RSS Feed

Category Archives: personal goals

I’m a big believer in setting concrete goals for myself, as a teacher, writer, mother, poet and more, and in these posts, I will discuss goals made, accomplished or modified.

A Year in Gratitude Journaling

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Jackie
Gratitude , The Tall Ships' Races, Szczecin 2007

Image via Wikipedia

For as long as I can remember, I have struggled with sleep.  From staying up too late to waking up too early, I’ve never taken a good night’s sleep for granted. However, in the past few years, I’ve finally managed to take some significant steps toward healthier sleep habits, including cutting out caffeinated soda, not relying on OTC sleep aids, and cutting out screen time earlier than I hope to be asleep.  While I have sometimes slipped, making these concrete changes has helped me fall asleep quicker and more smoothly than ever before.  Once I made these bigger changes, it was easier to think about what else I could do to give myself better sleep.

One of the habits I began this year (and actually maintained) was keeping a gratitude journal.  My habit is pretty simple; I keep the notebook on my night table, and once I’ve settled into my bed for my nighttime routine, I write down as many reasons to be grateful as I feel I can honestly note for that day. I try to be as specific as possible, and I try to write something for every day. Have I missed some days? Yes, but I think it’s only a handful, and I didn’t let those missed days throw me off completely.

So what I have been thankful for?  As I look over the pages, I see my children, my husband, my parents and my sister.  I see friendship, food, good books and movies and meals.  Sometimes I filled half a page, and other times I struggled to write down one or two scribbled phrases.  I was thankful for my job, for long walks on sunny days, writing and blogging. I was very often thankful for Fridays; every cliche becomes repeated for a reason!

Honestly, when I’ve been in periods of my life when sleep is hardest to achieve, I used to look on advice like this to be pointless; I was convinced that my sleep issues would never be solved by something as silly or simple as writing down things I’m thankful for in a little notebook. But now that I’ve made it a part of my life, it has become very meaningful to me, and I am so glad I established this new habit.

Related articles

2 Comments

Posted in all about me, personal goals, writing and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

The Light Ekphrastic

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Jackie

Discovering my voice as a poet is an ongoing evolution for me, but in recent years, one aspect of my poetic practice that has become more and more clear is that I am often and fruitfully inspired by the works of other literary and visual artists. I’ve so enjoyed ekphrastic work and have felt such pride in the results of my work in this genre, and I’ve continued to mine this vein; one of the poems in my notebook uses The World According to Garp as jumping-off point, and another speaks of a three-cornered hat.  Someday, I’d love to try writing in response to music.

Higher Ground: A Century of the Visual Arts in...

Image by Knoxville Museum of Art via Flickr

This fall, a friend said I should check out the light ekphrastic, an online journal that pairs visual artists and poets, each creating a piece inspired by the work of the other, publishing the results in each edition. What a fantastic idea, right? So, I dug out three poems, had the same friend give me some helpful feedback, polished them up and sent them to the editor, Jenny O’Grady, a poet and book artist here in Baltimore.

Reader, she accepted them. Right now I’ve got several digital images of paintings from a talented artist and will be writing a piece inspired by one of them, while that artist works on a painting inspired by one of my pieces. The entire enterprise is so stimulating and exciting to me; what will I see in her work, and what will she see in mine? The potential is so rich, and I can’t wait to see the final pieces.

The issue with my work in it goes live in February–watch this space!

Related articles

5 Comments

Posted in personal goals, poetry, writing and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Cooking with PW: Step One

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Jackie
Making The Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls

Image by CC Chapman via Flickr

So I went through the Pioneer Woman cookbook last night, getting ready to plan my challenge and made a three-column list: recipes I’ve made before, recipes I won’t want to eat, and recipes I will want to eat. I figure the recipes I’ve made before don’t NEED to be made again unless I feel like it, and the recipes I don’t want to eat will be good for either having a party, bringing to a party, or making for my husband (like the breakfast burritos, which I think he will love).

The totals are as follows:

Recipes I’ve made before: nine

Recipes I won’t want to eat: nineteen

Recipes I want to eat: twenty-eight

I think that at some point during this challenge, we’ll have a Tex-Mex night and invite some friends over, because that would take care of migas, sangria, pico de gallo, guacamole, Huevos de Hyacinth, chili and enchiladas (I might sub in these white chicken enchiladas, depending). Just to be clear, it’s not that I don’t like Tex-Mex food, it’s just that it’s often spicier than I can really handle, so I can’t have lots of leftovers hanging around. I think the perfect dessert for that party will be sopapilla cheesecake pie, which was a big hit at the tamale party.

I think also I might have a drinks-and-bites party, because that would take care of hot artichoke dip, olive bread, BBQ Jalapeno poppers, and burgundy mushrooms. That would be a good football menu too, so if you’re in the Baltimore area, invite us over to watch a game and I’ll bring some of these treats!  There’s also The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever, which seems perfect for a party, along with the prune cake, which has fascinated me since I first saw the recipe posted.

The more I think about this challenge, the more excited I am about it. The inspiration for parties is always welcome, and at least one of those menus would be a fun addition to the winter holiday season. Having new inspiration for main dishes is also exciting; I have no shortage of recipes, but with so many choices, I often default to the easiest or most familiar option. I think the focus of this challenge will help me find some new favorites and stretch my cooking skills; my chopping skills will certainly be stronger by the end of it.  I’ll also finally tackle the legendary Pioneer Woman Cinnamon Rolls, which are somewhat intimidating but will be very satisfying to cross off the list.

Next step: figuring out what I want to cook first!

Related articles

3 Comments

Posted in blogging, cooking, personal goals and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Cooking With Pioneer Woman

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Jackie
Cover of "The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipe...

Cover via Amazon

I’ve been a huge fan of The Pioneer Woman for years, and one of the biggest appeals for me has always been her cooking section, the source of many of my favorite recipes, from Twice-Baked Potatoes to French Breakfast Puffs. I like the hearty American style of most of her recipes, but even more importantly, I LOVE the amount of clear and detailed pictures she includes with each recipes, and her general “You can do it!” tone.  So when I first bought The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl, I had grand intentions of trying every single recipe in the book, and while I have tried a good handful, I have not made it through the whole book.

So when I realized that her next cookbook comes out in March, I knew that the time had come.

My mission: to cook every recipe in the first PW cookbook before the second PW cookbook comes out.

Now, this is no Julia and Julia style adventure, because PW’s book is not nearly that large and I’m not a disgruntled secretary looking for my life’s purpose. But I am a blogger looking for inspiration and more food-related posts, who also has to make dinner every day and is trying to cook more meals as opposed to “assembling” or re-heating them, and so I think this will perfectly fit the bill. I also think this is easily accomplish-able in the next four months or so, especially given that I’ll be able to knock out some of these recipes over the holiday break and already like the idea of having a Pioneer Woman Cooks party, where the menu features the recipes I need to make but probably won’t love (like her Olive Cheese Bread or Penne a la Betsy).

I feel the need to say here also that if you’re looking for a more gourmet-style cook-a-long, you might be better off with Tuesdays with Dorie or French Fridays with Dorie or even the International Incident Party. You could also follow Tasty Trix, one of my favorite food bloggers who has participated in all three, as well as many other tasty challenges.

However, if you’re a PW fan or even just a comfort-food fan, feel free to follow along!

Related articles

7 Comments

Posted in authors, blogging, book reviews, cooking, personal goals and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Priorities and Balancing

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Jackie

I’ve been reading The Simple Dollar for a few years now, and while it’s ostensibly a personal finance blog, I have found it thought-provoking in many different ways over the years. Trent often posts about work-life balance, which as we know is a preoccupation of mine, and he always inspires me to think deeper about my own balance, though our lives are very different.

In a recent entry titled What Are Your Priorities?, Trent listed nine priorities in his own life and postulated that any significant problem in his life comes from violating one of these priorities, by which he means when, “I take something of importance away from a higher priority and give it to a lower priority.” Here’s his list:

1. My marriage
2. My children
3. My spirituality and faith
4. My extended family and close friends
5. My health
6. Writing
7. Reading / learning new things
8. My community / politics
9. Other hobbies

Now, my list would look very differently from his. I’m not a person of strong faith, the way he is, for example. However, in considering his list and trying to make one of my own, it helped me see parts of my life and recent choices in new ways. If I was totally honest, there’s no way my own health would make it as high as #5 on my list of priorities, and I don’t think I’ve been very good about keeping my close friends and family that high on the list either. Being totally honest, I think my list often looks like this:

1. Work/Children battling it out for the top slot and taking turns at winning
2. Marriage
3. Reading and writing
4. Extended Family and a close friend who is basically family at this point (hi, Karen!)

Engaging in my community outside of my children’s school and activities, taking care of my own health, having hobbies, nurturing friendships apart from the closest ones? Minimal. I realized this recently also when I looked at my color-coded Outlook calendar, the one that captures my whole life, without which I would be lost. I had colors for family, Girl Scouts, and seven different categories for work responsibilities. Guess what I didn’t have? A color just for myself: I had been using the “family” category for everything.

So I’ve been determined to shake it up health-wise, and I made myself a category just for me and used it to sign up for a poetry workshop in October. I signed up to Race for the Cure (okay, I’ll be walking for the cure, but still), and am investigating a lead on some other Zumba classes to try. We had a Labor Day cookout and got to see some good friends there, friends I hadn’t seen in too long, and I’m in tentative negotiations to see some old friends soonish. But community work? Definitely room for growth there.

I know some people (like my mother) would think I am being too hard on myself, trying to Do It All and Have It All, and there might be a grain or two of truth there. But I also think that constant self-reflection is part of living a good life, and trying to live a better life, and that thinking clearly about my values and priorities is a very important part of that.  I think it’s important also to not to blame it all on “not having enough time,” when in truth, I need to be more thoughtful about how I use and focus the time I have.  I think Trent would say this is where time and money are similar, and I think he’d be right.

What would your list of priorities look like, ideally or honestly?

Related articles

5 Comments

Posted in all about me, conversations, personal goals and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Working It Out

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Jackie
Medicine Balls

Image by Beneteau Sailor via Flickr

I just got back from a four-mile walk, which is exciting not only for the exercise, but because I still went on it despite a few factors that could have worked against me:

  • cold, gray, drizzly weather
  • being at the end of the longest week of the school, in which we have our first full week of classes, plus Parents Night, and I realize how much juggling I have to do again now that summer is officially over
  • not really wanting to go, which has always been the biggest deterrent for me

So why did I go?  Well, I’m still feeling the same birthday-inspired resolve to get myself in better shape this year.  I’ve had to make a few modifications to my plan: the Zumba class was sadly canceled for good, so I’m trying to look around for another one on the weekends at other studios.  I’ve not yet made it up to my school’s indoor track to walk, but I have taken several outside walks like I did today.  Also, I started doing a core conditioning training offered at my school, which has involved crunches, medicine balls, physio balls and other instruments of torture, but that seems like a really good addition to my plan. It also uses planking, so I’ve done a few planks, but have not yet gotten into the Plank A Day Revolution fully.

I’ve been eating too much junk/convenience food since school started, but I’ve cut drastically back on my soda consumption, which is another key element of my new health plan.  I’ve had two sodas since school started, which is a big drop from my daily consumption habit. I think the junk food will taper down once I’m a little less stressed, but I’m not going to beat myself up about it during the most stressful month of the year, and what I’m most focused on is eliminating soda, as for me, targeted goals are often much easier to achieve.

I’m going to try and write about this semi-regularly to keep myself accountable, and I’m going back to Health Month for the same reason (full disclosure: Health Month is owned by a friend of ours, but I am not receiving any compensation for using the service or blogging about it).  My three rules there are: limit soda, walk twelve miles a week, do weight training twice a week (my on-campus core conditioning class).  I’m hoping to be on the Wall of Awesomeness by the end of the month, but also, I’m resolved not to give up if I don’t make it.

Related articles

4 Comments

Posted in all about me, family life, personal goals and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

Cleaning Out My Closet

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Jackie
A wall closet in a residential house in the Un...

Image via Wikipedia (not my closet)

One of the personal tasks I tackled this summer, somewhat related to my clutter theme, was a thorough examination of my wardrobe, with the goal of not only eliminating what I no longer needed, but also organizing it in a way that was more efficient and helpful to me. I know I have a good amount of clothes, but too often during the school year, I feel like I have no clothes. Or at least, no clothes that I like or that I want to wear or that fit me. Yes, I get a little whiny about my clothes.

I was also inspired by two bloggers, the first being Jessica of What I Wore and her idea of a “cookbook for your closet”–how can you cook up outfits if you don’t know what ingredients you have? I was also inspired by a blogger I discovered more recently, Sally of Already Pretty, who writes about her outfit list and the role it plays in her clothes choices. I haven’t made a full-on outfit list, but thinking of pieces in terms of outfits did help me decide whether to keep or toss more than one item, and also helped me see pieces I needed to replace, pieces that were staples but looked a little the worse for wear (I’m looking at you, Target-brand white v-neck tee).

Following advice I found online, I started with my dresser, going through it drawer by drawer, dumping it all on the bed, sorting out what I know right away I want to get rid of, then putting the items in grouped piles, then going through those piles and getting rid of items that seemed like duplicates or that on second glance, I didn’t really need. So I went through my “short sleeves” drawer, for example, and grouped my tank tops, v-neck tees, “dressy” tees and novelty tees before deciding some of my older beloved Threadless tees are a size smaller than I ever feel comfortable wearing now and were taking up too much valuable drawer real estate. This also helped me see patterns: for example, I almost never wear crewneck t-shirts and should therefore stop buying them. For each drawer, I also reserved a page in a composition notebook and wrote down each item and a brief description, including details like color, pattern, neckline, sleeve length, and grouped in categories, like I had done on my bed.

Looking at each item, and then placing them within bigger categories, really helped me see my wardrobe as a larger entity. It was easier deciding what really belongs on hangers, not folded in my drawers, once I saw exactly how many pants and skirts I was trying to squeeze into one drawer, or how wrinkled and un-wearable some of those shirts looked after being crushed by other shirts. I know now that I need to buy two more skirt hangers, and that I own a lot of skirts. Also, I own a lot of purple and pink and green, but not as much blue as I had thought.  I’m also going to look for some hanging organizers, because I have a lot of short-sleeved sweaters and sweater vests that get crushed under my heavier sweaters when I pile them all on the shelf in my closet.

On the whole, I’m very pleased with my results, but I’m hoping to see the real payoff once the school year starts.  By streamlining my house and trying to establish new, clutter-unfriendly habits, I’m hoping to streamline my life more once the school year begins.  Being stressed at work and coming home to a messy, out-of-control house just results in a cycle of stress, and one I’d like to disrupt, or even prevent, this coming year.

Related articles

10 Comments

Posted in all about me, personal goals and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

Clutter Crazy

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Jackie
Cover of "The Blessing Of A Skinned Knee:...

Cover via Amazon

This summer, I’m tackling the clutter in my house, which by the end of the school year had reached epic proportions. It’s been a challenging task, one I’m not nearly finished with, that has been alternately satisfying and discouraging.

I’ve never been the kind of person who cleans obsessively, the kind who can’t go to sleep at night if there are dirty dishes in the sink, and conversely, I’ve always been the kind of person who has clutter issues. My bedroom was always messy as a child and teenager, and now that I’m an adult, I still haven’t figured out what you might call an adult-type cleaning routine. Instead, we let things devolve while we’re “too busy,” and then we do massive cleaning strikes, often reserving an entire weekend.

Lately, though, it’s just not enough for me anymore. I look around my house and all I see are surfaces piled with things to be dealt with, and it’s making me uneasy and unhappy in my own house, my shelter from the external storm, my little nest. I’m losing more things than I’d like, and spending more time than I’d like to find them. I don’t have excessive issues, but I do feel stressed when I look at a cluttered area. What is that stuff? Where does it belong? How did I let it pile up like this? I get discouraged and frustrated, and do something concrete like sweep the floors or do the dishes, and the clutter remains unresolved. I think we are also very susceptible to the keystone demise, when we start letting one thing slide after our big cleaning binges, and all of a sudden everything is sliding.

I think what we’re going to end up with is a chore chart, but not for the kids: for us, a list of tasks that need to be done every day, so we adults can check them off and feel more structured in our daily cleaning. Recently, I’ve been rereading The Blessing Of A Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children, one of my favorite parenting books for once you’ve passed the potty-training stage, and one of Mogel’s theories is that it’s not enough to try and teach your children good habits if you are not practicing them yourself. Making it a whole-family effort can make it more effective, and bond your family together as well. We’ve used chore charts before with the kids, and they’ve been great, but I’m feeling hypocritical preaching to my kids about keeping their rooms clean when I’m struggling to keep the house clutter-free myself.

So far, my biggest efforts have been in our spare bedroom, which became the catch-all storage space in our house and was chock-full of stuff. I’ve loaded up piles of trash bags and have donated piles more, and while the room is not finished, it’s clearly and definitely in much better shape. This was the worst clutter-flashpoint in our house, but now that I’ve tackled it, the smaller sites are getting on my nerves even more, so that I’m itching to tackle them as well. Once the decluttering is over, I want to set in place new behaviors and habits for all of us, so that we don’t get this far gone again (and also buy some cute new bins and things to help organize). I’m trying to see this as a positive thing, a big accomplishment, and not spending too much time getting frustrated with myself for letting it all pile up. It’s hard, though.

It’s not the most fun or exotic way to spend the summer, but I’m hoping to feel lightened and proud once I can look around my house and see clean, clear surfaces, as far as my eye can see.

Related articles

8 Comments

Posted in all about me, family life, personal goals and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Professional Development: Why Do It

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Jackie

It seems to be a given that professional development is a must for the continuing growth and progress of teachers: witness the plethora of resources and attention devoted to it on the federal and state level. Knowledge in our fields is constantly growing and changing, and ideas on how to effectively teach are ever-changing, so if we want teachers stay abreast of these swings of the pendulum and be able to incorporate them into our work, we must have access to dedicated time during the year for professional development.

At my independent school, I’ve had access to some wonderful professional development sessions through AIMS, which comprises over 120 schools in the MD/DC area. One that stands out for me in particular is the annual Making Schools Safe workshop, which has greatly informed my work in sponsoring our school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, but also has helped me think carefully about making my classroom and school a safe place for all students. I also had the thrill of presenting at the AIMS annual conference one year, which I hope will only be the first time I get to share my efforts with other teachers, and have heard some inspiring AIMS sessions in the past as well.

I try to keep a running “wishlist” for different aspects of my professional career, and my PD dreams include attending NCTE’s annual convention as well as someday presenting there, and publishing lesson plans on sites like ReadWriteThink and the NEH’s EDSITEment (remember, it’s my dream list!). I strive towards presenting and publishing for several reasons; I have gained so much from the contributions of other teachers, that I want to be able to return the favor for the greater community of teachers as well. However, I think that striving towards this also helps me work towards being more creative and rigorous in my teaching as well, so that I have something new and valuable to bring to the conversation, and keeps me invigorated in a profession that can be notoriously draining.

I’ve heard/read teachers before who say they take the whole summer “off” from going into school or going to workshops, but while I do log many pooltime hours, the summer is when I have the mental space and energy to do some of the big-picture thinking about my teaching practice, the kind of meta-thinking I just don’t always get to during the school year.  Professional development has been a big part of that, inspiring more of that big-picture perspective and giving me the tools to put ideas into action.

In fact, I just returned from an amazing PD week-long session that I’ll blog more about soon. It’s inspiring just to be around the kind of teachers who flock to PD sessions, who are dedicated and creative and thought-provoking, who are able to tell me about a story I’ve never read or give me a perspective on a text that never occurred to me. I took so many notes and pictures during the week, and even on the plane ride home, I was jotting down ideas and connections to better plan the upcoming year. Who knows how much I will actually realize for the fall, but I know what I’ve learned will continue to provide inspiration for years to come.

Related articles

6 Comments

Posted in education, personal goals, teaching, writing and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

We Are the Champions

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Jackie
Cover of "And Still I Rise"

Cover of And Still I Rise

With over 50% of the vote, “Still I Rise” triumphed over “Funeral Blues” and “Mid-Term Break” in my first annual March Madness Poetry Tournament!

I have to say, I’m surprised at the results. Sure, I had pegged “Still I Rise” to be a serious contender, but I truly did not expect two such sad poems to be the other entries in the finals. I was surprised that no love poems ended up in the final three as well; is this a testament to my own romantic spirit, or the cynicism of my young students, or my poor choices of love poetry? Definitely an intriguing question, and one I’ll ponder next year when I am beginning my second tournament.  Also, I am really proud of the three students who read the finalists at our Morning Meeting, in front of about 350 people, and thrilled that over 100 of those people voted to choose a winner.

In other poetry news, I entered the National Poetry Month Cento Contest. The cento is a form I first encountered two years ago, when I completed the poem-a-day challenge run by Poetic Asides, and it’s a form I really enjoyed. It was a pleasure to return to, and I am pleased with my result, whether it succeeds in the contest or not. Just like with the menu-poems, I’m stretching myself and sending my work out, even if I don’t feel it’s perfect, and that feels really good.  Wish me luck!

6 Comments

Posted in personal goals, poetry, teaching, writing and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.
← Older Posts
Newer Posts →
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 487 other followers