Update on 2011 Theme

At the beginning of the year, I had picked a theme of power. It has been a good guide for me as I navigate through 2011 and I have made progress toward feeling powerful and being more empowered. I have completed a few challenging goals which have been very rewarding as well as some smaller, less obvious improvements. Two of the most measurable steps in 2011 have been in the area of training.

First, back in March, I completed an extremely challenging course at UND called Impact U/Personal Safety and Defense. It was an intensive, hands on self defense class that allowed me to not only be more empowered, but to face some deep seeded fears and begin some necessary healing.

Second, I just received my certification to be a group fitness instructor. I am very excited to have the opportunity to be a substitute instructor at Phatty Natties this fall, with the potential of leading classes by the winter. I am a little nervous to teach my first class, yet feeling so enthusiastic about bringing the benefits of fitness to people. I get to positively impact others, what could be more powerful than that?!
I want to sincerely thank my family and friends for their support and encouragement. I absolutely would not have the strength or confidence to pursue without them and the guidance and presence of our Savior, Jesus Christ, in my life.

I will continue to work on my power theme in 2011. Remember, life is a journey & an adventure... make the most of it!

Lindgren Life in a List

I have not blogged much of late, but there has still been plenty going on in the Lindgren household. Mostly it has centered around our two lively daughters.

• Abby has been involved almost daily in practice for the Middle School musical, Aladdin, since the beginning of January. The show performance debuts today! We are excited to see the second performance tonight and will also go to the final performance on Thursday night with Grandma Shirley in attendance.

• Steve is on Spring break this week, which means he is able to go to lunch at OLV with Kippy, have a somewhat leisurely schedule & knocking off several fix-it items on the honey-do list, all while I have been seriously jealous of his freedom.
• I have been able to go cross-country skiing almost every Friday morning since mid-January, when I purchased my own ski equipment. It has been the perfect stress-reliever for me. Steve has gone skiing with me several times as well and we finally got a method worked out so we begin and end at the same time. It takes mad wizard skills, but we got it figured out.
• We have been selling and eating lots of Girl Scout cookies, thanks to our soon to be Jr. level girl scout, a.k.a Kippy. Wish we had sold more so I would have ate less.
  
• Snow, snow & more snow... winter has been dragging on and on and on, but was so very happy to escape over President's weekend for a girlfriends' weekend with Lori & Heather. It was energizing, therapeutic, & productive in terms of laughing, shopping, bonding & crafting.
  
• Last week, Steve & I got to watch our niece play hoops at the Regional Basketball tourney in Fargo. It was great to watch, even if the scoreboard didn't reflect the effort the Tornadoes put into it.
  
• Best movie so far this year {actually the only movie I have gone to in 2011}... The Fighter. It was fabulous. Two thumbs up from Renae & Steve even if we had to drive to Alexandria to watch it since the Fergus theater closed the beginning of January.
  
• Seven weeks of Lent started last week on Ash Wednesday and the girls and I are jointly working on our preparation for Easter by abstaining from meat daily. Meal planning has been a bit challenging, but it has made us more mindful of sacrifice both physically and spirituality.
• Abby finished up the Speech season with her last contest in Underwood on March 14th just in time to start the Track season. With all the extra time spent taking her back & forth from events, perhaps it won't be so bad to think of her driving herself. What? Driving??? Forget I said anything... I must be sleep deprived.
  
• Text message tally for February: Steve = 157 Renae = 574 Abby = 1199 I am speechless. Literally.
  
• The girls aren't the only ones involved in extra-curricular activities... Steve is on the OLV school board & Knights of Columbus while I have AAUW, OLV Endowment board meetings and responsible for decorating the Church over Lent.
• My biggest obsession so far in 2011... My Fitbit. Steve gave it to me for Christmas and I keep telling him it is the best Christmas gift I have gotten EVER! I wear it almost 24/7, with the exception of having to charge it every 7-10 days. It tracks sleep efficiency (as in how many times you wake up each night) as well as activity, steps, & mileage. There are more numbers to compare and track and I am positively in love with it. I already had to replace one Fitbit because I was sweating so much while cross-country skiing that the first one shorted out. Thankfully it was still under warranty so crisis was averted and I was back to tracking within 24 hrs.
• Reading, reading and more reading... the four of us keep our library cards active and are checking out or returning books at least twice a week.
• Kippy's newest obsession... Spore.
  
• Progress is being made on my 2011 Theme... Power. I attended a 20 hour IMPACT class at UND the first weekend in March and am still processing all of the lessons learned.
  

Lots of other stuff, but I think I hit some of the highlights that are at the front of my brain right now. I am glad we are busy and I have much to be grateful for. I am working to stay-in-the-moment and practice daily gratitude even if I fail at documenting.

A New year and a New theme

Last year (2010) was the first time I picked a theme for the year and I felt like it went pretty well. Not perfect, but I certainly had something to strive for and felt like I hit the mark more than once. It also didn't leave me feeling disappointed in myself like previous New Year's resolutions have. My theme was CLEAN and I managed to work on cleaning up some of the negative things my inner critic (Mic) chirps about in my head - I still have a ways to go, but at least I recognize that Mic is a whack-a-doo {mostly}; I cleaned up a lot of what I had been putting in my mouth, resulting in more energy and better fitting clothes; I cleaned up my act and reached several personal bests in races I had entered; I cleaned out my horrible, dark, scary crap-room and transformed it into a cheery, happy place; Most of all, I hope that I improved as a person, wife, mother, daughter and friend in 2010.

Which now brings me to the new one-word theme for 2011. I thought about this a lot and finally decided that my new theme in 2011 would be POWER.

No, I am not going to work on becoming a body builder, although I greatly admire the dedication it takes to become one. The power I am striving for is related to emPOWERment, feeling POWERful internally, and reducing the feeling of POWERlessness. I like the definition I found online, because I think it has a broad application.

pow·er (pour)n.

The ability or capacity to perform or act effectively.

I can always work on improving my performance in so many aspects of my life. So far, I have made a couple of steps toward this theme.

1. I joined Phatty Natties 6 week weightloss Challenge today. First, because I have felt like sugar has taken over my life. Second, I want to gain back the balance of fitness and nutrition that have slipped in the past several months. I hope to feel more powerful physically and emotionally and in some ways, just accepting the Challenge does that.
2. I signed up for a self defense class for women called IMPACT, offered at UND in March. I'm not sure I am brave enough to confront and share some of my past baggage, so this is a huge step for me, but I really feel like it will be a way to give my self-confidence the boost needed to make me feel more empowered and assertive.

I hope to be mindful of incorporating POWER as my mantra and theme in 2011 and will try to share some of the successes and challenges I encounter.

Happy New YEAR! Share any New Year's resolutions, mantras or themes that you have.