GRATITUDE: A wonderful morning family trip to Half Moon Bay where we tried out Johnny’s Diner for the first time, it was such a delightful breakfast! Followed by a few hours at Cowell Ranch soaking in the sun, collecting tiny treasures, even reading out loud from an actual book to Eric. I think I made him smile.

FOCUS: It’s been nice this week post norovirus, post holiday family obligations of cooking and presents, post traveling to have absolutely nothing super set in stone to do. Trying to take advantage of this time to establish sleep, and morning yoga routines before the reality of next week sets in again.

INSPIRATION: Finding snippets of gold in these pages about Naoshima for our upcoming summer trip to Japan. Thanks to Raylene for the folded over page corners signaling the important parts to read.

GRATITUDE: For our morning family date at Backhaus Bread. The feel of the warm sunshine on Juniper and my face as we walked down El Camino this morning on the way to Backhaus.

FOCUS: Tried to get habit trackers printed today but didn’t succeed. We did have a good afternoon of Catan instead! Didn’t do so well at resisting the sugars and refined sugars with this wonderful coffee cake and pasta for dinner, though I did restrain myself from a slice of Juniper’s homemade banana bread and slice of country pan sourdough.

INSPIRATION: Interview with author of book “Ultra-Processed People” emphasizing need to go back to eating REAL food.

GRATITUDE: Got nearly 8 hours of sleep with almost 2 hours of REM! Woke up and started with 10 min yoga (trying new Apple Fitness+ app). Went for a lovely morning stroll around town with Juniper where we stopped for a Maison Alyzée date before heading home to some more family Catan. Happy Eric helped to hang some of the artwork that’s been living at the foot of our bed for years now. Seems selfish I’ve been keeping it all there and it’s often unappreciated piling layer upon layer now.

FOCUS: Getting more art on the wall!

INSPIRATION: Watching Juniper attack her new scrapbooking project with enthusiasm and vigor. She’s just as excited to document her life with the instax camera and labelmaker as I used to treat my sketchbook drawings. Gets my brain juices flowing to see what kinds of projects I want to tackle this year.

GRATITUDE: Happy always to have a chance to begin again, with a new perspective and coming from new growth of last year. All of us feeling better enough (after a bout of norovirus picked up on the way to Riverside) to go for a family 5k walk from Harborview Park to the harbor at Coyote Point. We saw a great blue heron, but more importantly I got to hold Juniper’s hand while she chatted with me and Jasper walked by my side talking aboit Plants vs. Zombies. The sun was shining and the temperature just right, clear views all across the Bay.

FOCUS: This past year has felt different as I’ve set smalls goals for improvement throughout the year, learning so much via podcasts, audiobooks, & more about the gut, the brain, longevity, gratitude, connection. Moving into the new year means putting some of this knowledge into action, growing stronger (Year of Strength) both outer and inner. This still needs more definition but this week I’m just going to focus on enjoying this time where all four of us are together and starting the year with sunshine walks and connecting. School and work and the activities will be back all too soon.

INSPIRATION: Eric introduced me (again) to CGP Grey’s podcast where he talked about his Theme System & coming up with a Theme for the Year.

Also, this below has me thinking this is a super easy way for the kids (and me!) to thinking about what I want more of and what I need less of in my life. Not my list below, but I intend to make one as well as update our habit tracking system.

GRATITUDE:

FOCUS:

INSPIRATION:

---

GRATITUDE:

FOCUS:

INSPIRATION:

---

GRATITUDE:

FOCUS:

INSPIRATION:

---

GRATITUDE:

FOCUS:

INSPIRATION:

---

GRATITUDE:

FOCUS:

INSPIRATION:

---

GRATITUDE:

FOCUS:

INSPIRATION:

---