Goals – May 2016

Oh man, just two posts in April?! But that speaks to a “typical April” for Team Wharton when the end of academic year craziness bleeds into the rest of our life. There are always evening events. There is always a deadline. Somehow Chris always ends up traveling.

I’m not sure if I could really say I handled it any better this year; I get stressed and start to globalize (why is the house NEVER clean?! who do I have no time to write EVER?!) even though I know it’s just a phase. Chris is traveling this week, which I was having some anxiety about, but I reached out to my mom colleague and got some great tips and I asked for help (which can be hard to do!) and I’m feeling OK about it. I had a great day with the boys on Sunday – I can do this!

Awesome things in April include Dash learning to ride his pedal bike on his own. The other evening, when we got home from work and daycare, we packed up a picnic dinner, loaded Cedric into the bike trailer and rode bikes – three of us! – to the park. I love seeing Dash’s pride and independence and thinking of all the family bike adventures that we will go on. And, on a less significant level of awesome, I also made good on my April goal of ordering a summer shirt: I am loving this soft and long tank from LL Bean.

In May the busyness should settle down and we’ll coast into our summer and sabbatical schedule (Chris is on sabbatical this fall!). We are so excited. I’m also hoping this month to get back into a groove with my writing, blogging and e-course development. So, welcome, May!

Big things happening in May:

+ Chris travels to Vancouver.

+ Our house gets painted! Although my yellow front door was disapproved by the HOA. Guys! I’m all kinds of emotional about it. Planning to follow up this week and while I do enjoy following the rules I may have to go rogue on this.

+ Girl Next Door Podcast mini retreat. So often Erica and I get together to podcast but we’re fitting it into our full lives and we don’t have time to make bigger plans for the podcast. We’re taking a Saturday this month to do just that; what fun work!

+ Two day creative retreat. I have two reports due on May 9 and the following week I’m taking off two days to work on my own creative projects. It will be such a sweet rewards after ending those projects.

May goals:

+ Find consistent time for blogging. My weekend creative work time has gone by the wayside with recent full weekends but I’m hoping to get back to this. If the fourth goal on this list goes well perhaps I’ll get back into a habit of a 4 AM morning here and there.

+ Organize my closet. This is a hold over from last month that I hope to complete this month, including putting away any winterish clothing.

+ Go on a breakfast date with Chris to celebrate the end of the academic year!

+ Hire and work with a sleep coach. Are you tired of hearing about my sleep woes? I’m tired of hearing myself talk about my sleep woes. Also, I’m just tired. Dash is now fairly consistently waking in the middle of the night – sometimes several times – and waking for the day in the early 4 AM hour. It doesn’t feel sustainable for Chris and me and it can’t be what’s best for Dash. I think having an objective, outside opinion, an integrated plan and support to implement that plan will help a lot. Cross your fingers for us and I’ll report back on how it goes!

Recurring monthly goals:

+ Exercise three times per week. This has been going well and I’ve been feeling really fit and healthy.

+ Get up early on Tuesdays for the 4 AM project. Putting this aside for now until we figure out how to get more sleep. I had the idea for working at 4 AM when both our boys started sleeping through the night and until at least 5:30 AM. Since that is no longer the case this hasn’t been working well.

+ Publish to RISING*SHINING on Mondays and Wednesdays. Working on getting back to this.

+ Record and produce new episodes of The Girl Next Door Podcast and Matrimoney on schedule. 

Happy May!

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10 responses to “Goals – May 2016”

  1. Feisty Harriet Avatar
    Feisty Harriet

    No yellow door!??! Nooooo!!!!!!!! That was such a lovely idea!!

    I get the end-of-academic-year craziness + summer prep insanity, I am feeling it BIG TIME right now. Lawsy. Just a few more weeks and I’ll be out of it!

    xox

    Reply
    1. Kelsey Avatar
      Kelsey

      I think we’re going rogue and painting the door yellow anyway! Good luck getting through this time, you can do it!

      Reply
  2. Michele Avatar
    Michele

    LOVE the mini retreat and two-day creative retreat! Will you stay at home for them, or find a change of venue to give you a different kind of inspiration? MY mom colleague Pam ( :)) just wrote today about putting together her own DIY retreat that I’m dying to do, too: http://www.beyondyourblog.com/how-to-create-an-epic-inexpensive-writing-retreat/

    Good luck getting through the rest of Chris’ travel and I hope the sleep coach is helpful!

    Reply
    1. Kelsey Avatar
      Kelsey

      For our GND retreat we booked a room at the library down the street for a few hours. But for my own creative retreat I’ll just be at home – working at home ALONE is so heavenly, it nearly feels like the spa compared to the usual commotion 🙂 Love this article, thanks! And thank you for the luck!!

      Reply
  3. Sarah Avatar
    Sarah

    Sleep. So essential to happy being happy parents and human beings. Our three (almost four) year old still wakes up at least once in the middle of the night. So, so frustrating. Sending good thoughts for sleep coach success!

    Reply
    1. Kelsey Avatar
      Kelsey

      Thank you, Sarah! It is so frustrating. It feels like so little to ask to be able to sleep through the night, and yet it remains so elusive…

      Reply
  4. Kristy Avatar
    Kristy

    Congrats on making it through April! I like how you’re celebrating small successes in May by going to breakfast to celebrate the end of the academic year and taking 2 days off for yourself after a heavy time at work (I need to do more of that!). A sleep coach sounds like a great idea. Sleep is so important for everyone. Fingers crossed for progress in the sleep department!

    Reply
    1. Kelsey Avatar
      Kelsey

      Thank you, Kristy!

      Reply
  5. Rebecca Avatar
    Rebecca

    Hi Kelsey, I’ve checked in on your blog from afar for a while (and now “afar” is literally true – we live in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire with our 18 month old daughter) – but I had to comment so you’ll keep us posted on what the sleep coach says and how it works out!! We have struggled with sleep so much, and after multiple wakings a night for what seemed like ages, and then multiple painful periods of cry-it-out (which helped, but only partially) I finally just kind of accepted where we were. She’ll usually sleep till through till sometime between 4:30 and 5:15. At one point in our lives, I would have said, give me any 8 hour stretch of her sleeping and I’ll take it, I don’t care what hours. But now that we’re not quite as desperate, I’d really love to be able to sleep til 6 a.m. If we’re lucky she’ll go back to sleep for another 45 min to an hour after that after nursing at that early morning waking, which makes it bearable… but when she doesn’t, well… we get just being TIRED.

    Reply
    1. Kelsey Avatar
      Kelsey

      Oh friend, I hear you! I will definitely share the insights we learn, we are still figuring out WHEN we can do this but we should have time soon as Chris’s schedule is slowing considerably, hooray! It’s lovely to hear from you – and you certainly are afar, hello from Arizona!

      Reply

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