Are you an Innie or Outie?

I just finished this book. It was quite good. I have always thought I was an extrovert, however I learned that I am somewhere in the middle of being extroverted and introverted. This book gave me a lot to think about like: How do I stay balanced, What are my goals for life, How do I treat others that may be introverted, How about my children, what are their temperaments? I highly recommend this to anyone, who interacts with people. Which is pretty much everyone.

Some things I learned:

I get overwhelmed by the list of tasks I assign myself, even over Spring Break for instance. I had such a long list of to-do's. I am almost done with one whole week of my break and haven't even cracked the surface of my list, but I am letting myself off the hook. I am not being lazy, instead of telling myself that I didn't get enough done in my day, I count up ten things I DID get done. That is a much happier way to live, because I DO get a lot done.

Like Today: I got up, worked out for an hour, went to the school and worked in my garden for awhile, then I came home and folded about TEN or MORE loads of laundry, made myself a healthy lunch, did dishes, then I was tired so I took a nap, I woke up did more laundry, I ran to the store to get some things for Aydan's 9th  Birthday party tomorrow, I came home..oh I ate chick fil a it was yummy, then I baked cupcakes, I ironed a lot of clothes, Went to Unasian Daddy Long Legs and cleaned out the camper with her from our trip, Oh yeah, I did my budget to find out what bills I had and what I could save, went on a walk, took out the garbage and now I am writing.

Instead of beating myself up because I didn't:

• get my taxes done
• clean out my closet
• sweep and mop the floor
• clean my bathroom
• go through Aydan's clothes to get rid of the too small/worn out ones
• go to the mall to get makeup..I am clean OUT 
• hang the collage pictures up in the hall that have been down since the house was painted

You know, its ok. I did my best today and my best is good enough. 

Also, I started to think about my life and what I want to accomplish in concrete terms. What do I want to accomplish? How do I word what I want to accomplish? How do I make goals that are attainable and in accordance with my temperament? 

What I want out of life a few very rough idea's:

• I would like to have well rounded children, so how do I do this? I need to give them opportunities to be well rounded that fit with their temperaments. I want them to experience and live life and have confidence. I want my children to be happy and successful adults. How do I go about doing this for them? 
• I love, love, love being a teacher but I have a secret desire to get a masters degree in Art History. I would love to teach Art History at a community college. OR I would love to be a counselor, I would love to work with people and help them have joy and to understand who they really are to see how great they really are! 
• I would like to be remarried, I would love to have more babies, or maybe just one more baby. This isn't in my control though so, I guess I will just roll with life for now.
• I want to see more of the world, I love to travel so much.
• I want to accept myself for who I am, and be the happiest best person I can be. (I actually feel pretty good about this one) 
• I would love to play my violin like I used too, I need to start small..almost re-learn it. 
• I would love to take dance lessons, art lessons..painting, pottery I love to learn new things. 
• I am a curious person, so I want to live a life of curiosity learning new things. 
• I want to live a healthy, balanced life.

So, in order to attain these things I think I am going to set a few small goals.

I already go to the gym three times a week and this is good for me, I also go on walks at night with a few close friends in my neighborhood. I feel that if I keep this up I am living a healthy life. I have also discovered how much eating the right foods makes me feel SO MUCH better. So I am working on incorporating a LOT more fruits and veggies into my diet. I am saving money to travel this summer..fingers crossed. I would love to learn how to play tennis.

I want to have my kids take piano lessons, Ellie is in gymnastics right now and loves it. Aydan will be signed up for basketball soon. I think I am going to take them to they symphony or a play soon also. That will be fun.

I guess that's a start, I really enjoyed this book. It helped me to be empathetic to people in general. It also made me think about life and the things I wanted out of it. I gained perspective to the children  I teach and my own children, friends and myself. I learned about limitations we may have because of energy and how important it is to take care of the energy we have. This really rang true for me, and do I take care to create an enviornment where my children can renew their energy. It was great!