Doe Writes

Today my mind is racing with what questions to start asking for my work Writing Project. We had a meeting with the school district that we’re working with on our District Wide NextGen Furniture Installation project.   So far, we’ve spent over a year working with the school district to complete a Pilot Program where we gathered information from the district, teachers, and students about what types of furniture solutions they would like and what solutions could help achieve their Project Based Learning goals.   It’s been quite the wild ride, but has truly been an exploration for us all to study how we can work together to support the teachers and students in their journey to providing the best education for the greatest number of students. In our meeting this week, after we finished discussing the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the project – the next steps, schedules and budgets – we took a few minutes to reflect and talk about what we can learn from this experience and what we can te...

 Teach something.  This should be an easy one.  I know I have a lot of knowledge and do a ton of teaching throughout my days.  Part of my life’s mission statement is about my drive to teach others.  But I’m drawing a blank.    Inspiring and teaching others through my enthusiasm for  Striving for My Best  with patience, kindness, calmness, exploration & adventure.   I love reflecting on my mission statement.   When I spent the time earlier this year working on a ton of self reflection and exploration, it felt so incredible to develop this statement that feels like it so aptly describes my personal and professional goals in a way I don’t think I’d previously been able to tap into.   My core values: Exploration.   This is my drive to be my best self.  To constantly seek knowledge.  Whether it’s from a book or from new experiences.  Reflecting back on my previous life choices, it’s why I chose t...

Today’s prompt is to make a list.  Doubt it will be one of my more profound posts, but I’m in (I LOVE lists – very Type A over here)! My first thought is to brainstorm a list of the steps I can take to work on my writing project of writing articles for work.   Or studying for my AREs.   Those both seem helpful, yes, but not terribly thought provoking or exciting.   What about a bucket list of sorts.   Fantasize about places I want to travel.   Put my current big goals (and maybe some new ones) in one place. In no particular order – my life list: ·          Build a Tiny House ·          Take 1 ARE ·          Pass all Architectural Exams ·          Get my Architecture License ·          Complete my ALEP accreditation ·     ...

I think the part of my life that I was the most naïve about was finances. I take that back, there were a lot of parts of my life that I was naïve about. This will be a ramble, not sure I have much of a point, yet. Finances.   Growing up, we had it pretty easy.   I had all of my basic needs met (by far), we traveled, went out to eat regularly, I had birthday parties, my brother and I got a weekly allowance and my parents owned a nice home.   But we didn’t talk about money, or financial savviness. The biggest discussion about finances that I remember was one summer when we were taking our annual (sometimes twice-a-year) roadtrip out East to visit my grandparents, and extended family.   As we stopped along the way for meals, I remember my dad mentioning several times that we needed to pay for everything with credit card, not cash.   To this day, I don’t know why.   There must have been some big payment that they had to make out of the checking account,...

The past week was hectic. The start of an all virtual school year, while trying to come to an agreement on what is the best solution for 2 full time working co-parents on how to best handle the added load left me with little mental capacity for much else. But I knew it was going to be like that. I had prepared myself and cleared my plate to focus on the priority of the moment, figuring out my son's schooling. I was overwhelmed at times, but reminded myself that it's okay to be overwhelmed. I was able to not curl up in a ball, but keep taking steps towards getting it all figured out. And I feel so much better now, having waded through the hard work. Staying present in those moments, knowing it was hard and uncomfortable, but that in a few weeks, we'd be into our new routine (whatever that was going to look like), and back to a newer "new normal." Today I'm back to working on rebuilding my habits, systems and plans on how I want to achieve great things, but m...

How might it feel to be a kid going back to school in these times? We’ve made all the usual preparations for back to school. The new backpack, filled with school supplies. My first day of school outfit is picked out (I tried it on enough times that I had to wash it again yesterday), I know exactly how I’ll be doing my hair and makeup – I’ve been practicing my new look all summer. I can’t wait to see my friends. Will I recognize them with face masks on? Will I be safe going back to school? What are classes going to be like? Will I like my new teachers? Will I get good grades this year? I anxiously go to bed the night before the first day, so many questions swirling through my head that it’s difficult to fall asleep, but eventually I must fall asleep because my alarm is already going off, signaling the arrival of the new day. I rush to the bathroom before my younger sister and brother can get there. After a shower I put on my new look. Try on the mask that my mom made for me, che...

I love the 500 words a day challenge, and I'm working on building consistency, as well as not beating myself up if I miss a day.  I'm finding it's a little easier to knock out my 500 words before I start work as part of my morning routine, but on the weekends when my schedule is a little looser, I struggle to get back here to write. Today (Sunday) with a lot of things I want to get done to set myself up for a busy week ahead (lots of work deadlines + the start of virtual school for 1st and 12th grades). I'm using my weekly habit reflection in conjunction with my writing habit. So here's a little peek into some of my other goals and self work I'm doing! We're working on learning to let go of perfectionist habits, and have daily homework of 'Half-Assing' something we would otherwise struggle to do or feel like we could only do "Perfectly" for it to count. Week of August 10 - 16 Habit Reflection: What was your goal for the week? Week 2 of w...

Today’s prompt of describing a day in my life I will never forget , stirs up SO MANY memories.   Do I write about a trip to Marrakech, Morroco, where I fainted from dehydration on the plane ride there (due to a few too many late nights at the pubs in Madrid, Spain immediately beforehand)?   When they took our passports and assisted me off the plane to a small medical area, giving me oxygen, sugar water, and attempted to reassure me that they just needed to stamp our passports for customs while my friends weren’t able to stay by my side?   It was a nerve-wracking experience, to say the least.   We had chosen Morocco for the adventure, for the unknown, but those unknowns made this precarious arrival even more risky feeling.   Once I was feeling better, the medic had taken my blood pressure, and confirmed that I was okay, I was reunited with my friends, and my passport, and our taxi driver.   I’m so thankful we were staying in a Riad (hotel) where they sen...

Working on my consistency.  I was shocked when my alarm went off this morning, usually I wake up before my alarm goes off – either I’m naturally waking around then or my cat walks on me and 20 pounds of cat will wake up anyone!  But today I was dreaming and then my alarm went off.  It was such a shock that I hit snooze, but forced myself to get up when it went off again 5 minutes later.  I’m very happy I did. My dream.   It was interesting.   I had a really good conversation with a colleague a couple of days ago.   The main point of our conversation was to discuss the EDI work that’s going on at my company, and to deep a little further into discussions between the two of us, and just generally catch up, since we used to sit right next to each other, and haven’t gotten to see each other for months now.   He mentioned to me that he didn’t really feel welcomed to the firm as an intern.   He was a little disappointed on his first day.   An...

 I’m up early.  Practicing not hitting the snooze button the max times, and then going back to sleep. So I got up at 5:35 this morning.   Usually I’m getting up around 6 or 6:15, so this feels like a good start.   Not sure I even need (or want) to get up any earlier that this. But what does my ideal morning look like, and what steps can I take to get it there? Really, there are two versions.   1)       On Days when I have to get in some work hours early (deadlines and/or work before Charlie gets up). a.        5:30 alarm. Get up. Coffee. b.       Quick 5-10 minute Yoga Stretch / Meditation c.        Thinking through / writing down my day’s list of priorities in 2 hour blocks d.       Work 2)       The more ideal setting, a morning to myself to set off the day right a.   ...

I somewhat wrote about my goals yesterday, and even started to outline a plan.  But I know there’s more in my about this. What motivated me to start?   My goal of writing as part of my professional development and PR efforts for my company.   An interesting question came up during my mid-year review in regards to one of my long term goals.   I’d like to be A Leader in the field of Design for Education.   My colleague asked me, “what do you mean by that?” What do I mean?   I mean, I want to be A Leader in the field of Design for Education.   I want to have a leadership role at Lionakis (or another company TBH, if that’s where my path leads me – not that I’m looking to change – but there have been some awfully unexpected things that have happened in the last few months, so I’m not holding my breath that I can know the future or control it!).   Also, a ‘thought leader’ someone one the cutting edge of creating the best Educational Environments. ...

 It's been years since I acknowledged my writing itch, but when I had my mid year review a couple weeks ago for work, I discussed writing with my bosses, and they were on board with me working towards adding writing some articles for work.  We came up with the idea of me writing as series for a recent project my Team is working on, as a way to get me started writing and for some promo material for our marketing team.   It feels a little daunting, so I'm here to start sorting this goal out into smaller steps / measures of progress. And to start getting this stuff on paper..... to Practice Writing.  (Seems like an important step for a writer.... to write).  I went back to revisit some of the resources I'd been interested in and studying years ago (I think Charlie was a newborn and he's now 6).  I signed up for his 500 words a day for 31 days challenge, so this is where I plan to start that habit as well.   And outline my work writing project, m...