CHOOSE

Spring and Summer To Do List – 2016

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Spring is almost halfway over, so I thought I should combine spring and summer into this next to do list.  This spring I’ve been feeling scattered and uninspired (you might have noticed).  I’ve recently started a full-time job, and that’s making me want to be more focused and organized.  It’s a choice that I’m making, and it’s feeling good to get back into it.

So, here are some things I want to get done this spring and summer.  A lot are repeats from last year because they were fun, or we didn’t get to them and I was to try again.

  1. Swim in the wild.
  2. Make ice cream.
  3. Go to the art museum.
  4. Go camping.
  5. Go to the beach.
  6. Bach Festival concerts/ events.
  7. Go to the mountains.
  8. Go to a track meet.
  9. Participate in a track meet.
  10. Fireworks.
  11. #93summerdays on Instagram starting on June 20th.  Play along!
  12. Go to a concert.
  13. Stargaze with Alma.
  14. Day date with Jesse.
  15. Day date with Alma.
  16. Day date with Harriet.
  17. Take the family to a movie.
  18. Lots of parks.
  19. Eat fresh produce from the garden/ farmer’s market.
  20. Tie dye something.
  21. Pick berries.
  22. Ice cream truck.
  23. Can some stuff.
  24. Eat the canned stuff from last summer.
  25. Ride bikes.
  26. Hike.
  27. Play outside everyday.

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Productivity

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One of the things I’m choosing this year is to be more productive.  It’s hard to get into a routine since my days are all so different, so it’s been really hard to figure out the best way to be productive.

I have three things this year that are really helping me get stuff done. I have realized that I am all about extrinsic motivation.  If I’m going to do something, I need to get something out of it.

The first thing I’m using is something I also used last year – Elise Blaha’s goal trackers.  I use these to make my goals public and visible.  I get to color in a little circle every time I accomplish something.  It’s ridiculously satisfying to color in the circles, and to step back and see all the colored-in circles.

The next thing I’m using is my Get to Work Book, also from Elise Blaha.  If you need some motivation, go check her out.  She has incredible ideas and is a fantastic writer.  It has taken me a while to figure out how to best use this book for me.  I’m still figuring it out, actually.

Right now I’m using it to make daily to do lists in the daily sections.  One thing I love about the planner is all the extra space for project ideas, little notes, and reflection.

I like using it for lists, but I’ve also seen some amazing ideas on the Instagram account.  Once again, drawing a star on each of my to do items is ridiculously satisfying.

This last one is a new one.  It’s an app called Forest.  I set a timer in the app and if I don’t leave the app before the time is over, I get to grow a tree.  Then all the trees are put into a forest.  This app combines so many of my favorite things – trees, video games, extrinsic motivation, and pretty illustrations.  I use it when I’m trying to get work done.

I also use it when I want to spend time playing with the kids without distraction.  This has been the best part of it, honestly.  When I have Forest set up, I don’t randomly check Instagram and Facebook.   In the end I get a tree, and, even better, I know I have spent my time well.

FEBRUARY 2016: CURRENTLY

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reading Game of Thrones (still) and 10% Happier.

listening to Hamilton all the time.

getting excited to see Book of Mormon this weekend!

thinking about how amazing The Last Five Years was at the Oregon Contemporary Theater.

marveling at the talent that my dear friend Evynne Hollens possesses.

thinking that she should be on Broadway, but not really because I’d miss her.

wanting to go to New York to see Hamilton.

loving love.

sewing lots of hearts and heart type things.

cooking with the sauces I canned last summer.

looking at the Christmas cards we received this year because I just don’t want to take them down.

feeling blessed to have so many lovely friends and family members hanging on our wall.

watching as spring arrives outside.

writing a letter each and every day during February for the Lettermo Month of Letters Challenge (if you want a letter from me, send me an email!).

listening and learning about our candidates because it’s actually 2016 and it’s appropriate to start thinking about such things.

thinking that I’ve come to a decision about for whom I will be voting.

choosing.

The Age of the Bully

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I’m going to get political here and I’m going to say it.  Donald Trump is a bully.  He’s a jerk.  He’s sexist.  He’s racist. He’s a liar.  But somehow people love him.

I have an idea about why.

You should know that this is based on my observations in middle schools.  That shouldn’t surprise you since Donald Trump acts even less mature than most middle school aged boys I know.  Much less mature, in fact.

We all remember the bully, don’t we?  That one person who would make fun of other kids for a laugh.  That one person who would systematically target a weaker kid and turn the other kids against him.  When we were kids and saw this situation, we had to make a choice – stand up for the weaker kid, or join the bully.  It’s usually a safer bet to join the bully because then you don’t risk becoming the next target.  We have all done this – it’s part of growing up, figuring out who we are, learning what’s really important.

Fast forward through high school, college and into adulthood.  We are all rational adults, right?  We know who we are and we would all stand up for what we believe in, right?  I’m not so sure.

Our culture is fixated on the anti-hero.  A list of the top TV shows of the past few years reveals something that we all should think about.  Some of these characters are evil, others are simply unlikeable – Don Draper, Walter White, Dexter Morgan, most of the casts in Game of Thrones, Girls, Orange is the New Black, VEEP, House of Cards… I could go on.  Why do we continue to watch these shows?  Why do we care?

We watch these shows for entertainment value, right?  But, what if it has gone further?  What if by watching so many horrible decisions we have become immune to it?

What I’m trying to say is that we’re still that kid in middle school who chooses to side with the bully instead of standing up for the victim.  We have become so desensitized to the fact that bad people actually are bad.  We now look at a bad person and have to question whether or not they are bad, funny, misunderstood, or something else.

I imagine that many of the people who support Trump do so because of this dynamic.  He’s saying horrible things, and people need to make the choice to either laugh with him or fight him.  He’s reckless with his words, and people are eating them up.

Will he become the Republican candidate?  Quite possibly.  Will he become our next president?  I quite hope not.  I have faith that those Republicans who lean more to the left will help prevent that from happening.

I’m not sure our country could survive a Trump presidency.  Other countries will shun us.  Money will be wasted on wars and walls.  We, as a country, will solidify our role as a powerful global bully.

Let’s all work together to not let that happen.

“I Choose You” – a One Little Word Theme Song

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I like to have theme songs.  Music has always been a huge part of my life, and right now, Sara Bareilles is a huge part of my life.  (I’ve written about her here and here and here and here and here).

This song keeps popping up on my Pandora and Spotify stations, and it is spot on for my One Little Word – CHOOSE.  I mean, “I Choose You” is a love song, but I’m listening to it as a love song to my self.  There are some lyrics that are particularly perfect for how I’m feeling about CHOOSE for 2016:

And I believe in something again
My whole heart
Will be yours forever
This is a beautiful start
To a lifelong love letter

Tell the world that we finally got it all right
I choose you
I will become yours and you will become mine
I choose you

I’m choosing, this year, to write a lifelong love letter to myself.  To make choices that are good for my body and soul.  I’m choosing to do things that will affect and impact my life for more than just 2016.  That’s the magic of these Little Words.  You never know where they will take you, or what they have in store for you.

We are not perfect
We’ll learn from our mistakes
And as long as it takes
I will prove my love to you
I am not scared of the elements
I am under-prepared, but I am willing
And even better


Let the bough break, let it come down crashing
Let the sun fade out to a dark sky
I can’t say I’d even notice it was absent
Cause I could live by the light in your eyes
I’ll unfold before you
Would have strung together
The very first words
Of a lifelong love letter

Tell the world that we finally got it all right
I choose you
I will become yours and you will become mine
I choose you

There was a time when I would have believed them
If they told me you could not come true
Just love’s illusion
But then you found me and everything changed
And I believe in something again
My whole heart
Will be yours forever
This is a beautiful start
To a lifelong love letter

Tell the world that we finally got it all right
I choose you
I will become yours and you will become mine
I choose you

We are not perfect
We’ll learn from our mistakes
And as long as it takes
I will prove my love to you
I am not scared of the elements
I am under-prepared, but I am willing
And even better
I get to be the other half of you

Tell the world that we finally got it all right
I choose you
I will become yours and you will become mine
I choose you

CHOOSE – Making it Public with Goal Trackers

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Like last year, I bought these goal trackers from Elise.  I printed out seven of them and posted them by my front door.

I wanted to think of a few things that I can try to do during the year that will help me show that I’m making good choices.  Some are the same as last year – Wrist Party, Clean Room, Daily Chores, Sending Letters.  I also added Savour, Whole 30 and CHOOSE.

Some of these things I did really well last year and want to continue them, others I didn’t quite get, so I’m trying again.  Progress is greater than perfection!

Sorry these photos are potato quality… I’m not getting good light by my front door these days with all the fog.

JANUARY 2016: CURRENTLY

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reading 10% Happier for my book club, and Game of Thrones for myself.

listening to my Audra McDonald Pandora station.

eating no breads or sugars, back on Whole30.

choosing all the right things all the time.

making mistakes with choices, but really thinking about them.

thinking about choice and words.

waiting for an extended weekend away later this month.

planning what I’ll do with all my time alone on that trip.

wondering how I have a 4 year old.

using my new Get to Work Book.

loving it.

enjoying a quiet moment while the girls are back at school.

taking a deep breath because we all survived winter break.

drinking lots of tea and water, but not enough.

sleeping in bursts because both girls have become very needy at night.

wearing a fitbit again.

feeling motivated to get my wrist party everyday.

contemplating cutting bangs.  On me and on Harriet.

watching the second season of Broadchurch.

pondering why everyone on that show makes such dumb choices.

One Little Word 2016 – CHOOSE

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This will be my fourth One Little Word.  FOCUS from 2009, GRATITUDE in 2014, STRONG from 2015 all still speak to me in one way or another.  I love how these words carry through from one year to the next.

During December, I have been thinking about what word is speaking to me right now.  What word will help me focus in on what I need in 2016?  Where do I need something?

The word that kept popping up in my mind was CHOOSE.  Right now, and this could change, it means that I need to stop and make good choices.

There are too many days when I sit down during naptime and end up wasting the entire time doing stupid things like watching stupid shows.  I need to make different choices that will positively impact myself and my family.  Like clean the kitchen.  Or create something.  Or write for a while.  Or do laundry.  Or work on my license classes.  Or exercise.  There are always better options.

But, sometimes the best option is to sit down and waste time.  Sometimes that’s the choice that should be made.  But, I want to be more aware of those choices and aware of why I’m doing the things I do.

Those are the little choices, the daily choices that can change how I spend a day.  But, I know that these Little Words seep into more than just the days.  They don’t seem to be making a difference, then, poof I realize the huge impact they have made.  These little days, these little choices all add up to something much more important.

So, I choose CHOOSE as my word for 2016.  Here we go!