I have officially made it through my 4 month back to basics “challenge” 🎉🎉🎉 where I was making an effort to focus on the things that make me feel like a whole person. Which means… it’s time to do an update on my month of focusing on nutrition! If you’re curious, you can check out my other posts in this series. My initial post is here. May was all about sleep, June was all about meditation, July was all about movement, and August was all about nutrition.
Read MoreSummer is coming to an end, which is sad… and also exciting because that means I get a paycheck again! Before October starts and my full paycheck kicks back in (I get a partial paycheck in September), I need to do an overhaul of our budget to re-evaluate how much we need to set aside for next summer. I’d also like to think through the exemptions we claim (I think that’s the right terminology) and maybe make some adjustments. We usually get a decent amount back during tax time and I’d rather have that money in each paycheck as opposed to getting a lump sum in April.
Read MoreWe traveled back east in June and followed that up with a 5 day camping trip at the beginning of July. While all of those things were wonderful, they were terrible for our daily routine. We came back refreshed from camping but couldn’t get ourselves back on a schedule. Mike and I were in bed late (between 12:30 - 1:00a most nights for no reason in particular) and Ellie wasn’t sleeping well (at night or napping). During the day we all felt like zombies. To add to that, I always felt like I was rushing around but never getting much accomplished. After a particularly hectic week in early August, I thought to myself... I can’t do this anymore, something has got to shift.
Read MoreIt’s been a week since plan(it)* and my brain is buzzing with what’s next for the retreat. First, a big THANK YOU 😍 to those who participated. I couldn’t have done without you! Thanks for taking a chance on me! On my end, I thought things went really well (minus the instance where I forgot I had my headphones plugged in and didn’t realize people were talking, oops!). The time flew by and Slack seemed to be a good way to communicate with the group. As we were meeting I was thinking about how I could make the retreat more accessible (and still provide live support), instead of having to choose 2 random days during the week for hosting. It’s so hard to find something that works for everyone’s schedules, and having 5 hours blocked off, 2 days in a row, is a huge commitment.
Read MoreI am gearing up for the very first plan(it)* retreat this Friday and Saturday!! Although in all honesty, I’ve done so much prep work on the front end that right now there’s actually not that much to do to get ready! One of the things I’ve been doing to get the word out about the retreat is connecting with all the people I know who are doing similar/related work (i.e., supporting academics!). One of the people I reached out to was Cristi Cooke, who was so excited about the work I’ve been doing that she asked if we could do an interview! Here’s a brief overview of how Cristi and I met...
Read MoreJuly is the first summer month with no paycheck of any sort, so we’re pulling entirely from savings (using the money I’ve been setting aside each month during the school year). We also got hit with a big car maintenance bill this month (~$700), so we drained our car maintenance fund (which was just over $500) and then dipped into the emergency fund to pay the rest of the bill. Oddly enough, I looked at our car maintenance bills from the previous year and we had a major bill (~$800) on the very same day last year… apparently we’re very consistent about our car repairs.
Read MoreMy July monthly update is that, I’m not going to do monthly updates for the summer, ha!
Since I’m planning to do a year 3 goal review at the end of the summer, I felt like they’d be pretty similar to one another. Plus, I shared a number of updates in my movement/nutrition post (and will share a few more in my upcoming budget post next week). With 2 posts this week, I wasn’t up for a 3rd (in-depth) post! I’m working on running the blog and keeping it enjoyable… not letting it run me and feel like an obligation!
Read MoreSimilar to my advice for year one post, this week I’m sharing some thoughts about the advice I might give myself during year two, if I was going to do it all over again. Here they are, in no particular order.
Read MoreHow did movement go? Ugh… not well. I think maybe I set myself up for a challenge by starting off the month saying it was the “easiest” thing for me to work into my schedule. Fast forward to the end of the month and this one definitely has felt the hardest. We’ve been way off our old routine, going to bed super late and glued to our screens in the evening. Ellie has also been asserting her independence in every way possible (to put it nicely), which is awesome, and also exhausting, and I think Mike and I are both going through some parenting burnout. We also had a rough patch of sleep for most of July and my back has really been bothering me. So… movement was hard.
Read MoreIf you’re just tuning in, I’m dedicating the next few posts to my goals/progress for years 1 and 2 on the tenure track (a year 3 post will come once the summer is over). Now, on to year 2, which felt drastically better than year 1. We’d been in Portland for a full year, we were living in a more permanent space, we had solid friendships, and overall just felt a lot more settled. First, I’ll share what was going on during year 2…
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