Spent some time with my journal this morning. A much needed journal date...my journal always brings me back to myself. My coffee and compliant children make it an even more fulfilling moment.
Some of my big goals for this week, next week, and probably the weeks after that:
* Be Fully present and in the moment...especially with my kids
* Get down to their level (my kids') and Play! Get lost in PLAY--even if only for 10-15 minutes. Remember what it is like to just play.
* Eat Well...lots of plant based foods.
* Running--Stay mentally focused on goals. But don't make running take priority over my family and role as a mother and wife. Remember what is MOST important
* Work on my writing--develop my character for my Children's book. believe and achieve! Set a date to send to publishers.
* Write--Rewrite--Write--Rewrite--Tweek...Writing Children's stuff is hard...and hard to find the time to concentrate...so hard to find quiet time for me these days where i have a large chunk of time to just sit down and focus. Nights don't count because I'm exhausted by then.
* Pray. Meditate. Be with God and open my heart.
* Focus on one thing longer than 5 minutes!!! Get a grip on my mommy ADD.
* Finish my book club book. Gee, it must have really sucked to be a nun in the 1500's. uggg.
* Being my house all day with Energetic kids who want to run, jump, tear around, scream, dance....can drive me batty. Trying to let go of control and find ways to relax and forget about the constant unraveling of my house.
* Model Appropriate ways to react to stress. Breathe deep and try not to yell.
* Remember that my oldest is only 5 years old. Stop expecting her to act like an adult..she is still a kid. Realize that after watching Air Bender (cartoon version) with her daddy, she really was trying to bend water in the bath tub and not intending on flooding the floors. She got lost in the 5 year old moment of water bending practice. Bless her little heart.
* Read all of the books, magazines and articles that I have on my table...get off the blog reading for a bit more.
* Keep the computer closed for large chunks of the day and focus on being in the moment with my kids...This life...not getting sucked into the computer. A time and a place....set a time to give to e-mail, blog reading, facebook or whatever it happens to be and give that time and then get off. Otherwise, all the little checks throughout the day add up to more than I realize! This is important to me and being in the moment.
Hope this week is Blessed! What are some of your goals with life, parenthood, running or whatever? I'd love to hear!
Amanda
those are some great goals! writing it out always makes it more likely to stick with you and make a tangible difference this week. can't wait to hear how it goes :)
ReplyDeleteGreat post.
ReplyDeleteGoal: Romans 12 (9-13)
Amanda--This is such a great post and you have a fantastic list here! I could easily take a page from you! Good luck with it all.
ReplyDeleteI think being in the house with the kiddies all day long would be hard for everyone. I spend Sundays from 1 to 9 (when he goes to bed) with my son ( I take the morning to work out long, my husband takes the afternoon), and boy, I learnt that we have to go out bc otherwise we go bananas. He does not like TV, and I get bored playing trains after 15 minutes. Plus, I am not one of those crafty moms. I think carving out time for yourself is so important, glad you are managing to get a little of that.
ReplyDeleteGoals for me? Not to vomit during my 3 tough runs this week, LOL!
LOTS of things I can take out of this post and use myself!
ReplyDeleteGREAT goals. I have a journal very similar to that. :) I'm excited to learn more about your children's book writing! I have given that thought sooo many times. I'm just terrible at visualizing. Sometimes the words will be there but without pictures. :) You're right that it's difficult but rewarding!
ReplyDeleteSpending more time with my kids I really need to work on that.. Thanks for the reminder.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! It's a constant challenge for me to remember that I have my kids at home for such a short time, it's a blessing that I am able to stay home with them, and that I need to take advantage of those sweet hours.
ReplyDeleteI love your blog more and more overtime I read it. You get me thinking and I have a lot of the same ideas running through my head. My fuse tends to get shorter and shorter as the day goes on and when I snap I always realize 5 minutes after that my children are 4 and 2 and I tend to treat the 4 year old like my 40 year old friend and expect him to act much older than he is.
ReplyDeleteAs for goal, I need to practice patience a lot more and live in the moment. Running wise, after this SUnday's race I want to get "serious. Try and drop some weight, focus on speed and really try and race" my next marathon on June. Hope you day is going great!
Amanda you are an inspiration. I am going to take your tips RIGHT now and get on with it. I bought a journal, now all I need to do is DO IT!
ReplyDeleteTHank you for this.
The computer is such a time suck, man. I mean, I love it, but, oh man, if the power went out for a week I'd get SO much done.
ReplyDeleteWow, I could have wrote much of this post. These were most of my goals for the year. I am also at home with my 2 girls... 2 and 4. It's hard to go from career mom, to SAHM. It's hard to keep my active mind "in the moment". I'm trying though.
ReplyDeleteMy goal is to get you to read my blog more, help you with your bikini calendar campaign, and any other way I can help out (I'm available Thursday from 1:00-1:30 CST).
ReplyDeleteOK-I love your first paragraph!
ReplyDeleteRemember what is MOST important. So true, so obvious but at times it's so easy to take what's most important for granted..
Hmmm-no direspect but I'm not certain it wouldn't suck to be a nun ANYTIME! Yeah-not a path I could have chosen.
Model appropriate ways to react to stress-ha! I think I need to work on that!
Great goals! You are so organized and always seem to keep in check which in turn reminds me to keep in check! Thankyou for that:) Your last point especially. I am really trying to schedule computer time into my life here and limit it to the time I've alloted for it.
My goals for today are simply to take a shower, work Jillian out a little bit because I think she's getting soft and greet my husband with a clean kitchen when he comes home from work! Hope you have an awesome day with the kiddos:)
Great post, Amanda.
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely trying to enjoy some time with my oldest boys since I'm very aware of the fact that they'll only be living with us for another 8 months/year and a half (respectively). Your goal about really being present for your kids is something I struggle with...the difference between being there and being THERE with them.
With your book...I'm sure it's been a struggle to develop things. I'm finding out just how hard with a little project I have going at school. There's a cool site called xtranormal.com where you can make little movies. You choose the characters and setting and then put in dialogue and actions for the characters. I thought, "What a great way to present some lessons to the kids or to share with parents via the classroom website how we present lessons!" Except that teaching the material myself and making a movie of the material are turning out to be very different tasks. Ugh!
Those are great goals! I have to remind myself all the time that my kids are only 9 and 4. They will be grown before I realize it. I need to remember how fun it is to just play. Thanks for the reminders.
ReplyDeleteGreat, great post and awesome goals/plan. I need to work on every single one of those things too.
ReplyDelete"Bless her little heart." I love it... too funny, nothing like air bending in the tub.
Speaking of getting off the blogs and being present... here I go.
Seriously, you are such an inspiration to me. I love how balanced you are. My fave is being a good example of dealing with stress for your kids....I hope to be half as good of a mom as you! Hope you don't care that I will be copying you and having a journal date today!! Have an amazing Monday!
ReplyDeleteLovely and thoughtful post.
ReplyDeleteMy mama goals are quite similar... and are the ones nearest and dearest to me at the moment.
Can't wait to buy a copy of your book for my kids!
Wonderful goals and reminders for us all!
ReplyDeleteI saw your post on BQ or Die complaining about the calender (or maybe it was complaining your lack of ta-tas). Anyway, looks like there are only 9 models so far. I think you still got a shot, even if you have to Photoshop.
ReplyDeleteI loe how detailed and specific your goals are! Being present is such an important reminder for us all. Those in front of us now, demand attention.
ReplyDeleteYour journal is wicked cute--love the avocado drawing!
CANNOT wait to see your Children's book come to fruition!
Being present is a great goal--Love that.
ReplyDeleteYour very ambitious. I'd be happy if I conquered just one of those goals. You have to go for it though and it definitely helps to write them down so we can go back and refocus.
Oh, you're such a GREAT mommy!! I must not be easy but you've got your heart and head in the right place!! Playing with your kids sounds like fun to me...I used to do that a little too much but thankfully, my husband didn't mind. Time passes too quickly. Really, it does.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right about so many things.
ReplyDeleteI can especially identify with remember how young children actually are...especially the oldest....Poor oldest.
Hi, new follower and I'm glad I found your blog today. Such an inspiring post! I love your goals and how you prioritize, while still making room for the little things. Definitely makes me want to sit down and think of goals I have in all aspects of life :)
ReplyDeleteHttp://justrunmego.blogspot.com
Great post! Love it and inspired by it! Also, kuddos to you for writing children's books. I took a class last year on it (I'm a teacher, too) and it was one of the hardest classes I've ever taken!
ReplyDeleteMuch love!
i love how you use your journal. i am going to get mine out tomorrow and try to sit down and use it for five minutes. Being present is so hard sometimes. I get so caught up in the every day that I forget to be "there" with the kids. It is hard work being a mom sometimes.
ReplyDeleteGoals, remember I am choosing to be fit. So next time I have a cold and can't run, I'll remember a walk or some CORE work is better than moping around feeling frustrated about not being able to run. I am feeling so much better, 3-year old style temper tantrum is over.
ReplyDeleteOh Man, this post is deep. Shoot, cuz I'm more shallow than a wading pool. Can I just talk about my goals? Everyone knows my running goal. My "big" life goal is to successfully get my kid into College. I have alot more, but you know me, I'm a fan of brevity :-)
ReplyDeleteOne of my major goals at the moment is to reduce my stress levels. And the way I'm looking at doing that is to stop worrying about my #2 son. I have to acknowledge that he's an adult now and is making his own decisions - good or bad - and hopefully all his training and the modeling we've done for him will influence his decisions.
ReplyDeleteI am SO HAPPY that you made the cookies again....eat two for me today! Love ya girl!
ReplyDeleteYour goals are very similar to mine. Although, it has been awhile since I actually wrote them down with pen on paper.
ReplyDeleteHave you read 'The Birth of Venus' by Sarah Dunant? One of my favorite books of all time. I should actually read it again, it's been years! I would love to be in a book club. Maybe I should just move there and be part of yours and we can be the best of friends, okay?
You have inspired me to pick up my pen and write down some goals - and some mantras, because I could use one right now.
The last few weeks I have been feeling that change is in the air. Significant change. I just KNOW this. I am putting myself out there and trying to be completely OPEN to whatever comes my way. I just had to share this with you because I feel like you probably know or understand this feeling I have. It is intense and kind of scary. :)
And one more thing - you are an incredible mother. Just plain amazing.
My mom gave me a goal this morning, and that is to figure out how to balance all the running with just life. I kind of don't care about doing laundry anymore. I won't tell you how many shoes are in a pile when you walk into my living room. I'm just putting all of my energy into this training, so I'm neglecting real life.
ReplyDeleteShe is very right. I just have to figure out how to have enough energy for normalcy!
I really like your goals. Very grounded, down to earth, passionate, healthy .... just lovely!! I actually just wrote in my journal 2 nights ago for the first time in ages. I may type that up as a blog post next time I have blogger's block. Ooh - I just made that up! I think so anyway. I'm claiming that phrase as mine!
Loved this post! I too love to journal. It feels really good sometimes and is much needed. My daily goal is just to try to be a better me and try to make positive changes in this world.
ReplyDeletei would think writing a kids book is easier, but i don't doubt you. you can do this! and it will be awesome! :) i love lists/goals, but if i write them down i will end up having to "re-write" them because the paper looks sloppy... ridiculous i know.
ReplyDeleteLike I mentioned on yesterday's post, I don't want my life to become defined by what I do daily, I want adventures and a little spice to things with my running so we shall see what the heel wants to do.
ReplyDeleteGood thing you got some set time carved out with Kovas to get some of his wisdom for making your life richer :).