My big goal this month is to focus a bit more on health both for movement/stretching/mental well-being and for nutrition. I’ve made some tangible progress on this, this week. I’ve had several of the breakfast ideas from the list last week and I’ve made shredded chicken, beef+broccoli, zucchini+groundbeef and I’ve also made the 5-5-5 eggs. Even though I’ve also had lots of chocolate, etc. I feel happy that I ate much more protein and vegetables this week. So, progress. Let’s see if I can keep it up.
I’ve also taken small steps towards movement. On the days I am home, I take about a 3mile walk but I wasn’t doing enough on the other days. This week I did short 10-minute exercise each of those days and I also stretched or did restorative yoga almost all of those days. So, progress there, too.
Let’s see what I can keep going and turn into a routine.
Progress on the big five:
Y: I sort of ended up doing a little here partly because I rearranged the yard a bunch. We’ll see how much of it sticks direction-wise but I love the way it looks now. I ordered a pergola so we’ll see if that does the trick for the sunlight which is the only big problem I have at this point. Once I solve that I can move on to storage and trees and heat. And lanterns!
G: I have donation truck coming this week. I also found a place to donate books. I have sone ideas for the garage but I want to first see if I can get the big ikea unit into the garage.
S: Nothing more to do here this week.
Sa: No new progress on this, still just have a plan.
D: Still commuting all the way down to new office. Didn’t do anything else for now. Well I did pump air into my tires thanks to the help of a friend at work! so we will count that.
Three Medium goals:
Did some more great work this week. Not as much as I wanted but some.
So much progress on the yard, garage will be next but still iterating on the yard.
I started the list. It’s been interesting to explore what I think they want and the origins.
Start: Still so far so good!!
Stop: Still sleeping earlier thanks to new office and new schedule!
Continue: spent a lot of time with strangers at cafe! Also met with both J and L this week! Have some more coming up next week.
Brave: Still no progress on this, might be another week or two.
Good progress this week. So proud of myself and how much I am doing. Day by day, drop by drop. Here’s to another week. Paying attention. Savoring and living in awe. And taking steps to move onward.
My big goal this month is to focus a bit more on health both for movement/stretching/mental well-being and for nutrition. I spent more time walking this week than before partly thanks to my son being in town for the week. I hope to take that up a notch this week.
As for the food, I asked for a little help from Gemini this week to help me come up with super simple ideas. I asked for <15mins, lots of veggies and protein. Not a lot of ingredients. Here’s what I got: I ordered a bunch of the groceries to prep these, so let’s see how much progress I make this week!
I am hopeful that I will at least make a few of these.
Breakfast
Greek Yogurt & “Berry Smash”: Take a big scoop of plain Greek yogurt. Mash some fresh raspberries or blackberries into it to create a natural “syrup” without added sugar. Top with whole blueberries and raw sunflower seeds.
The Protein Power Plate: Two hard-boiled eggs (from your 5-5-5 prep) paired with a sliced pear and a handful of raw almonds. [5 Minutes High Pressure: 1 cup of water in the pot, eggs on the trivet. 5 Minutes Natural Release: Leave them in the pot for 5 minutes after the timer beeps before venting the steam. 5 Minutes Ice Bath: Move them immediately to a bowl of ice water for 5 minutes.] alternatively apple or pear dipped in almond or peanut butter.
Yogurt-Dipped Apple Slices: Slice up two apples. Mix a little cinnamon into your Greek yogurt and use it as a thick, high-protein dip. It’s faster than a bowl and feels like a treat.
Lunch
English Cucumber Boats: Slice an English cucumber in half and scoop out the middle. Fill it with your pre-shredded Instant Pot chicken mixed with a little olive oil and dried oregano. It’s fresh, crunchy, and very clean.
Chicken & Grape Spinach Salad: Toss your shredded chicken with baby spinach, halved grapes, and walnuts. The grapes provide a great burst of sweetness that replaces the need for a heavy dressing—just a squeeze of lemon will do.
Beef & Snap Pea Cold Plate: Use your pre-cooked shredded beef or sliced roast beef. Pair it with a large pile of raw sugar snap peas and a sliced apple. This is the ultimate “no-prep” lunch for busy days.
The “Adult Lunchable”: Prep containers with your hard-boiled eggs, a few slices of high-quality roast beef (ensure no pork/turkey), and a large handful of snap peas or baby carrots. It’s zero-assembly and very filling.
Tuna & Apple Salad: Mix canned tuna with diced apples and celery. Use a dollop of plain Greek yogurt instead of mayo for extra protein. This holds up well in the fridge for 2–3 days.
Mediterranean Tuna Salad: Mix canned tuna (in water) with diced cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and a squeeze of lemon. You can eat this over a bed of spinach or straight out of the bowl.
Rotisserie Chicken Salad Cups: Buy a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken and shred it (discard the skin to keep it “clean”). Toss the chicken with a little olive oil, lemon juice, and herbs. Serve inside large romaine lettuce leaves or bell pepper halves.
Dinner
Instant Pot Lemon-Garlic Chicken & Green Beans: Cook chicken breasts in the Instant Pot with 1 cup chicken broth, 3 cloves of smashed garlic, and the juice of a lemon (12 mins). Serve with steamed green beans (you can buy the bags you just pop in the microwave for 3 minutes).
Beef & Broccoli Sheet Pan: Toss pre-sliced beef strips and bagged broccoli florets with olive oil, salt, and garlic powder. Roast at 400°F for 10 minutes. Since you don’t like ginger, garlic and salt keep it savory and clean.
Zucchini & Ground Beef Skillet: Brown some ground beef in a pan with salt and garlic. Throw in a bag of pre-cut zucchini coins or “zoodles.” Sauté for 3–5 minutes until the zucchini is tender but not mushy.
Lemon-Garlic White Fish & Asparagus: Place white fish fillets (like cod or tilapia) on a sheet pan with a bunch of asparagus. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon. It bakes in about 12 minutes, keeping your total active prep time well under the 15-minute mark.
Sheet Pan Salmon & Rainbow Veggies: Place salmon fillets on a tray with broccoli, bell peppers, and asparagus. Season with lemon and herbs. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 12–15 minutes.
Instant Pot Shredded Beef: Put a beef roast (like chuck) in the Instant Pot with beef broth and garlic (no spicy peppers). Cook for 60 minutes, then shred. Store this in the fridge. To serve, just reheat a portion and toss it with a bag of steamed green beans or zucchini.
Zucchini “Noodle” Beef Bolognese: Use your Instant Pot to cook ground beef with a jar of “clean” marinara (check the label for no added sugar or pork fat). Serve it over pre-bought zucchini noodles (zoodles). You can sauté the zoodles in a pan for just 2 minutes so they don’t get soggy.
I am hopeful that I will at least make a few of these.
Progress on the big five:
Y: Ok I haven’t gone through the side yard, yet but I think it’s less messy than I think. I will take a pass this week, maybe. I did order a bunch of things for the yard this week. A rug, cushions for a couch, tablecloth, fairy lights, and concrete to weigh down the umbrellas. Let’s see how it looks when things come. Round two will maybe be fake trees, heater, more rugs, pillows, and a storage.
G: Woot, trash picked up. Filled out a donation request, we’ll see if/when they call. If not, have some other ideas. Didn’t buy something for garage yet, but have ideas.
S: Appointment two done, and three booked. Looks like nothing else needed at this moment in time.
Sa: No new progress on this, still just have a plan.
D: Still commuting all the way down to new office. Thinking about a local vacation for us three possibly. Will try to plan.
Three Medium goals:
Woot, did an awesome one Friday night. Yay!
Did so much work on this!! Lots of ideas for the yard, and some ideas for garage.
Haven’t done the list yet. Maybe this week if I have mental space.
Start: I have no idea what my plans were, lol. Alas he’s safely in London. So far, so good, let’s see how tomorrow is.
Stop: Sleeping earlier thanks to new office and new schedule!
Continue: Spent so so much time with D and also met my cousin and talked to so many random people at the cafe!
Brave: I expect this to happen in the next ten days. We have to see how he settles first.
Good progress this week. So proud of myself and how much I am doing. Day by day, drop by drop.
Here’s to another week. Paying attention. Savoring and living in awe. And taking steps to move onward.
Well I haven’t made almost any progress on the big goal so far. My son is home for one week only so I plan to spend this week with him as much as possible and then I can figure out the plan for how to get my big goal going.
Progress on the big five:
Y: no progress on this yet.
G: ready to go tomorrow for pickup, haven’t done donation research yet.
S: Appointment this week.
Sa: made a plan woohoo, haven’t started it yet though.
D: new commute done. didn’t end up visiting M.
Three Medium goals:
Started on this, have some ideas.
Did a little looking around but nothing really spoke to me.
Didn’t do anything on this, it will have to wait a week.
Start: i have some plans for this.
Stop: yes making progress on this.
Continue: i did so much of this, this week!!
Brave: no plans yet. but once he gets there I will make plans.
So proud of myself and how much I am doing. Day by day, drop by drop.
Here’s to another week. Paying attention. Savoring and living in awe. And taking steps to move onward.
Ok month five! I feel like the beginning of the year is so slow and then it races by. As I think about each month so far, I feel pretty excited about all the progress I’ve made this year already. I’ve done a lot of the physical parts of the work I was hoping to accomplish this year between my yard, garage and all the cleaning. I made major progress in cleaning, learning, driving, taking care of my peeps. Less progress in health and food and Sadie.
I’m going to attempt to go back to my more usual way of making plans for this month but we’ll see how it works.
Big Goal: The big goal for this month is going to be health and food related. I think it would help me if I made a big push in that direction. For health I would like to do some combination of stretching, yoga, core and weights and restorative yoga or meditation for mental health. For food, I’d like to eat a lot more vegetables and fruits, especially now that it’s getting closer to the summer months. I also will continue to paint and journal which helps me stay grounded. And some more on my skin health, teeth/gums, etc. The goal is not to drive myself crazy or reprimand myself. It’s just to try to take a big step forward if I can.
Progress on the big five:
Y: Go through the stuff in the side yard that I want to throw away. Buy one thing.
G: Do the trash pickup, find a donation place, buy one thing.
S: Laser appointment two and maybe three. Research if there’s any other prep work.
Sa: Start week one ideas little by little.
D: new commute and visiting M might be a bunch for this month.
Three Medium goals:
Do one workflow at work.
Research some ideas for backyard and garage.
Make a list of ideas/thoughts/belief to reclaim. Start exploring what they want.
Start: Support D in his transition.
Stop: going to sleep late.
Continue: to spend time with people even when you don’t feel like it.
Brave: plan a trip to go see D together.
I thought it would also be helpful to look through the lens of some of the themes I’d wanted for this year and see where I am and what (if anything) I might want for May:
Rebuild: The backyard was a big rebuild project. Maybe the next one is rearranging the living room.
Release: Garage was a big release, so was all the cleaning. Next big one might be around inner work.
Research: A few things that could fall in this category that I haven’t done much with yet are retirement plans, thinking about where i might want to live long-term.
Build: Training sadie is in this list. Slowly starting on that one. So is establishing a cooking and exercising routine.
Brave: Driving is at the top of this list. Making strides on that one. Letting go of some of what I’ve been carrying for 50 years is also on this list. hard hard work.
Help: Have already been doing this with A prep and daily lives of my kids and at work. Next big ones here will be college prep and job search/where to live.
Seek: The major areas on this one are seeking connection which I’ve been making efforts around. Also figuring out if and where I might want to travel.
Grow: Art has a been a major investment here. A few others are dancing, cooking, exercise journeys.
Tend: Tending to my skin. Tending to my soul by journaling. I’ve done more of both of these. Learning make up will also be on this list. Tending to my back, my hormones are also on the list.
Finish/Settle: Well yard and garage could easily be here. To be honest there’s nothing else I feel strongly about. I have some ideas for plans but nothing that needs to be done this year. I had a topic that needed to be settled, and I think we settled it.
Plant: Planting plants was on this list! 🙂 Dancing is here. Maybe a few more fun things?
Reclaim: Oh a long list on this one. I think this will be a May project.
Here’s to another month. Paying attention. Loving my people. Savoring and living in awe. And taking steps to move onward.
Made it to the end of April. I will say that while I got a lot done this month, it did feel more relaxed and I gave myself a lot of grace through the days. It felt good to be kinder to myself and felt good to know that despite a “major” goal, I still was productive. I do feel more rested and a little more centered.
Here’s all the stuff I had put as a possible list, I crossed out the ones I did:
More tidying up:
Pick through the stuffed animals for what to keep
Donate all the donation items
Go through my bedside drawers
Go through under my sink.
Go through linen closet.
Go through kids’ bathroom.
Go through ikea next to my desk.
Clean up desk.
Go through ikea by plants.
Go through the second desk.
Clean out the foosball table (over and under)
Go through the giant ikea.
Go through the cupboards by kitchen sink.
Go through David’s sink drawer.
After all those are done -> schedule bulky trash pickup.
Buy Fun stuff:
Buy colorful ikea drawers
replace cushions for couch outside
buy more lights for yard.
buy heater for the yard.
buy lanterns for the yard.
buy something to keep bugs/mosquitoes away.
buy fun stuff for garage.
Health: ( a did a little of several of these but not enough of any to cross off)
Start stretching regularly
Start a lifting regimen
Go back to doing core classes
Do pilates/yoga
Back to restorative yoga/meditation
Find 3 staple dishes to cook and have on hand
Moisturize every night
Learn stuff
Finish the AI course you did
Learn to use Jski
Research how to train Sadie
Do the shuffle class
Watch some makeup tips
Find a fun class
Take care of my people + myself
Help A with AP stuff
Take time off
Go to laser place
Go places
Watch the sunset.
Drive somewhere new.
In the end, I focused the most on cleaning up because it was something that both made me feel better and something I could do alongside watching TV. I feel like it was quite cleansing to do it.
Here’s to another month. Paying attention. Loving my people. Savoring and living in awe. And taking steps to move onward.
Even though I set no specific goals for April, I’m proud of how much cleaning I did in April so far. I have only one section (albeit a big one) left and then I’ll be completely done with my cleaning goals for the year. Great progress.
More tidying up:
Done:
Go through my bedside drawers
Go through under my sink.
Go through linen closet.
Go through kids’ bathroom.
Go through ikea next to my desk.
Clean up desk.
Go through ikea by plants.
Go through the second desk.
Clean out the foosball table (over and under)
Go through the cupboards by kitchen sink.
Go through David’s drawer.
Still to do:
Go through the giant ikea.
Pick through the stuffed animals for what to keep
Donate all the donation items
After all those are done -> schedule bulky trash pickup.
Buy Fun stuff: – haven’t done much of these, maybe this week
Buy colorful ikea drawers
replace cushions for couch outside
buy more lights for yard.
buy heater for the yard.
buy lanterns for the yard.
buy something to keep bugs/mosquitoes away. – done
buy fun stuff for garage.
Health:
Start stretching regularly – not done but i have been doing some foam rolling.
not done:
Start a lifting regimen
Go back to doing core classes
Do pilates/yoga
Back to restorative yoga/meditation
Find 3 staple dishes to cook and have on hand – still only one
Moisturize every night – on and off but i am doing this
Learn stuff: did very few of these.
Finish the AI course you did
Learn to use Jski
Research how to train Sadie
Do the shuffle class
Watch some makeup tips
Find a fun class
Take care of my people + myself – done with all of these 🙂
Help A with AP stuff
Take time off
Go to laser place
Go places – didn’t do any of these.
Watch the sunset.
Drive somewhere new.
Feeling a little better. Not there but moving in the right direction.
Here’s to another week. Paying attention. Savoring and living in awe. And taking steps to move onward.
Well I had no big goals or small goals for this month so the checkups will look a bit different i guess. I took a little time off this past week and it was great. It definitely was not enough and I am hoping to take a bunch more time off over the next two weeks, we’ll see if I can pull it off.
I did a few more items on my list:
More tidying up: Go through most of the ikea next to my desk, Clean out the foosball table (over and under), Go through David’s kitchen drawer.
Health: Moisturize every night
Learn stuff: Learn to use Jski more progress on this!
Take care of my people + myself: Help A with AP stuff and Take time off, go to laser place, hang out with David.
I’ve been feeling all over the place so I am giving myself grace. Let’s see what I navigate this week.
Here’s to another week. Paying attention. Savoring and living in awe. And taking steps to move onward.
Well I had no big goals or small goals for this month so the checkups will look a bit different i guess. I took a little time off this past week and it was great. It definitely was not enough and I am hoping to take a bunch more time off over the next two weeks, we’ll see if I can pull it off.
I did a few items on my list, but very small ones:
Buy Fun stuff: buy something to keep bugs/mosquitoes away.
Health: Moisturize every night
Learn stuff: progress on jski and the class
Take care of my people + myself: Help A with AP stuff and Take time off
I’ve been feeling all over the place so I am giving myself grace. We’ll see how this week goes and whether I decide to be more productive or to rest more.
Here’s to another week. Paying attention. Savoring and living in awe. And taking steps to move onward.
Hello April. As I was journaling about my goals for this month, I decided I needed something different this month. I want to truly take the pressure off myself. So no specific goal setting. And also I like having a list in case the desire or energy does strike me. So I decided I will make a list of all the things I could do and see how many (if any) I check off. If I check off ten, awesome. If i check off none, that’s also awesome. so is one, so is all, so is two. No goal. Just letting it be.
Here’s my list and also new things might come up and I am open to that possibility:
More tidying up:
Pick through the stuffed animals for what to keep
Donate all the donation items
Go through my bedside drawers
Go through under my sink.
Go through linen closet.
Go through kids’ bathroom.
Go through ikea next to my desk.
Clean up desk.
Go through ikea by plants.
Go through the second desk.
Clean out the foosball table (over and under)
Go through the giant ikea.
Go through the cupboards by kitchen sink.
Go through David’s sink drawer.
After all those are done -> schedule bulky trash pickup.
Buy Fun stuff:
Buy colorful ikea drawers
replace cushions for couch outside
buy more lights for yard.
buy heater for the yard.
buy lanterns for the yard.
buy something to keep bugs/mosquitoes away.
buy fun stuff for garage.
Health:
Start stretching regularly
Start a lifting regimen
Go back to doing core classes
Do pilates/yoga
Back to restorative yoga/meditation
Find 3 staple dishes to cook and have on hand
Moisturize every night
Learn stuff
Finish the AI course you did
Learn to use Jski
Research how to train Sadie
Do the shuffle class
Watch some makeup tips
Find a fun class
Take care of my people + myself
Help A with AP stuff
Take time off
Go to laser place
Go places
Watch the sunset.
Drive somewhere new.
Here’s to another month. Paying attention. Loving my people. Savoring and living in awe. And taking steps to move onward.
March came and passed faster than it usually does. I am not sure if that’s a good thing or not but here we are. I am not usually a fan of this long month without any breaks so I am not sad to see March go. I have been feeling off for a while now and I feel like it finally crescendoed in March and forced me to do something about it. So net-net I will consider it a very useful month.
One Big Goal: Even though I did the full work for the garage, I didn’t do anything else. I decided that was enough. So I am giving myself grace for this one.
Progress on the big five:
Y: Totally, completely finished. Have been enjoying it regularly.
G: Also completely done here. Stuff in storage, car gone, my stuff cleaned. So much work.
S: Got the first appointment for about a week from now.
Sa: Not ready still.
D: Not sure what’s next for me here, I think I have to sit on it..
Three Medium goals:
Filed taxes!
Decided I didn’t need a fancy coffee machine after all.
Didn’t get anything fun for the garage, decided that can wait, too.
Start: I’ve done nothing here. Not sure why. Just am not feeling it.
Stop: I did relatively little of this one.
Continue: I did about half the portraits and then decided it was making me too unhappy. I give myself so much credit for quitting because I usually never quit anything.
Brave: Hmm took some brave steps but will take a while to see if they were the right ones.
It’s sort of interesting to find myself in March and done with the two biggest things I wanted to do this year. Let’s see where that takes me. I am super proud of all that I did. Good job moving onward, Karen.
I’ve decided to let myself rest for a bit so nothing new on the big goal yet. Maybe this weekend I will do some more.
Progress on the big five:
Y: Finished! Need a little break before phase two.
G: Phase two done, too! Break here, too before phase 3.
S: Nothing back from nurse, talked to other place, will make appointment this week.
Sa: no progress here, i think this will have to wait a bit.
D: Nothing on this, this week, have to do a trip to pickup next week, a bit anxious.
Three Medium goals:
Taxes finished, filed, paid.
Not buying this for now.
This will be phase 3 so it will wait for a bit.
Start: nope nope nope.
Stop: nope nope.
Continue: finally decided to take a break from portraits. Did more than 15, that was enough for now.
Brave: still actively working on this too.
So proud of myself and how much I am doing. Day by day, drop by drop.
Other things from this week:
We had parent teacher conferences this week and one of the teachers told my daughter that she wishes she had had a friend like her when she was in high school. I am so grateful that my kids went to this amazing, special middle/high school. It is one of the best things I ever managed to do for them.
I am so grateful that my kids still come to me for advice, for deep, meaningful and hard conversations. I learn so much from them and feel deeply lucky to have the type of relationship we do.
I still feel like I am struggling more than I would like. I’ve noticed a few years ago that when I am not well, I seem to regularly have the sensation of jumping out of my own skin and it’s been happening with some frequency in the last few months. I’ve taken some steps to get help, but it will take some time, so I just have to be patient with myself.
I am not sleeping at all. I am basically half-awake all night and it’s making the days more difficult. So until it gets better, I am trying to take as many naps as I can.
This is the happiest I have been at work in my 30-year career. I feel seen and supported and appreciated. And also I feel like I am working hard to make a difference and lift others up. I feel spacious and generous at work which I feel very grateful for.
I finally took a break from drawing faces and feel so much more comfortable doing what I love and having my downtime to not also be a struggle.
It’s been a bad season of books lately. I can’t seem to find something that holds my interest or speaks to me. I have started and stopped more books in the last six months than I have in years. I wish I could find a few books that really get me back into the rhythm of things.
I finally watched season one of Drops of God and it was really good. I’ve been enjoying a few other AppleTV shows. I don’t watch a lot of TV but when I do I seem to enjoy watching a bunch in a row. I hate watching one episode a week.
I am so incredibly grateful for Sadie every day. Since I got her, every single morning is happier. I wake up feeling joy. It’s been an indescribably positive change in my life.
Here’s to another week. Paying attention. Savoring and living in awe. And taking steps to move onward.
