Since school started I’ve been waking up at 5:30am and taking a little time to myself before the kids get up. After I exercise, I sit down and journal a page in my notebook. It is my equivalent of morning pages. Some days it’s just thinking about the upcoming day and all the things I have to get done and other days it’s about looking back and trying to figure out something from the day before or my past.
Yesterday morning, I spent some time thinking about a meeting I had a while back. I had walked away from this meeting frustrated and upset. I’ve noticed that I can definitely tell if I am feeling my centered self or off kilter during a particular meeting. And I definitely felt off during this one. Unfortunately for me, I knew it was going to be a recurring meeting so I felt even more frustrated that I couldn’t tell what was making me feel this way.
As I started journaling, it occurred to me that what made me feel uneasy and put me on the defense was two individuals at the meeting. These two people and the way I perceived them changed the tone of the meeting for me. Not only did I look up to them as the authoritative owners of the meeting, but I also felt like they didn’t like me or respect me.
And so, for me, these meetings became about proving these two people wrong. So the content of the meeting didn’t even matter. All I focused on during the meeting was reactions from these two individuals. I was spending the whole time trying to behave a certain way so I could garner their respect. Every now and then I would end up showing my true colors in the way I responded to a specific argument and then I would instantly regret it because I worried they would disapprove.
The situation became untenable and I just couldn’t get out of the cycle I’d created for myself. The funny thing is, I don’t think these two individuals were even remotely aware of the impact they were having on me. So, yesterday, as soon as I figured out the root cause was these two individuals, an idea came to me during the journaling. I decided to get ahead of the problem in my own way.
I emailed both of them individually and asked if they’d like to have lunch sometime. I tried to be low-key about it and I sent it immediately without thinking about it too much. I knew I could easily talk myself out of doing it.
The second I sent the email, I immediately felt better. I felt that if I could get to know these individuals as people and not workmates, I would be able to see them in a different light. And I felt that this would help me remove the unnecessary importance I assign to them during the meeting. I think that one of the best ways to get someone off a pedestal is to get to know them. Even if the person declined the lunch, I knew that I’d already taken the first step to “humanizing them” by sending my email.
I got a response almost immediately. And, of course, neither declined. (I’ve learned that very few people feel comfortable turning down a direct request but that’s another post for another time.)
So now I feel even better. I am hoping that the lunches will go well and we might even possibly end up as friends. But even if we don’t I am pretty confident these colleagues will not play the same role for me in our next meeting. They will no longer intimidate me. Especially since most of the situation was completely in my head (and not reality.)
This is one of the greatest side effects of taking the time to journal. I feel like pouring my thoughts on paper gives me the space to distance myself from them enough to realize what the core issues are. And then I can find ways to resolve them, work with them, or get ahead of them.
Not bad for a 15-minute time commitment. The journaling often ends up being the most valuable fifteen minutes in my day.
David’s new school has a school-wide meeting every Monday morning. During these, they discuss school-wide issues. Last week, it was talking about school rules. This week it was about good wolf vs. bad wolf. Here’s the story copied from their speech:
An old Cherokee chief was trying to teach his grandson about life. He said, “A fight is going on inside of me. It’s a terrible fight between two wolves. One wolf is evil. He’s angry, envy, sorrow, regret, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, and ego. The other wolf inside of me is good. He’s joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, kindness, empathy, generosity, and truth. This fight is going on inside of me and inside of you as well. It’s inside every person.” The grandson thought for a moment and said, “Grandfather, which wolf will win?” The grandfather said, “Whichever one you feed.”
When we are angry and mean and we think unkind thoughts, we feed the evil wolf side and it becomes stronger. But when we’re kind and thoughtful, we feed and strengthen the good wolf side. We should try to make our good wolf side stronger. Since the grandfather says the wolf we feed gets stronger, we want to feed the good wolf side and starve the evil wolf side.
This got me thinking about my goals for this year. One of my goals this year was to be free of my past and the things I get hung up on. Stop worrying constantly and start appreciating the good things around me.
I think the Good Wolf and the Bad Wolf analogy applies to the way we look at life, too. I know that on my rough days, I look around and only see the bad things about my life. I see the piles of dishes in the sink or toys on the floor. I see where I’m failing or where I am not doing enough. It’s a dark day so everything I see is dark. I look for the bad.
And then there are those wonderful days where I feel really happy. All I see is the good stuff. No one can knock me down. I love my kids, my house, my husband, my life. I feel on top of the world and super-duper lucky.
Both of these days exist but they are rare. Most of the time life is just ordinary. I am not in that bad place but I am also not at the top of the mountain. And since these kinds of days are way more frequent, I think what I do on these kinds of days is what matters most.
It is on these kinds of days that I need to feed the Good Wolf of my life. Not just be kind to others but also be kind to myself. And positive about my life. I’ve learned that the same situation can be seen from many points of view. And the trick to happiness is looking for the good. For example, I can whine about how I have to get up at 5:30 to exercise or I can feel good about having some time completely to myself. I can stop taking the family photos because my hair isn’t colored, or I can just focus on all the smiles in our eyes. There’s always something to pick on if you want to be negative.
And there’s always something to smile about if you look for it.
That’s one of the reasons I do the gratitude journal every day. It forces me to take a moment and notice the good in my life. Every single day. And realizing that there’s something good every single day is very powerful. It makes you appreciate your life on an altogether new level.
I think “looking for the good” is one of the biggest changes I can do to actually feel happier. Maybe it’s called being optimistic. But when I think of words like optimistic or pessimistic, I think of the future. Like how you think the future will turn out. Looking for the good is all about the present. Looking at a situation right now and seeing the good in it. Seeing the magic in it. Figuring out what works (and not what doesn’t.) I do think this is a characteristic and something I can nurture in myself (and my kids.)
When David came home and told me about this story, he said he wants to add two more wolves “Happy Wolf” and “Sad Wolf” and they’re not fighting each other, he said. So you can feed the sad one every now and then but that you should try to feed the “Happy Wolf” more often. I like this because it shows that both happy and sad feelings exist and are legitimate. While it’s realistic to think we can work to be good most of the time, it’s unrealistic to assume sad feelings won’t ever exist.
But it is possible to feed the happy wolf more. It is possible to look at the good in things. Sometimes you have to search really hard but almost always there’s something you can find. And, like most things in life, the more you try, the easier it gets.
I’m a big fan of the Nike motto: Just Do It. If some of you have taken Melody’s Soul Restoration class, she has a similar concept which she calls: “She Did It Anyway.”
Here’s what I learned about life. We’re always too busy. There’s always a lot going on and there’s always a good excuse not to do that thing you’ve been putting off. There are some cases when the thing you’re putting off is unpleasant so as long as the consequences aren’t damaging, I can understand putting those things off.
But then there are the other things. Those we know we will love to do. Those that we really dream about. Those that might be tough but will have huge rewards. The thing is your life is made up of your ordinary days. So if you can’t find a moment to fit this new activity into your “every” day, you will never do it. Your life will never have that added joy because you’re constantly putting things off and waiting for the “right” time.
In general, I am very good about starting things. I am very organized. I make a plan and I get started. For example when I finally decided to start sketching (as opposed to whining about wanting to do it) I created a Pinterest board and collected several sketches I liked so I had a pool to choose from and I sketched one of them every day. Same for art journaling in my weeklong book. I made a collection of ideas and just did one each time.
Where I tend to get stuck sometimes is getting to the next level. Since I am a big planner, sometimes changing the plan is a big deal for me and I get stuck. For the last few weeks, I’ve been feeling like my sketching was getting stale. It was getting boring to copy more of the same sketcher’s work and I couldn’t find anything else I liked. I, briefly, tried to sketch my photos but that got old quickly, too.
I knew that I wanted to switch to watercolors. But I had so many stories around why I couldn’t. I make all my sketches in my daily book (I will write a post about this notebook) and it has thin squared pages. They can’t take watercolors. I also felt like I could never sketch without the grid I’d come to depend on (I bought grid paper cause I like it, not with sketching in mind.) so much. I also didn’t think I could come up with ideas of my own. I pondered for weeks and weeks. I looked at others’ work and felt frustrated. I tried to talk myself out of it. Told myself colored pencils were just fine, etc etc. This went on for weeks. Until last Saturday I finally decided enough was enough. I drove to the art store and bought a watercolor pad that was recommended to me (more about this on another post, too.) I kept telling myself not to over-think it. I had one idea for a sketch. So I cut the paper, and just sketched it.
As soon as I started, I forgot about the lack of grids, I dove right in and sketched and wrote and didn’t worry that I had no other ideas. I hadn’t planned a long list. I just did it. And then the sketch was finished and I loved it and glued it to my notebook and a new process was born. Two days later, I managed to come up with more ideas. I don’t have a long list but I am not worried. I know it will come. And if it doesn’t, I will adjust.
Just to show that this is not specific to art, the same thing happened for exercise. For the last month, I’d been worried about what happens when I hit the one-year mark. Do I keep going with the same system of walking for 2 miles and running for 1? Did I want to continue with 5K a day? I knew that I wanted to increase the running. I wanted to see if I could switch to only running for 2 miles. But I was really scared. I could barely make the 1 mile run, I didn’t think I could do 2. I also didn’t think I could start the exercise by just running. It sounds irrational but I was really worried. I kept whining and whining to myself.
And then on Saturday, which was my one year date. I just did it. I figured it was a Saturday and I was well rested and I could just give it a try. And it worked! Of course it worked. But then I worried that come Monday morning I wouldn’t be able to do it since during the week I exercise at 5:30am and there was no way I had enough energy for a 2-mile run at that time of the day.
But this morning I got up and did it anyway:
I didn’t think. I didn’t worry. I just did it. I know for some people 10:40 minute miles are slow but for me this is a miracle. And tomorrow, I will do the same. And the next day and the next day. I even have a plan on how to slowly get to running 3 miles a day.
One of the reasons I am good at getting things done is because I have relatively rigid routines around things I care about. So when the time comes to switch things up or take them to the next level, it can really mess me up. I can make a lot of silly excuses not to do it. Just like someone who never gets started to begin with.
But there’s magic in doing it anyway.
There’s magic in telling that voice to shut up. In having faith that the plan will reveal itself. In trying. In throwing yourself at it fully. Because that’s when the magic happens. You give it your all and the universe shows up to do its half.
It always does.
What about you? Do you have something in mind? If there’s something you’re waiting to start or take to the next level, this is my gentle push to encourage you. Make today your day. I cannot tell you how happy I felt all weekend for finally taking these two activities to the next level. I wish the same for you.
Last year, around this time, I wrote a guest blog post for Tracey Clark’s I am enough series. Two weeks ago, when I was stressing about all our routines changing, schools starting, work getting more hectic, I was thinking about this post. And all the other posts on my blog. Daily posts where I try to capture my family. My gratitude. Where I try to remember what’s good. Where I make myself pay attention to things I’d otherwise take for granted.
I was thinking about all this because on the Tuesday after labor day, I definitely didn’t feel enough.
No it’s not just that: I felt broken in every way.
I felt like I wasn’t enough of a mom to my kids and that my older one was acting up a bit more than I’d like and I didn’t have the tools to nip it in the bud as elegantly as I would have liked so I reprimanded him more often and more harshly than he deserved. Even as I saw it wouldn’t be effective long term.
I felt paralyzed with fear that my little one wouldn’t take to school and would just cry and cry. And that it would never ever work out.
I felt that the lunches I prepared were inadequate. Bland.
I felt stupid that I had to drag my husband along because I wasn’t sure I could figure out the new schools’ routines and drop off/pickup systems on my own. Or that I just needed him for inexplicable reasons.
I felt not enough at work when I kept asking stupid questions I should have known the answers to. When I was “discussing” things with some engineers and I had to put my foot down even as I was unsure of why. I felt like I was fighting a battle I was told to go into but when I got there I was alone. I was sinking. I was going to fail and take everyone down with me.
I felt I would never be able to find my way out.
I would never be good enough. I would never know, understand, do as well as some of my peers. I would never be the mom that had it all figured out. I could never be the wife who wasn’t unnecessarily needy.
I could go on and on. I felt like a failure and inadequate in all areas of my life. I couldn’t see any light. It was dark, dark, dark.
I was failing everything and everyone I ever cared about.
And I couldn’t see it getting better. Ever.
The day passed. But the feeling didn’t go away for a while. Even as I slowly figured things out, it dulled but it didn’t go away. It took several “better” days to squash the pain back and I know it’s there to rear its head when it finds me weak again.
I want you to know that I think it’s normal to have these days. Sometimes we feel it’s all dark. When I feel this way, I don’t even try to make sense of it anymore. I know these days come. No matter what Jake says to placate me, to show his love, I am not listening. I am not rational. It’s not about logic. It’s about losing all sense of logic.
For me, the best thing is to let myself feel it. Give Jake and others I love heads up and let them be there for me. Let them forgive me. Let them give me some space so I can slowly forgive myself, too. And make space to heal.
Because you know what? The good days always come, too. For most of us, these terrible days are rare. (Just like the euphoric ones.) And I think letting them take their course is much easier than fighting them.
That’s what I remind myself each time one of them comes to visit me. We all feel not-enough. We all strive to be loved. To be enough. To be wanted, loved, cared for. To matter. I think that’s a human need: to matter.
And we all *are* enough. Just the way we are. I truly believe that. We each have our own individual gifts in the world. Our own magic.
I think the trick is to not give in to those black days that try hide the truth and to pay attention to the millions of little extraordinary things in our life that clearly show how lucky we are. How we are enough in so many ways that matter.
I’ve started reading Karen’s blog a little over a year ago. I don’t remember how I found it. Some of the other blogs I read linked to it, I’m sure, and once I landed there, I stayed. Karen’s voice speaks to me and I often enjoy her images and her thoughts. I bought her book last Christmas and absolutely loved it.
When she announced that she was going to teach a 5-week course on creating your own beautifully different life. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to sign up. I feel like I like my life as it is right now. I am not saying it’s perfect or even my ideal but I feel content right now and I’ve taken a few courses in the last few years on similar areas which left me a bit jaded in these types of courses. I don’t have big dreams right now. I feel like I’ve come a long distance and I am on sort of a pause where I am just trying to enjoy where I am instead of aiming for other places.
Anyway.
But I like Karen. I like her way of approaching things. Her point of view. And I like taking classes. I really like taking classes. So I signed up. I couldn’t help myself. As soon as I paid for it, I was flooded with hesitation. Did I really want to take this class? Was it worth it? What was I looking for?
The questions went on and on but, alas, it was too late. I’d signed up. So I just patiently waited until the lessons started coming. The first week was last week and the focus was on “introspection” which is something I love so I was looking forward to it.
One of the first things Karen had us do is the process she outlines in this blog post. She had us make a list of everything we love to do. Everything. I must admit this was already hard for me. I thought it was a bit odd. And didn’t see the point.
But I am a good student, so I did my homework. I wrote four pages of things I loved (in retrospect I didn’t read carefully and wrote some things I loved (not doing but just things like chocolate.) and I think it would have been better for me to make sure they were all actions.) and I still didn’t see the point.
Then she made us write why we loved them. This is where the magic begins. I put off this assignment for a bit cause it came on a day when I was deliriously busy and I wanted to be able to take my time. When I finally sat to do it, I quickly got amazed. There were certain things on the list that I’d loved to do forever, like reading, so I hadn’t thought a lot about why I loved it. So I took a long time thinking about it.
The interesting thing is that I’ve loved reading ever since I learned to read. As a little girl, it was my way of escaping a world where I felt like I didn’t belong. As I grew older, it was a way to learn and practice a language that wasn’t my mother tongue. And then it was about the stories. And then the people. Now it’s about seeing how other people see the world. Learning about different worlds, people, ways of looking at things. So the activity is the same, reading, but the “why” of my love for it has changed over time and it was great to step back and think about it.
Just like thinking about why I like to blog, why I like to knit, take photos, etc. I was especially stumped at some of the nature-related items on my list. I love sinking my toes in the sand. I love feeling the waves wash over my legs. I love to watch the sun set or come up. I love taking a walk in the woods. I love watching the ocean. I kept thinking about why I love these things. Nature makes me feel calm, content, peaceful. I feel awed by it. I don’t just like nature, I like immenseness of it. I love the super-tall red wood trees; I love the endless ocean. I love feeling small and feeling like my problems are insignificant in the grand scheme of our world. (I made a piece of art about this many years ago.) So I kept thinking why did I love nature. And I finally decided it was because I love the feeling of being connected to something bigger than I am. Same reason I love volunteering or teaching. Diving.
After we’re done filling the why’s, Karen asks us to look for patterns. I’m a computer programmer; I like patterns. I love looking for patterns. The idea was to come up with verbs that might define the kinds of things that light you up. As with most pithy things, it seems so simple in retrospect, my words came out to be: learn, create, connect.
These words shouldn’t be surprising to anyone who reads my blog.
I was so fascinated by this that I asked Jake to make a list, too, and since it was my birthday yesterday, he indulged me. My goal was to see what things might come up in both of our lists. Even if he and I loved it for different things, it would be great to see what we both loved to do.
What came out was even more fascinating to me. Jake and I had similar things of course. And we even shared some of the same words. But it was in different ways.
For example, he and I both love learning. But we go about it so differently. I love to learn by watching others do it, taking classes, reading books, etc. He loves to learn by reading/listening and then thinking about it deeply so he can understand it from the ground up. He likes to learn by building, experimenting, tinkering, trying. By doing. So by the end, he generally has a much deeper understanding of things than I do. I generally learn a bit and then do, do, do. I might not fully know what I am doing. But a few months down the line, I will. I learn by doing, too, but not the way he does. This is the kind of stuff that fascinates me. Knowing how I work. Knowing how others work. Seeing the subtle differences. Acknowledging them and paying attention to them.
I think paying attention to these details is what makes relationships work better. The awareness allows us to make room for the possibility and understanding that others don’t work the way we do. And our way is no more right than theirs. So we can respect that they work their way.
Sorry, I know this is long. But I have so much more I want to write. About how knowing these words has already helped me a tremendous amount and I haven’t even finished going through my whole love list yet. I might even do the whole thing over and make sure to focus on verbs. But I still feel pretty confident that some form of learn, create and connect will end up being my words. And I have specific examples of what kind of learning, creating and connecting I like to do.
And knowing them allows me to seek more opportunities doing all three of these things. (Which was Karen’s point, of course.)
Sorry if this is all rambling a bit. I wanted to get some of my thoughts down before weeks pass and I forget. Part of the connecting (which for me is also sharing and connecting with my own inner thoughts, hence writing them here.)
All this from the first week of a class I wasn’t even sure I wanted to take.
Here’s the check-in for August. I know I am a bit late but it’s not too bad, right? You can see the original goals for 2011 here.
Family
I have still been reading regularly to David and recently it’s been books from the library which has been extra fun. I’m still keeping up with weekly family shoots, daily diary, and gratitudes. We’ve done so-so on family night in August but we did quite a few full-day family trips and mini-vacations instead. I failed on the music class thing cause it was just terrible timing. Jake and I had a few date nights in August and they were a lot of fun.
Health
Going strong on the running and walking. Did 3.12 miles a day every day in August with one of those being on a slight incline and did 60 leg lifts and 30 crunches a day. The food has been so much better, too. I quit my coffee and the graham crackers. I am eating almost all whole foods, now and eating a lot more protein. Sleep’s been a consistent 7 hours or so. I’m getting up several times a night to make sure David goes to the bathroom but other than that I have so much enjoyed the summer rule of not having to set the alarm. We’re also taking daily walks still and averaging more than 75,000 steps a week. So far, so good. As promised last month, I focused on food this month and feel really good about it.
Art + Photography
Still Sketching daily every day. I feel like I am in a bit of a rut for that because I want and need more ideas. I plan to focus on coming up with a strategy for that in September. And also still doing weeklong art journaling. I still love this project. I have not grown bored of it one bit. I’ve continued with the daily art journaling in August and loved every moment of it. I am trying to keep it low pressure and tell myself it doesn’t have to be daily but it’s one of the few things that keeps my soul happy so I end up doing it every day. No movement on photo excursions or etsy shop however.
Scrapbooking
August was a lot of scrapping for future projects, trying to get ahead of the curve. I did quite a few pages but I am more than caught up now.
Reading
Still reading my weekly book regularly. Reading to David, too. We didn’t have book club this month either.
Writing
I am still neglecting the thoughts-posts however I still think about them all the time and even jot down ideas. I just don’t seem to feel like sitting and writing them out. Feels like I’d rather spend the time to do art. Newsletters are all the writing that I’ve been doing for now. And August was dismal in journaling but I have a commitment (and even a class that promises to be of help) for September.
Learning
August was 21 Secrets, Christy’s Color class and Dina’s art journaling classes. I have already signed up for two for September. Nothing on the iPad front yet or the stop motion movie.
Community (This is a particularly hard one for me.)
Mom’s group is on hold for now but we did have dinner guests. I also went to work for lunch and breakfast. This area is moving slowly but it is moving.
And that’s it for August. Overall, I think I did okay. Lots of good goals met. Let’s bring on September! It will be interesting to see what stays and what goes with the new fall schedule.
week 1:Defining Your Unique Self: this week is a lot of journaling, figuring out who you are. I don’t mind journaling at all so I enjoyed this exercise a lot. You can also work on the cover of your journal this week. So here’s mine:
all The Girls’ Paperie products. I talk about it more in the movie below.
week2 is mostly about how these pages end up as tabs in your journal. Here’s a look at mine:
week 2 is also about your mission statement. here’s one of my mission statement pages:
week 3 is setting goals and the vision board. here’s my vision board:
week 4 is minefields: real and imagined obstacles and fears, things that stop you from getting your goals achieved. I don’t have a photo of my art journal but I show it in the video.
week 5 is about rules and how you make decisions in your life. This is a fantastic tool. I talk about it a bit in the video, too. All about how you decide what to do and what not to do. how you use your time and energy. Which is, of course all that matters.
And week 6 is about creating small and bigger tasks to do to achieve your goals/live the life you want so that you can take actionable steps towards them all the time.
This class is an ongoing process. It will take much more than six weeks to complete. But I think it’s worth the effort and I found the class to be extremely valuable.
And finally, I made a little movie to show you my book and tell you a bit more about the class. Please bear in mind, these are my thoughts and opinions. As always, your mileage may vary.
Feel free to ask any questions in the comments and I will do my best to reply. As I work on this more throughout the year, I might come and tell you more, too.
Here’s the check-in for July. You can see the original goals for 2011 here.
Family
I have still been reading regularly to David and loving it so much. I’m still keeping up with weekly family shoots, daily diary, and gratitudes. We haven’t done so well on family night in July but we did take several full-day family trips and mini-vacations instead. Nathaniel and I are still in music class together but my attendance has been super-blotchy mostly because I really really do not like being there. Jake and I have done better on date nights for July and it’s been wonderful.
Health
Going strong on the running and walking. Did 3.12 miles a day every day in July and did 50 leg lifts and 20 crunches a day. The food has been so-so but I am planning on fixing that for August. Sleep’s been a consistent 7 hours or so. I’m getting up several times a night to make sure David goes to the bathroom but other than that I am enjoying the summer rule of not having to set the alarm. We’re also taking daily walks still and averaging more than 75,000 steps a week. So far, so good. The one area that I think needs more work is the food. That’s going to be my focus in August.
Art + Photography
Still Sketching daily every day, it’s been doing for a long time now, I am quite proud of myself for it. And also still doing weeklong art journaling. I still love this project. I have not grown bored of it one bit. I’ve continued with the daily art journaling in July and came up with a plan to continue it without the pressure of having to do it daily. No movement on photo excursions or etsy shop however.
Scrapbooking
July was also full of scrapbooking. Lots of projects for the show. Once I mailed off my projects, things have been quiet. I have a few commitments coming up in August, but otherwise, all is moving here. Steady and quiet.
Reading
Still reading my weekly book regularly. Reading to David, too. We didn’t have book club this month.
Writing
I seem to be neglecting the thoughts-posts. I still think about them all the time and also about classes but everything is on hold for now. I am just being quiet and resting. Newsletters are all the writing that I’ve been doing for now. And July was weak in journaling but towards the end of the month I picked it back up and it’s going full-force now.
Learning
July was the end of Soul Restoration 2 and I didn’t sign up for anything new until the very end of the month when I succumbed and bought 21 Secrets. I also signed up for Christy’s class which starts August 1. Nothing on the iPad front yet or the stop motion movie.
Community (This is a particularly hard one for me.)
Mom’s group was quiet this month but we did have quests over and I also had breakfast and went to the movies with a friend. I also went to work for lunch. This area is moving slowly but it is moving.
And that’s it for July. Overall, I think I did okay. Lots of good goals met. Let’s bring on August!
Here’s the check-in for June. You can see the original goals for 2011 here.
Family
I have still been reading regularly to David and loving it so much. I’m still keeping up with weekly family shoots, daily diary, gratitudes, and family night. Nathaniel and I are now taking a music class together. Jake and I haven’t done so well on date nights for June but we will rectify that for July.
Health
Going strong on the running and walking. Did 3.12 miles a day every day in June. Doing 40 leg lifts on each leg and 15 crunches a day. I’m not keeping track of the food but I am still eating salads daily and trying to lower my graham cracker intake. David and I are also taking daily walks still so my average step count per day has been around 10,500 or so. Sleep’s been ok. I am getting 7 hours or so a night but it doesn’t seem to be enough. I still feel tired so I need to come up with a better solution here.
Art + Photography Sketching daily every day. A bit of a boring slump on that this month but I will take a step back and revamp things during July. Still doing weeklong art journaling and loving it. I’ve also added daily art journaling in June and I’ve been loving that too. Finally, I continued doing the truth cards in June, too. The photo excursion thing seems to be a bit of a bust.The etsy shop is also a bust I think.
Scrapbooking
June was a lot of for scrapping too. I did several layouts for Authentique Paper, Maya Road and Pink Paislee and I am still working on CHA work. I have a few more projects to do but then things should start slowing down. I have another guest spot coming up in September, too. I still have not been submitting to magazines but might start working on that again soon. I had a few other unusual opportunities in June but they won’t come up for a while. So far, so good.
Reading
Still reading my weekly book regularly. Reading to David, too. My book club was canceled for June so this goal didn’t happen.
Writing
This month hasn’t also not been strong on thoughts-posts. I’ve been thinking about them a lot but just not doing them. I use the small energy I have on the newsletters. I do have some class ideas in the works but I still don’t seem to want to work on them just yet. I’ve been diligent on the newsletter and happy to hear feedback if you’re getting them. I’m still not sure about NaNoWriMo but we’ll see. I’ve still been journaling up a storm and do it every weekday and sometimes even on the weekends and using that opportunity to improve my handwriting a bit, too.
Learning
Learning to draw, sketch, paint, art journal. In June I started Melody Ross’ Soul Restoration 2 and Alisa Burke’s Watercolor class. Loving both. Nothing on the iPad front yet or the stop motion movie.
Community (This is a particularly hard one for me.)
Going strong on the mom’s group and our June guests are coming tomorrow and it will be a big group. I’ve been quiet in June partly cause things have been so busy. I will try to do better for July.
And that’s it for June. Overall, I think I did pretty great. Lots of good goals met. Let’s bring on July!
I just realized that I didn’t do a checkin for May. So here we are. I will make this sort. You can see the original goals for 2011 here.
Family
I have been reading regularly to David and loving it so much. I’ve also been great about keeping up with weekly family shoots, daily diary, gratitudes, and family night. I finally signed up for a mommy and me class for Nathaniel and it starts in two weeks. We will be going to music class and I am hoping he will like it. Jake and I have been doing well with date nights as well.
Health
Going strong on the running and walking. Did 3.0 miles a day every day in May. I’m not doing strength but I did leg lifts and crunches daily. I’ve begun tracking the food at the very end of the month and have been working on reducing the graham crackers. I use the fitbit religiously and have been getting 7 hours of sleep most nights. I’ve also continued eating veggies and salads regularly. I’ve added an afternoon walk with David which takes my daily walk count to 10K every day.
Art + Photography Sketching daily every day. Still doing weeklong art journaling and loving it. I have yet to go on a photo excursion but I do take my camera with me on my walks with David occasionally and that will have to do for now. I am not writing photo articles mostly cause I don’t feel any urge to so that’s that. I do still have an idea for an etsy shop product but I haven’t felt a need to work on it yet. Maybe in June or July. I also started doing the truth cards in May.
Scrapbooking
May was a busy month for scrapping. I did a lot of layouts for Margie’s new company, Pink Paislee, Maya Road, Jenni Bowlin, My Mind’s Eye, and Little Yellow Bicycle. I also had my creative therapy and write.click.scrapbook layouts done and ready to go. I did some projects for CHA even. I also prepared all the content for June’s Masterful Scrapbook Design focus (photos). Since Jenni Bowlin and Little Yellow Bicycle were both guest design spots, I even ended up working on that goal. I have not been submitting to magazines but might start working on that again soon. After CHA, likely.
Reading
Reading my weekly book regularly. Stuck on young adult but nonetheless. Reading to David, too. I attended both book clubs in May. Even hosted one.
Writing
This month hasn’t been strong on thoughts-posts. Mostly cause I’ve been so busy. I will bring these back, I like writing them. I do have some class ideas in the works but I don’t seem to want to work on them just yet. I’ve been diligent on the newsletter and happy to hear feedback if you’re getting them. I did attempt to briefly start writing fiction daily but it was short lived and didn’t leave me all that excited for a NaNoWriMo possibility but we’ll see. I’ve been journaling up a storm and do it every weekday and sometimes even on the weekends.
Learning
Learning to draw, sketch, paint. In May, I had Christy’s She Had Three Hearts class. I have two more coming up in June. Nothing on the iPad front yet or the stop motion movie.
Community (This is a particularly hard one for me.)
Going strong on the mom’s group and we had guests over in May (and it was lovely). I did meet up with a friend too and that was wonderful, too. I’ve been reaching out a little less in May, will need to do more in June.
And that’s it for May. Overall, I think I did pretty great. Lots of good goals met. Let’s bring on June!
If I taught a class on setting and achieving goals would you be interested in taking that? It would be taught in a private blog setup by me, likely with daily posts. It would not be specific to scrapbooking or even art or any particular field. It would apply to any and all areas of your life.
Is this something you’d be interested in? If you’d let me know either way in the comments or by emailing me (karen AT karenika DOT com) I would very much appreciate it.
Also if you are interested, here are four other things I would like to know?
1. When would be an ok time for you to take the course. As in would mid/end of May be ok? How about summer? Or fall?
2. How long would you like it to be 2-3-4 weeks?
3. How much would you think is a comfortable price for you for such a class?
4. Is there any particular content in that area you’d want to make sure I cover.
Feel free to post answers to as many as you feel comfortable. Please don’t take it personally if I end up not doing what you might prefer. I am just trying to collect information and do the very best I can.
I thought it might be a good idea to review my goals at the end of each month and see if I am still making sure to prioritize them. I also thought this would be a good time to shift, adjust, add, take away as needed. So here we go. This is still going off the list I posted on January 1, minus the few I deleted in Feburary, with status updates for April.
Family 1. Read and do workbooks with David daily (Project A Book A Week with David).
All of April was our new Mystery series. It was fun for both of us and even though we’ve taken a break, I really enjoyed all four books we read in April.
2. Take photo of full-family and write updates weekly (Project Us Right Now).
Still going strong. This project still makes me so very happy. I am so thankful I decided to do it.
3. Write a daily diary of us + gratitude (Project Daily Diary)
Still keeping up with this as well.
4. Start a family night where we all play games or watch movies together (Scheduled for Sunday nights 6pm)
Family night is going strong. We need some new games but that’s in the plan for tomorrow. I love that it’s a little reserved time for all four of us together. We always prioritize it and look forward to it.
5. Sign up for a mommy/me class with Nathaniel (this still needs to be scheduled)
Something I dropped on the floor this year. I did find Nathaniel a music class for the summer so I will schedule it for us during then.
6. Schedule minimum bimonthly date nights with Jake
April had fewer date nights than usual but we’re still doing them and spending us time.
Health (Project Healthy For Life) 1. Do a combination of walking and running daily, work your way up to 5K a day
2.9 miles a day in April for a total of 87 miles. This month also marked 500 miles and 211 consecutive days of exercise.
3. Do strength exercises 3x a week
I am not doing strength but I have done 30 leg lifts (on each leg) and 10 crunches a day. Every day.
4. Track exercise+food+sleep+water using the fitbit
I am still tracking sleep and exercise. And paying strict attention to food. I’ve gotten better about the food planning too. Now that the summer is here, I stock a lot of fresh fruit and salads at home.
5. Get minimum 7hours of sleep every night and 8 on the weekends
A little less-good on this area. Not for lack of trying though. I am going to bed early but unable to fall asleep or stay asleep. Mostly due to stress. I have faith this will resolve itself and summer is coming soon and my wake up time will get a little later which makes a significant difference.
6. Eat at least one serving of vegetables daily and chicken/fish 3 times a week
Doing well on the veggies. Not eating enough protein still.
7. Walk at least 8500 steps a day and work your way up to 10,000
I didn’t add the 15-minute walk I mentioned last month but I plan to do so in May. This will bring me significantly closer to the 10K number. 8. Walk/Run a 10K
This is still a November goal 🙂 Though I must admit I am not feeling it at all. November is not as far away as it used to be and I fear this might not happen.
9. I also want to work on the coffee+graham crackers intake but not sure of the plan here yet.
Bleh. Still on hold with this one.
Art + Photography 1. Draw and paint a portrait six days a week (Project Six Portraits a Week)
Well I am not doing portraits now but I have sketched every single day since April 10. I even did two sketches a day for three of those days. I did 25 sketches in April. I am quite proud of that.
2. Art journal weekly (Project Weekly Art Journal)
This project is still going strong. I am loving the pages and the process. All of it.
3. Sketch something small daily (15-30mins)
Ah, see #1. 25 sketches baby!
4. Go on a Monthly photo excursion alone or with a photo buddy
I completely forget about this for some reason. I need to remember to schedule it. Now that the weather is pleasant again I think it’s easily doable. Will put on my calendar to schedule this for May.
5. Write weekly extended photo articles on my blog
Yeah, let’s just say this is not a goal anymore.
6. Figure out for once and all if I want an etsy shop and what will go in it
Finally progress on this one! I have come up with an idea. It might or might not pan out but I will work on it in May and we’ll see.
Scrapbooking 1. Create one layout a week just for me
Well I did create several layouts in April but mostly for work.
2. Do monthly The Girls’ Paperie layouts
Since the company is no longer, I doubt I have to continue this but I have done my share for April anyway.
3. Do monthly Pink Paislee layouts
I am all over this. I did both my April layouts in one sitting.
4. Do monthly Creative Therapy layout
Didn’t do any more in April. I am still caught up until July so we’re ok here.
5. Do monthly Write.Click.Scrapbook layout + write one more week during 2011
Same here. All caught up.
7. Aim to do 5-6 guest design spots or classes (that I teach) this year
I have a new guest design opportunity coming up this summer. I am not really trying too hard here at the moment.
8. Submit to one magazine a month (maybe, I can’t decide if I want to do this just yet.)
This is another area where I am not focusing enough. I will have to sit and have a good think about it and decide what to do here. It needs to either be more of a focus or not a goal. I don’t like doing things halfway.
Reading 1. Read a book a week (Project A Book a Week)
2. Read one book with David each week (Project A Book a Week with David)
Still reading a lot. Mostly young adult but I love what I am reading so it’s all good.
3. Regularly attend both book clubs
Well mostly down to one book club now but attended it in April.
Writing 1. Write at least one long thought/idea oriented blog post a week
I didn’t do as well as March here but I am still focusing on this. I will see if I can do better in May.
2. Write one new class (if you have requests, please share)
3. Write one downloadable pdf for my site or etsy (if you have requests, please share)
I do have some ideas here finally. We’ll see if anything pans out.
4. Write+email a newsletter each month
Doing this so far! Next one goes out in two hours 🙂
5. Possibly do NaNoWriMo (not sure of this one…)
We still have quite some time till November thankfully!!
6. Journal at least 5 times a day. Even if just for 15 minutes a day.
Yes! Journaling. Daily. Every day. Missed maybe one or two at most in April. Finally doing good here!
Learning 1. Learn to draw and paint portraits (Project Six Portraits a Week)
On hold for now. But learning to sketch!
2. Take 5-6 online classes this year
I’ve already taken 8 this year. I’m taking Chrsity’s class in May and will sing up for Alisa Burke’s watercolor class that she will announce on Monday. I am also taking Soul Restoration II in June. And I’ve finally figured out how I can use the Remains of the Day class so I will sign up for that one toward late summer likely.
3. Learn to write an iPhone/iPad application (sort of out there but achievable – let me know if you have an app you want)
Well I had made some progress but we’re at a standstill for now. Not focusing on this.
4. Learn how to make a stop-motion movie
No focus on this either. I have an idea but haven’t spent effort on this yet.
Community (This is a particularly hard one for me.) 1. Do a weekly-open house for Nathaniel’s moms group
This is still going strong. Some weeks it’s a few of us, some weeks just one and others none. But it’s great just the way it is.
2. Invite guests over for dinner at least once a month
We had girls’ night here and it was great. Already have a May social night scheduled on Monday.
3. Go out to breakfast/lunch once a month (to work or elsewhere)
I did one in April but to be fair I am not really doing a good job working on this.
4. Reach out to people I admire more often (leave more comments/send emails)
Did less so in April. But I believe in this goal and will keep at it.
And that’s it for April. Overall, I think I did pretty great. Lots of good goals met. Let’s bring on May!
