Seasonal/Monthly Goals and Some Questions

Snowy run! It was so fun to be hot an sweaty and also cold. 

SPEAKING OF FUN!

FUN is my word of the season. I cannot commit to a year of fun, but a season? BRING IT.

This month, I am going to focus on putting the FUN in fundamental and do some stuff that will set me up for success across domains in 2026.

My yearly goals are HERE, and I have pulled out a few more specific things to dive deeper into this season:

Second semester (?) goals:

✅1. Make a Disney decision: NOT GOING. (we were supposed to go with Ben who has a quick conference at the Beach Club (our favorite Disney hotel) BUT. Jack could not go (finals) and Harry also could not stay with him (obligations in Eau Claire). SO, that was complicating. Then Cooper made the school spelling bee and didn't want to miss. And Dorothy had a dance practice added to the calendar that she also did not want to miss. And! The dates overlapped with my first week of classes (again, not impossible, but complicating for sure). So. We decided not to tag along. **whomp whomp**)

2. Big sticky process goal: writing creatively-- what will this look like? I just read A Long Game by Elizabeth McCracken, and it was AMAZNG and helpful in thinking about my own process/practice. I am still thinking about this and what success in this category even looks like.

3. Professional development/apply for new jobs? A big one for sure. 

4. Find a second semester race. This is tough because our weekends get gobbled up by dance and dive starting in  February.

5. Holidays: V-day (my faaavorite) Ben's 47th; Dorothy's 13th; Jack's 18th; Easter/Passover

6. Visit Eau Claire (complicated for the same reason race weekend is complicated)

7. Blog design: begin this project

8. Blogger meet ups (some in the works; some to be planned)

9. 10K training planning/joining a gym with Coop/ subscribing to some runner content

Ongoing things that will be sort of running in the background all year:

New systems for tracking content, books, movement, etc

Hitting macros and workout routine

Cookie baking

Looking at real estate

Noticing sugar intake

Keeping my eyes peeled for stocking stuffers

January, specifically:

Apply for 2 jobs

Join a gym

Run up hills (seek out hills; pick up the pace on the way up)

Buy Vday gifts for the kids and stuff to send to Harry

Explore more blogs to find designs I really like

Open my book project and decide if it is still alive

Decide on dates for Ben and Dorothy's bday celebrations

Look for Apple Watch sales for Ben (ongoing until March) (He has a first gen Apple Watch that is finally starting to be glitchy after a decade of constant wear).

Become a mini-expert on the AI academic landscape. I want to know what's out there in terms of tools, how people across many disciplines are using them, and what kind of consensus (if any-- not really expecting any) exists among people who teach writing. I also want to see what's going on in terms of policy-- both larger institutional policy and personal syllabus-level policy. I think this goal will transcend the month of January because I don't anticipate having a ton of free time to devote to it, but I can see what the heck is out there and get a better idea of scope with just a few hours of work, I am pretty sure.

Questions:

Is "second semester" a good label for this season?

When does the second semester end? For me, it's MAY FIRST! I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. But the kids don't get out until JUNE TENTH. SO that's a month and 10 days when they have school and I am on break.

So is May-August summer? Or is May its own little epoch? With June-August being summer break?

I guess I want to follow my schedule since the kids are still technically in their first semester of school (they break in February), but I am for sure in spring semester mode right now. SO I am already following my schedule and not theirs.

How do you break up your seasons? Quintiles? Quarters? Something more specific to you? For me it would be

January: Fresh start/ everyone's schedule is effed/ I don't even know what day it is most of the month

Feb-April: Dance and dive regional season; baseball tourney season; spring semester

May-second week of June: End of kid year/ schedules changing/ I don't even know what day it is most of the month

Third week of June-July: Summer break, baseball, summer dive league, dance nationals and tryouts, and dive nationals season

August: Dregs of summer/schedules upended/dance, dive, and baseball on break/I don't even know what day it is most of the month

September-October: Back to school

November-December: Holiday season

OR I could do the less insane

Spring Semester

Summer break

Fall Semester

Winter break

and just recognize that there will be anomalous months in each season...

I have never though about things by season before (except to realize when I am in one that sucks), so I am not sure how I want to think about it... Help!

5 on a Friday: Things I Just Figured Out About Myself Even Though I Am Almost 50

the smug face of someone who just did beach yoga

1. I like getting up early more than I like sleeping in. 

I feel like this will change in the next 5 or so years as the kids keep leaving home (in 5 years, Dorothy will be a senior in high school, and Minnie will be in 5th grade) and there is less outside demand on my time. Right now, though, I would honestly rather get up at 5:20 and have time to read, have a cup of coffee in total quiet, do yoga, fill out my 5 year journal, and take Annabel on a 15-minute walk than sleep until 6:45 when the kids wake up and the day starts jumping down my throat/punching me in the face.

Side note: That is my ideal almost-50 early morning routine

 5:20: Jump out of bed, turn on my coffee, brush my teeth

5:22: Get back in bed or move to the couch under a blanket, put on my glasses, and fill out my journal from the previous day; check out yesterday's to-do list and move any outstanding tasks

5:30: COFFEE (1/2 caff with a splash of Fairlife chocolate milk and a splash of Chobani creamer (fave is cinnamon coffee cake, but vanilla works, too)) and 15-ish minutes of reading whatever hardback book I am into (I save Kindle for nighttime and when I am out and about and audio for when I am running or doing other stuff around the house--typically have 3 books going at once these days).

5:50-6: 10 minutes of yoga on Apple Fitness+

6-6:15: Start laundry, get dressed for outside

6:15-6:35: Quick dog walk

6:35: Pour another cup of coffee and just, like gird my loins because the DAY IS COMING.

Something amazing? This semester, I can have this morning 4 perfect days a week, which is MORE THAN HALF THE WEEK!! (on those 4 perfect days, I run at about 8:15 after I walk Dorothy and Cooper to the bus).

On Saturdays, I sleep as long as I want and sit in bed with as many cups of coffee as I want and read most of a novel while the chaos of the house rages around me and then get up to enjoy a run with Ben-- it's terrific. I used to do the same thing on Sundays, but we do more life management stuff on Sundays, and I hated feeling rushed. I usually do my routine above but kick everything an hour later.

Here's the sad trombone part, though: Monday and Wednesday, I teach and need to GTFO with the children, so it's a 5am alarm, no reading time, and I have to do a 20-minute strength workout, run in the dark, and wipe down 3 bathrooms before 6:45.

Still 4 ideal mornings, on late and lazy one, and 2 mad dashes. NOT BAD you guys. Only 2 days a week that I have to run in the dark and before the end of the semester, it won't even be dark-- I CAN DO THIS. (And my yoga goal is only 3 days a week, but I really do find that 10 minutes of excellent stretching and slow flow makes me feel better all day long, so I try to sneak it in more than 3 days).

2. I like how I feel when I don't binge eat sweets more than I like eating sweets.

Unforch, I cannot always remember this WHILE I AM EATING 5 COOKIES FRESH OUT OF THE OVEN. But boy do I remember it as soon as I have swallowed the last mouthful. 

3. An area of growth for me this year HAS GOT TO BE airtight task management because I AM TOO OLD TO BE SO FLAKY. 

One million years ago (or, 17 more accurately), I wrote about being the commencement speaker at my PhD graduation and feeling very nervous and acting like a total ditz in the official party robing room and how I was too old for that schtick and I AM STILL DOING IT YOU GUYS MY GOD because things are falling through the cracks, and the cracks are getting bigger?

To give you a very recent and low-stakes example: Our pool is hosting the All-City dive meet this summer, and I am heading up the senior recognition and trophy committee. We had a board meeting on Jan 7 that I knew about (and objected to because Ben is out of town mid-week, and I am a taxi driver for my children, but then I realized Harry was home and with some not uncomplicated juggling I could make it work especially because Dorothy hasn't started dance yet (long winter break) but then she got a trio, and she had a trio practice scheduled for Jan 7 at the exact same time as the meeting, which I did not know because I never put the meeting on my calendar) and nearly forgot to attend. I would have forgotten! But luckily for me another committee member sent a last-minute email bowing out of the meeting due to a choir concert conflict, and I was so grateful for her conflict because it jogged my memory, and I as able to figure out the whole thing (you have a goose, a fox, and a bag of grain...) and attend (with Minnie who will attend any meeting happily if she has an iPad and a basket of cheese curds) (the meeting was at the golf course bar). 

The tl;dr of that mess above is two-fold: 1. I have had too much coffee today, obvi (the number of parenthetical tangents in a single sentence are my very obvious tell) and 2. My task management/task capture system is basically Swiss cheese.

There were SO MANY options for me: jot the meeting down on my daily to-do list (I do this a lot and then add to my calendar when I am dealing with my list); use my calendar app on my phone (I dislike this-- something about the google cal app interface is a real turn off for me, but I will do it in a pinch) (probably I could have just tapped the date and time in the email and it would have automatically posted itself to my calendar, though. THERE IS NO EXCUSE); text the meeting to myself; jot the date and time down in my Notes app in the general catch-all note I keep; put the meeting on my desktop Google calendar as soon as it was confirmed (the gold standard).

4. Everything is better when I make time to go to the library.

You heard it here first: I will go to the library (with Minnie!) once a week for this entire YEAR-- but this is a goal best left to the weekly level for me, so I am going to never mention the streak again). I am even going to make an IG highlight for accountability. It is so fun to take Minnie to the library now that she is too old for the communal baby toys that always always always got her sick and now that she is a reader and just marches over to the shelf and confidently selects the books she wants to read. It's a joy, actually, and one that I will not deprive myself of.

Is probably getting a virus from these markers

5. I like getting stronger.

My strength workouts are really beginning to pay off. I was able to put my hair in a pony tail and fishtail braid it, something that really used to strain my triceps. I carried in 7 half-gallons of FairLife milk at once AND reached up to push the button to shut my trunk, and it was NBD. (We go through a ton of chocolate milk a week, especially when Harry is home). My core is also SO MUCH stronger than it was just 3 months ago. It is so wild to see that I have muscles in my stomach, even after 5 pregnancies. I love knowing that just 80 minutes a week of weigh training and weight bearing exercises can make  a measurable difference, and it is helpful motivation when I really don't want to take the time to open my Apple Fitness app.

                    

New year, new snacks!

 Stephany mentioned snacks in a recent post, and then I started pestering her with snack ideas on IG messages because I AM A MOM OF 5. I AM VERY GOOD AT SNACKS. And then I thought OMFG Sarah! Leave the poor girl alone and bother THE ENTIRE INTERNET with your snack ideas. 

SO I AM.

YOU ARE WELCOME.

Fave afternoon snacks for me:

• Kirkland trail mix
• Cosmic crisp apple with melted PB and chia seeds
• Chobani Flip yogurt
• Chobani Protein yogurt
• Sargento Balanced Break cheese and cracker tray
• String cheese
• Fairlife chocolate milk
• Mini Larabar

Fave afternoon snacks for kids:

• Clif Kids oatmeal cookie Zbar (also fave for me)
• Freeze dried strawberries
• Fairlife Nutrition Plan chocolate milk shakes
• Just Bare chicken nuggets
• Aidel's chicken apple sausage
• Chomps beef sticks (they are very into the sea salt flavor right now)
• Whole Foods 365-brand cheese squares (colby or cheddar)
• Cuties
• Bananas
• whole wheat bagel with peanut butter
• Annie's bagel pizzas
• Amy's pizza snacks

Fave snacks to bake:

• Banana chocolate chip muffins (I use whole wheat flour, and no one complains).
• Chocolate chip cookies (I will perfect the tollhouse recipe this year **shakes fist**)
• NYT energy bars (THESE ARE SO GOOD and new to me)

Ben's fave snacks:

• microwave popcorn
• microwave popcorn with cheddar cheese cubes-- a bite-for-bite situation
• cheese and crackers (with grapes and olives if he is feeling fancy)

Snacks I always keep in the car:

• Pure Organic layered fruit bars (like fruit leather)
• Goldfish
• Annie's chocolate chip bunnies

Snacks I usually have in my purse:

• Some kind of fruit snacks
• Goldfish
• Kirkland-brand granola bars
• Some kind of Zbar
• Occasionally a banana

Snacks we must stock for Harry that no one else really eats:

• Wavy potato chips
• French onion dip
• Totino's pepperoni pizza rolls
• Ham and cheese Hot Pockets
• Blueberry bagels with strawberry cream cheese
• Edible cookie dough
• Strawberry yogurt smoothies from Trader Joes that he has called "drinking yogurt" since he was 2

Snacks I have when I am going to murder someone if I can't get some chocolate

• Skinny Dipped PB cups
• HU salty chocolate squares
• Ghirardelli choc chips (not by the handful, but def by the TBSP

first batch of the year-- almost perfect, but not quite

What about you? Tell me your go-to snacks, and I will put them in my online grocery cart because we love new snack ideas around here.

LATTES! Lattes are always a great snack

Hilton Head 2026

A winer break trip is THE BEST! When you don't like to fly, though, you have LIMITED OPTIONS FOR GOOD WEATHER. Ben and I have given ourselves a firm deadline to find an awesome place in the WI north woods for next year OR just book this same week in South Carolina, though, because the allure of skipping the part of break where everyone is home and bored is TOO GREAT.

(Seriously-- a big house with a hot tub and a fire pit on a frozen lake would be SUPER FUN)

ANYWAY. The drive down was lovely, and we OF COURSE stopped at a Buc-ees in Tennessee and also in Bloomington, IL to see my mom just DAYS before her retirement.

We stopped for the night in Richmond, Kentucky at a Home2Suites. We got 2 suites next to each other, and Dorothy and Minnie were the only people to share a bed. Cooper and Jack slept on pull out couches, and Ben, Harry, and I got queens to ourselves. We left before breakfast, but the pool was fine. The gym was fine. And there was excellent lobby coffee at 5am. We tired to stay in that same chain on the way home, but we opted for a Hilton Garden Inn instead because of timing.

And! Made it to the Sea Pines beach club before sunset!

Is it even your favorite beach if you don't immediately do a backflip??

At Frosty Frog (where the kids did, indeed, eat frog), We randomly ended up under a Ball Sate flag (that's where Ben got his MA)

Other highlights:

1. Dolphin Dash 5 k on Sea Pines beach

(I got my same time as Thanksgiving exactly, and Ben was faster. He could have been eve faster, but he stayed with me out of some weird sense of loyalty, but I was like dude this is my favorite place in the world and I am running alongside DOLPHINS (literal dolphins just frolicking next to us the whole time) ENJOY YOURSELF. SO he did.)

2. Day trip to Savannah

3. Our excellent Marriott condo right by Harbour Town-- steps from our favorite bakery

4. Going out without the kids 

5. NYE at Salty Dog and Harbour Town

6. BEACH

We brought Hockey Sauce, and it was SO FUN in the beach

After being devastated that there was no Brandy Melville in Savannah (EYE ROLL ALL THE EYE ROLL), Dorothy did manage to buy something she could literally buy anywhere in the world (JellyCat)

Just like we book-ended our entire year with Hilton Head (SO AWESOME), we also boo- ended our trip with Frosty Frog and randomly ended up under a Miami of Ohio flag (my MA program). Hashtag kismet for sure.

            

Also! Minnie almost made it to midnight on NYE, and the next day, she was a little bit Weekend at Bernies at dinner

She also refused to go down to the hot tub at 11 on NYE because she was worried about bats (we noticed bats in the trees when we went out on our bedroom balcony to drink wine, so it became a morning only balcony). We assured her that there were not bats down so low, but she said she was just going to go to bed. So she did, and Harry and Jack stayed upstairs with her while Ben and I took Dorothy and Cooper to the pool. WHERE WE SAW A GIANT BAT and ran screaming inside. Minnie was SO SMUG when we told her about it the next morning.

A perfect way to end 2025/ring in 2026! 

Sure, maybe the bloom wore off the rose on the journey hme, but we were greeted with Costco and Whole Foods on the front porch and were home by NOON on Saturday-- in time for Harry and Ben to prepare for the Bears game in Chicago on Sunday and the kids to head back to school TODAAAAAAAAAY!!!

That's us playing Hues and Cues in the Hilton Garden Inn lobby on Friday night-- LOVE that game and highly recommend. Even Minnie can play, and it's fin (or fun adjacent for adults, too.)