mission statement

I've been wanting to create a personal mission statement for quite some time, and last night I found a really great tool that finally helped me do just that. While I'm not sure I want to share my mission statement just yet, I'm really, really excited about it! I am hoping that referring back to it reminds me of the things I want to accomplish and keeps me on track to do so.

That's the point, right?

Anyway, if you, too, have been looking to do something like this for yourself...look no further! :)

{wordless} giving

Our daughter has the most caring, most thoughtful, most giving heart. In my thirty years, I've only come across a handful of people I'd honestly say that about, and she is not included because I am biased. Honestly, because she is mine, the bar has been held that much higher for her to be there.

She cries because she so happy that she can't handle the emotion, she feels pain for her friends (which often makes her cry, too), and she's the first one to offer up something of her own if she knows someone else will enjoy it.

The latter is the case with this photograph. It's of an owl sticker she found among her many Christmas gifts, and something she held in her hand as she came down the stairs just a few minutes ago  singsonging, "Mooooommm, I have a present for you. I know it's something you'll like..."

She never ceases to amaze me. I cannot, for the life of me, picture my seven-year-old self giving anyone anything. Not a sticker, not a toy...nothing. I liked my things, and I liked them to remain mine. Nor did I --or,  rarely do I now, even-- ever show the depth of emotion that this little girl does.

She is amazing and wonderful, and I have so very much to learn from her.

12/12/12

Everyone has been making a big deal about today's date; about how they've never seen it before and will never see it again. At first I was the same way, thinking I'd never see another 12/12/12 unless I lived to be 130, but then I realized something.

Yes, this is a date I've never seen before and am quite sure I'll never see again (living to 130 is a bit more than wishful thinking). But you know what? Today is a day I'll never see again. Who cares what order the numbers fall into? Every day is a gift, because the next is not for certain.

“It's being here now that's important. There's no past and there's no future. 

Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now. 

We can gain experience from the past, but we can't relive it; 

and we can hope for the future, but we don't know if there is one.” 

--George Harrison

Live for today. The only thing special about a date (day) is how you live it. Numbers are just...numbers.

been busy living life...

While my blog has been boring, life has been anything but. Here are the highlights, in no particular order:

• Lily missed three days of school due to the croup.
• We traveled down to and spent Veterans' Day weekend with my in-laws in New Jersey. The Sandy devastation --especially through Connecticut and New York-- was insane.
• I registered to "go back" to school in January. (I'm going to save the details on this for another post!)
• I've had two (out of three) pets to the vet for regular checkups. Both --Maggie and Sadie-- are doing fine. Sadie actually goes back again tomorrow for her second Lyme Disease vaccination booster.
• Lily joined a Brownie troop.
• I got a chance to spend a day with my favorite cousin. She came to see our new home, then she and I did lunch and a little shopping (where I spent too much at AC Moore, as usual).
• Sadie graduated from puppy obedience class.
• I met with Lily's teacher for the first parent-teacher conference of the year. My kiddo is doing great. Top of her class in math, actually. Yay!! She's also fitting in well with her new classmates :) 

And...I got caught up on my housework. Well, maybe for a day, anyway...

30 days of giving thanks

It’s simple.

Take a moment each day in November and thank someone in your life.

Send a text, make a call, leave a post-it,

write an old fashioned letter…

Make eye contact.

Smile.

And say, “thanks.”

It doesn’t matter how you thank them.  

Simply think of someone in your life - each day - and tell them why you are thankful for them.  

Give them your thanks.

Thank thirty people in thirty days.

Can’t think of thirty people?

Look more closely at the people you encounter in a day. 

The postman.

The barista.

The friendly teller at the bank.

The woman who always stamps your parking ticket.

Your neighbor down the street.

Is there a local store owner who makes you feel welcome every time you shop?

Do you have a favorite sacker at the grocery store?

How about someone you work with that makes you laugh?

Do you have a favorite hair stylist, or a massage therapist, or yoga teacher?

Have you you told your best friend how much you appreciate their friendship?

Did you ever thank your favorite teacher?

Has anyone helped change the course of your life?

What about someone you are really close to – like your kids or spouse – when’s the last time you thanked them?

***

Isn't this an amazing idea? I'm really looking forward to the positivity and warmth this brings into my life over the next month. You can join in too at:

  A Free Spirit Life.

the boy i fell in love with.

I was sorting through some papers and things Mike's grandmother sent back with him after his last visit with her, and I came upon a little newsletter he'd done about himself for a class in high school, just weeks before we started dating.

"THE DAILY MIKE" was printed neatly across the top of a sheet of ragged red construction paper; the words 'Price: FREE' were minuscule in the upper right. Rectangles painstakingly drawn with a ruler contained little blurbs about him, such as his horoscope, favorite foods, greatest accomplishment, and interests. He liked the clichéd long walks on the beach, by the way...in case you were curious ;)

What got me was the photo of himself he'd attached. I saw that, and I was suddenly a freshman in high school again, giddy and feeling my insides get all squishy at the very sight of him. Here was the boy I fell in love with, who stole my heart and has held onto it after all of these years.

He's not that boy anymore, and I'm not that girl. We're man and woman, husband and wife. We've changed and grown immensely, we've built a life and a family.

Does he still make me feel the way he did back then? Absolutely. But, I love him in a different way than I did then. I love him more. It's just...there is nothing like the feeling of first love.

I am so very, very ridiculously lucky (and thankful) to be still in love with --and married to-- mine.

feeling SAD.

I was very hesitant to write about this because it's a little more personal than I am accustomed to sharing freely, especially in such a public way as this. But, that was the whole point of me creating this space....to share, to grow, to change.

My subtitle reads "Living a life of love, light, and creativity". I'll be honest and tell you there isn't a whole lot of the light lately, both figuratively and literally.

I love fall. Fall is, without a doubt, my most favorite season. I love the crispness in the air, the foods (pumpkin cookies? coffee? bread? pie? mmm...yes, please), the decorations. I love how the sky is a different shade of blue than it is in the summer and that the trees streak orange!yellow!red! across it before the leaves drop and create a vibrant sea on my lawn.

But fall is my downfall. Fall is when the days grow shorter and that delicious sunlight I subconsciously soak up all summer long dwindles, leaving me feeling like a shell of my former self. It's hard to find the motivation to do anything, even things I enjoy that require little to no effort on my part (like knitting or watching tv). It's a disheartening feeling, but even the desire to do something about it is rarely there.

It's possible you know exactly what I'm talking about. According to an article published by the National Institutes of Health, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) affects 6% of the US population, and another 14% suffer from a lesser form of seasonal mood changes (winter blues). Ever heard "Away from the Sun" by 3 Doors Down? That's pretty much my theme song these days.

This isn't a cry for help or a plea for comments of sympathy. This post is an invitation to take a step back and assess your own situation. To tell yourself you aren't alone, you are indeed normal, and it is okay to get help, if you need it. It took me years to to come to terms with not only the fact that SAD exists, but that I suffer from it. I couldn't possibly have a "mental health problem". That couldn't happen to me. [insert eye rolling at my ridiculous younger self]

Some days are better than others. I find when I am forced to leave my couch house for an appointment that I have a much better --much happier and more productive -- day. If I am able to get into a routine that pulls together my day in an organized fashion and things get done around here, I find that helps too. I've been out of a routine since we moved in and it definitely hasn't helped the situation. I'm spending some time over the next few days contemplating my family's needs and wants, my needs and wants, household responsibilities, and a schedule to slowly but surely get back to work on balancing them all.

In the meantime, I'm going to go against my natural inclination to clam up and disappear, and stick around while I claw my way back up to the light. I hope you will too.

sicky.

When your husband and child(ren) come down with that nasty "first-of-the-school-year" cold/flu and you don't, do not tell gleefully tell everyone you come in contact with that you didn't get it. Don't be patting yourself on the back, and don't even dare wonder how you managed to steer clear this time.

A week or two will go by, and you'll really think you've escaped it and then -- wham! You wake up with severe sore throat and within two days, you'll have a full blown head-cold that is ten times worse than what everybody else in your house had.

So...guess who's sick?

My nose is both clogged and running, there is some serious sinus pressure building behind my left eye, can't stop sneezing, and medications aren't an option until bedtime. (Antihistamines knock me out, and decongestants aren't an option due to thyroid disease.) So here I sit, building a mountain of tissues in the wastebasket and sucking down fluids like it's my job while I try to ignore the fact that I feel miserable.

It didn't help that today I was right out straight with errands and appointments, but tomorrow I will be at home all day and hopefully will get some rest from the downtime. I intend to spend the day on the couch -- crafting, writing, playing in Photoshop Elements, and drinking steaming mugs of tea.

At least being sick is an excuse to guiltlessly take time to do the things I enjoy, right??

time management?

If you're out there, readers, this is a time I'd love to hear from you. How do you manage your time efficiently? Do you schedule your days? Make lists? Follow a program like FlyLady? Completely wing it?

Week One of Project Real Life focuses on the idea that cultivating a good life is beginning with the end [result] in mind. I've spent a lot of time over the weekend thinking about what that means for me - what I want for myself, my family, and my home.

I want a home filled with love and joy (which we have), but I want it without the guilt hanging over my head that there is still laundry to be done or dishes to be loaded into the dishwasher (don't have that so much, lol). I want those things to already be done, and I want to have a system in place to ensure that is how things start happening around here. There are other aspects of life cultivating that I am thinking about as well, but those are a little more personal and not for public consumption. At least, not yet. Who knows, maybe I'll need to pick your brains again ;)

It's quite possible I need to simplify, too. Moving has shown me just how much needless "stuff" we have. It just makes for clutter, and for extra work. So, I need to let go of these things. Sounds easy, right? It's not. I hate to give up anything that I might have a use for "someday". I'm working on changing that mentality. Case in point:  the gorgeous snowflake porcelain plates I bought seven years ago to serve Christmas dinners on, and have never used -- but have boxed up and moved FIVE times now. Chances are good that I'm never going to use these plates, so why can't I let them go??

Less stuff = less work. That needs to be my mantra. Well, one of them anyway.

However, back to the original point of my post -- I still need to figure out a way to better manage my time because I'll need plenty of it to work on purging the items I don't need as well as getting the everyday stuff done and making time for family (and, for me, too!). So, any suggestions? :)

small town saturday night

It's such a nice feeling when all of the pieces are falling into place, isn't it?

This is the kind of house we always wanted, the kind of neighborhood we wanted to live in, and tonight we found ourselves meeting the kind of neighbors we always hoped to have.

The street association president and his wife hosted a neighborhood get-together at their house, and we had the best time. (Honestly, we'd probably still be there if we'd had a sitter for the evening.) These people were all so nice. So fun. It was very enjoyable talking with them and getting to know them, and thinking that maybe --finally-- some potential new friendships were starting to take root in our lives.

I got a little chilled (it was outside), Mike will have heartburn from eating the most amazing buffalo chicken dip, and Lily will probably be cranky tomorrow (she went to bed over an hour later than normal), but totally worth it.

Such a great night!!