100 small things: 2016

Happy New Year!

I love the new year, it's one of my favorite times of the year, and I don't care how cliche or naive that makes me.  I like the way it feels like a fresh start, if only because I get a new planner.  I like the framework it puts in my mind around all of our holidays and traditions.  I like how it feels like one door closing while another one opens to potentially new possibilities; at the bare least another year older and wiser.

So I get giddy and weird and inspired around the new year and annoy my husband with questions like, 'but what big dreams do you have for this year?' to which he replies, 'babe, I want to do what you want to do.' which is one of the the reasons we work so well together - I envision the big dreams and then he makes sure they happen (by either actually doing them or giving me the space and support to do them)

so anyway, 2015 has ended, and with it my time frame for working on my 2015 100 small things list.  After the whole year, I ended up with full completion of forty-six items, which isn't even half - but surprisingly, feels like an incredible success.

Because what that means is that in 2015, I accomplished 46 new things that had been bumbling around in the back of my subconscious for quite some time.  My 100 small things list gave me inspiration and motivation and deep down, I'm a nerd that loves crossing off items on a list, so it works for me.  You can see my final checked list from 2015 here.


Since I really did find inspiration and joy in creating, completing and tracking my 100 small things list last year, I'm going for it again this year.  There were lessons I learned and applied to this years' list (for example two family dinners at our house is incredibly more reasonable than 12!) and also items that have been recycled to this years list from last year because I still really want to accomplish them.  There are things that are BIG in size, but are meant to be taken in small doses all year (ie. 'small things').  Some of them are an experiment (how will my attitude/life be different if I intentionally increase my outdoor hours? or intentionally add gratitude journaling into my nightly routine?) and some of things that I've been meaning to do and just haven't carved out the time.

So here she is - my 2016 100 small things list!
drum roll, anyone?

2016 100 Small Things

1. 1000 hours outside

2. Join Blogging for Books

3. Make five reusable alternatives to things we currently throw away

4. Surprise five friends with dinner (freezer meals/pizza for no reason)

5. Create a Beer Olympics Planning Toolkit to sell on etsy

6. Create an etsy wholesale account for The Hunting Daddies

7. Try Blue Apron

8. Finish the first section of Buddhism for Mothers

9. Figure out the kids' bedroom situation

10. Playroom solution!! Built-ins framing window, toy containers/declutter/etc

11. Read Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover with Brandon

12. Pay off two loans

13. Run in three races

14. Try Zumba

15. Create & finish 2015 family yearbook

16. Experiment with a new creativity outlet that I've otherwise avoided 

17. take each kid on an individual 'date' with both parents

18. visit Austin, TX with our family

19. officially complete our wills and last testaments

20. Read twelve (new to me) books

21. upstairs/staircase carpet makeover

22. have a mortgage discussion with the bank just to understand better

23. Konmari three rooms (our bedroom, bathroom, walk-in closet, laundry room)

24. watch five documentaries

25. 30+ miles with Bullet in a month (as many as you both can!)

26. Make enchiladas with my Mum

27. Make homemade pierogies with Gigi

28. Build a hope chest with Dad

29. Have Pap teach me how to drive stick

30. Sew matching jammies for the girls with Mimi

31. watch fifteen TEDx talks

32. attend at least three Vision2025 meetings

33. get my hair highlighted

34. visit Ligonier Beach

35. visit Flight 93 Memorial

36. host two big family dinners at our house

37. ride a real rollercoaster (bonus if I can get one of the kids to come with me!)

38. makeover our mailbox

39. 'finish' the basement bathroom

40. do a garbage bag/donation bin run in the attic

41. read Harry Potter & the sorcerer's stone aloud with Greyson

42. help plan the YIFC path of the flood cheer rally

43. volunteer in Greyson's classroom

44. participate in five FSC-Jst volunteer projects

45. set up 'TED like talks' at CV for students

46. SCF weekend/girls weekend 

47. AKT playdate:  Richmond, VA

48. visit five (new to us) local spots

49. Blogpost about visiting Johnstown with kids

50. update my blog tabs

51. reinstate the days of the week at home activities with the girls (Make Something Monday..etc)

52. Create 5 gallon emergency kit

53. Laundry room solution !? (kids' coats/shoes/junk)

54. hang our bat house

55. visit Ohiopyle

56. add all babies' birthstones to my mother's ring

57. design my 3/4 sleeve tattoo

58. eat one meal a week at our dining room table

59. put someone's hair in rags!

60. finish 52 weeks of 'currently' posts about our ordinary weeks

61. make a gratitude journal part of my nightly routine again

62. re-read The Alchemist

63. take a babymoon with Brandon (however 'small')

64. potty train Violet

65. participate in Screen Free Week 2016

66. draft The Hunting Daddies children's book (Rudy Buck)

67. Organize the upstairs hallway closet ?!

68. celebrate our pets' birthdays

69. organize a 'Playground Crawl" with YIFC

70. grandma & kid trip to a city

71. BUY A MINIVAN!

72. write 100 blogposts

73. add at least two videos to our The Hunting Daddies youtube channel

74. get professional The Hunting Daddies photos taken 

75. finish my blog Kids & Safety series ?!

76. teach Grey and Gem to ride bikes without training wheels

77. get camera professionally cleaned

78. organize the kids' hand-me-downs

79. buy four new fish! 

80. camp in the backyard

81. send Raph (our WorldVision sponsor child) four packages

82. finish the 'Mum visits Costa Rica' photo book for the kids

83. create a cell phone 'holding dock' for our house

84. add more kids' books to our Easter collection

85. ask teenagers to babysit (neighbor girl, cousin)

86. massive clean out of my email and unsubscribe!

87. create 'family' cookbook with photos

88. add child security settings to the iPad

89. make crepes

90. watch a manual settings camera instructional video on youtube

91. get in contact with my Costa Rican host family

92. work with B to set up a monthly 'writing retreat' for myself alone (!)

93. teach B how to french braid

94. get my eyes checked and make some real choices (contacts? glasses necklace chain?)

95. start CVAA intramural league

96. have a monthly family game night

97. screen free wednesdays!

98. get blood work checked/physicals (me &B)

99. create yard flower arrangements for our table

100.  create 2017 list!

Unplanned extras: 

-added additional Valentines' Day books to our kid collection

-Tab got a part-time substitute teaching job as a Spanish I teacher
-Brandon got a new job!
-met our new financial planner and made positive changes towards our future and planning
-got a new pet:  Spike the hamster
-give the blog template a mini makeover

Are you dreaming big this year? Are you settling in and cozying up with the things and people you love most?  I want to hear about what you hope to do this year! 

The real story of a Christmas card

Don't let those faces fool you, friends.  This was like take 28....can you spot the toddler trick we use?  Those m&m's there in front of Violet, yeah, we went there.  Luckily, Brandon was home on photo shoot night and he was in charge of supplying the candy and also making ridiculous faces and cheering directly behind my head to get the kids to look at the camera.  

Everything quickly started going downhill and B looked at me and said, "Why isn't this fun?" to which I turned my head towards him incredulously and replied, 'with that little gremlin? Honey, this is just something we need to get through.'

And so after plenty of enthusiastic effort from Brandon and near constant pressure on my shutter release, and Greyson and Gemma trying desperately to coax their baby sister by pleading 'just one good one, Violet!' we finally had something usable for the Christmas card.

Our happiest wishes to you all this season.
xxoxoxox

Santa, all I want for Christmas is patience

Dear Santa,

When I originally sat down to write this letter to you, I was frustrated and tired.  I was ready to pen my exasperated letter to you asking...begging for time.
Santa, what Mum of little kids can't use that, right?
What Mum at all can't use more time in the day?
Actually, what grown up can't use that?
More time, especially during this season of hustle and bustle and gifts to buy and traditions to uphold and places to visit and baking and wrapping and elf moving.

So as I sat down, grumbling about how slow my laptop was booting up, my daughter walked into the living room and spilled an entire bowl of cereal.  Let me be more clear, not so much spilled, as accidentally hurled the bowl into the air so that a rainbow of cereal and milk showered three quarters of the living room.  Santa, I swear our natural motto around here is Go Big or Go Home in all things we purposefully or accidentally do.

I saw this happening, as I was in mid-sentence of saying, 'I don't think eating that in here is a good idea,' so my internal flinch reaction was frustration with the fact that the very last thing I needed to add to my to do list, among the laundry list of holiday tasks, regular chores, and child rearing needs, was to add 'mop the living room floor'.

Before I even had a chance to react as she and I made eye contact after the splash, her face crumpled up and said, "Mumma, forgive me! Please forgive me!"

I took a deep breath, and in a calm voice that surprised even me, I had her fetch some towels and we cleaned it up together.  It was only quarter of ten in the morning, Santa, so that certainly had something to do with it (let's face it, my patience bucket is profoundly lower come 5p everyday), but it was at that moment that I realized that my Christmas list needed fixed.

Not because she was immediately heartbroken that I was going to be mad, nor because I am some magical beacon of calm in the face of annoyance.  But because it actually wasn't all that bad or time consuming to just clean it up when I wasn't also using up energy on being annoyed.

Santa, deep down, I understand that the time that I have each day, is just what it is.  There is no getting more because time is just time.  We all, all of us, get the same amount every single day and then it is filled up with life until we fall asleep and try again.

So, Santa, I'd like to change my wish.  What I actually would like for Christmas, Santa, is patience.

Patience to tackle the spilled cereal bowl that flies across the room at 9:45 in the morning (and probably again at 7:30 at night) because someday I won't have kids in my house at all to eat at 9:45 in the morning and 7:30 at night because there will be school and sports and friends and everything that is incredibly more cool than eating cereal in the living room to be near Mum.

Patience to see that an hour spent reading Christmas picture books to my kids is just as valuable as an hour spent folding the laundry that has been sitting in the laundry baskets for three days because someday the kids will be able to both read by themselves and do their own laundry and after all, what's an hour of life?  It is, in fact, both everything and nothing and that's why it is so valuable as to what fills it up.

Patience for the dust and dog hair making tumbleweeds in the corners of every room and the toys and crayon drawings that are never.where.they.are.supposed.to.be because someday my house will be clean and tidy, but in this season of our life it is full of life in all ways possible and that also means full of mess.

Patience for the sounds; so much noise and so loud.  Patience for the humming, and made up words and stories, and the tireless questioning and negotiating, and the incessant 'Mum, Mum, Mum, Mum, Mum, Mum, Mum' that makes up the melody of my day because someday it will be quiet and somehow that will be even louder than all this noise.

Patience for this body of mine that doesn't look exactly like I want it to, nor fit into clothes like it used to because I could use a daily reminder that despite it not being perfect, it sure does work like I need it to, and for that I should be grateful.

Patience for this house of ours that needs repairs, and updates, and has far too much stuff in it because it is the home our children will remember as theirs when they are far away living their own lives and where we work together side by side to make small changes within a budget that we plan together, and where we are safe and comfortable and warm every single day.

Patience for so many things, simply because I live in a country that values freedom of speech and thought and the privilege of #firstworldproblems at all.

Patience for all the things that don't move as quickly as I think I need to move; this laptop, the traffic, the kids, my husband, our pets, the boiling pot of water for dinner, the coffee maker....me and this Studerbaby4 bump, because I must learn to recognize that life is not a checklist.
Look up, Tabitha.

Patience when I can feel frustration bubbling up into my voice and my face and my posture because I can change nothing in the world but my own attitude...and yet that change can change everything in my own world.

Patience, Santa,
to be a better wife.
a better Mum.
a better Daughter.
a better sister.
a better friend.

I know I need to work on this for myself too, I'm just hoping for maybe a little extra dose in my stocking this year if possible.
thank you, Santa
(send my love to the Mrs. and the elves)
xxoxox
tab

ps. also, World Peace
k, thanks, love you, bye.