Posted in June 2010 …

Jun 29 2010
5 Comments
Deep Thoughts

Letters to yourself

I heard an interesting piece on NPR this afternoon on the way to pick up Monkey from daycare.  It was about a young woman who on her blog asked older blog readers if they were to write a letter to their 20-year-old self, what would they say?  I thought this concept was pretty cool and would like to know, what would you tell your 20-year-old self, if you could?

Here are few things I’d tell her:

  1. You can’t make someone love you no matter how much you love them
  2. Spend more time finding out who you are than following what other people think you should be
  3. Failure is okay.  You won’t learn a thing without it.
  4. That guy?  Isn’t worth a dime and you deserve better. 
  5. Being on your own would be a good thing.
  6. Adopting 4 cats all the same age will result in major vet bills in about 10 years.
  7. Show off the body you have now and stop hiding it with baggy clothes.  Use it while you have it.
Jun 15 2010
2 Comments
Parenthood

Happiness Project

An anonymous commentor suggested that I read Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project.  Normally I would have put an anonymous post suggesting I buy or get something into the spam bin (they’re usually for viagra or something sorta related to the post but not really), but this one intrigued me and for whatever reason, seemed genuine.  And now I’m about 100 pages into the book.

This book is the latest in my self-help line-up (others have included Eckart Tolle’s A New Earth: Awaking Your Life’s Purpose and Deepak Chopra’s Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul).  So far I’m liking it and it is giving me another level to my self-improvement journey.

I haven’t clearly decided yet on where I’m going to post these, either here or my Facebook page, but I want to start on my own “Secrets of Adulthood” and “Twelve Commandments” and resolutions lists (any SharePoint people out there, please for the love of all that is holy, do NOT suggest a WSS site).  But in the future you might see a list on the right (or if I change page design, perhaps the left) detailing these as an easily accessible list for myself and a way for anyone else to come along with me on this new journey, should they choose.

Jun 12 2010
1 Comment
Deep Thoughts, Happy Thoughts, Parenthood, Sickness and Health

Keep Peddling

This is something I’ve found myself saying a lot this week as we are trying to teach Monkey how to ride his new bike.  He doesn’t quite get that in order to keep the bike moving he has to keep peddling.  He definitely prefers when there’s a downhill slope and he can just coast.  He also prefers to take in everything around him and not watch where he is going.  We’re working steadily on both and I’m sure in no time at all I’ll probably be rueful that we ever taught him how to ride.

But this teaching experience has taught me a metaphorical lesson as well.  In order to move forward, you must keep peddling.  I think I’ve been coasting a lot lately and sometimes, that’s okay.  A well deserved break from pushing so hard or in order to get back to health is sometimes needed.  Now that I’m back to a healthy state though, I’m thinking it’s time to start peddling again. 

 The key is to get rolling but not lose sight of the scenery as well I suppose.  Something I’m desperately trying to teach Monkey and it seems myself.

Jun 07 2010
2 Comments
Parenthood

Grateful Tweets

You may notice something new on the sidebar to the right.  I’ve decided to venture into the Twitter world.  I wasn’t sure about Twitter at first.  I kinda felt like, ‘Who”d want to waste their time following me and my pea brain thoughts?” 

But I’ve been trying to make some minor changes in my life to reach a higher goal.  One of the facets to reaching that goal is to be conscious of the things I should be grateful for in my life.  I have a web app which tracks this stuff but I thought it might be nice to make it more public and perhaps, should any of you like to get involved, find out what others are grateful for as well.

My Twitter name is @gratefulmaman and anyone is free to follow me.  I may occassionally tweet something other than a grateful thought but this will be its primary purpose.  Either way, I hope you enjoy it as much I hope to!

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