Many of you are familiar with my fear of swimming in the ocean.  My goal this year is to actually get out in the ocean and swim a mile.  Last week I completed the first phase of becoming a better swimmer.  I participated in a triathlon.  Yes, I know many people do this- and I am not really looking for accolades on doing a triathlon.  What I am willing to pat myself on the back for is completing the swim portion of the triathlon.

The swim was not in the ocean, and there was no threat of sharks- but I did manage to swim 3/4 of a mile in a freezing cold, somewhat disgusting lake in the midst of 100 other feet and bodies kicking and bumping me.  As the gun went off, I dove in and started strong (that lasted about 15 seconds).  After getting kicked and jostled my goggles were full of murky lake water and I lost my breath from putting my face in the cold water.  Fifty yards from the shore I started treading water, looking at the bouy in the distance and thinking: this is not going to happen.  Then I thought of my hours of swimming in the pool and started to convince myself that I could go the distance, I just needed to get myself situated.  I wasted about 4-5 minutes treading water, floating on my back and trying to get my goggles back in order.

I took one more look up at the buoy in the distance and put my head down and tried again.  One stroke at a time I saw myself getting closer and closer to the turning point. Just when I was gaining confidence, the men caught up to us old gals and once again I was thrown off by bodies and feet everywhere.  I had to clear my head one more time and find a rhythm that I could maintain.  I ended up breathing every other stroke rather than every three strokes.  I had to let go of my fear and just get busy moving forward.

I got out of the water in 29 minutes.  I have to admit I was pretty proud of myself once I was back on solid ground.  Once I got settled on my bike, the reality of my accomplishment in the water set in:  I can be a swimmer, I am a swimmer.  I realize many people swim greater distance all the time.  And, in the scope of life, this was just a swim- not like saving someone’s life or finding the cure to cancer.  Tucked away in each and every person is a little voice that says “I wish I could do _____.”  You feel in the blank.  I am here to tell you that you can do it.  It might require hard work or take a while to do, but you can do it.  You just have to get started.

Pacific Ocean here I come!

In the last 24 hours I have been keeping track of how little I value water.   I wake up, use the bathroom and flush the toilet (there go 2 gallons), I turn on the faucet to wash my face and brush my teeth.  Even though I am careful to conserve, I am sure another 3 gallons have gone down the drain.  I make coffee (with fresh water) then head upstairs for a shower, rinse breakfast dishes and run the dishwasher.  Before 9 am in the morning, I am sure I have used at least 20 gallons of water (probably more).  Can you imagine having no access to clean water?  Take a minute to think about how you would live without one of the most basic necessities.

Even if we can’t imagine life without plenty of water, there are literally billions of people around the world that face this reality EVERY day.  I had the pleasure of meeting a woman, Kristen Kosinski, who created The Samburu Project that has already helped over 20,000 Kenyans gain access to clean water.  When I heard about Kristen, a million questions raced through my head: How did she get started on this mission?  Why did she chose Africa and where does she find the strength to keep this project going after giving birth to a son who is now almost two years old?

Continue reading →

So I pulled up my post for 2009 goals and realized that I totally failed to achieve 3 out of 4 of them.  While one goal was out of my control the other ones just never materialized.  One included running a half marathon (which I didn’t do).  Another was building the number of visitors to “The Inspired Mom” which I did a little but not to the degree I had hoped; and, finally I wanted to spend more time with my kids- which I TOTALLY did.  Hard to measure, but I definitely feel satisfied on that front of my life.

Here are my goals for 2010.  I am going to try and make them fairly tangible so I can plan, set aside time and really realize my goals.

1.  I am going to set aside at least 5 hours a week to work on my blog/baby book business.  It doesn’t sound like a lot, but with one child who only goes to school three days a week and two older kids who need help with homework etc.  I feel that this is realistic number of hours for me to really commit.  I hope that I will do more than that, but I am going to schedule those hours into my calendar.

2.  I am going to continue to work on my swimming, so that I might get in the ocean for a swim during the spring/summer- without being paralyzed with fear. I will keep you all posted on my progress.

3. (This is my “intangible”) I am going to try and be more appreciative of the fact I get to stay home with my kids for now.  I have been really antsy to try and get back to work at some point.  Hopefully my new business will keep me busy enough that I will consider it my full-time job, but while I am waiting for the final product, I will really try to enjoy time with the kids and some free time while they are at school.

I would really like to hear some of your goals for 2010- resolutions are great too.  Just thinking about my goals and typing them out has gotten me fired up to stay true to them.

The other day my husband (trying to be helpful) called upstairs to me, “Why is the milk sitting out on the counter?”  Pause.  ”Um, I can’t remember”, I say, “but could you just put it back in the fridge”.  Later, as we were going to bed, I explained, “I remember why I left the milk out.”  Pause….he didn’t ask why, but I told him anyway, and here is the story as I remember it: Continue reading →

I am always suggesting that trying something new is invigorating for the soul.  I know I say LOTS of things on this blog, but just to prove to you all that I try to follow my own advice, I will share a couple of new things that I tried last week. Continue reading →

Last year, October, I featured a stories about two moms who are both friends  (Bryn Colvin and Lisa Mittleman) both of whom had been recently diagnosed with breast cancer.  I felt the timing of the story was appropriate and inspirational because October is Breast Cancer awareness month and these two ladies were great examples of strength and courage.   A year later, I am happy to report that both of Lisa and Bryn are thriving and have overcome their disease.

This year, October, I want to share the story of another mom, with three young children, who has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  Many of you already know her….Jori Jellison.   Her story is incredibly interesting, because she is completely responsible for finding the cancer, insisting on a mammogram and, basically, saving her own life.

When Jori and I first started talking she shared that her maternal grandmother died of breast cancer when she was only five years old.  But, having a history of breast cancer in the family didn’t cause Jori to do regular breast exams.  As a matter of fact, she sort of avoided them.  Given her family history, she DID have a mammogram at the age of 35, but when that came back clean, she sort of tucked away any thought of breast cancer.  Around the time she was 38 years old, something made her think about doing a breast exam, and when she did, she felt a small lump right away.  Even after she detected this abnormality, she waited a short time before calling her doctor.  When she finally got in to see him, he agreed he felt a small lump, and told her would be okay to watch it for a little while.  But, Jori’s instincts took over and she told the doc about her family history- with that information in hand the doctor scheduled Jori for a mammogram right away.  The date her mammogram fell on was Friday, February 13th.  The day before Valentines and two days after her husband, Jeff, had vocal chord surgery.

The way Jori describes her whole experience from mammogram to diagnosis was “surreal”. Continue reading →

How do YOU measure your own success?  Does it have to do with the balance in your bank account?  Do you measure yourself against others?  Are you waiting for your kids to succeed in order to confirm that you were successful?  Or maybe you need to recognized by your peers to know you are successful.  Yesterday I sat down with Angie Azur, and we batted that question around a bit.

Angie is a writer.  She is a mom of two boys, a wife AND a writer.  The question of success came about when we began discussing her current projects.  She has penned several young adult novels, one is with a publisher in “revisions” the others are still making the rounds at various publishers.  She has written articles which have been published in magazines.  She is also working on a screenplay and a reality show treatment.  She explained that the world of writing and publishing is a hard nut to crack and, as a writer, you have to be thick-skinned to deal with all of the letters of rejection that arrive in the mailbox. Continue reading →

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I just completed this video of some busy moms who are training for a triathlon in September (part two of this video will be posted after race day).  Let me tell you, just trying to catch up with them to get the footage was grueling.  I chased them by foot and car to get them in action- thankfully, I got enough footage for you all to enjoy.  What I learned is that for every minute that these moms train, they are also thinking of their families and making up the time spent away (just listen to their comments).

I think I learned that if you have the will to follow your dreams, there is always a way to find the time.  By-the-way, my three boys came with me to most of these tapings (except the runs) they knew that this was important for me to capture so the sat in the sand and drove around in the car helping me look for the girls on one of their bike trips.  Having kids shouldn’t be an excuse NOT to follow your dreams, having kids should be the REASON you do it!