Good-bye 2018

Can you believe 2018 is over?!?!?

Truth be told, I keep forgetting it's NYE today.  Feels like a Sunday and it's raining all day and we do NOTHING NYE so there's that too LOL.

I'm splitting the "un-decorating" into 2 days.  Starting with the trees and miscellaneous stuff today.  Last task of the holiday.  I know I'm not the only one who "un-loves" this process.

I mentioned GOAL work this week.  Lots of "doing" goals and some "thinking" goals too.  I'll write a post soon.  I did goals TWO ways combining my 2019 mentor triad (Rachel Hollis, Brooke Castillo and Gretchen Rubin). This is the first time I did anything like this in writing.  I need excitement to keep my NEW ME going after life coaching ends.

I saved my year-in-review for this last day of the year.  I'll spend some time today writing about what went well and what didn't.  I've never done this before either, but it seems to be a common practice so I'm game for trying it.

I'll leave you and this year with a few pictures.

Happy NYE!!!

On the way for my NITRO coffee.
Dog zen and peace.

My aunt won our Christmas card contest.
Parker and Duke!!
Frame worthy and saved.

Yep.

Netflix and a New Book

(Hubby is up early with me this morning, so this is a quick hello.
Also, I did a bunch of GOAL work yesterday and I'll share it this week.)

My youngest and I watched Bird Box on Netflix last night.  I'm still thinking about it ... creepy, good movie!  Well worth the watch if you have Netflix and like spooky.  Actors did a great job, the story is good and the ending doesn't disappoint.

I'm watching Call the Midwife on Netflix too.  I had no idea there are 7 seasons!!!  It's really good although I can't imagine watching for 7 seasons.  Guess I'll see ...

I'm reading a book a friend gave me for Christmas My Little Life.  It's good so far, deep and dark.  It's over 700 pages so I have a long way to go.  She loved it so I'm glad to read it.

Today is a NITRO COFFEE (yea) and chili-football afternoon.  Christmas decorations coming down tomorrow and Tuesday.  I haven't been inspired to do it yet.  It has to be finished for Wednesday and the cleaning crew though.

That's all from here - have a great day! Later gators.

Gretchen Rubin

GR (as she shall be known in this post because I'm lazy) is where all the personal growth started for me.  The Happiness Project.  It was a solid first step in the process of my change.  Lots of logical stuff.  Doing goals.  Clean clutter, be yourself, etc.

It worked so well for that year and then it stopped working.  Turns out I needed to do some head work as a next step.  All the logical, doing things changed into thought management.  Didn't matter WHAT I did, I could control my happiness by my thoughts (hello Brooke Castillo).

Now I want to pull it all together because GR's ideas are so much fun.  I love the way her mind works.  Combine GR and Brooke Castillo and it would be PERFECTION hahahaha!  These would be 2 of my dinner guests at the proverbial dinner-party-of-anyone.

If you haven't listened to her podcast with her sister ... Happier with Gretchen Rubin ... I totally recommend it.  I love the way she and her sister interact.  Her sister is dry and makes me laugh every episode.

Anyway, this is a long way to say I signed up for GR's year long HAPPINESS program.  It's on an early-bird special of $120 for the year.  $10 per month.  That's a cost I can handle.  It's live calls, assignment AND the SAME NETWORK as PHB (that's freaky).

I don't want to do life coaching immediately after PHB.  I need a money break and time to see if I need to continue with it.  I also don't want to be one of those people who NEEDS life coaching to live her life.  This is something different.  Fun, practical with a level of accountability too.

My personal growth for 2019 is taking shape:

(1) Rachel Hollis conference in June.
(2) RH goal planner daily worksheet (for a better afternoon/evening routine).
(3) GR Happiness Project class.

Sounds about right.  Of course, having these tools is great, but doing the work is where it's at - always.

Yesterday, I wasn't feeling the healthy day and I didn't (no surprise).  After a busy morning, I sat with Netflix and snacks and spent the rest of the day living as a slug.

Today, I'm ready for a healthy day.  I'll be suffering this afternoon, but I'm ready to be back doing the work.  January 1(or 2) is coming fast and I want to be ready to START all this fun 2019 stuff.  It starts with energy and feeling well (I'm missing both this week).

Here's my vision board for PHB homework.  The rocking chair in the middle is a Tony Robbins thing.  At the end of your life, sitting on a rocking chair, what would you regret not doing?  I use that visualization to help make decisions to add VARIETY in my life.  I'm a CERTAINTY girl and I can be so certain with life that I make my life too small.  A big future goal is to learn Spanish (that's the green circle).  The ring is a "thing" goal that I want for my right hand some day.  The dog drawing from my aunt - of course dogs!!  The rest are little reminders for me - for where I am right now.

This is HAPPY!  It's Junebug's toy, but Parker claimed it from minute one.
He carries it everywhere and smiles the entire time.
Junebug didn't like it and she claimed a toy of his - so all is balanced LOL!
I love this dog so stinking much!!

Have a great day.  Think of me as I ALLOW all the cravings (and probably some withdraw) this afternoon -- oh boy.  It's going to be a big entry in my Urge book.  I'm finding the Sharpie now.  Later gators.

Rain, Rain and More Rain

I think half the country is thinking the same - HOLY RAIN!  It's pouring and going to rain for the next zillion (or 8) days.  Flooding and the likes.  Stay dry everyone.

I managed some good work time in the office yesterday (work as in personal growth).

Goal setting according to Rachel Hollis needs some tweaking for me.  I think if I were goal setting 10 or 15 or 20 years ago, her method would work.  As it is, I'm in a different season of life and have different kinds of goals right now and very little time constraints.  I like the concept of focusing on something big rather than lots of little things, but I don't need to wait 10 years to work on all of my list.  I have a few goals that are in "wait" mode, but not 9 of them.  (You make a list of 10 and choose one a year to focus on.)  She mentions that focusing on one tends to automatically raise other areas too, but that still isn't exactly right for me.

I'm going to mesh her method with Brooke Castillo and use her goal journal that way.  Still working The List.  Planning my start on January 2 so I can be the cliche LOL.

Gretchen Rubin's word of the year.  Loved the podcast.  Her word is GROWTH.  I actually thought about that one before listening to the podcast but decided it felt too generic for me.  She used UPGRADE one year and it made me think of LEVEL UP.  Upgrade feels like a passive word (you get upgraded).  Level up seems like an action word (I leveled up).  It felt good and then I did my meditation with that intention ... 2019.  The word SHINE kept coming up in my head.

Message from the Universe?  Random thought word?  I don't know.  After I thought about what SHINE could mean for 2019 and I decided to go with it.  It's a prettier word hahaha!

What does it mean, you ask?  Well, ready yourself for some woo woo stuff.

I want to let my whole self SHINE.  Good and bad.  Not pretend to be someone different with certain people.  Open myself up to be a little vulnerable.  I've worked on not apologizing for certain things about myself (I go to sleep early, I like 8 hours of sleep, I don't like to dance, etc) but I still hide other areas from people.  Very few people (friends) know I'm doing this life coaching.  Why?  I don't want to be judged.  Shine means opening up.

Shine is also similar to my "all is bright."  See the SHINE in people and things and experiences.  Make THINGS shine.  Help others to shine.  You get the idea.

It's a bit over-the-top for even me, but I'm going with it.  The word is different than my actual goals.  It's like a goal enhancement.  Here's my goal, now let's SHINE and make it even better.  (Yes, a little gag worthy, but if it's too much, I can always change it.  It's MY word, after all.)

I also (mostly) finished my vision board.  I'll get a picture of it soon-- lots of inspirational memes and a few goal pictures too.  It's not a masterpiece, but I'll hang it in the workout room and see it regularly.  I have a quote board in there already so it's much of the same.  I'll do a post on it next week.

On the docket today is GOAL SETTING again.  It's hard!!  I also want to start the year-in-review thoughts.  Spend a little time thinking (and writing) about what went well, what didn't go well and move forward from there.  That was part of GR podcast and lots of peeps do this at year end.  Prep work for January.

I didn't think of any "treats" for my list, but I desperately need them.  I'm STRUGGLING big this week.  I worked hard during the holidays and now I'm falling on my face THIS WEEK?!?!?!  Wine and cheese last night.  Come on girlfriend - get your butt back up.  I'd like to say today is the day that happens, but it feels like a lie.  I'll try ... stay tuned ...  up and down and up and down ... ugh.

Here's another meme on my vision board.  Happy Friday!  Later gators.

Good Morning

Yep, title burnout is real.  I need to think of something new to "theme" my titles, but I can't come up with anything.

Speaking of themes ... Gretchen Rubin's latest podcast talks about choosing a WORD for the new year.  I haven't listened to it yet, but she mentioned it was coming up and it's out now.  I love that idea.  I'm starting my set-up for all the fun new year stuff.  I'm working on the vision board and doing some goal thinking this week.

January 15 marks the last of the life coaching.  I've been doing it since June with the Whole30 coaching.  I'm a little nervous to be on my own (sounds dramatic), but I need to see what that looks like for me.  Life coaching is expensive and a luxury and I need to take that seriously.

I chatted with my bff yesterday and we opened our Christmas gifts together on the phone.  My favorite gift was a Tea Forte mug and the most superb tea I've ever had - it's expensive.  $44 for the container of loose tea leaves.  She drinks it at her hair salon and bought the tea bags to have at home, but it didn't taste as good.  Turns out the loose tea leaves are better.  It has the best mild flavor and no caffeine.  (I looked up the price because I wanted to send it to my PHB team -- they are all sending/sent gifts to the group.  Too much $$$ to send for them though.)

The PHB group sent me a journal with my name (thanks, Darcie) and a bracelet with the question, "What would a healthy person do?" (thanks, Susan).  I need to figure out something to send too.  I think books - something selected for each of them individually.  I have a couple of weeks before this ends to come up with an idea.  Another "idea need" for my brainstorming session today (oh boy).

Susan's business is home jewelry parties.
This is really pretty!  LOVE it!

I want to go to boxing today, but I'm concerned it's the instructor with the leg-work, kick obsession.  He seems to be substituting for a lot of the classes during the holidays.  The class has another instructor listed, but all last week it ended up being him.  He's listed on an earlier class, so I wonder ...  My dang leg is a mess and I need to keep it rested.  But I NEED A WORKOUT!!!  I have an hour to decide.  It's probably wiser to do some arms and abs at home for this week and get a true rest for my leg.  UGH.

I also want to "treat" myself to a nitro coffee this week.  Fortunately, it's a bit of a drive or I'd be all over it too frequently.  It's the mother-load of caffeine.  Maybe it can be a weekend treat.  I need to go early or not at all.

Speaking of treats -- I need some motivation to get myself completely back on track.  Some fun things that aren't expensive.  A new book.  A nitro coffee.  That's all I've got so far.  I think I have junk-food brain right now!!  I'm going to spend some time brainstorming in my office today (with my new tea) and see what I can come up with for all my "idea" lists (goals, treats, word of the year).  I might not get much further than drinking the tea with the way my brain is thinking this week.

Last little random thought today ... my bff recommended a series on Netflix.  Call the Midwife.  She hasn't watched it yet, but her friend said it makes her want to be a better person.  Wow!  I watched the first episode and I liked it a lot.  I'm not feeling like being a better person yet (lol) but it was really good.

I lied - one more random thought.  I started collecting quotes for my vision board.  Here's one I like for today.  Later gators.

Post-Christmas Carnage (and pictures)

Happy Boxing Day!  One year we had a big family party with more food, drinks, kids and LICE.  Never again.  Too much of EVERYTHING!!  (Fortunately, we didn't get the lice too, just had to "de-lice" the house.)

This year, my family is back to work, the kitchen is ALMOST back together and the final clean up is underway.  Tossing bits of ratty left-overs, dumping the final sips of wine bottles, tossing juice mixers we'll never drink on their own, putting away all the special servers.  Feels good.

We have substantial left-overs that will carry us for the next couple of meals - yea!!

I won't un-decorate until this weekend.  I need a few days to decompress.  And I was WAY OFF about my monthly friend.  Came (for real) this morning.

I feel like I've been run over today.  Monthly yuck, joints hurt (too much gluten) and my leg is officially injured.  I've been flitting around with it for weeks and it's bad enough that it needs my attention - or actually my lack of attention (REST).  No running for a few days.  I might not even be able to box.  One day at a time on this one.  This injury is a first for my leg, so I'm not sure what to expect.

Okay - recap of Christmas.  It was CALM and BRIGHT (I did it LOL!!!!).  We had a super time hanging out, laughing, watched a movie, ate, drank and repeated again.  The dogs were fun and loved the excitement and new toys.  I'm full of good things -- family, connection, love, abundance, gratitude.  It was a Christmas to remember.

Here are some pictures from the day (out of order because my dang computer again).

Christmas Eve dinner

Big kid, little dog and fun bubbles

Christmas Eve set-up

Small spread for HAPPY Hour

Dogs and a martini

Parker waiting for his gifts.
Duke had no clue - 1st Christmas with us.

Duke singing (actually a yawn LOL)

Happy hour CHEERS!!

As I've mentioned, loved this holiday season and love this season OVER.  Time to get back to my "normal" life.  Transition week.  Clean-up in every sense of my life.  My house, my eating, my sleep, my mind.  Getting ready for the new year and some fun projects.

Happy Boxing Day!!  Later gators.

Joy to the World

Whatever today means for you, I wish you joy, peace and love.  Merry Christmas!!