Monday, March 06, 2023

March Intentions/Things I am Leaving in February

 This month I will:

HYDRATE APPROPRIATELY: I have set this intention before-- WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH ME?!

Eat bigger lunches to (hopefully) fend off the afternoon snack avalanche (that becomes pre-dinner snacks; that becomes kitchen clean up snacks; that becomes late night couch snacks). I WILL BREAK THE SNACK CYCLE.

Read more books with my eyes: I want to have more print books than audiobooks on my tally at the end of the month.

Plan at least one day date with a friend. I have really slacked off with my lunches, coffees, and walks, and I want to get back into seeing friends mid-week.

Do cardio on Sundays so I can take Saturday off. My larger yearly goal is for 6 days of cardio a week, and last month, I noticed that it was easier for me to start the week strong than to finish with Saturday exercise-- in March I am going to benefit from that lesson.

This month I will NOT:

Complain about my job: I freaking love my job, and I was just so happy this morning driving onto campus. It's so cool that Ben and I came here 20 years ago to visit and contemplate moving here for my PhD, and two decades later, we STILL LOVE MADISON. I need to remember this when I feel stressed and/or overwhelmed.

Rush the kids: It is hard to remember how important tiny moments are to kids. I mean, I will continue to rush the teens when they aren't ready to go somewhere even though IT IS FREAKING TIME TO GO. And I am already good at giving Minnie tons of time, but I think I am too quick to hurry Dorothy and Cooper along/forget that they are still little, too. Little things (ideas or moments) are really important to little kids, and I am going to make an effort to remember this fact.

Talk sh*t about my house. Yes, it is small. Yes, we have too much stuff. Yes, we need to do some upgrades. Yes, I would rather just sell the whole thing and start fresh. But I am going to stop saying those things out loud in March. Maybe this will give me a fresh perspective??

(This pic has nothing to do with this post, but I like her whole vibe)





15 comments:

  1. I like the focus on what you will leave behind! February wasn't a bad month but overall it wasn't my favorite month. There as too much travel - 2 trips for me, one trip for my husband. That is too much for a month with 28 days! March is off to a good start, though. It is so nice to start off the month with a birthday. Kid birthdays are SO FUN and SO FULL OF JOY. And that joy is contagious!

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  2. This sounds like a good way to enter a new month. I like to front-load my week with a lot of stuff too, because I know I will run out of steam by the end. I've had to do the same attitude adjustment about my job, mostly because winter depression makes me hate everything, and I have to remind myself that I love books, and kids, and working with both is pretty much my dream, even when sometimes the books are heavy and the kids are jerks.

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    1. Yes! It;'s easy to forget that it's a fun job and I enjoy it.

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  3. I love the idea of leaving things behind - genius. I need to reframe a few things this way!!!

    Hydration is one area I don't think I can improve much? I drink soooo much water. I can't help myself - I just want to drink water all the time?!

    "Read more books with my eyes". Hilarious. I literally can't remember the last time I listened to an entire audiobook. YEARS!

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    1. I really do not understand why I can't hydrate responsibly.

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  4. Anonymous6:46 PM

    Do you have your closet organization systems? We moved a year ago and did all the closets through a company. And then I wondered how much better organized I could have been in the old house if we had someone put organizers in those closets especially since a couple of them were large but kind of wasted space with just a hanging rack.

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    1. Oh wow!! This is a really good idea.

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  5. Anonymous7:57 PM

    I second the amazingness that is custom closet organizing systems… We did all our closets last winter. My husband’s closet is weirdly shaped, and it was always overflowing. He hated it with the fire of a thousand suns until we pimped it out with custom shelving. Now he loves it and has room for TONS more stuff. All of our closets are so functional now — we even have a bunch of out-of-sight shelves now for the billions and billions of LEGO creations my kids make. We did Elfa through the Container store — they design it for you and will install it too. Efla was a good fit for us because you can move things around and add more shelves/etc later if you want. We installed them ourselves, which seemed like a good idea but was really exhausting.

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    1. Thank you for the rec-- I have no idea where to start

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  6. Sunday is usually my cardio day off too, and now I'm wondering if this is the best use of my energy. Hmmm. Something to think about for sure!

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    1. I always clean on Sunday so I thought that was enough cardio, but really, I think I'd rather have a lazy Saturday.

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  7. I think drinking water is the HARDEST health goal. WHY is it so hard? Other people manage to do it. *sigh* I will go fill my water right now and drink it.

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    1. I wish I knew why-- I'd be so much better hydrated LOL

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  8. I don't struggle with hydration, but I do struggle with a tendency to prefer bubbly versions of water to plain old water. I'm working on drinking more water-just-water, not water-that's-fizzy-and-flavored. And the plain stuff is good! It just took a bit of reminding... and now I need to keep it up. ;)

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