up.

i expected the holidays to be intense. they ever are, especially when you’re the mom of the holiday-hosting household, which i am.

but january? i expected it to be full, but fresh. The calm beyond the storm of The Season. the reset button called A New Year.

not so much for me this time around.

my january was two trips to dallas, my mom’s 80th birthday, two science fair projects, three bouts of stomach virus, one car accident, one big goat show [with one blue ribbon!], & one Mother of All Migraines [surprising? um, no].

plus, you know, Daily Life. seriously, y’all, we just returned our christmas tree to the garage yesterday.

all of which is to say, for me, in 2014, february is the new january.

so … happy new year [it is the new lunar year, after all]!!

since 2008, i’ve adopted a new year’s tradition [begun by artist & designer ali edwards] called one little word.

i choose one word for myself for the year – a word i can focus, meditate & reflect upon as i go about my Daily Life. i invite it in, live with it, let it speak to me & follow where it leads.

my past words have included embrace, hello, full, clear, light & shine.

for 2014, i’ve decided my one little word is [drumroll, please] … up [applause, please].

up | ready, eager, open, awake, into a happy mood

last year, i moved forward from several spots where i had been stuck for years.
this year, i intend to keep moving forward, but upward, too.

i’m moving on up, turning it up a notch, taking it to a whole. ‘nother. level.
just call me Ms. 45-Degrees 2014.

it’s a new year, everyone. what’s your one little word going to be?


image available via poster inspired @ etsy.com.

jump for love.

marilyn monroe.

as part of my three-word manifesto for 2013 –
dream. realize. shine! –
i'm reading three pieces of personal-growth inspiration each month:

you: staying young: the owner's manual for extending your warranty
by mehmet oz & michael roizen

happier at home: kiss more, jump more, abandon a project, read samuel johnson, & my other experiments in the practice of everyday life
by gretchen rubin

one bite at a time: 52 projects for making life simpler
by tsh oxenreider

host dick clark.

i read a piece of each at the beginning of the month,
write notes about it & ponder whether or how to
incorporate some of the concepts into my life.

one of the suggestions included in this month's chapter of
happiness guru gretchen rubin's book is simply to jump.
deciding she needs to literally put a spring in her step,
rubin resolves to jump every day:

actress janet leigh.

"i jumped in a silly way to make my daughters laugh,
i gave a secret skip on my way to the drugstore,
i hopped up & down in my office,
i did jumping jacks after i wok up in the morning,
i jumped down the last few stairs.

journalist mike wallace.

the sheer goofiness of it always made me feel cheerier,
& the energy of the gesture made me feel more energetic.
energy creates energy."

actress brigitte bardot.

rubin also refers to the work of
american portrait photographer philippe halsman,
who became known for his exhilarating snapshots of
famous people mid-air. quoth halsman:

host ed sullivan.

"when you ask a person to jump,
his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping
& the mask falls, so that the real person appears."

actress audrey hepburn.

philippe halsman's jump book, published in 1959,
contained 178 photos of celebrity jumpers, & a tongue-in-cheek discussion of
halsman's philosophy of jump photography, jumpology.

37th u.s. president richard nixon.

it's love month, y'all –
jump for it!!

the duchess & duke of windsor.

images source: philippehalsman.com.

welcome back, mates.

a light welcome-back post today for you & i both
following my month-long yuletide-induced hiatus . . .

courtesy of the 176-member crew of
the british royal navy's hms ocean,

who planned for a seven-week deployment exercise
but were diverted to libya for further operations

lasting seven-&-a-half months.

they returned safe & sound december ninth,
just in time for the holidays.

that was their day; this will brighten yours.
& here's to a wonderful 2012 for us all.

glad to be back, blogees & blogettes.

clear.

clear.

that's it.
that's my one little word for 2011.

clear.

i've been occasionally mulling it over,
& was just about to give up on the whole concept
for the year.

just skip it.

& just like that, tonight it emerged.
it came through, loud &, um,
clear.

like a bell.

like a countertop.

like a tall, cool glass of fresh water.

like a deep breath.

like an afternoon.

like an inbox.

like an intention.

so, what are you feeling clear about this 1.11.11?
or what are you wishing to be clear about?


image source: dream bora bora.

hello, 2011.

oh, for fun － it's the oh-one-one!!

i don't know what it is today.

maybe it's because it's bird day,
& i'm all about birds lately.

{especially loving snow & graham's
"tweets" design line, featured above.}

maybe it's because we've returned to our daily routine,
& i love me a solid routine.

{especially if it involves some "me" time.}

maybe it's because we're at the cusp of epiphany,
& i'm feeling ready for some wondrous aha! moments.

but whatever it is, i'm just now
feeling the new year.

feeling into it.
feeling up for it.
feeling the new-year love.

so . . .
hello, 2011.

hello, midweek.

hello, sunshine.

hello, physical & financial health.

hello, blogging & working abundance.

hello, scrapbooking & homemaking creativity.

hello, inspiration.

hello, flow.

hello, soar.

hello, blessings.

hello, imperfection.

hello, aha! moments.

hello, clarity.

hello, acceptance.

hello, gratitude.

hello, love.

hello, gorgeous.

hello, kind readers.

i'm so happy you're here. now. with me
for all the fun in the oh-one-one.

hello, new year.
bring it.

{p.s. somebody please remind me to re-read this post
when i'm all blue-valentiney come mid-february.}


image source: snow & graham.

goodbye, 2010.

ring out the old, ring in the new!

ring, happy bells, across the snow.

ring out the false, ring in the true!

the year is going, let him go.

~ alfred, lord tennyson ~

image source: denniscoleman.net

four simple goals.

inspiring idea today from
elsie flannigan's a beautiful mess blog . . .

with one-third of the year left to go, establish
four simple goals to aim for before 2011.

elsie's "rules" for the 4sg:

1. choose simple goals that will make your life richer & happier on a daily basis. choose things you might not otherwise get done, but which aren't difficult to achieve.

2. don't choose result-oriented goals; choose activity-oriented goals. for example, rather than "lose ten pounds," choose something like "eat fresh fruits and vegetables every day." see what i'm saying? positive actions rather than just end result!

3. choose goals that are personal, that you believe will truly make your life richer just by doing them! they can be daily, weekly or one-time experiences.

4. choose a reward for every goal as you achieve it! it can be a small or large reward.

ok, so my four are:

1. drink a pitcher of water every day.
2. get outside － a half-hour or more five days a week.
3. do yoga － @ home with video or a class, one or more times a week.
4. put creative time on the calendar － & honor it!!

how about you? what are your four simple goals for the rest of 2010?
let's share & cheer & celebrate each others' good intentions & successes!!


image source: isavo.com

what a week.

it's been back-to-school week here in austin.
it's also been the worst of our summertime weather to date.

yesterday, it hit a record 107 degrees F. zoinks.
recess is hell ... almost literally.

searing heat aside, it's been an energy-zapping week.

big girl began middle school.
little boy began a new elementary school.

kids full of dread, unsureness, worry.
mama full of conflict, sadness, worry.

of course, five days, a handful of crying jags,
about a hundred school supplies
& thousands of deep breaths later,
we're all ok.

still standing.
but ready for a rest.

one chill weekend, coming up.

meanwhile, for the mamas like me
who feel maybe they've earned another
epaulet or badge or other sort of insignia
on their invisible superwoman uniforms

recently, here's a reminder of the
essential importance of not necessarily
making the world safe for mankind,
but of just making your children's world
a little more manageable for them:

"changing the world is good for those

who want their names in books. but

being happy is for those who write their names

in the lives of others, & hold the hearts of others

as the treasure most dear.”

~ orson scott card ~

image source: life photo archive via google

georgia on my mind.

i've been thinking of & wanting to write about
georgia o'keeffe
since our new mexico journey.

i've appreciated her work for decades,
but knew little about her as a person & artist
until we visited santa fe's georgia o'keeffe museum.

amazing, fascinating woman.

& while i might eventually
offer some highlights of her long life here,
today, my full life here & now is moving forward,
holding me firmly in its current.

next monday,
our big girl begins middle school &
our little boy begins a new elementary school.

transition city, here we come.

meanwhile, i'm beginning several new
ambitious professional projects,
following a fairly fallow [& thankfully
so] summer season.

yet, among ms. o'keeffe's cache of
thought-provoking words of wisdom,
i discover appropriate inspiration
for us all.

for them:
"i've been absolutely terrified
every moment of my life ...
& i've never let it keep me from doing
a single thing i wanted to do."

& for me:
"the days you work are the best days."


image source: posters of santa fe

love after love.

in lieu of my monthly one little word posting,

i offer this lovely piece of poetry by derek walcott,
because this is how i want to be:

the time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. eat.
you will love again the stranger who was your self.
give wine. give bread. give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
sit. feast on your life.


image source: shabby chic @ flickr.com

oh, that Oprah.

And now, this reflection on self-care and being gentle with yourself from the sagely Ms. O, in her February O "What I Know For Sure" column:

"Keeping my word is a mandate I live by. I can't tell you the number of times I've committed to doing something, then later wanted to get out of it but ended up doing it anyway because, for me, backing out is never an option.

And yet at least a hundred times last year, I made a vow to myself about working out, meditating, getting more rest, managing my schedule better, and opening my heart to joy. And each and every time, I fell short.

Without trust, there is no relationship. The same is true for our relationships with ourselves. Break enough promises to yourself, and soon you no longer believe your own voice.

So I've stopped with the all-or-nothing promises to myself. And I'm getting better, each day, at doing something good for my body, mind and spirit.

Making a priority of taking care of myself is － for sure － going to make for a better me. I suspect the same is true for you. And that's the sweetest valentine I can offer."

So, what promises have you been breaking to yourself? What can you do to change it? What are you doing today to be good to your body, mind or spirit? What sweet valentine can you offer yourself every day?

image source: life with lia

confessions of a repeat slogger.

Forgive me, readers, for I have slogged. Again.
It has been a full month+ since my last post, and that one was an utter bummer.

For both of these blogging sins, I'm heartily sorry and beg your forgiveness.
Today, I sit ready to try, try/type, type again.

So, what's happening with me that I tumbled off of the blogging wagon so readily?
How about a little catchup? Since I've been 'gone,':

－ I spent a weekend in Vegas with my honey, completely geeking out by seeing Donny+Marie and Bette Midler within a 24-hour period ... exhilarating and exhausting;

－ I've spent many hours at the side of my dear friend Irmtraud, who has been battling breast cancer for the past three years but who now is slowly succumbing ... grueling and heartbreaking;

－ I spent a weekend up in DFW, belatedly celebrating my mom's birthday, seeing my hubby sing and watching our kids frolic in the several inches of snow they got ... taxing and illuminating;

－ I got and got over a mean little cold ... miserable and merciful;

－ I helped my honey celebrate his band's thirty-year anniversary with a huge hootenanny both on- and off-stage ... fun and fulfilling;

－ I've been piecing together the puzzle of Summer 2010, including day camps for both kids, a Hawai'ian vacation for my sister and me (she's hitting the mid-century mark), a visit to my in-laws' in Oklahoma, and a potential family trip elsewhere (possibly the Pacific Northwest?) ... tangly and contrary;

－ I witnessed the inch+ snow we got here in Austin, the most in a quarter-century ... beautiful and messy; and

－ I'm prepping for our son's lucky number seven next weekend － a piggy party, complete with egg-carton snouts and curling-ribbon pig tails for all ten little guests ... pink and silly.

So, it's been a full February.
But no excuses. Color me a recovering slogger, and let's keep moving forward.

Blog on.


image source: sharing nature's garden (thanks, diana!!)

question 3.

Continuing my new year's introspection:
Pick three words to describe 2009. Create a phrase describing 2009 for you.

Surprising. Sparser. Slippery slope-y.
The world moved forward; I fell back.

Geez. Guess I'm not feeling too good about myself, eh? Zoinks.


image source: paul graham raven

question 2.

Continuing my new year's introspection . . .
What was an unexpected joy for you in 2009? an unexpected obstacle?

An unexpected joy for me was a notable inheritance from my birthmom. Not kajillions, but notable for me － it's all relative, right [no pun intended!]? Her husband of 25 years had given me her wedding ring following her funeral, and it was quite a gift [though oddly, even though it's platinum and I haven't had eczema since I was a teen, I experience an eczema flareup in-between my fingers whenever I try to wear it ... hmmm] － so I was surprised by a call from her trust company letting me know they were working to settle her estate and eventually, it was going to be split 50/50 between her husband and me, her only child. It wrapped up late summer, and the cash portion of it graced my bank account by November － enough to pay off a big chunk of debt, buy some items we've been putting off and enjoy a comfortable Christmas. I understand money can't buy happiness, but it can help give you a little room to breathe. This posthumous gift from my birthmom was an unexpected, yet utterly unsurprising extension of her amazing generosity and unconditional love.

An unexpected obstacle was also financial [funny how these things seem intertwined, eh?] － for the first time in seven years of successful fulltime freelancing, I went completely unpaid by clients for a couple of months, despite several outstanding invoices totaling several thousand dollars. This period of forced [and again, relative] frugality happened just before my inheritance cash turned up, and was terrifically stressful. For an upper-middle-class family, we were treacherously close to having to just start charging everyday necessities, like groceries and prescriptions. I'm still not sure what universal message I was intended to glean from last autumn's "rags-to-riches" microcosm ... but I suspect it has to do with money management and gratitude.

And you? Unexpected joys or obstacles of 2009? Do share.

image source: mopo.ca

gretchen rubin.

I've been following her blog for over a year and have mentioned her here many times － we all know how I love to go on and on about happiness. Well, it looks like 2010 is going to be Gretchen Rubin's big year.

Rubin's longtime blog about her active quest for a happier life has evolved into a newly published memoir － The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun － which hit the shelves as a New York Times bestseller. She's everywhere I click on the Internet, was interviewed on the TODAY show, and is currently out on her nationwide book tour [but not coming to anywhere in Texas, doggone it!].

OK, yes, of course I've bought the book, and am aiming to read it during January. I'll let you know how it goes, and share whatever inspiring or provocative tidbits I glean from it.

Meanwhile, you can begin your own project through her 2010 Happiness Challenge, or you can catch the Rubin-esque author at her blog, her website, her Facebook page, her Twitter page or the Woman's Day Happiness Project website.

image source: Leafpeople

question 1.

I've never been one to just tear off a quick list of resolutions as we ring in the first of January. Oh, no. I like to have a plan, I like to carefully formulate my plan, and I like to contemplate excessively in order to do so.

After all, this is my life we're talking about here. It deserves excessive contemplation once a year, at least.

So I've developed my own little new year's tradition of spending my January － yes, the whole month － in introspection to help me choose what it is I want to focus on in the coming year [or the remaining eleven months, anyway]. Typically, I do quite a bit of journaling, beginning with reflections upon the past year. This year, I'm going to do my journaling here, question by question, hoping some of it might resonate with some of you － maybe move you to do a little soul-searching of your own and/or share your answers/revelations with the rest of us here.

And so I begin with some prompts from "Reflection Questions for 2009" at the Simple Mom blog:

What was the single best thing that happened for you this past year? the single most challenging thing?

Interestingly, I find the single best thing and the single most challenging thing from 2009 are intertwined for me. The single best thing was the inauguration of Barack Obama as the President of the United States. I don't want to gush too much within this arena, but I'm an Obama Mama through and through, and this historic event was not only a political game-changer but also a life-changer for me and, I hope, for this amazing country of ours.

The single most challenging thing for me was a mid-year debacle with my parents － my mom, especially － which we're still wrestling to recover from. L - o - n - g story short: It began with my parents sort of attacking me because they felt I wasn't engaging enough with them, and has come down to an agreement not to talk politics [my dad watches FOX news 24/7 and my mom is the president of her local Republican women's club] － an agreement my mom particularly is having trouble upholding. She just can't seem to embrace the whole "agree to disagree" thing, so it's a struggle. The sad irony is, the whole thing was ignited by them feeling too distanced from me, yet every single time she soapboxes about Obama's Socialist Administration, it puts a little more distance between us. *sigh.*

And you? Best and most challenging happenings of 2009? Do share.