“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” -Albert Einstein This week Jaxon has been going to CU Boulder each day to attend a robotics camp. On monday as we came over the hill into boulder, he gasped and said “I love this place! I always see such cool things in the rocks!” So, each day, instead of dreading the drive, I looked forward to hearing what he saw in the famous flatirons. He saw a Turtle, Optimus Prime, The Titans from Hercules, a warrior, and a sleeping indian. I say the Thing from Fantastic Four, a beaver, santa napping, and a finger flipping someone off. (ok, mine are silly) It was a small moment to treasure.
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“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” -Soren Kierkegaard This month, I crossed the six month point in my journey to complete forty adventures before I turn forty. As I hit this point, I wonder, so what? Does it matter? Have I learned anything? Have I changed? Am I growing or wasting time and money? Well, here are some of my thoughts on this adventure.
Bored and Busy are not Enough. We live in a scarcity culture. We are always afraid that we need more or will run out of things that matter. However, in the chase of having “enough” we often find ourselves too busy and bored with our lives. Going to work more and missing out on the authentic moments may result in having multiple Kate Spade purses, but it will not result in happiness. This journey has made me realize that my life had truly been in a rut and I needed to get out of it and live. Although I still spend plenty of time (and energy) working, I also am spending a lot more time doing things that I enjoy. I am not zoning out on the couch playing video games (like I did last summer) but instead have read great books, spent more time with family and friends, and am engaging more with my life. Little Moments are important too! (but are hard to plan for!) When I made my list, I added only items that I could participate in with the money in my checking account. I didn’t want to be too crazy (i.e. my dream to go on a cruise to Antarctica) to start with. However, as I have started working through my list of bigger items, I have realized that I am much more in tune with the smaller joys on the journey. These moments cannot be planned for, but I love them too. (Remember when I ate the cricket cookie? Never would have thought of it!) So, as I head into the next half of my year, I am committing to adding Little Moments as they happen to for me to savor them. A Manifesto I am adding a new line to my list--writing a manifesto. As I have dived into these new adventures, I realized that I had been floating through life rather than purposefully pursuing the life I wanted to be living. So, I will work over the next while to write a manifesto that is clear about what I want. This will be my compass point! Next week we head off to Cancun for our family vacation. It was planned with my list in mind--I will swim in the ocean, see ruins, cliff dive at Xelha and I splurged to get a massage at the spa. I can’t wait! Here is to life! Oh, and here are some new items I am adding to my list this week. Some are small and some are my bigg audacious ones that I have been thinking about. -Write a manifesto -Sing at a Karaoke Bar -Earn my Engineering Education Certificate from Tufts University -Max out the salary scale -Try Escargot -Go geocaching -Record 100 little moments -Stay in a hostel -See the Great Wall of China -See the Great Barrier Reef and the Sydney Opera House -Go on a cruise to antarctica -Ride a Gondola in Venice -See a show at the Grand Old Oprey -Visit Dollywood -See the Sphinx and the Pyramids -Go skinny dipping as an adult -See the broncos play everyone in the AFC West live at least once -Dress up to attend comic con -Complete a photo a day project for an entire month -Take pictures in a photo booth -Become a grandma :) (not any time soon!) -Visit the Maldives or Tahati -Write a Song -Keep my drivers liscense for the WHOLE time it is valid without losing it -Try Yoga -Do the FULL Harry Potter Marathon in less than 48 hours. -Do the FULL Star Wars Marathon in less than 48 hours. -Read the Entire Bible -Visit Base Camp at Mt. Everest -Go to the Super Bowl “Any day on the mountain is a good day.” -Unknown When I put a book from Colorado on my list, I assumed it would give me a good excuse to reread one of Diane Mott Davidson’s Goldie Mysteries. However, a new opportunity popped into my life when I went to a thank you dinner for Mindspark. In our goody bags, I found a copy of “The Spirit of the Trail” by Carrie Morgridge and decided to dive into this book instead.
The premise of this book is that Carrie and her husband John decided to go on an adventure trip together. After research, they decided to ride the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route from Banff, Alberta, Canada to the Mexican border in Antelope Springs, New Mexico. This day by day journal of their travels unpacks a story about learning how to slow down, push past your limits, and the importance of having a partner for the journey of life. My greatest takeaway from this read was the realization that we need to slow down and savor the best moments. Although the biked more than 2,600 miles, the couple cherished small moments each day. A warm bed, a shower, the world's largest pancake, a butterfly landing on a shoe, a dip in a mountain lake, the kindness of others along the way. These were just a few of the moments they found joy in the journey. After reading this book, I realized that I want to start documenting these small moments on my life list journey too. They are not the biggest adventures, but they are the sweetest. It was also fun to read this story as I have meet many of the people in the book through my work with STEM and Mindspark. It was a new adventure to see a world you can relate to come to life on the written page. What a fun treat! “As I get older I am more and more comfortable being alone.” -Sienna Miller When I made my initial list of adventures I wanted to have, going to a movie by myself sounded like a stretch. Movies have been one of my favorite past times for my entire life. As a middle school/high school student, most weekends found me at the theater with either family or friends to see the newest movie at the one screen Sands Theater. In high school, the Cover in Ft Morgan added a second screen and it was amazing--we had three choices each week!
As I moved on to college, movies became one of my favorite activities to share with my roommates and with Luke as we dated. I love a good adventure movie and even more I love comic book movies! I always joke with Luke that he is the luckiest bastard alive because each year our anniversary hits memorial day weekend and the opening of a new comic book movie. He never has to plan more than that and a trip to the melting pot! So, why go to a movie by myself? Well, I think the honest answer is that it means that I am finally confident enough in myself to not worry about what other people think. In my small town, going together was the event, not the movie. Going by myself would have meant I wasn’t “cool” or “loved” or “liked” in my teenage mind. Throughout the years there have been many movies I wanted to see but skipped because of a lack of a date. So, today, I pushed those thoughts aside and went to see Oceans 8 in Boulder while Jaxon was at Robotics Camp. How was it? It was LOVELY! I really enjoyed the movie--it has a strong cast of women who played marvelously fun characters. The heist centered on the Met Gala so there were gorgeous crowns, beautiful baubles, and no one stole my drink! (I even had half left when the movie was over!) No one noticed that I was a alone and I felt brave for finally taking the plunge. I can’t wait to go again--I can see whatever I want now :) “Of all the strategems, to know when to quit is best.” -Chinese Proverb As summer started, I added completing the Index Card A Day Challenge to my life list. As I spent the spring looking for art journaling and mixed media inspiration, this challenge kept coming up and I was intrigued. The premise was simple--create a piece of art every day for 61 days on a note card. That’s it!
Well, I started and made it through the first 20 days. But then I had a realization--it was becoming a chore rather than a joy. After racking my brain each day for what I could put on the notecard to meet the prompt, I had spent my creative energy for the day. It wasn’t fun anymore. So, what do we do when something isn’t working? We stop. So I did. Here are some of the cards I created--hope you enjoy them. And now I am off to make art that I love instead. “The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don’t have to explain things with words.”--Elliott Erwitt After having family photos taken with my family a few years ago, having pictures taken with Luke's family became something I wanted to do. So, for Mothers/Fathers day, we gifted them a photoshoot! We got our pictures back today and I couldn't be happier. They capture us right now and the reality of how we are today! I can't wait to get them printed and up for us all to enjoy!
"Our song is the way you laugh, The first date man I didn't kiss her when I should have, And when I got home, before I said amen, Asking God if He could play it again." -Taylor Swift Taylor Swift--she seems to be a love/hate artist whenever she comes up in my classrooms filled with Middle Schoolers. I honestly haven't listened to her music too much (as it was unavailable to stream on Spotify which is my streaming service of choice!). So today, I dove in and listened to her debut album Taylor Swift: Taylor Swift.
Overall, she is really talented. I love the song "Our Song"--it is cute and fun to listen too and has been on my list for a long time on my iPod. It was a solid album from start to finish and I actually really liked the Pop version of "Teardrops on my guitar" more than I suspected I would. I guess you can add me to the "like" column for this disc--we will see how others go as we continue down the list. “Who you are is defined by what you’re willing to struggle for.” ― Mark Manson, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life Never judge a book by it's cover--this mantra has been drilled into my brain for years. But for my grown up summer reading, I decided to do just that--pick a book based only on the cover. This book was my winner--I simply love the word "f*$%" and would like to not give a "f*$%" more often as I am often accused of giving way too much of a f*$%.
Written by Blogger Mark Manson, the overall theme of this book is that we are not special snowflakes and our lives have become entitled. As we chase happiness, we confuse the journey and bad feelings with being "picked" on. However, in order to really find happiness, we have to embrace the hard parts and choose which ones we actually want to care about. Overall, this book was meh for me--a good reminder that our choices drive our happiness and that we must be fierce in choosing what we value. Otherwise, it left me wanting more. “No. Nature, nurture, both matter, both form us. But at some point, at so many points, the choices we make, the paths we take, they define us. You made yours. She’s made hers.” “Yeah.” ― J.D. Robb, Apprentice in Death Does nurture or nature make us who we are? This is the core question at the heart of this Eve Dallas Thriller. As Lt. Dallas seeks out the Mackies for a horrendous series of mass shootings, this questions resonates as she tries to figure out if she is like her criminal. Fun, quick read. I didn't realize this was part of a series when I picked it up at the library, so now I need to go back and start at the beginning as I really liked the characters, but felt like I missed something without the back story.
“Sometimes the heart sees what’s invisible to the eye.” -H. Jackson Browne I love TED Talks! I love how passionate the speakers are about their topics--it reminds me how much I love teaching. I love the wide variety of topics, of people and of ideas that are covered. And most of all? I love that they are short enough to keep my attention. (Especially during the school year when that can be a trick after a long day.) So, attending a live TED event made it on to my list. TedX Denver hosts 1-2 events each year and this year the them was Uncommon and talks were set to feature an amazing array of people. As soon as tickets went on sale in March, I bought a set for Luke and I to go.
Well, fast forward to Memorial Day. It has been a LONG spring at our house. Luke has new responsibilities at work and I did to as we moved into our new school. The words “survive” and “almost there” and “tired” littered our conversations all the time. A banner came up on Facebook for $15 plane tickets to Vegas. Could this be true? Well, come to find out, they were! However there was a catch--it would mean missing the TEDX event. Oh, no! What to do? I hate wasting money, but I felt that a few days out of town with the hubby was truly what our family needed. So, I said no to my list and yes to my heart. I posted the tickets on facebook and they were snapped up by a friend at work quickly. We made arrangements for the boys to go to my parents and we headed out of town. I am putting going to a TED Event back on my list--the opportunity will come around again. Our trip to Vegas was just what the doctor ordered--we rested, reconnected, and realized that we had to fill up our buckets. It was perfection! |
AuthorAlmost 40 and tired of the treadmill, I am going to LIVE each day as a new adventure while finishing todo items on my life list. Mom, wife, teacher, geek! Archives
May 2020
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