Tough Break

Life always has those unexpected moments.  This summer my most cautious 4-year old daughter decided she would be daring and jump off the top of our slide into the lawn.  After the slip of a foot, the outcome was a broken arm and she has spent the last month in a cast from her hand almost all the way up to her shoulder.  Thankfully this summer has not been too sweltering and with new technologies {thank you, 3M} little ones can now get their cast completely wet.  No more bread bag rubber-banded at the top to try and keep your arm dry in the bathtub.  No more sitting by the side of the pool longing to jump in with the other kids.

But I must say the most fun part about walking around with fiberglass wrapped around your arm for a month has to be the tradition of having people sign it.  And although she’s been shy about it, she has let the ones closest to her have this great privilege.  Talk about the ultimate in correspondence.  Leaving a permanent sentiment that she has carried with her for the past 4 weeks!  My personal favorite :: “Tough break, Grace.  Love you, Dad.”

My Resolution: Figure out how to stick to a resolution

Not to start this off like a high school graduation speech, but there are two quotes that shaped my 2008 New Year’s Resolution:

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure” -Various attributions

Normally I do not do New Year’s Resolutions. I know that’s sacrilege, kind of like saying I only hand out boxes of raisins and shell-on peanuts to kids at Halloween. Which I don’t. Don’t worry, it’s all Reese’s and Hershey products at my house.

It’s just that resolutions have never worked for me, either because I go too big with them or because I forget I even made one by half time of the Rose Bowl.

So this year, I decided that I would do a resolution, but the resolution would be: How to stick to a resolution. Or said another way: Come up with a system for achieving a goal

Then I read this blog post:

“Goals are achieved by habits… Once you’ve identified that goal, you’ll need to commit yourself, hold yourself accountable to a group of people, and focus completely on that habit for a month.”

7 Essential Tips to Make 2008 Your Best Year Ever

Habits! I love it. No need to figure out all the steps, just identify some habits that I can repeat and see what happens. There was something about the idea of creating a habit that clicked with me.

So I was going to:

1. Identify a goal
2. Come up with some habits
3. Measure the execution of those habits

Here’s what I came up with:

My Goal: Sustained Fitness Activity

The habits I wanted to start to accomplish the goal:

1. 60 minutes of vigorous cardio activity

2. Walk my dog for 20 minutes (3 times a day)

3. 3 sets of pullups to failure.  (I hate lifting weights, so I picked something I knew I could bang out in less than 10 minutes at the gym before doing some cardio.)

For measuring the execution of the habits on a daily basis, I decided go with a slick loose-leaf mini-binder and marked each day’s accomplishments on a page.  I’m normally not a big “journal person” but I have to say, 20 days into the new year it is incredibly satisfying to look back and page through to see my progress.  I’ve strung together 17 days where I’ve been able to accomplish all three habits.  Not bad, but they say it takes 6 weeks for a habit to become part of your regular routine.  I’ll keep you posted!

Wine, Cheese & Ladies

This year I decided to have the neighborhood ladies over for a little holiday cheer and some shopping.   I was inspired by an invitation we have on the site.  The invite is by Mara-Mi. I liked it so much, I decided I needed to have a party of some sort just to share them with the world and have them associated with me.  Because I believe the invitations you send {and the cards, stationery, notes, etc.} are a direct reflection of you.  The design is fun, festive, and a bit unexpected and the matching envelope is the icing on the cake.  Now, I’m not much for “cute” and no one would ever use the word “formal” to describe me or anything I do.  That’s why these invitations are the perfect choice - stylish, unexpected, untraditional, but still appropriate – just like me.  Or at least that’s how I think I’m thought of. Self-awareness is highly over-rated.  Without further ado…here’s my invite.

{$15 / box of 10 invitations}

So far…well received. I’ll let you know how the party goes in a few weeks.