While we were in Boston we got to sneak away for two days and drove to New York City. Our boys had never been there before and since we lived there for 8 years we wanted to share a piece of our past with them.
We rented a car and drove to Connecticut on the first morning. We spent a bit of time hanging out with our friend Kendall and his awesome wife. The kids got to go in the pool and had a blast. We then drove to Long Island City where our hotel was and rested for a moment before we took the subway to the high line. Then we went to the Google office, the 9/11 memorial, the Staten Island ferry, and Times Square all in one day. At 11pm we were on the subway home and we were all very wiped.
The next morning we got to visit Jake’s friend Adam who works at Blue Sky and he gave us a tour of his work, which hands down was my favorite experience of the two weeks. After we got back, we went into the city to meet one of my childhood friends and then headed to the apartment of Jake’s college roommate where the kids played and laughed for hours as we reminisced.
It was a super short vacation but I am really glad we did it. We got to see our friends and the boys got to get a glimpse of one of my favorite cities in the world.
Stories from 2016 is a year-long project for 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.
- Weekly Intention: My intention this week is to enter the week gracefully and take every day as it comes. Nathaniel starts school on Wednesday and David has 2 days of orientation on Thursday and Friday which includes me so there’s a lot of juggling and driving on the horizon this week. I don’t want to pre-panic for what’s to come on the latter half of the day and just be present and enjoy what’s here now.
- Choices I want to make:
- One: I will choose to get a bunch of work done early in the week so I can peacefully be present with my kids as they need me in the latter half of the week.
- Two: I will choose to keep holding the kids accountable for eating more varieties of food.
- Three: I will choose to be patient and kind as this is a long week for a multitude of reasons.
- I am looking forward to: walking Nathaniel to second grade, getting to go to Orientation at David’s new school and learning a bit more.
- This week’s challenges: David is getting braces this week. I expect that will be rough. I have to be away from home both Thursday and Friday to make sure both we and David goes to this orientation and this will make work a bit tough. We also have a social event for David’s new class on Saturday. I am not great with social events.
- Top Goals:
- Work: My intention this week is to continue to get caught up at work so I can feel a bit more relaxed.
- Personal: I want to continue with my workout goals during this more challenging week (schedule-wise.)
- Family: I want to focus a lot on David this week as he goes through multiple transitions and Nathaniel as he walks into a new grade.
- I will focus on my core desires (kind, strong, true, generous, brave) by:
- I will be kind to my kids. Transitions can be tough.
- I will be strong and keep exercising.
- I will be generous with my compassion. And with my availability.
- I will be true to what matters most. This week is about the kids (next week, too, as David starts actual school.)
- I will be brave by going to this orientation + social events. They are tough for me.
- This week, I want to remember: that in a few weeks we will fall into a routine with school and that it will all be okay. I just need to take it one day at a time.
Here’s to a wonderful week!
Here’s today’s mantra:
This is similar to day three. Thanks to my OLW last year, I learned that I am indeed brave. I have all the courage I need. I put my mind to something and I do it. So all I need is the little voice in my head that reminds me that I am already brave. I am brave.
And onward I go.
Daily Mantras is a Monthly Project for June 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.
- Three Choices I made this week:
- One: I chose to run every day for one mile. I hated every one of those runs but I did it anyway.
- Two: I chose to do math with my kids every day.
- Three: I chose to work on our math and spent time with each kid doing algebra.
- I read/learned: I finished The Fundamentals of Caregiving and started Truth and Beauty(audio) and Present over Perfect(reading.) Two nonfictions is pretty rare for me. I also finally watched all the videos in Alisa’s Watercolor Blooms class.
- I celebrate: I celebrate our last weekend before the boys go back to school.
- I am grateful for: getting a lot done this week. being back home. almost feeling like we have a routine but still getting to sleep in because school hasn’t started.
- I focused on my health by:
- I’ve been doing a 1mile run, my 10K steps and my 7minute exercise daily.
- Kids and I are eating a mostly veggie and fruit diet lately. Though I have had some chocolate of course!
- I made art: I worked on my One Little Word for August and made myself a photo board. I’ll call those art for now.
- I let go of: I let go of being on top of things. I will take things as they come and do the best I can each day and then I will call it done.
- Core Desire Check-in:
- Kind: I’ve been kind to Jake this week. Spending time to help him without being too difficult about it.
- Strong: I’ve been working out daily, I’m proud of myself for trying.
- True: I love all the photos I hung by my desk. They remind me what matters most to me.
- Generous: I’ve been generous with work, doing what needs to be done.
- Brave: I’ve been brave with the way I’ve made my kids jump into eating actual food and not taking no for an answer. Much progress has been made in the last 10 days.
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.
Here’s today’s mantra:
Life is too short to hold grudges. And more importantly, when I don’t forgive, that other person holds a power over my life, my decisions, my happiness. I don’t want any of that. I want to forgive quickly. easily. I want to let it go. I don’t need to give them permission to do it again but I can let it go. I can detach from the experience. I can heal. I can learn to create boundaries. But all of this begins with forgiving.
Especially the people I love. I don’t want to build up a fight. I don’t want to win the argument. I want to let it go. I want to forgive and move on. I want to give the people I love a million chances. I want to assume the best of people.
Daily Mantras is a Monthly Project for June 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.
Here’s today’s mantra:
Life is full of possibilities. Full of people, opportunities, challenges, surprises. I want to be open to all of them. To other ways of thinking and being. I want to be open to what life might bring. Open to doing new things. Open to change. Open to things that seem crazy. Open to trying. That’s the only way I will get to grow, evolve, see what I might love.
I also want to be open to receive. To let others’ love wash over me. Their kindness. Their friendship.
Daily Mantras is a Monthly Project for June 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.
I read Among the Ten Thousand Things on the plane back from Zurich.
It has a weird thing with time. Where the book starts at the end. goes backwards. and then goes all the way back and then comes back to catch up with itself. Or something like that.
It was interesting but not amazing.
I felt somewhat apathetic towards it.
Here’s today’s mantra:
Another core desired feeling: be true to me. I want to be me. Unabashedly.
I have so many issues around this one. So many wounds. So many voices in my head that tell me there’s something wrong with who I am and that I should aim to change: the way i look, the way i talk, the way i behave. Change everything if I want to be loved.
And yet, there’s a strong pull inside me to be me. I feel like even though I feel bad about it constantly, I still always choose to be me. I don’t want to give up being me.
So instead of fighting it, i just want to own it. Step into being me. Not just be ok but be totally happy to be me. Thrive as me.
I want to choose me.
Daily Mantras is a Monthly Project for June 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.
Here’s today’s mantra:
This one of my core desired values for 2016. Give. be more generous. In every way. Give more time. Give more money. Give more love. Give more hugs. Give more smiles. Give more patience. Give more knowledge. Give more effort.
I have a lot more than I think. None of these things are scarce.
I don’t want to believe in a mentality of scarcity. I want to choose abundance. The fastest way to that path is to give more. When I give, it becomes clear that I can give. that I have more to give. Abundance begets more abundance.
So step one: give more.
Daily Mantras is a Monthly Project for June 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.
When we made our summer plans this year, we decided to change things up a bit. We usually go to Bodrum to see my family and chose to go to Istanbul instead and we usually go to Martha’s Vineyard to see Jake’s family, but we decided to spend longer and in Boston instead. So we booked a two-week trip at the end of the summer. We figured we can go to the Vineyard just the four of us for a few days and spend the rest of the days in their wonderful home in Boston.
This way I could go to work in the Cambridge office if needed and it was better overlap with Zurich timezone anyway (this was planned before everything moved to Sydney.)
Here’s what I learned form our two weeks there:
- The kids didn’t like the Vineyard nearly as much without all their cousins.
- But I loved being there just the four of us for a bit.
- I am still very allergic to the cat.
- It’s wonderful sitting in my mother in law’s backyard.
- Better than the Cambridge office.
- Though the office was really lovely to visit.
- The kids loved every single moment with their cousins and didn’t want to do anything besides running around the house and yard with them.
- Boston is really hot (and randomly rainy) in August.
- We all need to vary our diet more.
- Homegrown vegetables taste amazing.
- Two weeks is a long time to be away from home (especially when I’ve already traveled for four weeks before then.)
- This was a wonderful gift to our kids.
It was a great vacation and a good experiment. Next year we will have to shorten in a bit I think but Boston was definitely a bit win for my allergies!
PS: As I was finally processing all the photos from this year, (I had over 1,200 accumulated that needed processing!) I decided that there were way too many untold stories here and even though I would completely mess up the time order of things, I knew that I wanted to preserve these stories here because this blog is where I come to look back on my life and to put down the stories I want to remember. So without worrying too much I will go ahead and stick them all here and then years later, it will not matter that this particular story didn’t happen in this particular week. It’s still a story from 2016. I didn’t want to email 30 emails so if you’d like to read all the past stories you can click here.
Stories from 2016 is a year-long project for 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.
Here’s today’s mantra:
Shine. This is a word that’s been nagging at me for a few months now. It might be my pick for 2017. Though I do have a few other contenders, I love the idea of shining every moment. Being the very best version of me.
I bought a bracelet a few months ago, it says: Let your light shine
And that’s what this mantra is for me. Letting my inner light shine onto the people I love. I love this quote: I just really want to be the warm yellow light that pours over everyone I love.
Yes. yes. yes.
Daily Mantras is a Monthly Project for June 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.
Phew! I am finally back home after what feels like forever. I’ve spent the weekend getting organized, catching up on email and resting, resting, resting. After I finally processed the 1,200 photos that were sitting in my folder, I’ve posted 30 weeks of stories on my blog which feels wonderful. Thanks to being out of town so much, I have a collection of todo items, appointments and a slew of meetings this week. But I am hoping that by the end of this week, I will feel considerably more caught up. I’d better because Nathaniel’s school starts the following week and I have to spend two days at David’s new school for Orientation. And then they are both back at school. New routines, new school years, and onward we go. So I have about 10days of summer left here and I will do my best to spend that time getting us on schedule/routine and hugging and kissing my boys. And, most importantly, sleeping in!
- Weekly Intention: My intention this week is to organize myself. I would like to wrap my head around all the disparate pieces of my life a bit before the kids start school if I can pull it off. I also would like to do a bit of thinking around 2017. My word, my intentions, my projects. This is around the time of year where I like to begin thinking and planning for the next year.
- Choices I want to make:
- One: I will choose to get organized. Make lists, collect them together, reply/return/execute on long standing todos to be done.
- Two: I will choose to show up for my 30-day goal that I just set. More on this later.
- Three: I will choose to rest and enjoy my time with the boys before they’re back to school.
- I am looking forward to: feeling a bit more caught up on my life.
- This week’s challenges: I have the dentist (for me), the orthodontist(for david), and the post office (passports for both of the kids) all in one week. Not my favorite. I also have a lot of rearranging, cleaning of my calendar and adding a lot of new meetings this week.
- Top Goals:
- Work: My intention this week is to get a lot of work done at work so I feel more caught up and organized. I’m getting there slowly but I’d like to feel a bit more settled than I do.
- Personal: I want to rest and also eat well and work out and journal this week. Let’s see if I can pull it off.
- Family: The boys and I have been working on eating healthier and more varieties of food. I am so proud of their progress and hope to make even more of it this week.
- I will focus on my core desires (kind, strong, true, generous, brave) by:
- I will be kind to my body. I will be working it pretty hard this week, so I will make sure to rest, too.
- I will be strong and show myself that I can do hard things. I can do this.
- I will be generous with my kids. I will teach them math, spend time with them and help Jake with his work.
- I will be true to my priorities and remember what matters most to me. Stay focused on my goals.
- I will be brave by setting up new meetings at work, putting myself out there more, making it work.
- This week, I want to remember: that I can do hard things. I am stronger, braver, tougher than I think I am. Physically and emotionally. I got this.
Here’s to a wonderful week!
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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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