I read 10:04 because amazon said it was excellent. It was a weird and different book and I am still not sure if I liked it or not. I can tell you a lot of it didn’t stay with me and I guess maybe that says all I need to know.
It’s almost time for the most magical time of the year. My favorite. I am not a fan of winter in general. I don’t celebrate any of the other national holidays with vigor. I don’t care for Valentine’s Day, Halloween or even Thanksgiving, really. I don’t mind any of them (well I am not a fan of all the scary stuff around Halloween.) I just don’t feel the need to go all out. I don’t feel motivated to make a big deal.
But that’s not true for Christmastime.
I am a bonafide fan of December. I’ve always loved the New Year. I’ve always loved twinkling lights. I’ve always loved Christmas Trees. There were bits and pieces of this season that I’ve cherished over my lifetime. But I firmly believe that this lovely little project has contributed widely to my love of the holiday season. Here are the things this little album has added into my life:
- It’s made me more intentional: More things happen because I plan them.
- It’s made me take more photos: I make a point to bring my camera, to pause to capture the moments.
- It’s made me more reflective: I take the time to journal my thoughts, print the photos, and put everything together every single night. This means I reflect daily.
- It’s made me more grateful: Reflecting daily almost always translates to huge amounts of gratitude.
- It’s made me more creative: I am guaranteed to spend some time doing something artsy/crafty every day in December.
How can you not love this project?
I always put my pre-pages together before the month but this year I found myself struggling with the idea. I was thinking maybe it’s better if I just wait until December and do it daily. Then I remembered how hard decision-making can be when you have too many choices and reminded myself that this helps narrow things down and make this project considerably more manageable. So I compromised and kept my pages pretty bare. This gives me a starting point but also gives me flexibility. (I’ve put in some pretty magazine pages in place of photos for now so it’s easier to see the page content.)
I’ve been doing a monthlong December project since 2007 which means this will be my tenth December album. Here’s to many many more.
- Weekly Intention: Back to work this week. It’s amazing how slowly and quickly the week off passed. I learned that I do better with schedules and plans because it’s easy for me to power down to full sloth mode when I am off. And while a little of that is a good thing, a lot of that most definitely is not good for my soul. So, like everything else, I need some balance in this, too. My intentions for this week are:
- First, I would like to catch up to work and feel like I am in the loop again and reconnect with my people.
- Second, I’d like to take a bit of time sketching out December. I will have a bunch more downtime and I want to be a bit more intentional about how I spend the time.
- Third, I’d like to buy Christmas presents.
- Fourth, I’d like to spend some time on my 2017 plans, I’d usually have long finished this by now.
- Fifth, I’d like to make a health plan for myself. What it means to be healthy for me, how to come up with a sustainable plan, etc. I feel like this is important to me and yet I never like to make the time for it.
- Choices I want to make:
- One: I will choose to work a lot, catch up, feel grounded and connected at work.
- Two: I will choose to spend a lot of my personal time on the intentions above.
- Three: I will choose to pay attention to all the layers of my life this week.
- I am looking forward to: working.
- This week’s challenges: i’m volunteering at David’s school for a long time this week. I also have late nights and meetings all week. Some important conversations tomorrow. But mostly I want to get a lot done this week on the personal/emotional side along with work so that will be hard, I am sure.
- Top Goals:
- Work: catch up to email + work.
- Personal: make the 2017 plan. yes it’s time.
- Family: december plan. buy presents. i can do this.
- I will focus on my core desires (kind, strong, true, generous, brave) by:
- I will be kind to my back this week. I’ve been in a lot of pain on my back and neck and jaw. I am not sure if it’s due to the puzzle making but it’s a lot of pain so I will try to back off a bit and see if that helps.
- I will be strong and organized and get these items crossed off my todo list.
- I will be generous with the xmas presents. I will try to buy thoughtful presents for my whole family.
- I will be true to my goals around growth and start figuring out my plans for next year. these plans help me grow each year.
- I will be brave with work tomorrow.
- This week, I want to remember: that this year is almost over. I am not sure how we got here so quickly but here we are. days, weeks, months, years are passing. i am so grateful for each year i get to have. for each moment.
Here’s to a wonderful week and for those of you who live in the United States, Happy Thanksgiving!
Another month is over. Good-bye November. Thank you for all the wonderful days.
Here are all the pages:
Onward to December!
Truth Cards is a Monthly Project for October 2016. All of the words belong to Melody Ross. These are a part of the Soul Restoration class in Brave Girls University, I cannot recommend it enough. Here are some thoughts from when I first took it. It’s even better now because Melody added so much more! You can sign up here. (I teach there, too.) You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.
- Three Choices I made this week:
- One: I chose to rest all week. I barely touched the computer.
- Two: I chose to listen to a lot of books while I worked on puzzles. I loved the peace though it wasn’t so great for my posture.
- Three: I chose to do nothing this week and I think it was with mixed results. I needed it so I am not complaining but it was also a reminder that structure and plans and schedules work better for me.
- I read/learned: I read a lot of books this week. I finished My Year with Eleanor, The Year of the Runaways, The Course of Love, Homegoing, On Living, Today will be Different, Hag-seed, Buffering, and The Spy. I am reading Crosstalk at the moment. The last Stanford Election 2016 class has finally been posted and I can’t wait to listen. Jake and I watched Search Party on TBS and I watched the Gilmore girls on Netflix of course. We didn’t get to see Fantastic Beasts or Moana. We’ll have to do that in the coming weeks.
- I celebrate: having a full week of downtime. oh and a lovely spot bonus at work.
- I am grateful for: books. i love reading more than pretty much any other way to spend my time alone.
- I focused on my health by: nothing. i didn’t this week at all.
- I made art: no art this week either. unless putting up the christmas tree counts. but here comes december daily.
- I let go of: being productive, being healthy, or just about everything else this week.
- Core Desire Check-in:
- Kind: I’ve been kind to myself this week. I wanted to take the week off and i did.
- Strong: Well I was strong in not checking work mail, does that count?
- True: I want to spend December exploring what’s true for me.
- Generous: I was generous with my time this week. I wanted to not stress about it counting down. I tried and was partially successful.
- Brave: I was brave to truly disconnect this week.
Here’s to another good week! 🙂
Weekly Reflection is a year-long project for 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.
Journaling asks: What am i yearning for today?
Today Journaling is a Monthly Project for November 2016. All of the words belong to Melody Ross. These are a part of the Soul Comfort class in Brave Girls University, I cannot recommend it enough. Last time I took this course, I ended up doing a year-long project on this type of journaling. You can sign up here. (I teach there, too.) You can read more about my projects for 2016 here and the pictures are all from Pinterest here.
I read Bliss out loud to Nathaniel because a friend of ours had recommended it to David a few years ago and I had never read it. It was a sweet story which had some scary scenes and some funny scenes. I think Nathaniel liked it and I asked David if he did, too. He said it was ok but he didn’t really want to keep going and read the sequel.
My friend who has a daughter said her kid read all of them 🙂
Journaling asks: What do i wish i could do over today?
Today Journaling is a Monthly Project for November 2016. All of the words belong to Melody Ross. These are a part of the Soul Comfort class in Brave Girls University, I cannot recommend it enough. Last time I took this course, I ended up doing a year-long project on this type of journaling. You can sign up here. (I teach there, too.) You can read more about my projects for 2016 here and the pictures are all from Pinterest here.
Journaling asks: What do i wish i would have heard today?
Today Journaling is a Monthly Project for November 2016. All of the words belong to Melody Ross. These are a part of the Soul Comfort class in Brave Girls University, I cannot recommend it enough. Last time I took this course, I ended up doing a year-long project on this type of journaling. You can sign up here. (I teach there, too.) You can read more about my projects for 2016 here and the pictures are all from Pinterest here.
- Weekly Intention: I am off work this week! Weee! Nathaniel is home all week and David has grandparents day at his school on Wednesday and Jake has a surgery on Wednesday afternoon, so I decided it was a good week to stay home and focus on my boys and take some serious downtime. My intention this week is to slow down. So so much that I feel the scarcity dissipate and the abundance creep in. I notice when I really slow down, things feel less urgent and I feel more peaceful so here’s to hoping for some of that this week.
- Choices I want to make:
- One: I will choose to read quietly and enjoy my time at home.
- Two: I will choose to see if I can make some more plans for 2017, get a bit closer to understanding my goals/wishes/hopes.
- Three: I will choose to be present and enjoy my time with all three of my boys.
- I am looking forward to: downtime. relaxing. reading.
- This week’s challenges: even though he’s done it before, i am always nervous when jake goes in for this surgery. I’ll breathe better when he’s out of it safe and sound.
- Top Goals:
- Work: do not check email. do. not.
- Personal: make more progress on the 2017 plan. Do the desired feelings exercise. (i didn’t do either of these last week so carrying it forward.)
- Family: make a holiday plan for the kids. (i didn’t do this last week, either!) and buy more presents for xmas, and put up our tree. love love love this time of year.
- I will focus on my core desires (kind, strong, true, generous, brave) by:
- I will be kind to nathaniel this week during our alone time early in the week. kind to jake after his surgery. kind to everyone as much as i can.
- I will be strong and sit with all the discomfort around the health and body issues i seem to be having lately.
- I will be generous with my family this week. Give more time, be more patient, feel abundance.
- I will be true to what i love the most. resting and reading and reflecting.
- I will be brave with disconnecting and knowing that work will still be there when i am back.
- This week, I want to remember: that these three people are the ones that matter the most to me in the world. that there’s nothing more I want than to make them feel loved and make them remember that they will always always always belong with me. I cherish every day I get with them. Every day.
Here’s to a wonderful week and for those of you who live in the United States, Happy Thanksgiving!
Journaling asks: What do i wish i could stop doing today?
Today Journaling is a Monthly Project for November 2016. All of the words belong to Melody Ross. These are a part of the Soul Comfort class in Brave Girls University, I cannot recommend it enough. Last time I took this course, I ended up doing a year-long project on this type of journaling. You can sign up here. (I teach there, too.) You can read more about my projects for 2016 here and the pictures are all from Pinterest here.
- Three Choices I made this week:
- One: I chose to work pretty hard and finish all my todo list items. I also checked in with all my teams and feel like I am in a good place and can take a week off without too much guilt.
- Two: I chose to go see the middle school musical with David even though I didn’t really want to and it turned out to be wonderful.
- Three: I chose to take Sunday to read on the couch. Slowly and enjoyably. It was quite wonderful, too.
- I read/learned: I finished The Versions of Us, Underground Railroad, Hatchet, and The Sun is Also a Star this week. I love love loved The Sun is also a Star. One of my top five from this year. I am now reading The Year of the Runaways and have a bunch of great books queued up. I’ve been waiting for the final Stanford Election 2016 class lecture. Though I am still one behind. I also got to see a few movies this week that I loved. I watched Sing Street on Netflix. We had watched some of the Dark Mirror episodes the previous week and I found it to be too disturbing but I had read that there was one episode this season that was really uplifting and good so Jake and I watched San Junipero which did indeed turn out to be wonderful. And last night we went out to see The Edge of Seventeen which was sad and lovely at the same time.
- I celebrate: feeling really connected to my job and life this week.
- I am grateful for: my rich, layered and full life.
- I focused on my health by: I’ve totally declined in this area. And thinking about how poorly I am doing is only making it worse, unsurprisingly.
- I made art: No art this week. December Daily is coming though so I know I will be doing a lot soon.
- I let go of: sleep. this was a bad week for sleep and I let go of fighting it.
- Core Desire Check-in:
- Kind: I’ve been kind to my teams this week, took the time to connect with each and it made all the difference.
- Strong: I need some help with this one. It’s been something that I need to work on redefining for myself.
- True: I feel that I always have to balance between allowing me to be my true self and trying to stretch myself.
- Generous: I was generous with work this week, too. But also with my kids. I spent a lot of time at both kids’ schools.
- Brave: I was brave to try to tackle so much last week and it was very hectic with 3 book clubs, 4 school visits, and 20+ meetings, but it all worked out.
Here’s to another good week! 🙂
Weekly Reflection is a year-long project for 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.
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projects for twenty twenty-six
projects for twenty twenty-five
projects for twenty twenty-four
projects for twenty twenty-three
projects for twenty twenty-two
projects for twenty twenty-one
projects for twenty nineteen
projects for twenty eighteen
projects from twenty seventeen
monthly projects from previous years
some of my previous projects
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