bodner037

This year I have been setting goals each month using four themes: balance, purpose, health, and organization. These themes have helped me focus each month on specific steps towards creating positive changes and growth. In June these themes still apply, but my focus is a little different. This month is a bittersweet one for me, as for the first time in over 10 years, I am preparing to change

I keep thinking that we're into spring: the warm, t-shirt and shorts, pretty flowers spring that we are all desperate to see — and then another cold snap comes through and everyone gets a little bummed out again. Which all just reminds me that this time of year takes a little patience. Those warm spring days will come, but in our part of New England it takes a little longer. Similarly

February seemed to fly by, which meant getting to my monthly goals and my four year-long themes was not as easy as it might be in longer months. My Four Year Long Themes: Balance - Find balance across all areas of my life. Purpose - Reflect on the purpose of the things I own and my time. Health- Spend time focusing on improving my own physical and mental health. Organization- I am always

This year I'm continuing to keep my monthly goals based on four year long themes. Each month, I try to work on these goals in a new direction. My Four Year Long Themes: Balance - Find balance across all areas of my life. Purpose - Reflect on the purpose of the things I own and my time. Health- Spend time focusing on improving my own physical and mental health. Organization- I am always

For quite a while now I've been excited about running a new series and I've decided that kicking it off in January is the perfect time! Although we'd love to be able to travel farther abroad, at this point almost all of our family travel takes place in New England. We look for easy day trips or car trips where we may stay for just a night or two. We have family and friends across New England,

In the past few years, I've enjoyed participating in a Monthly Goals series with several other bloggers. Each month bloggers share their goals and update on the progress they've made. By posting my goals here, for all of you to see, it's made me feel much more accountable to meeting the goals. After a few months off from goal making I've decided to refresh the practice for the New Year. This

I've always considered myself a pretty amazing multitasker - I've even prided myself on how many projects I can have going on at "once." When brain research came out a few years ago claiming that people officially can't multitask, I completely didn't agree with it. Of course people can multitask- moms and teachers do it 100 times a day.  Coming out of a summer season where I purposefully

We're almost a week into July, and just posting our monthly goals  . . . but that fits perfectly with our focus for the next month: Keep Summer Simple. For whatever reason, this summer I'm feeling the need for us to keep it simple - slow it down and just enjoy the best parts of this season in our part of the world. The temperatures are warm, the world is green, the swimming is perfect, and

For quite a while now I've hoped to start sharing some family activity resources for the New England area. So with summer on the horizon it seemed like a great time to start sharing! For this post we're focusing on summer activities in the Upper Valley region. The Upper Valley area is the Vermont and New Hampshire towns which border the Connecticut River. Visitors may be coming to the area

So today I forgot my boss' birthday . . .  I should mention that I was supposed to be his "birthday buddy" and bring in a treat for the whole staff to share . . . I should also mention that I work in a pretty small town, with one small store, and no bakery  . . . So forgetting meant no treat for a happy staff to share. Forgetting meant totally having to own up to it. And, for me, forgetting

About a year ago Big Brother discovered the fun of mini-golfing and he loved going several times over the summer months. He was pretty excited to discover that because there was less snow and frost this winter, our local mini golf place was already open for his birthday. He quickly asked to have a handful of kindergarten friends join him for a birthday party at the mini-golf center.  I was

Whether it's the unusual winter we just had, the sporadic temps we're still experiencing, or just a touch of late cabin fever - I am so ready for spring, a real spring, to arrive! Something about this spring also has me thinking about those classic activities that families and kids get to experience during the warming spring months and I find myself just wanting to slow down and enjoy those

With new schedules and new routines this fall things are definitely feeling different, and a little more frantic than they were in the past. For some reason at the end of the October I really started to feel the new changes to our family routine and weekly schedule.  For the most part things feel a little more rushed, a little less flexible, and a lot more scheduled. Big Brother is

I'm not going to lie, I didn't do so well with my September Goal of Getting More Sleep. In fact, I probably should just continue it into this month. But, I knew this would be a hard habit to break. So, I'm going to try and keep it going this coming month. However, with our new school year routines this month, it's become pretty clear there's another monthly goal I need to tackle: make our school

Okay, now that the fun of summer is over and my oldest kiddo has started kindergarten, I know it's time to face up to the monthly goal I've been avoiding all year: Get More Sleep. For most people, the idea of getting more sleep would be a welcome treat . . . and for me that is true. But there's also a part of me that goes into a true panic at the idea of taking on this goal.  It's not