feeling glad no.9

Sarah

Grateful for: a quick escape to the sun last week in Florida. The grey winter skies get relentless this time of year, so a sunny day at the beach was the perfect salve.

Learned: I saw the hilarious owl meme about how long owl legs actually are, and it made me lol. I then had to look it up, and it turns out some owl’s legs can be up to 15 inches long!?

Accomplished: I finished reading my first book of 2024. Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake. Oooooh, it was so good and had me feeling so many emotions. Her writing always does, but this one was even closer to my heart as most of it takes place in Michigan in the landscape I love so much. I haven’t been able to stop thinking or talking about it, and I made everyone else in the office read it, too.

Delighted in: Mine is the same as Anastasia’s. While down in West Palm Beach, we visited the Ann Norton sculpture garden. Her sculpture work and the gardens blew me away. As well as touring her studio.

Grace

Grateful for: Aafter a very full holiday season, I’m grateful to have a bit of rest from parties, events, and social obligations. It’s been a comparatively quiet few weeks! 

Learned: These last two weeks, I’ve been listening to a series of talks from poet Joy Harjo. She shared an idea that’s just really stuck with me: You can’t write before you listen. Listen to your surroundings. Listen to nature. Be an observer. Then record. 

Accomplished: I feel as if I could add this into any bucket this week — as there were learnings, so much to delight over and be grateful for — but ultimately, having 11 kids under 4 (and their parents) successfully survive an extended weekend of camping, hiking and unexpected snow in the desert is a feat and an accomplishment. Plus, we even managed to pull off a cute, very Wes Anderson birthday party out there! Feeling a bit like I can do anything at this moment. 

Delighted in: It’s been a minute now since we’ve gifted Lou her custom dollhouse, and it’s been a DAILY source of joy! Watching her play with her mice in such a nurturing, kind way is amazing. And my favorite… watching her have them get in play fights and then using her social emotional tools to peacefully resolve those fights. How am I not just a perma-puddle at this point?? 

Janna

Grateful: for working in such an inspiring work environment filled with the best people. After what seemed like a very long break, I was eager to get back to work. 

Learned: I’m embarrassed to admit that I am an everyday Starbucks addict, but Starbuck’s closure on Christmas Day finally gave me a nudge to work on perfecting an Americano at home. I had purchased this espresso maker, and I had it down after a couple of tries. This also means I started perfecting my espresso martini on New Year’s Eve, too. 🙂

Accomplished: All the holiday activities! All the presents got wrapped, school holiday parties were attended, family Christmas parties were smiled through, and I even moved the elf each day. 

Delighted in: A lot of work goes into the holidays, for moms especially, but I’m still delighting in the magic of Christmas through my boy’s eyes. 

Anastasia

Grateful: for 32 years of life! Celebrated my birthday yesterday and spent the day with my little girl. So lucky to be alive and to be her mama. 

Learned: that birthday days don’t have to be grand to be perfect. It was a remarkably typical, blah day yesterday. With sprinkles of special throughout: Birdie singing me happy birthday, spicy beet margaritas, a new children’s book of poetry (I’m in love), a chocolate tarte. It was more than enough! 

Accomplished: for my birthday I bought a sleek little walking pad/treadmill that slides under the couch. I’ve deemed this year the year of walking and aim to walk for at least 10 minutes daily. So far, I’ve walked at least 1 mile every day!! 

Delighted in: discovering artist Ann Norton in Palm Beach… a sculptor whose exhibit begins with another artist’s work! She wanted people to walk in and see a collection of art by another artist who might not otherwise have been “seen.” Knowing that about her made touring her work even more special. And now I just can’t stop thinking about all of her work.

Anne

Grateful for: On our second snow day of the week I’m grateful for the ability to stay home with my kids. Also, for my body’s ability to do hard things like successfully hoisting the middle part of our snowman onto the base after many failed attempts. I swear it weighed 500 lbs. Between that and shoveling the driveway, I was so sore the next day which I oddly love because I know I accomplished something hard.

Learned: I’m 99% sure we’re done having kids (100% sure if you ask my husband) and less than enthused about most contraceptive options so I’ve been reading Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Wescher. It covers everything to practice the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) which is just a fancy name for charting your cycle using your three primary fertility signs: cervical fluid, waking temperature, and cervical position. It’s not as complicated as it sounds and has been an enlightening read. Can’t believe it took me until I was 40 years old to fully understand how my body works.

Accomplished: See snowman feat above.

Delighted in: My husband saw this on IG and proceeded to stop at Michael’s on his way home from work to buy glow sticks to do with our kids for their bedtime activity. It was a big hit!

Sarah Matthews

Grateful for: Truly to have a job that i’m excited to come back to after the holiday break. What a gift!

Learned: learning about Dr. Peter Attia’s book “Outlive” on increasing your health span & vitality into old age, and a big part of it being getting 180 hours of zone 2 cardio per week. Planning to add that to my achievements next time 🤝

Accomplished: I’ve been mapping out my values in therapy this year and gathered up all the energy from the new year, my 35th birthday on 1.4 and the capricorn new moon on 1.11 to make a goals list & put them into action this week. High on my list is dedicated studio time & I have 4 days scheduled over the next few weeks! Alone time is such a luxury after kids & I’m so excited.

Delighted in: spontaneous ice skating after a bday lunch downtown with my friend Molly. We laughed so much I almost fell over. Made me feel like a little kid and even got hot cocoa after at Madcap.

Sammy

Grateful for: the snow. It’s finally snowing the way I hoped it would on Christmas, better late than never!

Learned: My therapist introduced me to an exercise called “Dreams Within Conflict” created by the Gottman institute. It helps partners learn to listen and also learn to communicate, especially when you are stuck in conflict/ or just want to connect.

To sum it up: There’s a speaker and a listener role. The speaker picks a word/ “dream” from the list to be the subject or focus for the exercise. The listener asks all 9 questions one by one and the speaker answers them all in relation to the subject/dream they chose to focus on. The listeners job is to listen to the speakers response, and that’s it. There are no right or wrong answers. You can do this with any relationship in your life. It’s so powerful hearing your own answers and how the questions lead you deeper and deeper. But also great practice in patience, or not interrupting, invalidating, or trying to fix/ solve your partners responses while playing the listener role.

Accomplished: I’ve made it to the YMCA to workout/ sauna a couple times a week for the last few, hope to keep it up through the winter to support my mental health!

Delighted in: Juniper is fully walking and it’s the best little drunken person sloppy cute walk. It will never get old I love it so so much, it’s so precious!!