
• Strong: Well I was strong in not checking work mail, does that count?
• True: I want to spend December exploring what’s true for me.
• Generous: I was generous with my time this week. I wanted to not stress about it counting down. I tried and was partially successful.
• Brave: I was brave to truly disconnect this week.

Here’s to another good week! 🙂

Weekly Reflection is a year-long project for 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.

• Three Choices I made this week:
• One: I chose to cross off every single work todo list item I had. I stayed up late on Thursday morning and just got my whole list done. It was driving me crazy so now I am ready to build a new todo list.
• Two: I chose to run several mornings this week but I’ve also come to the conclusion that I hate running and I just need to come up with a different exercise I can do first thing in the morning. Something I can do at home, and something short but rigorous.
• Three: I chose to exercise my right to vote. I consider it a major privilege.
• I read/learned: I finished Tuesday Nights in 1980, The Mothers, The Wonder, How to be a Person in the World, and I am almost done with The Versions of Us.  I am also reading The Sun is Also a Star which is wonderful so far.  I’ve have a new lecture available in the Stanford Election 2016 class that I plan to watch today, it’s a class from before the election so it will be interesting to watch it with that perspective.
• I celebrate:  getting so much done this week.
• I am grateful for:  the election being over. I feel a plethora of emotions and haven’t processed all of them yet but I am still grateful to be off the rollercoaster. Even if I so wish the ride hadn’t ended where it did.
• I focused on my health by: 
• I did run this week and walked a bit but not consistently. I need help in this area.
• I made art:  I did not but I’ve started making plans for 2017 and I am hoping that counts. Oh and I changed the banner on my site in prep for 2017.
• I let go of: my hopes around the results of the election. this is what it means to live in a democracy.
• Core Desire Check-in:
• Kind: I’ve been kind to everyone this week. It was a rough week.
• Strong: Thankfully I don’t feel broken anymore but I do still feel too tired all the time, I know it’s food related and need to work on it.
• True: I’ve been working on my 2017 plan and it’s been interesting thinking about what my true self wants to feel more of.
• Generous: I was generous with work this week. I gave a lot extra to get work done.
• Brave: I was brave to show up at David’s school this week, I didn’t want to be there, I was worried but it all worked out, of course!

Here’s to another good week! 🙂

Weekly Reflection is a year-long project for 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.

• Three Choices I made this week:
• One: I chose to work a lot while I was in Sydney as much as I could. And I also chose to socialize even when I was tired.
• Two: I chose to go to the beach in the middle of one of my days to ensure I didn’t spend the week there without seeing the sculptures by the sea.
• Three: I chose to take David to his first middle school dance the same night I got back from Sydney. Jetlagged, exhausted, and still there. I am so glad I was.
• I read/learned: I finished A Darker Shade of Magic, Nutshell and Creative Schools this week. I am now reading Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy and Tuesday Nights in 1980. I have 18 audiobooks checked out of three libraries at this moment and I wish I could read them all simultaneously. Or at least before they expire! I’ve also watched the three new lectures in the Stanford Election 2016 class.
• I celebrate:  being back at home. I really like Sydney and am always happy to be there, but always happier at home.
• I am grateful for:  a solid week of work. Jake, being so wonderful with the kids. my kids, being magical creatures. my life.
• I focused on my health by: 
• oh man, did nothing this week. it was a week of just surviving it.
• I made art:  no art this week. i am hoping with a new OLW, I’ll do some next week.
• I let go of: trying to balance between my two teams while in sydney. i just did the best i could.
• Core Desire Check-in:
• Kind: I’ve been kind the boys. When my plane landed on Friday, I went to N’s school for halloween parade and D’s school for his dance. It was a long, long day.
• Strong: I am not super-strong at the moment. Jetlagged and tired mostly.
• True: I was true to myself in Sydney. I went to the beach, chose smaller social outings and did whatever I thought was the right thing to do along the way.
• Generous: I’ve been generous to work this week.
• Brave: I was brave with all the social work engagements. Those are tough tough for me and then a social at David’s school Friday night.

Here’s to another good week! 🙂

Weekly Reflection is a year-long project for 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.

• Three Choices I made this week:
• One: I chose to do a lot of art and journaling this week.
• Two: I chose to finish several books. That made me happy.
• Three: I chose to have a few conversations/social meetings go longer than I should have. I will do better next time.
• I read/learned: I finished Finding Your Own North Star, Underground Airlines, Another Brooklyn, Modern Lovers, and Siracusa. I am almost done with Hoot and in the middle of Loving my Actual Life (and still reading Paradise in Plain Sight.) I’ve also listened to the first lecture of the election class I was hoping to take at Stanford that was sold out so now the lectures are available here.
• I celebrate:  I celebrate reading so many books this week. I really liked all of them and doing art and reading are my happy places.
• I am grateful for:  being able to live the full life i live. it’s challenging but i am grateful for it.
• I focused on my health by: 
• I got the notification today that it’s been 30 days since I did my 7-minute exercise. Isn’t that amazing? this is why I try never to take a day off because it’s so easy for me to take all the days off.
• Walked 10K four days this week.
• Ran 1 mile every week day.
• I made art:  I did my November art this week. It was wonderful.
• I let go of: being done on time this week. Most of my Thursday was at David’s school and my Friday was at work, it messed up my regular schedule but I just let it be.
• Core Desire Check-in:
• Kind: I’ve been kind to kids at David’s school. I started leading the Lit Club and it requires a lot of patience.
• Strong: I am having trouble being strong. I am going to work on this one.
• True: I was true to my needs this weekend and did art and read.
• Generous: I’ve been generous with my time to others this week.
• Brave: I was brave to share something with another parent at David’s school this week and I think it really helped.

Here’s to another good week! 🙂

Weekly Reflection is a year-long project for 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.

• Three Choices I made this week: 

• One: I finally signed Nathaniel up for swimming again, woohoo!!
• Two: I came up with a really simple accountability system for the kids. More coming on this later this month.
• Three: I chose to help David with his work.
• I read/learned: I finished Deep Work, which was very interesting, Twelve Steps for a Compassionate Life which was wonderfully thought provoking, and Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty which I thought was going to be bad but was actually a surprise. I am still savoring Paradise in Plain Sight and now listening to Finding Your Own North Star. I read a short story called Opabinia by Neal Shusterman for the Lit Circle I am leading and I think I am going to start reading Nutshell next but I am not sure. No new classes this week, though Nathaniel and I did a bit of his programming class.
• I celebrate:  I celebrate making it through this week. The last two weeks have been taxing and I am trying to find a new normal. In the meantime making it through feels good. And a weekend without obligations is even better.
• I am grateful for:  I was talking to someone about my life recently and they mentioned how I didn’t have work-life balance but more like work-life integration. As soon as she said it, I immediately knew it to be true. My life and work are just intertwined. Working at home and having unusual hours (like Zurich and Sydney) and kids still at school (getting out in the middle of the work day) creates this intertwined life. And I love mine. I love that I can go to my son’s school in the middle of the day, that I can have meetings at night when they are sleeping, that I can help them with homework in the middle of work day, etc. I understand this might not work for everyone and I respect all choices but it’s a true gift for me and I deeply believe it’s what makes me good at my work and good as a mom (and wife!) because I feel very autonomous and because I am super-responsible the autonomy ends up being a huge gift. I am so incredibly grateful for this that I can barely explain it to others.
• I focused on my health by: 
• Sadly I am still not doing the 7minutes. I plan to start this though because there’s really no reason not to do it.
• Walked 10K+ daily
• Ran 1 mile every day.
• My food is still not well though I have a bit of a plan now.
• I’ve also decided this morning that I will take the weekends off running and the 10K. If I get the 10K in great but I will not put so much pressure on myself on the weekends. At the moment life is very full and busy and I think having these down days really feel like I can have them as rest days is really important. So I am going to give myself some grace while hoping that it doesn’t destroy the discipline of the other days.
• I made art:  I’ve been thinking about OLW and my dailies for November but I’ve done nothing.
• I let go of: I let go of doing anything this week that wasn’t on my calendar. Many of my todos fell by the wayside. I will catch up.
• Core Desire Check-in:
• Kind: I’ve been kind to David this week. Giving him grace when he needed, sitting with him when he wanted and helping with his work.
• Strong: I am aching all over at the moment. I think I need to rest.
• True: I was true to my need to sleep. When my meetings ended and todo list was overflowing, I still chose sleep.
• Generous: I’ve been generous with my social time this week. I am learning that two is my limit and I need to stick to that number.
• Brave: I was brave with signing up for Lit Club in David’s school (but for the younger kids). I am scared but excited.

Here’s to another good week! 🙂

Weekly Reflection is a year-long project for 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.