Well, hello quiet house. 

I've been taking advantage of the school hours to tackle the house and laundry*, get back in a routine, and (joy!) plan the coming months and year a bit.  I love planning -- it's such a close cousin to dreaming.  I've hit kind of a natural breathing point--the first semester in a long while where I won't be teaching or taking a class--and I want to figure out what I want and need to do in the near (and far) future.  Just the right time to tinker with my daily routine and see if I'm paying attention to the things that really matter to me.

In other words, I have unleashed my inner control freak/systems gal!  She's so bossy...she has tied up and bound my inner lazy slob, locking her in a (somewhat organized!) closet for a few days.  (Don't worry, she'll be back...she always is.)

I found some fabulous + inspiring resources for planning, scheming, and goal making.  These are great for brainstorming, figuring out what you love to do and making plans to incorporate those things into your life more as well as the nitty gritty of making and keeping goals:

Karen Walrond's How I Found What I Love

 Also her Putting Love, Goals, and Journaling Together post

Gwen Bell's Creating a Personal Manifesto

Conducting Your Own Annual Review from the Art of Non-Conformity

And Lululemon has a great digital tool to reflect on, create, and track goals 

Along the way, I also came across this, a lecture on time management by Randy Pausch (apparently it was one of his areas of expertise...it's lengthy but worth it).  If that's not a poignant perspective giver, I don't know what is. 

What I did was a mix of those: a brainstorm session of what I love most to do, an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink life list, and making an overarching goal in each of several areas of my life: motherhood, marriage, learning, writing/ideas, health, connections with friends and family, service, and spirituality.  It kind of sounds like a lot, putting it down there, but it feels liberating to get them out of my brain and onto paper.  Now for the translation to action. (More on that later...let's just bask in the glow of planning for a bit, shall we?)

Song: Up to the Mountain  | Patti Griffin 

*I noticed when I did laundry this week that the pile of pajamas/lounging clothes was three times taller than the regular clothes pile.  Hooray for lazy, relaxing holidays!