Using Calendars to Track New Goals and Habits


Desktop Perpetual Calendar

I sometimes make paper charts for my goals, so I can check things off as I go. This year, I’m using calendars to help implement some new habits.


Red Star Ink Simple Wall Calendar

I tend to like plain ones, so I can add my own imagery and color around a goal.


Stitch the Stars Calendar Kit

But I also love this celestial one because you can whisper reach for the stars!, and then look around to make sure no one heard you while you check off your goals with little gold stars.


Karolin Schnoor Wall Calendar

On this one you can mark each day with a colorful icon, and at the end the tattooed lady is a bright tapestry of accomplishment. You go getter.

I did a Plain and Simple, 2014 Calendar Roundup on Pinterest with all my favorites, so go have a look if you also like to mark your progress with gold old pen and ink. Or if you just need a calendar.

And while you’re here, how do you track progress with new habits?

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Right Now

This is my little boy napping in our hotel room closet, and man I wish I were him right now.

It’s been a surreal few months — with Blogalicious, planning and throwing Camp Mighty, tons of business transition for Go Mighty, and an epic trip to Australia — the kind of period where you know life is about to hit full force, so you just keep your head above water while the current takes you.

Now Hank and I are here at Disneyland where he’s napping in the closet in preparation for his future at Hogwarts, and for a 10 p.m. wakeup call to see the Disney World of Color show. (So much for the steady bedtime I’m supposed to be enforcing like a drill sergeant, huh? But he’s only six once, and two weeks away from him in Australia has made me soft.)

I know I’ve been a little quiet on the surface lately, but my feet have been paddling like mad under the water, and so much good stuff is happening as a result. So thanks for checking back in with me and for being patient when you sometimes don’t find me where you expect.

When I get home, I plan to stay very still with a pot of tea, and a notebook, and a Pilot Precise V5 Rollerball. I will embroider things in bed under a coverlet. I will watch questionable reality TV my bathrobe, while I shop for things I won’t buy on the Internet.

You should come over. I miss you.

Teaching My Kid to Light Stuff on Fire

I just got back from Australia, so last night Hank and I were reading about how Koalas don’t drink much water.

Hank: “That’s because the leaves they eat have water. Most animals in dry places get their water from their food.”
Me: “… I did not know that.”
Hank: “Do you know that the human head weighs eight pounds?”

Ah, I kid about that last bit. Speaking of which, the Jerry Maguire little boy went all Anthony Michael Hall, amirite? Also, if you know what I’m talking about, that link will make you feel decrepit. I’ll just go find my movie glasses while you see if Viva Las Vegas is playing on AMC.

Anyway, Hank has been poring over science books and begging to film an experiment “show” since he was about four. Two years later, I finally figured teaching other kids about science would be a good way to remember vocabulary and concepts himself, durr, so we filmed a couple. We read about how everything works beforehand, and I had him explain it back to me, so he could narrate the video.

I know so much about convection now. Gentlemen.

I posted a couple videos on Go Mighty:

Keep it Clean: Hank’s Expanding Soap Experiment

This Earl is on Fire: Hank’s Tea Bag Rocket Experiment

Holy crap. Did you have any idea Ivory soap and tea bags did this stuff? GAH! Particularly the tea bags. If you let me enter your home, I will now demand that you let me light a teabag on fire. I need you to see.

We’re doing three more experiment videos, so if you have any cool ones to recommend using household items, let me know.

And if you already knew about the soap? Why didn’t any of you tell me? I can hardly look at you.

This post is part of the Too Small to Fail initiative sponsored by Next Generation and the Clinton Foundation, whom I like very much. They’re trying to close the Word Gap by encouraging all of us to take small steps to improve kids’ chances in school — like talking to and making lots of eye contact with pre-verbal babies, and increasing one on one time with kiddos. More info here.

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Get Your Boo!ze On: 5 Halloween Themed Cocktails

Blood Vial Cocktails from Martha Stewart

Candy Corn Vodka Tonic from Miss Make

Frankenstein Milkshake from Mel’s Kitchen
(Okay technically this is a pudding cup — and technically it’s pronounced Frankh-en-STEEN — but the concept is killer. Throw in some mint chip ice cream, a little milk, and some brandy, and it’s aliiiiive.)

Mummy Wrapped Drinks from One Charming Party

Shrunken Head Ciders from Martha Stewart

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Too Small to Fail: Bedtime

Go Mighty is partnering with Next Generation and the Clinton Foundation to sponsor this post as part of the Too Small to Fail campaign, which is all about making smarter babies. I am pro smarter babies. Babies of all sorts, if you must know. And what’s more, I like soft things in general.

A few weeks ago, Hank’s dad emailed saying he’d read some articles about how regular bedtimes make it easier for kids to do well in school. So we made sure we were putting Hank to bed at the same time in our respective households, and committed to making it a strict deadline during the school year, in contrast to the summer of all-hours chocolate binges with the Ooompa Loompas.

Oddly, it hadn’t occurred to me that fudging bedtime by 20-30 minutes could affect Hank’s behavior and abilities in school. And though “sleep = good” isn’t rocket science, life sometimes gets in the way of a steady bedtime, for me as much as him. Still, I never connected those slips to extra stress over a spelling test or whatnot.

The message was reinforced last week at Camp Mighty, as Go Mighty launched a partnership with Next Generation and the Clinton Foundation on their Too Small to Fail campaign. Too Small to Fail is aimed at educating communities about how to give tiny kids, particularly age zero to five, a leg up before they enter school. (Too Small to Fail? You are killing me with that name. Oof.)

Anyway, one of the simple things the program advocates is a regular bedtime for kids. Which I did not have growing up, did you? Or have you adopted the habit for yourself or your kids?

A bunch of bloggers, including me, have added goals on Go Mighty around spending more time with the kids in our lives, you can see them unfold here. You can also join in by adding #gomighty4kids in the tag field of your kid-related goals. But only if you’re into reduced crime rates and a larger tax base.

Camp Mighty, How the Light Gets In


This is me with Larry Smith, creator of the Six-Word Memoir Project, and Piper Kerman, author of Orange is the New Black after our Q&A at Camp Mighty. I took this with a professional photographer three feet away…


Photo by JetKat Photo.

Because apparently I am a fourteen year old girl? Still, I’m glad we took the top photo. There’s something happy about stretching your arms out and everyone pushing into the frame.

We’ll have video soon, but Larry suggested we do a Six Word Memoir slam at the end of the talk. This made me nervous, as all open-mic situations do, but it was great.

Here’s one of Larry’s memoirs:

Two sisters; never left seat up. - Larry Smith, Six Word Memoir Project

And a few more of my favorites:

I blocked my mom on Facebook. - Six Word Memoir Project

Smart girl wants to be artist. - Heather, Six Word Memoir Project

Started mending the cracks with gold. - Bridget Eding, Six Word Memoir Project

This last one is Bridget Eding, and I think it refers to the Japanese practice of Kintsugi, the practice of repairing broken pottery with gold so the veins show. Lovely.