Make February Fabulous.

2016 was weird. difficult. yet still, awesome in so many ways. I learned and did a lot. for 2017, I decided I wanted more of the awesome, less of the weird. as for the difficult, bring it on, I'll play the cards I'm dealt. so, I put a lot of thought into how to actually make that happen, what I needed to prioritize to have the kind of year I want, regardless of my life situation. then we had january. some good, some setbacks, and some more weird. I tried a new daily habit tracking system that did not work for me at all. life may be chaotic, but yes I realize it is not quite february yet ;) my whole point here is this: while there's nothing magical about jan 1, it can be a great benchmark to get yourself situated and off to a good start. the same can be said for a new month. but it takes effort and intention. nothing changes if nothing changes. if I want to hit the ground running in feb, I have to figure out my game plan in advance. I read the feb chapter in The Happiness Project, reviewed what was working for me and what wasn't, made my new habit tracker, reviewed my calendar, etc. ain't no way I'll let the month I turn 30 be anything but fabulous. ✨✨what will your feb look like? really, I want to know!

To be clear, everyone, some (most) of the things I am prioritizing and focusing on are not exactly "big things." You know the saying "don't sweat the small stuff...and it's all small stuff"? All the big stuff boils down to small stuff. When going through my 2017 Power Sheets prep I discovered a whole new way of thinking through goals -- a month/year from now, I want to be able to say I have accomplished ________. I want to be the kind of person who ________. Whatever gets filled into those blanks become my goals. All the big stuff gets broken down into small stuff (think Commit30), and my word of the year is patience. I want to be able to do the splits, but it takes time, so I'm taking a step back and focusing on doing yoga on some level every single day (sometimes that means 2 minutes of a couple poses). I want to be the kind of person who brushes my teeth and washes my face right away every morning before the chaos begins. When I get coffee for myself and milk for the kids, I want all my favorite cups to be clean and ready to be used, so I'll be washing them every night. Being intentional doesn't have to mean big, huge, earth shattering accomplishments every month. Baby steps towards becoming the kind of person I want to become (the kind with a clean mug and a dog whose mouth doesn't smell like his butt) is where it's at. 

Give Back.

I have butterflies writing this I'm so excited about it! I recently posted saying I'm going to start rambling more on here (and cross post on the Instagram), so here goes. Many of you know, some do not, I have spent over 11 years in the field of domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse. I started as a crisis volunteer in 2005 during college, interned, then was asked to be interim director of a sexual violence center. After that, I spent five years working at a non-profit for victims and survivors of sexual and domestic violence and child abuse. When Myra was born, I couldn't keep that up logistically for a few different reasons, though I remained a volunteer for the same place. When Myra was 10 months old, the stars aligned and the perfect part time opportunity came up, so I pounced on it. I had an incredible chance to help people who were fleeing abusive situations get into safe housing and back on their feet. When we moved an hour away, it got tricky, and I made it work as long as I could (11 months). Trevor often gets asked, "how do you do it? dental school...the Guard...AND a family?" I'll tell you all the same secret he tells them...me. I'm going to go right ahead and toot my own horn here. Trevor works his ass off at school and sacrifices a lot. But I do everything else. Like, every thing. Bills, cooking (including food for trevor at school), cleaning (LOLOLOLOL), all errands and shopping, snow removal/lawn, sending birthday cards, you name it. This whole dental school thing is definitely a team effort. I really am happy to do it as it will get us all to a place we want to be as a family. BUT, there just isn't room for me to be working right now, beyond the awesome kiddos I babysit. I am so grateful I get to be with my kids so much, but there's definitely a part of me that misses advocacy work. It's important and I'm good at it. ANYWAY...here we are, my whole point. I'm constantly telling people there is always a way to help. Time, talent, treasury, there *is* a way to give back, make your community a better place. So, here I am, doing just that. Last week I met with some super fantastic women at the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center and I'm going to be volunteering with them on their crisis phone line. I'm incredibly passionate about their mission to end all forms of child maltreatment and advocating for and serving children, survivors, and communities. Volunteering in this way is perfect right now-I can use my background, knowledge, and skills in a flexible way from my home. When life settles a little, I have high hopes to do more. If you've been looking for a way to make a difference and haven't figured out how just yet, I'd love to help! Big and small, it all adds up.

Knowledge.

I've had some urges lately to spill my mind onto Instagram, which has led me to two conclusions.  One: I should be writing here more.  Two: I should spill my mind onto Instagram.  So, for the time being, I'm going to kill two birds with one stone.  I'll dump a little more there, and post the same message here.  I like to go back and read these sometimes and it's far easier to find and reflect here than on Instagram.  Though I sure do love them both.  Here are today's thoughts on my latest accidental science experiment

Word of the week: knowledge. It's my number one coping tool. With any stressful situation (deployments, parenting, dental school chaos, illness, anything), give me all the information that's out there and I can handle it. So, big shocker to no one, I've been doing a lot of reading about running and talking to people with far more experience, even following other random runners on Instagram. It's been so helpful and given me the confidence I need to push myself. But you know what information just can't be found? Information about my own body. The only way to get that is by trial and error and LISTENING to it. I've been doing everything right (shoes, strength, yoga/stretching, incredibly gradual increases, following a plan, etc.) and I still developed some shin pain in December. I'm still not convinced it was shin splints, but rather than be stubborn, I took two weeks off. When I started back, I did so very slowly. I added compression and ice to the mix, too. My runs felt great, and so did my shins afterwards. Until they didn't. I realized the only difference was skipping the ice. So, yesterday I ran again and made sure to ice afterwards. Voila - no pain. Hopefully it really is as simple as that. And if so, no amount of Googling or book reading could have told me that. Sometimes the knowledge we're seeking just isn't "out there," but we can still find it by listening. And yes, I'll still be doing everything "right" and listening in case it isn't that simple after all. PS: pretty sure the photo timer went off when I was actually walking so don't read into my form too much.