Get It Together: Thinking of You February and a Little Hockey

I neglected to post my Thinking of You idea for February! Now it's March. I am looking for a March idea right now...


For February, I worked with Heidi, my almost 10 year old (Sunday!) on some cards for the girls on her hockey team.


There had been some building locker room drama that needed to be nipped in the bud so their coach assigned them a bit of homework.


Each girl was to write a note to each of the other girls on the team. The note was to include one positive comment about the other girls hockey skills and one positive comment about her personality.


The coach thought the exercise would take about 15 minutes. We have 13 girls on the team, take away yourself, and that is about one minute per girl. Makes sense.


However, that doesn't work for Heidi. If she is going to do something, she is going to do it right. And since these were personal notes she had to think hard about each girl.


We spent the better part of 90 minutes on this project.


I was so proud of her. She broke out stationary because simple notebook paper was just not good enough for this task. She put a lot of thought into the cards.


But what really got me was seeing how much she really cares for her team. How much she really respects each girl on her team. There were a few girls she was upset with when we start the project, by the end she was over it because she spent time thinking about their good traits so the little argument just melted away.


The locker room drama seems to have died down a bit. We have moved from pre-game bickering to pre-game dance parties centering around Up Town Funk and the girls bonding over making fun of the locker room mom's dance moves. Works for me!


As I type this we are getting ready to play game 4 of the district playoffs. If they win tonight they go on to play for 3rd place on Sunday (yep, Heidi's birthday). I will be in the stands trying not to have a stroke as I cheer for these amazing girls. Then I will continue the cheer for them weather they win or lose because it has been a wonderful year for these ladies and I have been there to watch them grow.

Get It Together: Thinking Of You

At the beginning of each year I think of a few small things I want to add to my life to help me make the most of it. This year, one thing I want to work on is taking the time to reach out to my friends in a non-electronic way.

I came up with an idea to keep on top of this without it becoming an overwhelming task or just one more thing I have to do.

Each month I am going to pick five friends and send them a hand written note. I will pick a theme for that month and each card will go with that theme.

I read that January is Tea Month so my first five friends are receiving a tea bag along with their note.

Each month I will share with you all what my theme is and maybe it will serve as inspiration to you.

Now, how am I going to do this without it becoming just one more thing? Simple.

It all starts with knowing where everything is. I have my stamps and address labels in a bin on my desk. When I run low on stamps I jump right out to usps.com and order more so I never am left empty handed.

I have a stack of note cards that I have accumulated over the years that I am pulling from. I will now no longer feel guilty when I see cute cards at a craft fair because I will have a use for them! (Bonus!)

I add it to my To Do List for a Saturday mid-month and I keep a list in my personal note book of who I sent cards to this month. Throughout the month, if I think of someone to add I can quickly jot that down. This month my list was made up of a few friends with birthdays and a few friends I don't see often at all and one friend who just has so much on her plate I knew a little note would make her day.

And that's it! Let me know if you were inspired and if so, what theme did you pick?

Get It Together: The Skimm

With all the thing going on in my life right now... Oh, who am I kidding? With all of the things going on in my life always... Better yet. With all of the things going on in all of our lives always...

I feel like I get behind on what is happening in the world. 

Yes, I have the Today Show on in the background when I am getting ready for my day but I am often multitasking and miss a lot of what is being said.

Unless the puppy is on. Then I am 100% engaged. 

When I came across this news service the other day called The Skimm I knew it was for me. 

They send you an email with the highlights of the days happenings in national news. Each highlight is about a paragraph and it contains a link to a deeper story or a related story if the reader would like more info. 

I have added 5 minutes to my morning computer routine (responding to personal emails, checking in on the checking account and paying some bills...) and now I feel like I know what is going on in the world. 

I encourage you to sign up for the subscription and get the Skimm. 

I was not paid or compensated in any way for this recommendation.