nouvelle jen

Sorted through one big box from the garage and some things in Max’s closet and ended up with 3 boxes of clothes, books and toys for Goodwill: dropped the boxes off same day, yay!

Making good progress on painting the southern, exterior part of the house. The concrete part is about 50% cleaned and patched. The wooden roof part is about 75% scraped and patched. I painted the first 15 linear feet (or so) of both the wall and the roof so some portion of it would be totally complete and “nice” looking, yay!

was last Friday. I’d been sick for two days and was just starting to feel better on Friday when we talked. Starting to feel energized again today. Looking forward to session#2 and expanding on the goals I have so far for the 4 months.

on Aemorniel’s post here.
I like this fresh ‘take’ on “if you do what you’ve always done you’ll get what you’ve always gotten”. Reminds me that I achieve more when I go outside my comfort zone, stray from my “to do” list and otherwise break away from the expected, the usual.

to Sofia in Kenya for her clothing store and to Samorn’s Group in Cambodia for rice cultivation and raising pigs.

sometimes I’m slow on the uptake… I’m going to do a 5-day hot yoga challenge in May and I was wondering how to deal with washing my workout clothes every night. Then (lightbulb!): I realized I could just get another tank/cami and yoga pants! How does the mind simply not “see” choices sometimes?

I love riding the ferry and Max is enamored of it at the moment also. We took the ferry yesterday afternoon from Edmonds to Kingston and we saw a whale (!) and 3 dall porpoises (!) on the crossing to Kingston! Seems the glorious sunshine brought everything out yesterday, including the wildlife :)

to monthly donors to help them reach their goal of funding 100% of the projects submitted by teachers in Detroit. Supported this project. This neat project was so close to being fully funded I donated the remaining funds :)

sent a birthday card to my friend MJ: we’ve known each other since we were six! Sent notes on “sacred money archetypes” to my life coach: prep for the upcoming visioning call and 4 month workshop! Decorated the envelopes and used ‘pretty’ stamps which always makes me happy :)

The broken, bent, dusty old white metal blinds are no more! The new 2” wooden blinds arrived Thursday afternoon and Paco and I put them up that night: we both love them!

and ‘homework’ assignments are working really well – and I’m not doing these anymore. They served their purpose – “thank you” weekly meetings with myself!

Sent a nice ‘thank you’ card to my friends in Portland who put me up Saturday night last weekend! I had such a good time, they are fabulous company and being around them lifts me up! Mailed a payment with a “thank you” to our accountant :) Mailed the book “A Smile As Big As The Moon” to another woman who attended the neuro-education workshop in Portland last Saturday. She befriended me at the first workshop I attended there; she’s just naturally inclusive I think! Mailed Caroline Myss’s book “Invisible Acts of Power: Channeling Grace in Your Everyday Life” to my aunt.

I am doing a 4-month intensive workshop/coaching package with the same woman I worked with on the 90-day intuition workshop. That life coaching was one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself. Expectant, nervous. Reviewing my notes and ‘homework’ assignments from our last session.

got rid of the stained old sofa and the leather club chair that had been nibbled by dogs! Replaced them with a gorgeous sofa + love seat I found on Craigslist! Next is new blinds and drapes for the living-room window :)

Sent in our application for summer camp! Max had a great time at Camp Patterson last summer so we’re going for 4 weeks this year!

I think this coaching is the best thing I’ve ever done for myself! Realized that the anxious feeling this past couple of weeks is me coming up on an “understood” anniversary that was just under my radar. When I accepted the promotion I made a deal with myself: yeah, you’re not really passionate about this position but it’s a great opportunity to push yourself a bit, rise to the challenge and if you’re not happy then after a year you can go back to DBA work or move on to something else. So the uneasiness was me reminding myself of the deal – and that today is the year anniversary of accepting the promotion. Listening to myself and mulling over what to do next. I’m not enjoying work, haven’t been for awhile. I understand that part of it is me getting too invested in stuff I’d do better to let roll off my back…

There are extra funds in March from tax-refunds, birthday money and such so donated to three projects:
this one, this one and this one

and my insurance paid for most of it! Got two pairs of glasses and my first pair of prescription sunglasses: I am set!

This afternoon Max independently wrote the word “boat”!! This is the first thing he has written of his own volition. Since speech is so frustrating for Max we’ve looked for alternative ways for him to communicate: ideally something anyone could understand. The ASL has been a huge, HUGE help – it was how Max really started learning words. But not everyone knows ASL so we thought about typing or some kind of speech-to-text application. We didn’t give up on writing – but Max has always struggled with fine motor so mostly I do hand-over-hand with him so he gets the motor input but it’s not frustrating. This afternoon we were driving home from tutoring. Max was pointing and saying “this way”. “I don’t understand what you want. Can you draw or write it?” I asked. I handed him the blank sketchbook and pen I always have in the van – not sure what he’d do with it. I heard him uncap the pen. Then silence. I see the notebook in my peripheral vision; he’s leaning forward from the back seat giving it back to me. I see the word “boat” and for a moment I can’t breathe. I know he enjoys riding the ferry and so the past couple weeks I’ve taken him on short ferry rides. I’ve been saying, signing and writing hand-over-hand “boat”. I didn’t realize he’d learned the word much less remember and be able to write it! There’s a ferry dock a few miles away from where his tutor lives and he wanted to go on the ferry boat! “Wow! You wrote ‘boat’!” I beamed at him! “I’m so proud of you, you are AMAZING! Of course we can go on the boat!” What a great kid :)

and that leads to positive self-talk for some reason. And I booked a hot-yoga class tomorrow night. I loved hot yoga; it relaxed me, I slept better and I enjoyed the sweating. I can’t remember why I stopped going?

new glasses must be next! I really “clicked” with the stylist I saw last Thursday, so much so that I actually booked out a follow-up haircut appointment April 4th! Getting some color done on April 4th as well :) I have been trying out new makeup; a couple new products and some new techniques.