Yesterday was a really good day in terms of productivity. I also
learned something new about my oldest daughter. We were in After School
Care when she brought a notebook over to me. She's a doodler so it was
covered with ink, inside I started reading about a girl who discovers a
mermaid when she's scuba diving. There are two main characters, the
diver and the mermaid, they meet, become friends, and want to spend more
time together, but are limited because they live in different worlds.
When the girl has to swim back to her parents, she thinks about the
mermaid, and tells her how much she's going to miss her friend when the
cruise ship has to sail back home. The mermaid tells the girl that she's
part mermaid, the girl is excited, but then she starts thinking, what
if her tail falls off, or people find out she's part mermaid? She
wonders about her gene pool, and who may have passed this trait along to
her. That's where my daughter is in the story, so far it's a delightful
read, my daughter has a way of capturing the personalities of her
character, the dive down seems realistic, and I love the inner
monologues she has going on inside of her character's heads.
She had to serve a two-day in school suspension this past Friday and
Monday. A friend of mine mentioned that the library was looking for
mentors who could help them with their summer reading program. After
school, my daughter biked down to the library, picked up an application,
and my husband went with her to drop it back off. These past few days
I've seen a turn in her attitude and her level of preparedness, and
responsbility. She helped me clean the bathroom last night. It grossed
her out, and I think in the past I've wanted to shield my children from
that sort of thing because it makes me uncomfortable when the bathroom
hasn't been cleaned in a while. Normally that's my youngest daughter's
job. I don't know what went down between her and her father, but she was
sent to her room, and consequently went to bed early. She missed supper
although she had a hearty breakfast this morning, and I packed her
extra to eat for lunch and snacks today.
A couple people I follow on Twitter are into film, whether they're
directors, producers, or write screenplays. I follow people I know on E2
who have similar interests, and this morning I tried a writing tip
someone suggested where you write down a hundred words as fast as you
can. I did that, and it was harder than I thought it would be, a lot of
fun, as I wrote, words came to me, some I included, but others I chose
to exclude in favor of their opposites. When I was done, I was intrigued
and proud of what I had written. I ended up three words short, and I
did something fun with the ending that I won't share here in case anyone
wants to try this exercise.
Being a creature of habit, I'm working on transforming my former bad
habits into better ones. I didn't wake up early this morning, but I had a
big day yesterday, and today I realized that I need to lower my
expectations of myself in some areas. I needed sleep, I slept fairly
well last night, and I've already had a better morning than some other
days. A friend of mine who is in the film industry does a daily baseball
podcast. I like listening to it, but sometimes I don't make the time to
listen to what he has to say. Today I combined listening to the podcast
with a short work out. I wanted yesterday to be my food prep day so
today I could get a work out in, and that idea was more successful than I
thought it was going to be. Having the podcast gave me a definitive
time period to work with. I learned more about who owned baseball the
previous day, and I gleaned some insights into movies that were released
during the summer of 1999.
Yesterday I down loaded some Dale Carnegie apps. I went through
them, and so far I'm enjoying them although I'm not sure if I'm going to
have to pay for the downloads which are the next steps in the programs.
I've decided that I can learn about leadership even though I'm not in a
traditional work environment. I took some quizzes, and I'm going to
incorporate this type of experiment into my daily routine. I personally
admire the producer of the podcast I listen to because it's produced
every single day, and that type of habit is what I'm interested in
cultivating. I didn't get fat by sitting down and gorging myself, it was
a long term sustained effort that included more calories, and less
exercise.
To reverse that, I've stocked my fridge with a wide variety of
healthy choices so they're there when I need them. I'm trying to
surround myself with people who are positive, and believe in me, and I
try to encourage others to pursue their individual goals. I have a new
book to read, I read a lot of fluff at work when the kids are doing
their homework, and I'm integrating deeper material that helps push my
mind instead of entertaining it. Just like writing is a daily habit of
mine, I want to make meal planning and prep weekly routines so the girls
have options when I'm not around. Tonight my oldest has a soccer game,
I'm nervous about getting lost on the drive there, but excited to see
her play, and hoping that we can enjoy some mother-daughter time while
we're together.
Tomorrow we're going to a field trip to see the Brewers play. My
daughter is very excited, and I have to admit that I am too even though
the weather may not cooperate with our plans to tailgate before the
game. I'd like to take my daughter mini golfing again, the place we went
to last time has batting cages, and I'd love to sit there and either
watch her hit, or hit with her. A friend of mine who is a hitting coach
was recently invited to help the players of USA Baseball improve their
swings. He's super excited about it, and I'm so happy that he's getting
some of the recognition that I feel he's earned. I follow a lot of
coaches on Twitter, he's introduced me to others who are now friends of
mine, and it's been really interesting to hear these people share their
stories about success, and how they're developing the people they're
working with.
Another friend of mine is involved with open source healthcare
information. He's an artist, he did a quick self portrait of himself,
and it made my day when he and another friend of mine who runs a
healthcare forum that helps connect patients with support groups,
experts, and physicians told me that they enjoyed interacting with me. A
couple physicians I know are also artists, I find the connection
fascinating, and would love to someday meet some of these people so I
can hear more about the guy who almost flunked out of college, turned to
art, and then turned back to medicine because his grades improved after
he took several art classes. Music, art, photography, languages, there
are so many creative outlets to explore, I want to do everything, and I
want to be able to expose my children to the diversity of talented
people I'm privileged to know.
Today I had planned to write about why I don't go to the gym. Today I
worked out at home, I have a fitness buddy, I've found some classes we
can take together, and I'm excited that better meal planning and recipe
organization is finally paying off dividends. I'm having a fabulous day,
I'm thrilled to be alive, a part of life, and proud of myself for the
accomplishments I have behind me because I can use them as stepping
stones for future success.
Take care,
jess