This week I’ve actually been fairly productive on taking
action toward those New Year’s Resolutions I wrote about in my first entry for
2016. Here’s the steps I took toward
successfully meeting my goals for the year so far:
2. Join that running club I talked about last
year or get involved in some other sort of social activity (a book club at the
library, perhaps) or a yoga or art class.
I haven’t joined a running club, but I did attend a Hot Yoga class twice this week. It’s
something I’ve been wanting to try, so I went for the introductory week long
special and attended two different sessions. It’s was quite an experience. I’m
not sure if I will continue or not, but I did enjoy it and am glad I tried it.
Because I ventured out for that class, I am now ready to try out some others in
the community. I’ve done some further
research and this week, I would like to attend a Zumba class and a more
traditional yoga class at another local studio.
I know I will eventually find that class that I can most connect with
since I have gotten the hard part out of the way and taken the first step of
visiting and researching some local classes already.
4. Find and commit to
that service opportunity in the community that I talked about at the beginning
of last year and still have not accomplished.
I looked further into
the Big
Brothers Big Sisters as well as the Court
Appointed Special Advocate volunteer positions and felt as I have the last
1 ½ years of living here…it’s not what I am called to do right now. I just
couldn’t figure out why until I took that step to actually sign up for it and
also spoke to my husband about it.
Here’s where I’m at right now. I have a 12 year old who I need to focus
on and being a Big Sister to a young girl in need or an advocate for a child in
difficult circumstances would be too much of an emotional and time investment
that would take away from my immediate family needs at this time in my life. I
know myself, and if I volunteered for one of these positions, I would want to give
it 110%, so either the children I was volunteering for would not get what they
needed from me because of my family OR my family would suffer. So, I went back to the drawing board, to a
website I find in my first few months of living here called VolunteerMatch.org. And low and
behold, I found an opportunity I haven’t come across previously that I knew
immediately was perfect for me and for my family. It’s an organization called
the Sound South
Children’s Reading Foundation, and there are opportunities for me to read
and do crafts with children at day cares and/or libraries in the area (children
who might not normally be read to for 20 minutes a day or exposed to literacy
at an early age) as well as opportunities for my son and I to help sort and
sticker books at their warehouse or deliver books to some of the organizations where
they stock them for family literacy programming. I couldn’t believe how perfect this was for
me, so I have already been in touch with their volunteer coordinator, and I am
waiting to receive an application from them so I can get started. I am hoping
it will become a service opportunity I can really sink my teeth into and use my
experience in this area to help them whenever and wherever their greatest need
lies at the moment.
In addition to this, I also took another tip from Toni
Birdsong’s “More
than a Bucket List” book and decided to sponsor a child financially through
the Compassion Organization.
I chose a child from Indonesia who has the same birthday as me. I chose
Indonesia because my trip to Bali several years ago was such a blessing to me,
spiritually and otherwise, and I wanted to touch a family in that country as
much as their people and culture spoke to me when I was there. I chose a child who had my same birthday
because I wanted not to ask for something for myself this year (as my birthday
is coming up soon), but to give something to someone else, so it’s a birthday
present both for the child I have chosen to sponsor and for myself.
These two service opportunities give me the ability to still
serve my family and my job effectively, but allow me to satisfy my need to make
a difference in the world, to have a greater sense of purpose in life. I can’t wait to see where these experiences
will lead for the future! And I can still look forward to being a Big Sister or
a Child Advocate later on, when my own children are grown, and I can devote
more time and energy to another worthy child.
5. Last, but most
certainly not least, make the most of my weekends with family and friends and
plan more “outings” to get outside in nature, to enjoy this beautiful state,
and to spend less time cleaning and resting and instead enjoy doing and
being.
I am getting a bit of a slower start on this one, but last
weekend, I decided to look at things to do in the area, and I found the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, so my son and I
spent some quality time there on Saturday afternoon. It was totally worth it! It was so fun to
watch the visiting artist’s creative process in the Hot Shop and to see the
wonderful examples of glass and mixed media art (mostly from artists right here
in the NW) in their galleries. This was
the purpose of my New Year’s resolution, to enjoy time with family and enjoy what’s
available to do and see in the area, since you never know how long you will be
in a place, and usually we tend NOT to explore the places we reside. We
vacation elsewhere, right?
I also recently took my husband to check out a new home brew
place in Olympia, Cascadia
Home Brew as well as a fairly new Hawaiian restaurant in the area I’ve been
wanting to try (The Lanai).
Sometimes, it’s the little things that make the weekends a slight bit sweeter
than just staying at home and relaxing (like the Kahlua Pork and Coconut Cake
we had at The Lanai Café…Lol).This weekend, we are going to a hockey game for
the Seattle Thunderbirds. We have been to 1 already this year and a
couple last year, but it’s definitely something the whole family enjoys and is
always well worth our time and money for tickets. Next weekend, I hope to be up on the mountain
snow tubing in OR (which is something I’ve never done before), but no matter
what, we’ll be having fun because we’ll be spending quality time with each
other and my husband’s family!
What’s Bucket List item or New Year’s Resolution can you
start working toward this week? We only have one life to live, might as well
make it an adventurous one! Hoping whatever you do that you enjoy it.
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