Saturday morning, my family and I sat around the breakfast table.  Rather than attack our “to-do” list that is the length of all of our arms combined (I’ll explain later why it is so long.) we ended up procrastinating enjoying each other’s company and making a family “bucket list”.

10 Things: Our Family Bucket List

(in no particular order)

1. Earn our black belts.  – I wrote a family bucket list about 9 or 10 years ago.  I lost my original list but this is one thing I remember being on it although at the time I had never taken a martial arts class.  I think it just goes to show the power of speaking our intentions.  Anyway we started taekwondo as a family two years ago.  I told the kids that if we started we weren’t going to quit until we reached out black belt (barring injuries and serious financial hardship).  We made a few small sacrifices in order to pay for taekwondo including canceling our gym membership, less expensive cell phone plans, and very seldomly eating out.  Brent and I considered it an investment into, not only our health, but into our family.  It has turned out to be that and much more.  There has been some ups and downs over the last two years (7 years olds don’t always like to practice) but we’ve stuck together cheering on each other.  Not only does it give us a common interest to share, we just love the camaraderie and friendship at our studio..  Anyway, we should be able to cross this off by the end of this year!

2. See all 50 States – We’ve only seen a handful but we are pretty confident this will happen.

3. Write, produce, and direct a film as a family – Brent does video work (and web and graphic design) for a living and we decided it would be fun (and usefel) to pass on some of those skills to the boys.  A few years ago, Brent and I shot our own short film. We think it would be an amazing learning experiece for the boys and, honestly, aside from family stuff, making our film was the most satisfying experience ever.  I’d love to do it again but with the entire family.

4. Play a song together – Brent is a drummer.  Thing 1 plays piano.  Thing 2 wants to learn guitar.  My entire life I’ve always wanted play an instrument.  If this doesn’t happen then I’ll pass out earplugs and sing.  I love the symbolism of all of us playing in harmony together even if I’m a bit off key.

5. Backpack through Europe – Umm…why not!  I don’t mind hostels and missed showers.  

6. Visit a Third World Country – Brent and I have been to slums in India, townships in South Africa, and through shanty towns in Mexico. Life. Changing.  It’s very important to us that we remember that much of the world does not live like us.

7. Go on a Mission Trip – We like to go somewhere with the sole intent to love on and help others in some way.  Last year, we almost went to an orphanage in Mexico but there was an outbreak of swine flu.  While that didn’t happen we’re thinking something along those  lines.  It’s very likely that this and #6 could go together.

8. Try Mountain Biking – The boys are still a little too young but when they are a bit older this could be something we all enjoy as a family (assuming my boys don’t pick the hardest trails).  I have visions of us spending a perfect Saturday afternoon scraped up and complaining exploring the mountains of Southern California by bike.

9. Be a Puppy Raiser – I met a lady at Trader Joe’s the other day who had her “puppy in training” with her.  We talked a bit about the requirments and responsibilites of being a puppy raiser and she encouraged me to look into it.  All of us love animals so it seems like a great opportunity to love on animals, learn more about responsibility, perserverance, and helping others.

10. Hike the Skyline-to-Sea Trail – The Skyline-to-Sea trail runs almost 30 miles from the Santa Cruz mountain to the Pacific Ocean.  It passes through Castle Rock State Park and Big Basin Redwoods State Park.  Sounds like a perfect long weekend!

It seems doable and if not it doesn’t hurt to dream.

On that note, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes.

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” – Michelangelo

Have you ever written a personal or family a bucket list?  Share something that’s on it!!!

Hope you have a good weekend.  We have a taekwondo tournament and I’m sick.  Ugh!!!  I’ll let you know how it goes!

Hugs and High Fives,
Jenn

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That’s a lot of alliteration.

I had almost forgotten my little birthday present to myself that I have yet to “enjoy”.

My  upcoming RKC certification.  I got an email from Dragon Door yesterday reminding me of the requirements.  Oh yes….those.

Can I confess something?

I’m nervous.  I was nervous for the one day HKC certification.

I don’t want ripped hands.  I don’t want to wake up day two and not be able to move.  But most of all I don’t want to fail.  (I’ve foolishly been reading blogs of people who didn’t pass.)

Fear of failure is not a good reason to not try.   Fear of failure is not a good reason to not give it your all.  Fear of failure, however, is a good reason to pray.

If the certification was tomorrow I would kill myself trying to pass fail the snatch test.  I’m not quite ready but I’m holding onto the hope I will be.

I have been training hard on my own and with Doug.  I’m feeling my endurance and strength grow. I’ve been teaching others and seeing them get stronger.  Why am I not ready?  Because I still don’t meet the weight requirements to be able to test with the 12k (26lbs) kettlebell and I can’t snatch the 16K (35lbs) 100 times.  However, I did snatch it one time.  ONE. TIME.  I was so happy you would have thought Thom Yorke  had offered Brent and I a private concert.  I’m still missing the requirements by 99 reps but I figure if I can do it once I can do it 100…right?  Maybe not  by August 27, which is why I’m still slowly carrying out Operation Six Pack even if I have been slacking on my food journal.  (Seriously, I don’t know how food bloggers do it.)

It’s been interesting to be losing weight for reasons beyond vanity. I feel like a wrestler trying to make a weight class but thankfully I don’t have to touch anyone else’s sweat or wear a singlet. Instead of looking at a pair of jeans that are too tight, I look at a kettlebell that is too heavy.  The same goal but an entirely different mindset.  I like it.

I like being intentional.
I like having a goal.
I like looking for strength outside of myself.

Have an awesome weekend.

Hugs and High Fives,
Jenn

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Check out our family’s adventures at New School Nomads as we take a year long RV road trip through the United States!

The post Fluffy Friday: Fear of Failure appeared first on Girl Heroes.

I was planning on finishing up Part 4 of my Climbing the Ladder Series:  (Tools to Keep Your Weekend Interesting) but while I love lists (that was one of my first and all time favorite posts btw) I’m just not “feeling” my scheduled post today.  Instead, I want to talk about the 10KChallenge I just completed and how much I love my husband.  Yes, they go hand in hand.

Like marriage the 10K swing challenge took work, persistence, and commitment.  Also, like marriage, there was pain, joy, frustration, and elation.  When I set out the to do the 10K Swing Challenge on April 1 (What a fool I was.  Stupid pun intended) I had it planned out.  Twenty five out of thirty days I would do 400 swings. Simple dimple.  Or so I thought.  Funny, thing is my life likes to throw curves balls at my plans.  Again like marriage.  While I’m happy as can be married to my soul mate, our life isn’t the exact picture of “happily ever after” I imagined.   Like I learned the day we got engaged “shit happens”.  It just does.  As it did in my 10K swing challenge.  There were some days I was just too tired (marriage anyone ), too busy, too sad, too lazy or too forgetful to get my swings in.  Then there were days I felt like a super hero and would easily  knock out 800 or more.

I really recommend setting “big smalls goals”. That makes not sense but you know what I mean.  Or not.  In other words, a goal that is a big enough it feels really great to accomplish but it’s not so large that it seems insurmotable.  It doesn’t have to be swings either. If you do decided to do the swing challenge I definitely recommend you read this article by Lisa Shaffer who started the 10,000 swing challenge and here are a few tips from my experience.

– Go lighter than normal-
It’s a lot of swinging
– Switch grips a lot-
(I would sometimes hook the bell handle with my finger and other times hook it in my palm.
– Set small goals-
I did this sequence A LOT:
50 two handed swings, 10 right handed, 10 left handed, 30 alternating.
(Makes the time go by faster and it’s easier on the hands)
– This goes without saying but take a few rest days-

In the end my persistance paid off and I’m thrilled to say on Friday hubby and I had some time alone and what did we do?
Swings!!
I dragged him to the park to finish up the challenge with me.  What a fun (and cheap) date I am.  After Brent did a short workout he was bored he decided to document the rest of the event.

This is the coolest park.  There is a full size dirt track circling it with exercise stations along the way.

900 swings later.

After I nearly killed myself we were done, for fun we did a mini photo session.

Um…how old are we?

Hugs and High Fives,
Jenn

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1. Compete in another competition. – Done.
2. Hold a 5 minute plank.  – Over halfway there.
3. Do 10 consecutive pull-ups. – HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!  (Rolls on the floor holding stomach and wiping tears.)

So I’ve accomplished one of the three.  Actually I prefer to say one and a half out of three.   It sounds better.  I’ve been so obessessed preparing for the competition that I forgot about the other two.  I don’t know how?  I mean there is nothing more fun than having your body burn and shake like jackhammer while you’re holding a plank cursing the ground.  I’m re-evulating my pull-up goal.  I think I may have over-estimated my strength and abilities.  And discipline.  Just a wee bit.  Like most women, I’m weaker up top.   I’m really having a hard time getting past 2 pull ups and some days I’m doing good to get one.  At this rate, I don’t think it’s likely that I’ll get 10 by December 31.   Just so I don’t have one more thing to beat myself up over, I’m changing my goal to 5 pullups by the end of the year.  Heck, I’ll be happy with 4 but I ultimately I think it’s better to overestimate than underestimate yourself.  Within reason, of course.   I’m still shooting for a 5 minute plank because core strength is…well…one of my strengths.

What about you??  Did you set some goals at the beginning of the year?  Where are you in relation to those goals?

We still have 6 months.  SIX MONTHS FRIENDS!!!  That is enough time to make MAJOR changes.  Just look at the pictures shamelessly spewed across the top of my homepage.  Finish these 6 months off strong so you can have the satisfaction of setting new goals in January and not the same old boring ones like I did for 10  years.

xoxo
j

On a totally unrelated note I want to apologize for my grammatical errors.  They are maddening I know.  Sometimes I get on a roll with an idea or ridiculously excited about an awesome squirrel picture and I just click “publish” forgetting to proofread for errors.

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