Gratitude and a Funny #1

Yesterday, I started posting "gratitude" on Facebook. I thought the reponse was great! My goal is to post things I'm grateful for each day along with something humorous. I hope you'll play along or at least enjoy!

Sesame Street - given that in two days we will no longer have TV at my house... I'm savoring it.

Cupcakes - I get to make these with Vivian today for "end of school" and "end of sitter" celebrations.

Hot coffee... ahhh.

Lip liner.

Sunshine on my shoulders (not yet today, but it may be in the cards!)

So... the funny:

Last week I casually used the word "predicament" while talking to my 4 year old. She asked what it meant. I defined it for her.

She then says, "So like when there are 3 or 4 choices of special treat and they're all good... that's a predicament, right?"

And she went on 4 or 5 other examples... all totally correct. Just cracked me up. We all have predicaments, don't we??

So... what are YOU grateful for today? Please comment.

Is it a game with a stick, or a state of being...

Limbo.

This is a prevalent theme for many of my friends and I. Stuck between hither and yon. (I've tried google maps... not much help in finding my way on this one.)

Selling homes, waiting for economic waters to warm a bit, waiting to hear on jobs, filling dressers with half our summer clothes and keeping out 1/2 the winter... we're in Dr. Seuss' "waiting place."

A lot of serious stuff going on everywhere. The news is rather petrifying. I'm looking forward to the 12th when we'll have NO TV. (We're a strange family that chooses no cable and a converter box is worthless on snowy reception.)

I have a friend who advises others to skip right to page 5 of the newspaper because that's where they hide all the good news. It got me thinking. I've had a lot of "how low can you go" moments of late and I'm wondering where my page 5 has gone? What would it look like?

My page 5 would have to be filled with humor, reminders about flexibility, patience and reasons for gratitude. Each day, I've committed to posting a few notes of gratitude and finding something funny to share. I hope you'll join me in the comments section.

It may be a stretch, but that's what has to be done to get out from under this stick... standing tall on the other side.

How low can YOU go? (And remember, no ducking under... that's cheating. Chin and nose under that bar!) ;)

Valuing Your Summer Schedule

"A schedule defends from chaos and whim.
It is a net for catching days...
A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order --
willed, faked, and so brought into being.
~Annie Dillard

School ends, camps begin, vacations ensue, new sitters start, visitors arrive… and before you know it, it’s Labor Day. Where’d the summer go?

I have a one hour FREE telecourse designed to help moms transition from one “season” to the next. Summer is certainly a season of change. It’s not too late to map out what you’d like your “Summer 2009” essay to look like!

Wednesday, June 17th, 8-9pm CT.
Write to Julie@julzoflife.com or call 262-374-3744 to register.

If you can't play this time, one on one coaching is available as well. Give me a call for details.

Oh Groan!

We have a large (LARGE!) German Shepherd puppy named Sully. He's awesome.

Here in the "late night" we hang out in our office and Sully spreads out on the wood floor at our feet.

It doesn't take long before we hear a loud, bellowing groan from him. We laugh. It never fails. The groan just provokes such joy, ridiculousness and, well, envy.

I so wish that, in the serious moments, I could just let out a long, loud groan. It's as if he's saying, "Are you SERIOUS?! We're going BACK to work? Why can't we just play BALL???"

Dogs are smart. We need to listen more.

Whhere would you like to let out a groan? What would it say in your life?

ABBA Commute

I've often lamented not having a true "commute" to and from work. (Long ago, I exchanged my 45-90 minute commute for a staircase when I chose to work from home.) There is something to be said for the ramping up/ramping down time a commute affords. There's a mindset switch that's pretty valuable.

I had a birthday recently. About 6 months ago, all I asked for was ABBA's Greatest Hits. Then, a few weeks before my birthday, we rented Mama Mia. It was way better than anticipated. Seriously, how many greatest hits albums can retroactively fit into a musical and make sense? I had to have it now. So, my daughters (via their dear Daddy) delivered.

Each night, whenever possible, we get all "Dancing Queen" and "SOS" in the living room. I find it hilarious that the kids know many of the words (and make up their own in handy places.)

Their favorite is the refrain, "having the time of your life... Ooooooh!" We spin and wave our arms. It's great fun. Very cathartic.

I think I've found my new commute home. Instead of an ignition, it has a PLAY button.

Now, to find an appropriate commute TO work...

What's your igintion? What brings you to and from a work mindset?

Comment... I want to know!

Ketchup, Ketchup... We Made A Ketchup!

So January and February are a smidge blurry to me. I started working with a large client contract in January and I've been readjusting nearly every slice of my life to accommodate. We get creative and sometimes throw out all the "rules" to accommodate certain challenges, don't we?

I've had quite a few days that seem not to end, where I emerge from my office for mealtime and then head back in. There were several weeks at a time in the first two months when I did not leave the house at all. Rule #1 - extroverts need to get out.

Mealtime is somewhat sacred in our house in that we try to eat together every night. I'm sure I wasn't much fun at all to eat with in January. I would hold up my "talk to the" hand and remind the family that I was coming down from a turbo-multitasking high and that I needed "a moment" that might last the whole meal. Rule #2 had been tossed by the wayside - a commute is often necessary even when working from home. (Even if the "commute" looks more like a change of clothes than location.)

So much of what I've been dealing with can tend to be heavy. I began talking gibberish at dinner the other day for lack of real words. We all laughed so hard it knocked the nonsense back into me. I'd lost rule #3, humor is vital.

I had to say "whoa" this last week and climb back into a few of my old slices of life. The people slice has taken a beating. The exercise slice is not far behind. The kid slice... both the kids I brought into the world and the kid in me… has been neglected.

So, we took a walk to the park on a sunny day. I played. I actually played. No discipline, no direction, no "stop it!" Just played and watched. Everyone behaved.

More than that - we connected. As I swung from the monkey bars, my daughters were on the swings. I’d never done this as a kid, but when two swings are going in unison to and fro… they chant, “Ketchup, ketchup! We made a ketchup!” (When they’re all a mess, it’s “mustard.”)

They delight in the connection…being together again, in unison. I couldn’t help but feel right with the world again. Rather than tell them it was time to go, I offered up a pre-dinner cookie at home. We found a stone that knew the way home and we took turns kicking it til we made it there. (Stones are pretty clever these days, remember that if you’re ever lost.)

So, where in your life are you mustard? Where would you like some ketchup?

Let me know. I’ll be at the park.

The Fail Safe

A couple weeks ago I tried this new craze called Zumba. It's Spanish slang for "move very fast and have fun." They're not joking. It's a hoot.

I used to teach Latin dance in college. Zumba is akin to an hour with a 15 piece brass marimba band and zero inhibitions. Loved it. I went all out.

This was after spending three straight weeks at my PC, first with the hellish preparation for an IRS audit (more on that another day) and then ramping up with a new project helping folks who've recently been laid off. Just a tad of stress necessarily veiled in a certain degree of calm.

Two days after my Zumba escapade, my back went out. My not-so-exercised muscles tightening around my already gnarled-from-stress muscles causing my SI joints to temporarily stop supporting my weight.

I forgot one of my own rules. In times of extreme stress, the mind may keep going, but the body will eventually say, "whoa." The chiropractor tried to put Humpty back together again. It didn't work so well. "You're a knotted mess. You need massage."

Another great chiropractic quote... if you ignore your stress long enough it turns into a pain in the neck... ignore that long enough and you'll have a large pain in the butt. Ignore that and you'll soon be immobile.

No joke.

After three days of extreme pain, alternating between icing/moist heating, a very great (albeit painful) massage and lots of Quasi Moto pacing, I started to laugh at myself. This is not a design flaw, you dork! It's a fail safe.

If you don't take care of yourself, things will begin to fail. If you ignore the failures, you will have pain. If you ignore the pain, you will have more pain in more inconvenient places. If you ignore the big pain, you'll get taken out at the knees until you have little choice but to care for yourself.

See, fail safe.

I share this with you because it would have been far easier for me to listen and make some changes at "things beginning to fail" stage. That would have taken a keen sense of knowing my body AND truly believing I deserve the care in the moment. Although I knew my body well enough, I chose to wait until a "better time" to take care of myself. Each time became "not that bad" until my body called it quits.

Where is your body failing you? Are you listening to it? What habit could you change today to help your body get back to health?

Do you have a stress valve? How do you release it? How often is "enough" for releasing the stress in your life?

p.s. I asked the chiropractor if Zumba was what killed me. It wasn't. The truth, I believe it may have saved me. (It's my valve!)
Everybody, everybody do the Cha Cha!