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.
Ok month three, here we go. Historically I am not a fan of March because it’s a long month and has no days off but this March I am looking forward to making some progress and shifting into a slightly different mode.
Also, because I realized last month how not well I’ve been doing, I’ve decided the major focus for this month is going to have to be to regulate my nervous system. So I am going to work hard to not up the ante and set more and more goals because I want to encourage myself to learn to rest and regulate my system.
Big Goal: The big goal for this month is going to be to do a big pass in the house, especially garage, but also my bedroom and living room and the dreaded board game closet to see if I can prepare for one more big item trash pickup. So much for not generating big work but I think this will make me so happy if I can do it. Let’s see.
Progress on the big five:
Y: My big dream and hope is that this work will be finished in March and then I can see if I want any new furniture or setup here.
G: The goal here is to do one pass at my items.
S: The goal here is to get an answer to laser and ideally get a first appointment.
Sa: I don’t want to setup a goal for this in March.
D: I will have a few more airport trips in March, maybe that can be it?
Three Medium goals: (have 4 this month)
File taxes.
Find a coffee machine, ideally have a way to test it!
One pass of fun stuff for the garage.
Start: gosh darn it can i do the shuffling? also stretch daily?
Stop: no eating in bed 🙁
Continue: the 30 days of portraits
Brave: hmm i think i will have to be brave with what i have to do to regulate my nervous system so I will see if I can dive deep there and unearth what’s going on.
Here’s to another month. Paying attention. Loving my people. Savoring and living in awe. And taking steps to move onward.
Ok Month Two. Another crazy month in the world. When we think can things get worse, I feel like the universe is like yep they sure can. I don’t even know how to contain the amount of stress my body is carrying. My nervous system is at an all-time high for trying to figure out how to navigate the barrage of bad news coming every moment of every day. I feel like I reached a crescendo in February where my mental state is pretty broken and I find myself catastrophizing and going from zero to 100 in minutes. I am planning to spend some time regulating my nervous system.
Even though I felt like February wasn’t super productive, in the end I got a lot done and I feel like it was a strong month for moving forward.
One Big Goal: I did everything I needed to for the taxes. I am 99% done, just waiting for two updated forms and then I can file. So big pat in the back for this one.
Progress on the big five:
Y: Got really lucky on this one, signed contract, submitted and got approval by HOA!
G: Major progress here too, all packed, locker secured, movers secured. Car gone.
S: had several appointments, have a follow up waiting on it.
Sa: still completely stalling on this one, don’t think I am ready.
D: No major progress here but ok with that.
Three Medium goals:
Did so many food paintings! Super proud of myself.
Didn’t cook anything new or meaningful.
Did not do ANY peloton. Shame on me.
Insta has been all over the place.
I think these goals were not the right goals for me but alas so be it.
Start: Have been taking long walks as often as I can. Not daily but several times a week if I am lucky.
Stop: Have done better on this one too, not perfect but better on liquids/food in bed.
Continue: have been working on this on and off too. not perfect but progress.
Brave: Going on the trip definitely ended up being the brave thing for this month. It was so hard. So so hard.
Unplanned but did this month: got rid of car, did other taxes, started doing daily portrait challenge.
I am super proud of all that I did. Good job moving onward, Karen.
