Peace + Courage + Gratitude

Peace.

Courage.

Gratitude.

These are my words for 2016.

Let me break it down. Peace - to find the calm within myself. To slow down. To take time to do the things that I enjoy, that fill me up, that refuel me. Courage - to parent. Consistently. Including discipline. To find the balance of being the "bad cop" and the "good cop". Gratitude - to remember that I have so many blessings in my life. To take the time the reflect and thank God and the people around more often. Everyday.

Slowing Down for Reflection

151 blog posts. Last published post was February 11, 2014. Obviously quite a bit has happened since I've last updated this little blog world... but I won't bother playing catch up. 

I'm here to try writing as therapy. Positive therapy. Not "my life is in the shitter" therapy. In fact, I'm so grateful and surprised by my family's little life every day. This "therapy" I'm about to embark on is to help me slow down a bit, reflect, and remember to be present. I don't want to toot my own horn, but I'm rather enjoying this phase of life! More than I thought. But I also feel like I'm crashing through it all, at a breakneck speed. I want to take the time to soak it up. Each night. Just a few minutes to be thankful, acknowledge the highs and the lows, and be ready to do better tomorrow. As I tell my trainees - I want to be proactive, not reactive! I don't want life to happen to me... I want to make life happen. 

Wine. My personal writing assistant.

I know this all sounds philosophical and "nice," but I'm asking you to hold me accountable. I'm not sure what I will write about, or if it will even be worth reading. But my goal is to post at least once a week in September and October, and twice a week in November and December. Maybe more. 

Why haven't I been writing? Time and perfectionism. Social media is a part of my job and I have a pretty good feeling about why certain sites, blogs, insta accounts, etc. do better than others... the content, yes... but the photos! The tutorials! The perfectly coordinated layouts, fonts, colors! I just couldn't compete. And that's where I drew the line. I quit. I'd start a post, start editing photos, then realized I had to take more photos, then never came back to finish and publish. I don't want to spend hours pouring over my blog. Instead, I am committing to one hour a week. Whether that's 15 minutes a night or all crammed into one afternoon during nap time. I'm scheduling it in my planner. My old-school, paper & pen, solid, thick, lovely planner. And... maybe the shared family Google calendar as well ;)

My personalized Erin Condren planner.

Looks like my time is up for tonight. Thanks for tuning in! More to come soon...