Tag Archives: challenges

Entering a new year with appropriate expectations

Oz had me up just after 4 this morning, which ended up being fine by me. December 28th is traditionally one of my favorite days of the year, and the reason is this post. I love looking back at what I wanted for myself over the past year, what I accomplished, and dreaming of what is to come. This year is going to be a bit different though, because I have realized something over the past few month. My own expectations ruin experiences for me.

I usually write out what I call challenges, not resolutions. People break resolutions, but as a competitive person, I find that if I feel challenged or someone challenges me I tend to have more drive to follow through. I developed this way of thinking with my friend, Greg Hunn, who doesn’t even know it but is a modern day philosopher. He always has the wisest words to say, and it seems like we tend to think of and contact each other at the right moments, when we need each other. He said something very profound to me the other day via text, ” Probably all of our conflicts in life come from our idealistic perspectives being disillusioned. We superimpose our beliefs on reality.”

Once I had time to digest those words, which happened during a time period when I felt like I was mourning the loss of what my reality should have been, it changed my whole perspective on my life. There are things that I would like to accomplish this year, sort of a 2019 To-Do List, but I have decided not to set any expectations on how I get to those goals. I hate feeling like I have disappointed myself. This is not to say that I will set my expectations low. I want to maintain high expectations for myself, my family and my life. I just want those expectations to maybe be a little less formal so that how I accomplish them is not a frustrating process that makes me forget what I am working toward.

I feel like a lot of moms probably feel what I am feeling, but the truth of the matter is that I have a LOT going on. The mom brain is not like any other. It is constantly running thinking about everyone that needs taken care of in her life. This is definitely true for me.

Moral of the story is that after 2 extremely challenging years for me, I am ready to live my best life in 2019. I have an extremely wonderful situation, and I will strive to make it even better for my family every day.

2017: Expectations, Hopes and Goals

Happy New Year!

While I certainly wasn’t up at midnight my time, I did manage to make it to midnight Eastern Time while I was finishing a riveting episode of Dateline. I can’t tell you the last time I actually rang in the new year, or even a new day for that matter, at midnight. I am quite often awake at 1:30, 3:30, 4:30 and 5:30, as those seem to be Cub’s preferred times to start screaming and send me from dead sleep to complete and udder panic.

I normally write a pre-new year’s eve post where I outline my challenges for the coming year. I decided not to do that this year. I always have high hopes starting a new year, as I do this year, but I undoubtedly disappoint myself by not being able to keep up with my aggressive challenges.

So this year, I have decided to do something a little different. I have one resolution/goal, items that I would like to accomplish but am not going to kills myself over, then I hope to have a number of smaller goals for a month at a time.

For my Resolution/Goal: To be a better mom. I am an ok mom, but there are so many times of my day where I put Cub on the back burner so I can just do one more work thing, or start dinner, or get that load of laundry in. Honestly, it can all wait, because he deserves every bit of my attention, and in 2017, I am going to do my best to give it to him.

For my smaller items I would like to accomplish: I have wanted to get this plank wall done in my living room since we moved it. I also would love to organize my storage room, write more, and organize my pantry. All in good time…

My January Goal: I want to walk Lucy more. She has so much energy, and deserves a good walk every day, and some days, I just send her in the back yard with Milton to play for a while. She’s getting a walk today, and hopefully many more days this month.

I wish you all good and happy things in 2017. The Thompson’s have big plans on the horizon, and I am excited to reveal those to you in the days to come.

’14 is off to a start

Ok, ok. So it is 24 days into the new year, and I have yet to post. Well I have a good reason…

Ok, never mind. But I am posting now, so get over it. 

My 2014 has been a little different than most people’s. To start, work has been paying me a very large sum of money to do nothing but data entry since about December 1st. It completely sucks, but it is what has to be done. It hasn’t happened very often in this job, but my job satisfaction level is not very high right now. I mean, I am satisfied with my work, but not satisfied with the work I have to do. It’s kind of a bummer, but I know it will change before long.

I had the privilege of spending the first 8 days of the new year with Chas and my animals. I was working most of the time, but the feeling of what a normal day would be like, living back in Kansas of course, was spectacular. The only real problem with it all was that my day was starting at about 3:30 am. The races that I was preparing to run caused me to get up that early, so just as I trained for the races, I trained for the Rise and Shine too.

It went well, but once I was gone, and the dogs were still getting up that early, Chas didn’t appreciate it too much. Whoops!

I didn’t really set any resolutions this year. So many big things are happening to my life in 2014 that I assumed that would be enough for me to worry about… Running 48.6 miles, moving back to Kansas, getting married. I will also be lucky enough to see old friends and family, and spend the rest of my life with my best friend. Resolutions aren’t necessary for me to reach a level of happiness that I have ‘needed’ in past years.

I am planning on writing in more detail about the races, but will do that in a series of other posts over the next few weeks. Today’s post was just to catch myself up to speed on what my year has been like. I have decided to spend this weekend detailing my workout plan for February. After the races, I caught the flu and am still in recovery mode at this point. February is 28 days long, and the perfect amount of time to make some changes and start preparing my body for what I want it to look like in my wedding dress. 

I’m excited for new challenges and adventures this year, and I hope to post it all for you to see. It’s gonna be a great year…