Recently in Living intentionally Category

As part of my year-long theme of nurturing calm, I hope to come up with a few practical ways to "live the theme" each month. Since I only have 11 weeks (eek!) before the baby comes, I'm only going to plan through March, and see how things go after that.

For me, a big part of staying calm is having enough energy to deal with the tasks at hand. So, I am going to spend January focusing on feeling energized and making sure I get enough rest - specifically:

1. Going to sleep by 10:30pm (if I have somewhere to be the next morning). If I stay up late, I inevitably abuse the snooze button in the morning, which means I'm late to work and the whole day is off to a bad start.

2. Doing some type of physical activity 3-4 times per week. Exercise really energizes me... I just have to remind myself of that when I'm debating between staying home or heading back out in the cold to go to the gym!

3. Spending 15 minutes per day decluttering. We've got a new person moving into the house soon - we need to make room for him! Decluttering is not necessarily an energizing activity for me, but clutter is very draining, so I am actually really excited about making some progress in this regard.

Looking forward, I hope to spend February focusing on relationships (marriage, family, friendships) and March on preparation (aka CRUNCH TIME).  I'll flesh these out with some specific goals later on, after I see how this first month goes. 

Last year, instead of making traditional resolutions like "get in shape," "keep the house cleaner," etc., I selected a theme for the year. I am a goal-oriented person, so I did end up coming up with some goals that fit within the theme, but I really liked the idea of coming up with a theme for the year and trying to focus on that, rather than tracking exact details of a resolution. Plus, when I get off track, it's a lot easier for me to think about veering back towards my theme for the year rather than admitting defeat in my resolution and starting over.

This year is shaping up to be quite different than last year, with a baby on the way in March, so I'm trying to keep my expectations low as far as self-improvement goes. Still, I really enjoyed having a theme to center me during the year last year, and I have a feeling I'm going to need something like that as I prepare for and tackle first-time motherhood this year. With that in mind, I hereby declare 2010 the year of Nurturing Calm.

Last year's theme (Cultivating Joy) was really all about being true to myself, but this year's goal is a lot more of a stretch. I think that's appropriate though, since I've never really thought of myself as a mothering, nurturing type of person. I guess I'm going to be in for a rude, awakening, huh? But that's where the "calm" part of my theme comes in. I really want to approach this new chapter of my life with patience and calm. These qualities are not always my default settings, so I hope to come up with some more concrete ideas about how to bring more calm into my life.

Stay tuned for more New Year's navel-gazing... I have to do it soon, before my belly button flattens out and disappears completely!

Of course, it's impossible for me not to always be thinking ahead, and I'm already seeing lots of blog posts about New Years Resolutions. I love list-making and self-improvement projects, so you can imagine I love coming up with ideas about how to make the next year the best. one. ever. I really like Gretchen Rubin's idea about one main goal or focus each month in 2010. But this year is a little tricky - how do I go about making plans when so much is unknown? I'm due with my first baby in late March, and I feel like all bets are off after that, because I'm so clueless about the reality of caring for a baby. Any experienced moms want to chime in here?

ps, if you're just going to tell me how impossibly hard my life is going to be for the next 18 years, I'd rather remain blissfully ignorant. Thanks!

A package of books I ordered from Amazon, as well as a wonderful gift from a friend who loves to read, both show up on my doorstep within a week's time. Should I declare defeat now, call in sick, and just bury myself in books? 

I am on a serious reading tear this summer.  I already finished reading 2 out of the 3 books that I took with me on vacation, and I'm reading with the third renewed interest thanks to some cajoling from my same book-loving friend.  Middlesex is an amazing story of a Greek family throughout the 20th century, and its a little Gabriel Garcia Marquez-esque (sweeping storyline, a little bit a magic, suspension of disbelief) which I love.  The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society is a lot more of a beach read, but with some interesting WW2 history thrown in, and a charming little love story.  As long as I'm making literary comparisons, this one definitely had a feel of Austen about it.

The third book, The Corrections, took me a lot longer to get into... I am about halfway through right now, and as far as I can tell it's a satirical story about an older midwestern couple and their three adult children.  I normally like to read books where I like the characters (and I most certainly do NOT in this book) but I am trying to appreciate the writing.  Viewing the characters more as caricatures than real people seems to help, although I am a midwesterner and occasionally I feel like the author is making fun of me.  One thing that is pretty interesting about reading it right now is that it's set in the economic boom times of the late 90s/early 2000s, and comparing it to our current situation.

Not that I need any more books to read, but....Have you read anything good lately?

A new month is here... I love the opportunity for a fresh start. Here are some things I'm looking forward to or challenging myself to in July:

* New floors! My husband I have have been saving to put new flooring in our home almost since the day we bought it. This will be a major upgrade, but also a major disturbance as construction workers invade the house for a week.

* Summer reading, continued. My book club has gone on hiatus for the summer, so I am trying to get a jump on things by pre-reading some books that we might enjoy for future meetings. It's a group of women that I go to church with, so sometimes we read Christian books, sometimes books focused on women's issues (ie, Deborah Tannen's "You're Wearing That?" or Jonalyn Grace Fincher's "Ruby Slippers") Any suggestions for us?

* Third Triathlon of the summer - the Concreteman. This is the only local tri that offers an Olympic distance race. I am really intimidated by the distance, but I would love to say that I'd done it.

* Vacation Bible School. Every year I volunteer to help with the crafts at VBS. Even though they tend to be pre-packaged projects that don't require much creativity, I still enjoy working with the kids on crafty projects.

* Quilt for myself. I started this in January... all the squares are done but that is all. I am challenging myself to finish the quilt top in July.

* Downtime. To try and avoid future meltdowns, I am committing to schedule one evening of free time for myself each week. I'm kicking this off with a bang with a relaxing weekend at my parents' house over the 4th of July.

Cherry Tomatoes - Hand for Scale
Originally uploaded by kerner 

June 6 Harvest
Originally uploaded by kerner

How fitting that I harvested my first veggies of the season - both sugar snap peas and regular peas, along with some lettuce - on the same day that my pastor spoke about the importance of bringing our best to God - our first fruits.

As I sat in church on Saturday night, I thought of how earlier that day I gobbled up those delicious sweet peas (some of them didn't even make it into the house). After watching them grow all season, watering and tending them, it was so exciting to finally, literally, enjoy the fruit of my labor.

I have to say, the phrase "first fruits" has to mean more to a gardener: You know exactly how long you've waited, and all the work that goes into it, before you ever get a single edible thing. I was challenged by that sermon to more consciously bring God my best in all that I do.

To try to keep myself on track, as well as make this whole project manageable and not just beat myself up over what I don't do, I am trying a new approach for the next few months. For each of the Style Statement categories, I write down one thing I'd like to focus on for the month. Sometimes it's something concrete like "paint the living room" and other times it's more of improving a habit or attitude.

I got the idea for this from someone's blog... I can probably find it if I think about it for a minute...Ah ha! It's Graceful Creative (a whole blog devoted to following her style statement).

I'll post my June goals in a couple of days. For now, I'll reveal my latest knitting project, which also was my "creative" goal for the month of May.

 
IMG_3708
Originally uploaded by kerner

This shawl is a gift for my husband's grandmother's birthday. Originally I thought I would be really creative and try to design a shawl myself, but after ripping it out about 5 or 6 times and a birthday deadline looming, I decided that I needed to get real and just knit something from a pattern.

Project Details:

Pattern: Leaf Lace Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark

Yarn: Lulu's Yarns Supersock Merino

Needle Size: Size 6

Pattern Modifications: None... why mess with perfection? =)

Time to knit: about 3 weeks

Final impressions: Matt said his grandma liked yellow, but WHOA this yarn is really yellow. I was worried it would be overwhelming, but it was not bad at all once it was blocked and had all the big lacy holes in it.