May 10, 2012 0

Morning tranquility

By Tori in Productivity, Yoga & Meditation

My weekday mornings are usually really harried: getting Claire up around 8:30 AM, making us both breakfast, eating, unloading the dishwasher, packing her lunch, checking my work email and answering anything urgent, and getting us both dressed and out the door to whatever morning activity we have going on (most mornings we have her music class, my yoga class, or an appointment of some kind to scurry off to by 10 AM). This week, when I was trying to answer some really urgent work emails and found myself growing annoyed with Claire for “bothering” me during this time (because, you know, my not-yet-2-year-old should be able to wait patiently for Mommy’s attention for 30+ minutes…. right?), I decided on a new morning routine.

I’m now getting up between 30-60 minutes before she does (now would be a good time to mention that I’m not a morning person–so this is difficult for me, but worth it) to meditate for 10 minutes, check and answer my email, and take care of some of my morning chores in peace. WHAT a difference it makes. Not only does it give me a consistent time to meditate (I’ve been struggling with this for some time now), but it also allows me to begin my day with a pervasive sense of peace, tranquility, strength, and capability instead of chaos, harriedness, frustration, and annoyance. Not only am I beting better to myself, I’m being better to my daughter and the rest of my family. And I had time to write this post!

May 8, 2012 1

Hydrangeas

By Tori in Gardening

This is the first year I’ve done really serious gardening (flowers, herbs, and vegetables, mostly from seed, many as “pass along” plants, some from the nursery), and I’m really proud of how things are going so far. My tomatoes are blossoming, my cucumbers have teeny tiny fruits, and everything’s really going gangbusters. It’s been a lot of fun.

I’m waiting to do a full-on gardening post until I have better photos to share (for example, my sunflowers and morning glories from seed are growing fast, but not flowering yet), but in the meantime, I wanted to share this gorgeous hydrangea that’s in my front yard. I have four hydrangea bushes in the front yard; three have all blue flowers, but this one has flowers that are half-and-half. (I guess the aluminum balance in the soil is different for this one bush–not sure why!)

I get happy every time I look at it and I thought you might enjoy it, too.

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April 26, 2012 0

How to beat procrastination

By Tori in Neat Stuff, Productivity, Work

Today I had a totally overwhelming day work-wise. It wasn’t that I had too much to get done in the short time frame when I have childcare–that’s often the case–but more that I had so many projects to work on I felt really overwhelmed even thinking about beginning. I had a couple of medium ones, a couple of small ones, and one larger one. In most cases it’s the larger, difficult projects that really overwhelm me; I know I HAVE to such a project done so I feel like I should start on it first, but it often feels like standing in the middle of a race track, inches away from a hurdle, wondering how on earth I am ever going to clear this.

I’ve been using the same tactic in situations like this since I was in middle school and had homework from multiple subjects to get done in an afternoon. The trick is:

1. Get a running start. Begin with the “medium” task–not the hardest, but not the easiest, either. It’s not so daunting that I feel like I can’t begin, and it’s a great way to ease into work, crossing an item off my to-do list and gaining a sense of accomplishment–and momentum!

2. Put that momentum to work. This is when I jump the hurdle–tackle the difficult project. Now that I’m in a working rhythm, it’s not so daunting to dig into a more challenging assignment. My largest project may take up the biggest chunk of working time, but it also goes a lot faster and more smoothly than if I tried to jump into it cold.

3. Use the easiest assignment as a cool-down. Now that I have conquered my most difficult task of the day, and I’m maybe feeling a little more drained of creativity and brainpower, tackling my easiest project is the perfect way to wrap up my day. This kind of work feels like a reward–and as an added bonus, I’m more motivated to work on my more difficult tasks if I know I have something fun to look forward to.

If I have more than one project in each category, I just lump them together–so I accomplish all of my “medium” tasks before I move on to the more difficult ones.

I really don’t remember who taught me this trick, but I’d love to thank that person–I don’t usually have trouble motivating myself to get working, but on days that I do, this recipe works every single time.

April 22, 2012 0

Grilled cheese with brie and fig preserves and sweet potato fries

By Tori in Food and Drink

Tonight I made probably the best meal I have ever made in my life. Seriously. It was phenomenal.

I adapted the recipe I used from Rachael Ray and a few other recipes I found when Googling, but the final product was my own concoction.

Makes 2 servings.

Sweet potato fries:

  • 2 large sweet potatoes, cut into 1/2″ thick fries
  • 1 TB extra virgin olive oil
  • A generous amount of seasoned salt

Grilled brie and fig preserves sandwiches:

  • 3-4 TB Butter, room temperature
  • 4 slices Parmesan bread
  • Brie cheese (1/2 wheel, but go for broke and buy a whole wheel… you can snack on the rest as an appetizer)
  • Fig preserves
  • 1 Granny Smith apple

Preheat oven to 500. Place sliced sweet potatoes in a large bowl with olive oil and a generous sprinkling of seasoned salt. I use Penzey’s seasoned salt, but probably a little salt and garlic powder would work just as well. Toss the sweet potatoes in the olive oil and salt. Spread on a foil-covered baking sheet and sprinkle with more seasoned salt. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Turn fries over, then bake another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, prep your sandwiches. Spread a nice thick layer of fig preserves over all four slices of the bread you plan to use. (I used parmesan bread… perhaps not necessary, but seriously delicious.) Cut a wheel of brie in half, then slice the halves into about 1/4″ thick slices. For each sandwich, cover one slice of bread thoroughly with a layer of brie. (For me this was 3 slices of brie; your mileage may vary.) Core a Granny Smith apple and slice into thin, circular slices. Place a slice of apple on top of the brie on each slice of bread, and use the remaining preserves-coated slices of bread to top your sandwiches.

Melt some butter (1.5-2 TB) in a large skillet on the stove over medium-high heat. Spread a generous helping of butter on top of each sandwich and place both sandwiches, dry side down, in the skillet. Cook, flipping occasionally, until sandwiches are golden-brown and heated through and brie is melted. Serve with sweet potato fries.

Die. Go to heaven. Thank me later.

February 28, 2012 0

Who should do yoga?

By Tori in Health, Yoga & Meditation

Who should do yoga?

The short answer: if you are a living, breathing person, yoga can probably benefit your life.

The longer answer: Really, anybody! Yoga is by far the most accessible athletic endeavor I have encountered. A lot of people feel like they have to be flexible to do yoga–nonsense! Yoga helps make you flexible. There are people in my yoga classes of all ages and flexibility ranges, and I’ve seen my flexibility grow dramatically over time. The more you stretch and flex your muscles and open your joints, the easier it gets. And that’s true for every age, body type, and stage of life. Bonus: there are modifications for every pose. I can do a tree pose with a half-lotus modification now… but I sure couldn’t when I first started. And that’s given me something to grow toward and be proud of.

Speaking of pose modifications, there’s always a new challenge to be had in yoga–if you want it. I’m super sore today from challenging myself during sun salutations yesterday–a vinyasa sequence that I’ve done a million times before, only I challenged myself to move from plank to chaturanga in every repetition of the sequence (normally I skip chaturanga in favor of an easier scoop motion to cobra). Well, my deltoids are KILLING me today–but it’s a physical reminder that I put a little extra into a familiar sequence, and I worked that much harder.

Yoga is for anyone who is seeking tranquility in their life. If you’re anything like me, your mind does. not. stop. ever. Mine is always running in about ten thousand different directions–I have a lot on my plate and I have a really hard time just focusing on the present moment instead of thinking about my thousand to-dos. Yoga forces you to be mindful of the present moment through its focus on breathwork. Keeping breath steady, even, and coordinated with your body’s movements helps you to maintain a continuity between mind and body, keeping your mind on your body at all times and forbidding it from wandering off elsewhere. It’s challenging to rein in a speed-racer mind like mine, but the end result is the exquisite pleasure that I had only previously experienced when fully engaged in another activity, like reading a wonderful book or immersing myself in music at a concert. Yoga trains the mind to become absorbed completely in what the body is doing, in the present moment, without allowing for any distractions. Continued yoga practice has helped me to strengthen this ability, like a muscle–so that when life becomes too overwhelming I can retreat into the calm place in my mind where I am focused on the present moment only–inhale, exhale–and collect myself so that I can face daily stressors with renewed peace and strength.

It really works.

Yoga is good for waking the body up and putting it to sleep. I try to do a series of sun salutations in the morning–I won’t pretend I’m as good about it as I should be, but I do try. The mornings I begin with sun salutations are always more peaceful and energetic than the ones I don’t. Similarly, I have a bedtime asana sequence that I try to do–a series of poses, mostly inversions and breathwork, that wind the body down after a long day and prepare it for sleep. It might be the ritual and it might be the fact that stretching the body and doing something I love releases endorphins, but either way, even a five minute pose sequence helps me to feel more balanced and ready for the next activity.

Yoga isn’t just an athletic endeavor or a workout–it’s a practice that can be done at home, at work, at any time of day, in any situation. It’s given me a tool set to deal with stress and anxiety and to help me live a happier, more relaxed, and more balanced life. In yoga there’s a lot of talk about energies–solar energy and lunar energy, with corresponding mudras. I don’t believe explicitly in “energy” as a supernatural entity, or in any mystical power in mudras, but I do believe that these are among the many useful abstractions in yoga that help a practitioner to maintain focus on goals and especially on balance. If solar energy represents DOING, lunar energy represents BEING. As any posture that creates compression in the body is balanced by one that creates expansion, so yoga practice strives to balance active doing (postures) with passive being (pranayama and meditation). As I’m naturally a doer, my yoga practice has helped me to identify times in my daily life where I am doing too much, and need to take a step back–a quiet breath or two to myself–to re-center, to be for a few moments, so that I can continue as a better doer and a more balanced individual overall.

Yoga has so much to offer. If you could use a challenge in your life–if you want to be more flexible, or more energized, or feel better, or wind down before sleep, yoga can help. If you want to learn to relax in the midst of a stressful day–if you’re burning your fuse at both ends and are trying to find a way to avoid burnout–yoga can help with that, too. It fits me so well, and has truly helped me to grow–mind, body, and soul.

February 12, 2012 0

Sleep Cycle iPhone app

By Tori in Health, Neat Stuff

I recently started using a really cool new iPhone app called Sleep Cycle (also available for Android). It’s $0.99, and it’s making a big difference in how I wake up in the morning (plus, it provides the former scientist in me with super cool data to analyze every morning!).

The app’s purpose is to wake you in the morning during a light sleep phase, so you’ll feel more refreshed and alert instead of groggy and confused. It’s a more natural wake-up. As the app describes, traditional alarm clocks are a kind of lottery–they wake you up regardless of what phase of sleep you are in, which is why some days you feel like absolute crap from the minute you open your eyes (the alarm went off as you were in  deep sleep phase at that time). Sleep Cycle analyzes your sleeping patterns while you sleep, and wakes you up while you’re in a light sleep phase. You just give it a specified window in which you want it to wake you up (I go with 30 minutes, with the late end being the latest I want to be woken up), place the phone in your bed, and let it go. The app uses the accelerometer in your iPhone to analyze your movement patterns as you sleep and wake you up when appropriate.

It works if you sleep with a partner in your bed. It also works if you get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom (if you’re anything like me–I haven’t slept a full night through without getting up in years, probably). In fact, it’s pretty cool to see that the phone logs the exact time you do get out of bed.

I love that this app helps me wake up happier and more refreshed in the morning, and I really love that it’s given me a window into my sleep patterns at night–so cool and highly recommended.

January 28, 2012 2

The Great Mirror Makeover and other home improvement adventures

By Tori in Design, Productivity, Projects

I’ve been working on some home improvement/decorating projects lately, and this week I finished the one I am proudest of by far: a total makeover of my master bathroom mirrors.

As with my last project post, I was too impatient during the course of this project to stop what I was doing and photograph my process step-by-step. But that’s okay, because the person whose blog inspired me to tackle my mirrors has already done that! Here’s the tutorial if you’re interested in details and step-by-step photos.

If you just want a fly-by with before and after shots, keep reading!

My “before” mirrors were your standard builder-installed gigantic ugly mirrors, glued to the wall and with raw edges. Not my favorite feature of the bathroom. Worse, they had these horrible glue spots all along the outside edges–I’m not sure why, but my best guess is that the builder used the wrong kind of glue and it ate away at the mirrors from the back, leaving large spots on the front. They kind of look like smudges–you can see them on the far left on the first “before” photo. They are ugly–fugly, even–and I wanted them GONE but am too cheap to hire someone to totally remove my mirrors, and fix my walls, and buy new mirrors. So. I needed a quick and easy solution. Oh, here is the before photo:

(This was taken by the lovely Melissa as we toured my house before we bought it).

I went out to Home Depot and bought some lengths of baseboard and chair rail to frame out my mirrors. My wonderful, kick-ass handywoman neighbor M helped me rent and operate a miter saw from Home Depot; we measured the mirrors and cut all of the wood to fit. That took up the better part of our Sunday evening and was not without its boo-boos… boards cut too short or too long, etc. Luckily we are enterprising ladies and can correct any mistake with wonderful, magical, paintable caulk, so that was no sweat. We powered through.

I glued the boards directly onto the mirror using Liquid Nails and copious amount of painter’s tape to hold everything in place while the glue dried. (The tutorial I linked to above says you don’t need to do this, but that is a fiendish lie. Come prepared with painter’s tape and tons of it if you attempt this.) Then I caulked my happy way into perfection, closing up a few small gaps in the wood and other such mishaps. I wish caulk could fix the scratch on the back of my car from when I opened the garage door while the hatchback was up, but I digress.

I then painted the frame a semi-gloss white–easy peasy, since the boards were already primed white anyway. Finally, I hit the super-duper clearance section at Target and bought a plate rack, some salad plates, and a couple of interesting platters as a new storage and display option for my cosmetics, hair products, and other girly accoutrement. Ta-da! Gorgeous, finished new bathroom with custom mirrors! :

Saying it makes all the difference in the world is an understatement. It looks amazing in there now. Simple, easy, cheap ($150 compared to $500+ for mirror removal plus purchase of new mirrors), and totally effective. I love my new bathroom!

And while I’m sharing photos of home improvement projects….

In December I painted my powder room. Before:

After:

And earlier in January, I redecorated my office, with new baskets, a new valance, a sewing machine cover, and an under-the-desk curtain:

Whew! I’m hanging up my home improvement and decorating hat for a little while, but I’m incredibly pleased with the strides I’ve made in the last couple of months.

January 27, 2012 3

Mindset

By Tori in Neat Stuff, Running, Thoughts

A few months ago I read Mindset by Carol Dweck. The nutshell summary of the book is that some people have a fixed mindset (“Abilities are innate. I am either good at something, or I’m not”,) or a growth mindset (“Abilities and skills can be learned. I may or may not be naturally good at something, but either way, the more I practice and work at it, the better I’ll get.”).

I initially read this book in the hopes of getting over my perfectionism and getting more comfortable with making mistakes–seeing mistakes as learning opportunities. And the book did help me, enormously, with that goal (and true to the message of the book, it’s something I find I get better and better at with practice. Luckily I make a lot of mistakes, so I have lots of opportunity to practice!). I’ve worked hard at internalizing the message of the book and really embracing the growth mindset–and it’s impacted my life in ways I expected–and in ways I never dreamed of.

One biggie has been, as I wrote recently, that I’m running now. In my last post I mentioned that I have been questioning assumptions about myself and that one of them was that I running is something I just can’t do. I’ve been thinking about why and how I started questioning that assumption since I wrote that post, and I realized that I’ve integrated the growth mindset so well that I have begun applying it subconsciously to situations in my life. David asked me why  it took one brief IM conversation with a friend recently to turn me on to running when he has been running for the entire 8 years I’ve known him, and my first answer was that she just mentioned it to me at a time when I was open to the idea. But the reason why I’m open to the idea is because, for the first time in 8 years (really, the first time in 30 years), I’ve adopted a growth mindset. It’s not that I have just randomly started challenging myself–it’s that for the first time in my life, I’m able to challenge myself. A challenge is no longer something to fear; it’s no longer a Major Life Test that, if I pass, means I am a Good Person, and if I fail means I am a Bad Person. I have the freedom–the light, airy, life-changing freedom–to attempt something new, and know that if I’m not great at it, I can get better.

The last time I ran–I remember it vividly–it was 2004 and I had a fixed mindset. I decided, one spring day in Chicago, that I was going to get in shape and I chose running. I put on a tshirt and shorts and I strapped on my running shoes and put my hair in a jaunty ponytail. I stepped outside of my apartment and ran. I didn’t warm up or stretch or anything, I just ran–for 5 minutes or so, and then I pushed myself for another couple of minutes until I felt like I was actually going to die. I was huffing and panting and having serious asthma, and I was beet-red in the face and my jaunty ponytail was a mess of frizz. I limped home, defeated, knowing that this meant I just wasn’t a runner. I couldn’t even run for 10 minutes! Clearly this was just not something I could do, so I may as well write it off. And I did–for 8 years–telling people that “I only run when something’s chasing me.”

Tomorrow I start week 2 of the Couch to 5K. Three times last week I ran. I didn’t just run out of the gate, though–I warmed up, and I followed a careful program of 60 seconds of running and 90 seconds of walking, because I am learning to run. I am practicing and building my endurance so that I can get better. If you’re a runner this probably sounds really trivial and “duh” to you, that you have to start out slow–everyone does. But it’s a revelation to me–and it’s the reason that I WILL succeed in this program, because I have a healthier mindset about it and I know that, like everything else in my life, this is another skill I can and will learn.

January 19, 2012 4

Addicted to self-improvement

By Tori in Health, Motherhood, Productivity, Thoughts

Two years ago, I had no hobbies. Really. None. I just didn’t do a whole lot outside of futzing around on the internet and working and sleeping and drinking manhattans. Today, I sew, I am learning to knit (slowly and in fits and starts, but it counts), I read, I listen to audiobooks when I can’t read a physical book, I cook, I do yoga, and I’m contemplating starting running with the Couch-to-5K plan. Oh, and I do tons of home improvement projects. Tons.

What on earth happened to me these past two years?!

I think the answer is Claire. Motherhood has had a twofold impact on me–first, it’s made me want to be a better person so I can be the best possible role model for my daughter. I want Claire to grow up with a mother who passionately pursues her values and uses her time judiciously, not one who reads online message boards for fun. (Not that there is anything wrong with reading online message boards–but there is if it’s in excess.) I want her to see that life is FUN and that there are so many wonderful and productive things one can do with their time to grow and improve and create beauty in environment, manner, word, and thought (to borrow a phrase from my sorority’s purpose statement from my days in college). I don’t want a kid who lazes around all day–so I can’t be a mom who lazes around all day.

The second part of this twofold impact is just my general level of busy-ness since having had Claire. Suddenly I have way less free time than I ever have before–and so the time I have is more precious to me, and so it’s important to spend my personal time pursuing values. I’ve heard all my life that the busier you are, the more you accomplish, and that’s absolutely true for me. I do more with less time because I’m able to bring the way I spend my time into sharp relief and make relentless cuts where I need to. (This is why I’ve quit Facebook a few times and eventually just cut my friends list down by half and resolved to make only a couple of visits to the site a day–and removed it from my phone, and quit playing Words With Friends, too. I just don’t have time for these values because I am busy pursuing more important ones.)

David joked with me tonight that I am addicted to self-improvement lately, and he’s right–I am. I have been questioning a number of assumptions about myself and realizing they are false. For example, I have assumed my entire life that I am just a basically weak and unathletic person. I have exercise-induced asthma and I was always the last kid picked for teams, and frankly cardio makes me want to vomit and so I decided somewhere along the line that I was just destined to be out of shape, FOREVER.

But wait a minute. Is that really who I want to be? After all, I do yoga now–an athletic endeavor if I ever saw one (I mean, have you ever tried to hold an extended side angle for more than 10 seconds? It’s hard). It’s not as overtly cardiovascular a workout as something like running–but if I can do yoga, why can’t I ease my way into running? There’s this runner’s high I’ve been hearing about for years and I bet I’d like the feeling. Now, I am not saying that I’m going to become a serious runner, or even like running–this is just something I’m contemplating doing right now, and think I’ll try out–but it’s a breakthrough for me in that it represents my rejection of a major, lifelong assumption I have held about myself.

Another example: “I love to read, I just don’t have time for it.” I’ve always loved to read–I was the kid who read books walking up and down stairs. But in my oh-so-busy pre-Claire adult life, the only time I ever really read regularly was when I was commuting 45 minutes each way on public transportation to my job in Chicago and had nothing else to do with my time. When Claire was born, I read a lot while nursing… and then even as the nursing sessions dropped in length and frequency, I carved out time to keep reading. Imagine that! I stopped watching an hour of mindless TV before bed and started reading books instead–a way better use of my time, and definitely a more worthwhile value to pursue. Then I discovered audiobooks thanks to my friend Amy and Audible.com, and suddenly I could read while I cleaned house, cooked (another recent world that’s opened up to me), ironed, folded laundry… the list is endless. I also discovered that audiobooks are my window into the daunting world of nonfiction, which can never hold my attention when I’m reading right before bed (I need a nice novel to sink into as I wind down), but which keep me engrossed and focused in audio format.

My life is richer and more fulfilled now that I have these new values to pursue. I have more pride in my accomplishments–and more accomplishments to be proud of. I’m healthier, happier, and I can make way better conversation at parties. I’m exceptionally proud of myself for seeing past the assumptions I’ve held for so long that they almost became take-for-granteds, blind spots–and for taking steps to not just reject them, but kick them in the pants. Hooray for self-improvement!

January 1, 2012 0

2011 in review

By Tori in Benevolent Universe, Motherhood, Productivity, Thoughts

Happy New Year! In the last hours of 2011, it seems an appropriate time to look back at what I have achieved this year, and plant a flag in the sand to mark my progress as a person as of this night. So, though it’s a bit of a cliché, here’s my year-in-review post.

In 2011, I….

Learned to sew and completed a bunch of really great sewing projects: three skirts, a purse for myself, a purse for Melissa, throw pillows for my living room, curtains for my kitchen, some custom dish towels, appliquéd onesies for Claire, and more.

Joined the YMCA and started taking practicing yoga, a habit that’s helped me become happier, healthier, fitter, stronger, and more toned.

Watched my sweet daughter grow from a 5-month-old who couldn’t even sit up by herself to a full-fledged toddler who can walk, run, feed herself pretty reliably, and speak/sign several dozen words. WHAT a difference a year makes! This year we also moved Claire to a floor bed and continued with her Montessori education at home, and I began learning about and practicing Positive Discipline with her.

Stepped up my reading and joined a book club. I’ve probably read between 35 and 40 books this year (I’m not sure of the exact number, as I didn’t start to use Goodreads until the fall). I love having an additional social outlet and being a part of a group of intelligent, passionate women I likely wouldn’t have met otherwise.

Found a happy work/life medium. I’m very pleased with the balance I have managed to find between work and motherhood.

Made great strides in self-improvement. I believe I have improved my communication skills quite a bit thanks to both my independent studying of Positive Discipline and Jenn and Kelly‘s effective communication course at ATLOSCon in May. I’ve also worked hard to kick the perfectionism habit, and begin embracing my mistakes as learning opportunities. This is a major breakthrough for me and will continue to be an area of focused work for years to come, I’m sure–maybe the rest of my life. I read Carol Dweck’s Mindset, which first began changing my thought process about my mistakes, and I’m currently reading Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me, which is an even more fascinating look into the psychology of self-justification and which is making me much more aware of myself–and my blind spots!

Continued to grow as a professional designer, working with fabulous clients (new and old), adding to a body of work I was already proud of, and producing a number of beautiful and effective print and web pieces.

Learned to cook, that totally grown-up skill that’s eluded me for most of my adult life. I started doing all of the meal planning and grocery shopping this year, and found I was eager to cook the meals I’d planned–and then found that I’m a pretty darn good cook.

Made my home a more beautiful place to live and work and learned to redecorate on the cheap. I recycled several used pieces of furniture this year with fresh coats of paint, making them look new, beautiful, and perfect in my home. I did rearranging/redecorating in Claire’s room, the guest bedroom, the living room, and the office this year; I painted the powder room by myself and created a craft table for Claire using an old coffee table. I also did a lot of outdoor landscaping–planted a perennial bed and a butterfly bush in the backyard; extended my front yard flower beds and planted seasonal flowers and hydrangeas; and had a backyard patio installed.

Nurtured and grew the relationships that are important to me. I spent many a cozy quality evening with David and grew with him as a partner as a parent. I spent time with Melissa (more precious now that she’s living in Baltimore!), including attending two Phish concerts, and enjoyed time with her crazy family in the spring and fall. I got to see one of my dearest friends in Chicago for several days in September. I spent a week at the beach with a family we’re very close with and another family we’re getting to know better. And those are just a few examples–I’m happy with the people with whom I choose to surround myself.

Streamlined my life. I rarely waste time anymore, even just surfing around on the internet, and that’s a huge achievement for me. I have pared down the number of activities that get in the way of my values, and as a result, spend more time pursuing my values (and actually have more time for hobbies, despite the fact that I generally have less spare time now than I ever have in my life).

It’s been a great year–one where growth and learning and wonder and excitement and joy have greatly outweighed sadness, setbacks, and disappointment–and I look forward to more from 2012. To paraphrase Ayn Rand, it’s such an immense pleasure to own my life and to spend it on growing. Here’s to 2012!

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