Dig Deep and Find Joy

This particular season in life has a lot of care-taking and a lot of deadlines. Between parenting an active 22-month-old learning to use the toilet and wrapping up a school year, this is a full season in life. To be clear, I love being a mom and a teacher. But the end of the school year is full of the combination of special events, administrative tasks, and grading. Plus this year, with Covid, we have some intermittent returns to hybrid teaching and the end of the year looks different than it typically does.

I'm finding it easy to focus on how much energy this requires and miss all the joy that is a part of this moment too. Lately, I keep coming back to this phrase: dig deep, and find joy. When I come home and focus on what funny thing Avi is doing or being really silly with her, I feel more joy and connection with her. When I focus on planning fun end-of-the-year projects that feel meaningful for my students and connecting with them, all the administrative tasks feel more doable.

If I can find that little extra kernel of energy to bring to the situation, everything else goes more smoothly, and I'm able to see all the good that is part of this moment too. Do you have any phrases that you come back too during busy or challenging situations in life? I'd be curious to hear them!

Comments

What's Saving My Life: Sick Kid Edition

As I wrote yesterday, one of my daughters got sick, and so we didn’t make it to our camping trip! I had a really good attitude about it for most of the day and mostly felt grateful that she got sick at home and not 2 hours away, in the desert, where we would have to completely takedown a campsite before leaving. But by the afternoon, I was feeling a little grumpy and bummed to miss an adventure we’d been looking forward to and also cooped up from being inside all day with a kid who wasn’t feeling well. Inspired by San’s recent “Five Things That are Saving My Life Right Now” post, I decided to make my own list that was specific to sick days at home. In no particular order: *Emkfit videos on youtube. It’s awesome to have such a fun, silly, sweaty workout to do. I always feel happier having done the dance videos, and it really helps my mood on days when I’m at home a lot and restless *Good books. I posted earlier this week that October was not the best reading month for me, and so I spen...

Adventures Big & Small

Photos from a recent adventure I just started listening to Tranquility by Tuesday by Laura Vanderkam, and one of the ideas she mentioned was planning 2 adventures each week: one big and one small. As I was listening to her describe the rule, I thought about what I had planned this week and realized that I had a few adventures planned without thinking of them in that way. It really helped shift my mindset to realize that I do have some fun and novel things planned, and I'm curious to experiment with adding this to the routine, particularly as we are settling into a new city. I feel like I've plateaued a bit the last few weeks even though things are finally starting to feel settled down. I hit a point where I missed our Colorado friends and my old job, even if I feel like this move and taking time to be at home is right for us in the long run. Thinking through new adventures in this new phase of life is a way to balance some of this feel...

Toddler Travel--Road Trip Edition

So happy to be writing from Southern California after our road trip out from Colorado. It has been so nice to see family and enjoy cooler weather and time at the beach. This was far and away the longest Avi has ever been in the car, and it was definitely less relaxing to drive long distances with a toddler, but it actually went better than I thought it would. I love road trips, so I'm happy that this is something we can look forward to lots more of as a family. In case anyone else is planning to travel with their little one(s), I thought I would share a few things we did that helped, and a few things I wished we did differently. Tips: *Bring various activities that can be easily done from a car seat. I brought some of Avi's favorite toys including: a toy she could buckle and unbuckle, a chunky beads and thread kit, and a paint with water set from Melissa and Doug's . I also brought bubbles which were a big hit although we left them in...

Eye to Wonder

Search This Blog