MDS Birthday Pi Day 5K

Birthday number 35 is coming up quickly and when I read this post that Julie Payne-Kirchneier shared on her Facebook page, it really got my wheels spinning…

 

At the start of the new year, I have noticed many of my friends posting resolutions, or maybe just goals, to get moving. Some want to run races, some want to start running, some just want to be active. After reading the post Julie shared, I thought it would be fun to “celebrate” my birthday with my friends and family, regardless of where they are, and support their goals along the way, including my own to RUN a full 5K for my birthday!

 

So, here’s the logistics:

1. Agree to run/walk/move on March 14 by signing up on this GoggleDoc spreadsheet (for those who need to training, you still have plenty of time!)
2. When you move, move for 3.14 miles… the same as Pi!
3. Participate wherever you are, near or far… or join us in Cincinnati for the weekend! (Disclaimer: because 3/14/14 is on a Friday, I’m committing to run on Saturday, 3/15 – the option is up to you if you want to participate on the 14th or 15th)
   1. Pre-exisitng 5Ks you have/will be signing up for will count!
4. For each person participating, I will be donating $1 to the Girls on the Run as part of my birthday present to me.
5. Because most races include a t-shirt and bib as part of the entry, I’ve created an image that you’re welcome to print and make a t-shirt/bib (or both) for your personal race! Find it on the GoogleDocs document here.
6. Celebrate with a piece of pie! Doesn’t matter if you like pumpkin, apple, or key lime… treat yourself! Afterall, what is a birthday celebration without a slice of… PIE!
7. Take a picture and post it! It can be of you in your shirt/bib, while you’re running/walking/moving, eating your celebratory pie. We want to share in your victory!
8. Spread the word! The more the merrier!

 

I haven’t stopped thinking about this idea since I read the post, so to say I’m excited about it might just be an understatement. I have always loved birthdays, and even though I can’t celebrate, in person, with everyone I love, this is a great way to celebrate near and far! Please join me in this fun, new adventure!

#OneWord2014 – Faith

Tweet: “My #oneword2014 is faith… in my God, my relationships, my professional self, my runner self, and in my undiscovered abilities!”

 

To say this past calendar year has been a rough one may be an understatement. So to see 2014 come along feels like a breath of fresh air (well, until I step out into the single-digits temps and get my breath taken away…). As I was reading folks post and blog about their #OneWord2014 over the past week, my word just came to me. Faith. 

 

Just before last Christmas, my husband and I made the decision to job search. In January I submitted my resignation letter, effective at the end of the fiscal year yet with no job lined up. Some may say it was a leap of faith. I went through the search process and found a job that would bring us back to the MidWest and closer to family, something we had both agreed we wanted.

 

Yet, come the end of June, I was unemployed. So, moving in with my in-laws, both my husband and I began the job search again. I was depressed. It was a very tough situation, but I was surrounded, both physically and emotionally, with family and friends who cared about me and prayed for me.

 

The search was challenging. I would get on-campus interviews, then they would go with another candidate. Coupled with some experiences I had had the past two years, I began to doubt my own professional abilities. “No” and it’s variations, became a word I dreaded. Friends, references, family… They all told me the right thing would come along. And they were right!

 

But during the “down time,” I challenged myself to try new things. My husband began using the Couch to 5K running program, and then began talking about signing up for races. Being a competitive person, I couldn’t just be left in the dust, so I began training, too. Participated in two races. I can’t say I ran both races, though I did run in them, just not the full race as I had hoped. In the new year, I am determined to run a full race. I don’t enjoy running (yet), but I want to accomplish this goal so badly, so I’m putting my faith in the running program and my own abilities to do so!

 

I also taught myself to crochet. Okay, so i watched YouTube videos and haven’t actually made something from a pattern yet, but I will. I did make lots of things over the past couple months and am proud of myself for making almost all of my Christmas gifts this year!

 

My mom and one of my closest friends both kept telling me that God will put me where he needs me. I got frustrated with that at times, though I’m not sure if I was frustrated at them for continuing to say it or God for not acting quickly enough for my liking. I’ve been raised Catholic, even married in the Catholic Church, but I don’t regularly practice. While unemployed, I began going to church more. Some times by myself, sometimes with family. I was so touched when one day after Thanksgiving, my mother-in-law asked if she could join me at church the next day. And honestly, that’s when things began to come together. 

 

As someone who is a very “planned” person, I have trouble with putting my faith in the unknown, yet, I know that is something I need to do more of. So, when “faith” popped into my head about the “OneWord2014” I knew it was something I needed to move forward with. And so, I have “planned” some ways to keep my word ever-present in my mind and in what I do daily. I have FAITH this will be a good year and I look forward to strengthening and rekindling some relationships, trying new things, and deepening my own spiritual faith! I hope you are “planning” for a great 2014, too!

 

Healthy Deliciousness!

This week, Scott and I are preparing a weeks worth of healthy dinners. Tonight we tried a Pinterest find, Cheeseburger Casserole. It was delicious, but I found a few tweaks that I wanted to pass along. The recipe says it’s 261 calories, and when I added it up, I came up with 610 per serving… I did make a few variations, but thought I would provide feedback for those who wanted to try this yummy dinner!

Instead of lean ground beef, I used ground turkey meat. It tastes the same, but because we used the Aldi brand (went for cheaper), I fear we sacrificed nutrition. I’ll be better about checking next time.

Also, I’m not a huge fan of tomatoes, but will eat them in something. This recipe was a little too tomato-y for me, so I would probably cut that ingredient in half. Everything else was good!

The recipe calls to cook the pasta in a pot, and in a separate pot, brown the meat and add the rest of the ingredients, then bake in a third pan. I’m a no-nonsense kind of cook, so I prefer not to use so many pots and pans, but I fixed everything ahead of time and stuffed it in the fridge, so when it was time for dinner, just stuck it in the oven for an extra 5 minutes.

Oh, and you wanna know what made the whole dish?!?! Believe it or not, the hamburger pickles dices and put on top after it came out of the oven!

Give it a try! I’d love to hear how it goes for you!! (And for the record, it was worth the 610 calories; unfortunately, I went back for seconds… Good thing I got my calorie burn on earlier!)

My OneWord2013: Commitment

Commitment. Yes, this is my #oneword2013 this year. About a month ago, I started seeing the posts on Twitter about #oneword2013 and knew that I should start thinking about mine, but was hoping that it would really come to me. When it hadn’t yet presented itself, I put it out to my Twitter friends to help me narrow down my #oneword2013. I got a few suggestions and was also told to be patient (yes, patience was a suggestion!). In the end, I continued to come back to one of the suggestions: commitment. Thank you, @bethmoriarity, for the suggestion!!!

In thinking about my oneword2013, I have really thought about the holistic purpose I would like for it to have. I also wanted to make sure I was able to revisit my oneword regularly, so I will find ways to incorporate my Oneword2013 and continue to come back to throughout the year. It is important to me that I follow through on my commitments this year, especially my own commitment to ME.

This year, I have a commitment to ME. As I reflected on the past year, I found that I was always giving of myself, which I will continue to do, but I need to learn to give back to myself,too, so I can continue to give to others. I look forward to being committed to each thing I do more, but being able to commit my attention to what is needed when it is needed and be present in meetings and in conversations.

This oneword2013 will really challenge me,but I’m looking forward to the challenge! I’m looking forward to the year ahead and making some improvements in my overall life. I look forward to the support I will receive, as I already have a pretty strong support system who continues to challenge and encourage me!

Happy New Year!

Common Sense

My mom sent this to me in an email… I chuckled as I read through it and wanted to reshare it! 🙂 As a former supervisor of mind used to say, “common sense isn’t always common!” So true they were! How do you make sure you’re using common sense?

An Obituary printed in the London Times…..Absolutely Dead Brilliant !!

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:

– Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
– Why the early bird gets the worm;
– Life isn’t always fair;
– And maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you can earn) and reliable
strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

     His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened
his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

 

He declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better
treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the
burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death,
-by his parents, Truth and Trust,
-by his wife, Discretion,
-by his daughter, Responsibility,
-and by his son, Reason.

He is survived by his 5 stepbrothers;
– I Know My Rights
– I Want It Now
– Someone Else Is To Blame
– I’m A Victim
– Pay me for Doing Nothing

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.

“Are You My Mentor?”

Happy National “Thank Your Mentor” Day!

 

Just after the New Year, I had read an article on the 5 best professional resolutions to make and found a lot of value in the items listed. However, one just really bothered me and was preceded with a post saying: “I’m a mid-level professional and have never had a mentoring relationship.” Later that day and night, I got several really good questions from @carolyngolz, @TorryBruce, @DSchmidtRogers and others which made me really process what a mentor is and how I define a mentor. And so my reflection began.

 

As I started thinking about what I know or knew about mentors, information gathered mostly from attending sessions at conferences or my observations of others who referred regularly to their mentors, I realized that I thought of a mentoring relationship as a very formal relationship. In fact, I really started hearing my inner voices equate it to dating: you find someone with similar interests and/or backgrounds, ask them to be your mentor (with a little nervousness because what if they said no?!?!), and proceed to have a deep, meaningful relationship. I’ve always perceived that a mentor is someone who is a professional guide, is there to personally support you, has your best interest in mind, creates a two-way street for both the mentor and mentee to grow through the relationship. I still believe this, but now with a different lens.

 

I started asking myself a lot of questions as I continued to internally process this information, questions such as: Does there have to be a question asked to spark a mentoring relationship? Can a mentoring relationship “just happen”? Can you have more than one mentor? Or mentors who shape various parts of your professional life? What about your personal life? Can a mentor be someone who you’ve never directly worked with, but have admired, looked up to from afar? Thanks to @DSchmidtRogers, I really got to thinking more about my perspective on who my mentors might be.

 

Then just the other day, I saw that someone posted that they were asked to be on someone’s “board of directors.” I remember reading a blog last year about a “board of directors” and remember it appealing to me back then. Then I realized that maybe I’ve put too much pressure on myself to find a mentor; after all, I’ve had people looking out for me all my career, both on a personal and professional level. Maybe I was looking at mentoring from the wrong angle! There have been lots of influential people who have impacted both my personal and professional life (sometimes those blend!) who may or may not realize they’ve done so, but who I continue to look to for answers, whether intentionally or unintentionally, consciously or subconsciously.

 

So, on this day of “Thank Your Mentor” day, it’s only appropriate that I reach out to those professionals who inspire me to do good work, be a better professional… to those who have me in mind when they’re at conferences or see opportunities cross their plate… to those who have my back on a personal level and push me, inspire me to be better… to those who aren’t afraid to be real with me. Because really, a mentoring relationship doesn’t have to be formal at all. In fact, if you have someone who’s in your corner and helps you to be the best person or professional, that’s just as great as having a mentor… at least, to me it is!