Eye to Wonder

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A Random Quote That's Stuck with Me

About a week ago, we were having a tough morning. One of my kids was really tired and not in the mood to go to school or get ready. Then out of nowhere, she asks, “isn’t there a painting kit I got for Christmas we haven’t opened yet?” My immediate instinct was to say that she had to get ready for school first or that we didn’t have that much time and painting was messy, but then I thought that maybe this was a moment she needed to reset. And while we didn’t have tons of time to paint, we did have a little. So we busted out the paints and both girls were happily immersed in painting with brushes of all different colored textures. As I tidied the kitchen and watched the kids paint, I remembered a phrase from a book I read several years ago, “beware the soul sucking force of reasonableness” from The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath. It would have been reasonable to stick to the routine, or push off painting until after school. A lot of days, I would have made that choice. But, b...

Small Good Things Lately

Like many here, I loved participating and reading along with everyone’s FIG posts. It was great to focus on the good that’s present, and so I decide to reflect on some recent small good things. 1. St. Patrick’s Day. We have zero Irish heritage, and my main memories of the holiday as a kid revolve around my grandfather’s birthday (which was on St. Patrick’s day) since he would sometimes embrace the theme for his birthday parties. However, this year my older daughter was obsessed with the idea of catching a leprechaun and made a few traps. Seeing her tinker and problem solve on these traps was awesome, and her excitement was contagious. So this year, we embraced the holiday a bit more with green milk and overnight oats, lots of coins and shamrocks left near the trap, and a corned beef and cabbage dinner with beer bread. It was fun to have a randomly celebratory Tuesday! 2. I’ve posted before about trying to find good books for my first grader to read. We picked up a Dog Man book at ...

3 on a Thursday, Vol. 1

Happy Thursday! Does your area observe the time change? Like most parents of young kids, I find this to be a struggle, but we are enjoying more time outside after dinner. How’d it go for you? ` 1. The kids have been home from school a lot this week with an in-service day for one kid, and a kid at home sick one day. Given that I volunteer at school during the preschool slot on Fridays and we had visitors last week, my introverted self is definitely craving more alone time. Parenting can make it really hard to be alone enough to feel my best, but I’ve been trying to find ways to recharge even when the kids are around. While a lot of times this is really not possible, (hello toddler meltdowns), there are definitely times where the kids are playing together independently. Using that time to sit and read a book for 5 minutes helps a bit. A and I picked up a puzzle when we went to the bookstore on her day off, and it was so fun to work on it together. We brought it to the library to the puz...

Look Back, Look Ahead: March

Happy March! I’m feeling energized by a new month, and excited to look ahead to what’s next. I fell off of some routines in February with all the sicknesses/injuries/visitors/travel, so I’m looking forward to resetting a bit this month. I made progress on some goals from last month including decluttering the entryways and scheduling a babysitter (although we ended up canceling due to sickness), prepping for the overnight trip, and adding to our 1 Second a Day App. We also went on a fun date to a new restaurant that was delicious! I definitely lost momentum on some key habits including reading and strength training. I continued reading, but didn’t have a lot of memorable reading experiences. So far March is off to a better start, and I’m willing to buy more books on kindle this month to help get out of a reading rut. I also took a break from exercising while recovering from a bad cough, and I’m looking forward to getting back into a routine. Here’s a look at the month ahead. Big ...

Final Figs: Week 4

I want to start out by saying what a positive, affirming part of the month this practice was. All the gold stars to Elisabeth for running this and keeping track of everyone’s posts. It’s been so fun to see the bright spots in so many of your lives, and to focus on what’s good. February at times felt like a slog, and having this practice balanced out the very easy tendency to focus on the negative. We were all in much better health last week, which is a huge FIG in and of itself. Here’s a rundown of this final week of FIGs. Monday, February 23 *We played family charades with our friend who comes for regular dinners. So silly! Love how M participated even if she didn’t quite have all the rules down. She’d pick a card and then just do her craziest jumping or dance moves. We all got super into this. Tuesday, February 24 *We finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone with A. Joel, A, and I all curled up to finish this together. *I want to remember lying in the backyard on a pic...

FIGS Week 3

To be honest, this wasn’t the easiest week for noticing the good things and the FIGs challenge, but gratitude definitely is essential on hard/annoying weeks as well as good or routine weeks. We had a few anti-figs this week: I had a gnarly cough, lost my voice, and strained my back, and then both of the kids came down with a stomach bug leading to one of them having to leave a trip to the mountains with a group of friends early while feeling terrible. Luckily all of these things are annoyances rather than long-term problems. Still, it was a lot at once, and I was very happy to start a new week today. I definitely needed to feel like we moved on from last week! Monday, February 16 I’m grateful for our good friends who loaned us their sump pump when it rained and we noticed water in the garage. I’m also grateful they had us over to hang at the house while our power was out. They made hot cocoa, which was a nice treat. Tuesday, February 17 I’m grateful for a long snuggle with A watc...