Elsfaire Keeps It Simple

[elsfaire]

Summer…

For most people I know, it means sunshine, swimming or relaxing by the pool, trips to the beach and family vacations now that the kids are on break. For the Hobbit and I, it means the busy season for his team building business. The Hobbit’s business is going through a growth phase this year, and we are working on hiring and outsourcing to lessen the load and stress on the two of us, but there is a lot of work to do to make that happen. In the meantime, I also am back at teaching one childbirth class a month, and just launched my healthy pregnancy blog to start helping women have more comfortable pregnancies, better births, and healthier babies (and hopefully eventually sell my books and such). Also, my kids are a rising sophomore and rising junior in high school, so  I want to start really focusing on the life skills they will need in a couple of years when they graduate. Because of all of this, I want to keep things simple to make it easier to maintain habits, make progress, be successful, and post updates.  

 

Goal 1: Stay Active

 

Do some kind of activity at least 6 days a week. I hope to do at least 2 BWW and 2 aerobic workouts, but whatever I do is good and will count. I will be driving Fourteen to cross country practice 4 days a week, so hopefully some of my workouts can happen then.

 

Goal 2: Come Out of My Shell

 

I have spent far too many years trying to hide myself from the world, out of concern that I would be rejected. I am now feeling better about who I am, but I still have to get out there and build some community and create the habit of being more social. Working from home and not being a church-goer means that I have to put effort into social contact in order for it to happen.

 

At least 6 days a week, do either 2 small things or 1 big thing that is social or being authentic. Here is a list of some possible activities, but I reserve the right to some up with additional ones, too.

 

Small Social/Authentic Activities (do 2)

Post a positive, personal thing on social media

Spend 5 minutes hanging out with the kids

Leave a positive note for someone

Encourage someone on social media or NF

Give a real hug

Give a 1-minute massage

Text a friend or relative

 

Big Social/Authentic Activities (do 1 instead of small things)

Call a friend and talk

Visit a friend

Spend > 20 min connecting with the Hobbit or one of the kids

Have the kids help me with a project or housework (only if in the same room & interacting)

Play a family game

Go to a social meeting

 

Goal 3: Keep Nurturing Myself

 

Every day, do something that takes care of me. Hopefully, I will do more than one thing on most days, but I need to do something every day for my sanity. J Options include mediation, taking a bath, reading for fun, practicing gratitude & positive questions, self-parenting, taking a riding lesson, etc. This can NOT count for another category, too, unless it is a long activity (for example, it is ok to count visiting a friend for 2 ½ hours as both social and self-care).

 

 

So that’s it! It seems like such a simple challenge to me, but that is the point.    I hope you will join me for the ride!

 

[Elastigirl]

Awesome challenge. I love the list of for social activity.

[elsfaire]

Reserved for challenge updates
(Stealing this methodology from Chris-Tien)

 

Goal 1: Stay Active

 

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Goal 2: Come Out of My Shell

 

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Goal 3: Keep Nurturing Myself

 

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[elsfaire]

[karinajean]

Yay!

[Lara]

I like a lot your challenge, because is focused on wellness. I wish you the best of luck!

[DJtrippyT]

Subbing! And I totally stole, er, was INSPIRED by your writing idea and added it to my own.

The social thing is so important. I work from home a lot too, and I actuallly have "meet with a friend" as an action item on my weekly calendar, because it's so easy for me to go hermit.

[annyshay]

Lovely! Excited to see more of you again, lady!

[elsfaire]

I am so glad to see all of you here! If I have not followed your thread yet, I will find and sub you soon.

Week 0, Day 1

In the interest of setting a good habit and doing things no matter how busy I am, I'm starting my challenge now.

Stay Active- done! Did a 3-circuit bww with a long-ish trampoline warmup this morning while Fourteen was at cross country.

Be social- done!

I did 2 small things (spent time chatting with Sixteen and gave Fourteen a real, long hug) AND a big thing (Geek Game Night). I am an overachiever, lol. Seriously, though- I wanted to aim for doing both eventually, so this is a good test.

Self-Care: done-ish

I am giving credit today because I did meditate and do gratitude and goal visualizing for awhile, but it was when I was trying to go back to sleep. Thus the "ish."

Ha! Momentum is already mine! Simplicity is power! Rofl

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[Lara]

but it was when I was trying to go back to sleep. Thus the "ish."

 

Ha-ha! Your brain woke you up to tell you there was something missing 

That's a good start, keep on!

[elsfaire]

Ha-ha! Your brain woke you up to tell you there was something missing

That's a good start, keep on!

Haha! I guess it did.

Week 0, Day 2

Stay Active- done! Ran a day from week 1 of C2-5k (and food shopped) this morning while Fourteen was at cross country.

Be social- done!

I did 2 small things (spent time chatting with Sixteen and Fourteen while driving them places, and posted some encouragement to people online). I had to think about it- at first I thought I had missed today.

Self-Care: done!

I took about 10 minutes out around 4:30 today to meditate.

So far, so good!

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[elsfaire]

Week 0, Day 3

Stay Active- done! Came home and did a bodyweight workout this morning while Fourteen was at cross country. For some reason, I was REALLY tired. I had a hard time getting through 3 circuits. I used one of my circuits to find my AMRAPs for my Nerdwarts exercises.

Be social- done!
I did 2 small things (spent time chatting with Sixteen and Fourteen while driving them places, and posted some encouragement to people online). I also went to a meeting over lunch with our HR consultant. Not sure if that counts as social, but it was interacting with a human for an extended period of time, so I think i will count it.

Self-Care: Um, not yet, I think.

 

 

It has been a weird day. Got off to a good start, but had a scare picking up Fourteen from Cross Country. He got lost and was 25 minutes late coming back. Everyone else had left. EVERYONE. I did not realize it because I was in the car listening to a podcast waiting for him (I try not to be helicopter mom - my boys are a bit old for that), and by the time I realized it was REALLY late, everyone else from the team was gone. Apparently, there are some team rules that he has not been following that resulted in no one knowing he was still out running. Sigh.

 

Today was my day to run payroll, and I had to prep for (and go to) a meeting with our HR consultant, and I really did not have time to do it, but I made time to prep pictures and text to give to a graphic designer on Fiverr to create a postcard for my business to put in the swag bags for a local birth expo coming up. I also want to get someone on guru.com or Elance to convert my ebook into a print format so I can put it up on Amazon through CreateSpace. If I can get that done, then I might be able to have print copies of my book to sell at the expo. THAT WOULD BE SO COOL! For some reason, having a book in print is just so much better than an ebook... It seems more real, I guess. I am also really wanting to finish editing a few of my other books that I wrote a few years ago and get them posted, too. Now that I know that I don't have to do all the formatting (I don't use InDesign that often, so I have to re-learn a bunch of things every time I use it), I am very excited about getting the books out into the world.

I need to do another blog post tomorrow morning, but it will have to be a short one.

[Lara]

Seems like a very good day. I like a lot the idea of the book. It is true that paper books still have that thing, like it is more serious if you are on paper that just another e-book on amazon or similar webs. I hope you can do it on time for the expo, when will it take place?

 

Sorry for that ugly moment with your son. Teens and rules, ha!

 

Nerdwarts is such an awesome mini! Good luck with it!

[elsfaire]

Seems like a very good day. I like a lot the idea of the book. It is true that paper books still have that thing, like it is more serious if you are on paper that just another e-book on amazon or similar webs. I hope you can do it on time for the expo, when will it take place?

Sorry for that ugly moment with your son. Teens and rules, ha!

Nerdwarts is such an awesome mini! Good luck with it!

The expo is June 20th. Not exactly a lot of time, but possibly still doable if I can find an editor tomorrow or Saturday.

Yeah- teen boys seem to try to make mothers age faster, lol.

Thanks- are you doing the mini? I can't remember if I saw it on your thread.

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[elsfaire]

Week 0, day 4

Stay Active- done! Ran day 1 of week 2 of c25k this morning while Fourteen was at cross country.

Be social- done!

Staffed a 2+ hour event for the Hobbit's business, plus a couple hours prep and packing time.

Self-Care: Yep- meditation.

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[Elastigirl]

Did you manage to not kill your son when you found him? That's the sort of thing that I would really have a hard time not yelling at my son for, because I would  have been worried, and then my relief would have been anger. Sigh, teenagers are time for us to grow too, because we have to be the adult in the situation.

 

Love how your using your time when your son is at cross country to run yourself

[Lara]

The expo is June 20th. Not exactly a lot of time, but possibly still doable if I can find an editor tomorrow or Saturday.

Yeah- teen boys seem to try to make mothers age faster, lol.

Thanks- are you doing the mini? I can't remember if I saw it on your thread.

Using awesome technology to communicate from anywhere.

 

I hope you get your book on time!!

I'm not doing the mini for 2 reasons: I'm not with the assassins right now, and there's no way I could do the pull movement at home. Anyway, I looked at the list proposed and I may be trying some of the movements in my workouts.

Don't remember where I read something like "there are few things more satisfying in life than see your children have teenagers of their own" 

[DJtrippyT]

Yikes! you handled your son going off-road much better than I would have!

[Twilight]

Following!

[elsfaire]

Did you manage to not kill your son when you found him? That's the sort of thing that I would really have a hard time not yelling at my son for, because I would have been worried, and then my relief would have been anger. Sigh, teenagers are time for us to grow too, because we have to be the adult in the situation.

Love how your using your time when your son is at cross country to run yourself

Thanks! The last time I was doing any consistent jogging (my last attempt at c25k) was when he took lacrosse, so this is good for me.

I managed not to kill him. I just want him to take care of himself intelligently. This is the same boy who broke his arm while bike riding with friends a couple years ago, so you think he would know better. [emoji21]

I still have a ways to go in the adulting category. [emoji53]

I hope you get your book on time!!

I'm not doing the mini for 2 reasons: I'm not with the assassins right now, and there's no way I could do the pull movement at home. Anyway, I looked at the list proposed and I may be trying some of the movements in my workouts.

Don't remember where I read something like "there are few things more satisfying in life than see your children have teenagers of their own"

Thanks for the well-wishes for the book. I checked Amazon's timeline, though, and there is no way to do it in 2 weeks. I still plan to convert the ebook to print and publish, but there is no hurry now.

Yikes! you handled your son going off-road much better than I would have!

Thanks! I handled it better than I would have a few years ago. I did not handle Sixteen lying and trying to spend the night at a friend's house with no adult home as well, though (another adventurous day. Ugh).

Following!

Glad to have you here!

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[elsfaire]

Week 0, day 5

Stay Active- Recovery day

Be social- Don't think so.

I did 1 small thing of spending a few minutes with the Hobbit, but nothing else.

Self-Care: Yes, imho.

I finished my blog post and sent it to my email list (a bit late, but oh well) and made time to get my postcards printed and delivered to go in the Birth Expo grab bags. They look pretty nice. I can say that because I did not design them, I used someone on Fiverr. [emoji4]

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[elsfaire]

Week 0, day 6-7

Stay Active- Not at all

I had all these grand plans for the weekend, but when I woke up Saturday, I was trashed. So the Hobbit and I spent a cuddly day on the couch instead. On Sunday I did more thinking work, but no exercise.

Be social- Going to say yes-ish

I spent lots of connection time with the Hobbit, which counts as 1 big thing, and Sunday we brought the kids out to shop and it worked as some small things.

Self-Care: Yes

If deciding to take a couch day and extra naps is not self-care, then I have no idea what is.

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[elsfaire]

Week 1, Day 1

Stay Active- Walk and BWW

Be social- Yes- Geek Game Night

Self-Care: Yes

Meditated in am when I wanted to go back to sleep.

Starting off well! [emoji1]

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[Waanie]

Cool challenge .

 

Which games did you play?

[elsfaire]

Cool challenge .

Which games did you play?

The whole group played Masquerade and Cards Against Humanity, and our sub-group played Star Fluxx. I like Monty Python Fluxx better, but 2 players were not really very familiar with Monty Python, which would have made it not fun for them.

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