Chit Chat Mom» Treasure Map 2010 http://www.chitchatmom.com One first time mom that can't stop blogging about it! Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:43:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 #35. The Next Chapter http://www.chitchatmom.com/2010/03/31/the-next-chapter/ http://www.chitchatmom.com/2010/03/31/the-next-chapter/#comments Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:43:00 +0000 Chit Chat Mom http://www.chitchatmom.com/?p=868 How is it possible that an entire month will fly by (okay, a little more than a month) and suddenly I’ll think to myself… “It’s been awhile since I posted on the blog”?  Holy moly time flies by after you have a baby!  All I can say is that #35 on my list this year is “The Next Chapter”… and the next chapter, the parenting chapter, is so different from the chapter before.  When I started ChitChatMom when I was prego… I blogged EVERY DAY.  In fact, there may have been a couple of days where I blogged multiple times in a single day.  Now I’m lucky if I blog once a month.  Sadly, a lot of my blog posts in the past six months (and there haven’t been many) have been laced with the topic of “I’m back!”. I’m back to blog.  I promise to not disappear.  I promise to try to share funny stories. I promise to share insightful information.  I promise… blah blah blah blah blah.  All this promising has got me exhausted… and teething has got me tired enough already.

So here’s what I’m going to do this time… no more promises.  I’m gonna post when I can.  Not feel guilty when I don’t… and remember that the whole point of this blogging thing was to share my thoughts and interact with other mammas.   So that’s my “next chapter”… what’s yours?

]]> http://www.chitchatmom.com/2010/03/31/the-next-chapter/feed/ 0 A Mom’s Blogging Map for the Year http://www.chitchatmom.com/2010/02/11/a-moms-blogging-map-for-the-year/ http://www.chitchatmom.com/2010/02/11/a-moms-blogging-map-for-the-year/#comments Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:20:32 +0000 Chit Chat Mom http://www.chitchatmom.com/?p=846 One of my favorite annual activities involves glue sticks, old magazines, poster board and my girlfriends.  While it might sound like a kindergarten craft project it is actually an opportunity to put the past away and create a path into the future.  Every year we gather at a home with our buckets, bags and boxes of craft supplies to spend several hours creating “Treasure Maps” for our coming year.  Using words and photos from the magazines we hoard all year long for this very day, we create poster boards covered in examples of achievements, dreams, hopes and wants that we have for ourselves.  Last year when I created my poster board I was almost through my first trimester of pregnancy with Lily and my Treasure Map was covered with phrases like “healthy pregnancy”, “find better sleep”, “live a more creative life” and “family matters”.  When it was time to gather together my supplies (and I have a lot of them) for this year’s Treasure Mapping extravaganza I stopped to take a critical look at my 2009 poster.  Every single thing on my poster had come true.  Okay, maybe “get more organized” hadn’t exactly come to fruition… but everything else had!  Last year I had hung my Treasure Map in my closet and every day I had looked at it… and it had come true.  It was an incredible realization that the power of positive suggestion really can make a difference.  So when I sat down this year to create my 2010 Treasure Map I was anxious to fill it with hopes and goals that I really wanted for myself… and even a few things that might seem a little out-of-reach.

2010 Treasure MapThis year I hung my Treasure Map on the wall by my desk in my home office.  Then just the other day it hit me like a ton of bricks!  I have been struggling to write on my blog on a daily basis… as you may have seen, I’ve found the true reality of motherhood to be messy and all consuming.  Which is probably why I was still sitting at my computer at 1 a.m. this morning working.  So the realization that hit me as I sat and reflected on my Treasure Mapping masterpiece was that my map could help me write my blog this year.  Every little phrase provides the jumping off point for a great post topic.  Of course I won’t only write about what’s on my Treasure Map… but maybe when I’m stuck and need to get those creative juices flowing (in between cleaning up the apple juice that is flowing down my desk thanks to curious little hands) I can use my Treasure Map to prompt ideas.

There are 46 weeks left in 2010 and 74 topics on my list… so if I can manage to do one and a half posts every week from here on it I will make it through my list.  I don’t plan to write them in order… but I plan to write at least something about every single one.

So here are the phrases from my 2010 Treasure Map… I hope it inspires you to create a map of your own!

  1. 2010, A Very Good Year
  2. Live with Less
  3. I Heart It!
  4. Stay fit. Be Rewarded.
  5. Get Your Pre-Pregnancy Body Back!
  6. Eat Right
  7. Take More Pics
  8. Women Who Shape the World
  9. Health
  10. Just Be
  11. Should You Eat That?
  12. Life’s On… Tune In
  13. Get Girl Time Back
  14. The Many Women Who Shape My World
  15. Pure and Simple
  16. Life Made Easy
  17. Let Your Imagination Run Our…
  18. Purpose
  19. Imagine That
  20. Ranch Cowgirl
  21. It’s a Pretty Great Place
  22. Kids
  23. Oprah Talks to Elizabeth
  24. Relax
  25. Summer… Be Outdoors More
  26. Lifetime Learning Begins
  27. Stroller Strides
  28. It’s Not Fitness.  It’s Life.
  29. Stroller Power
  30. Connecting Mom to Mom
  31. Life is Measured in Moments
  32. Make Every Moment Count
  33. New Parents
  34. Baby & Me
  35. The Next Chapter
  36. It’s About Your Kids!
  37. Family Matters
  38. Parenting
  39. More Choices for A Life Well Spent
  40. Nature and Nuture
  41. Get More Ideas
  42. Summer… the Best Time of Your Life
  43. Fly Easy…
  44. Find a Better Summer
  45. The Ability to Master Fresh Challenges is Your New Job Security
  46. It’s All About Focus
  47. Play. Laugh. Grow.
  48. Life is Short, but Childhood is Shorter.  Teach them Well.
  49. No Worries
  50. Thinking
  51. Be Creative
  52. Love That!
  53. Discover What You’re Missing
  54. I am Beautiful on the Inside
  55. The Long Way Home
  56. Success
  57. Thanks for Our Future!
  58. Living on a Budget
  59. University of Oregon
  60. Curiosity Never Retires
  61. Giving
  62. Because There is Always More to Learn
  63. Big Return from a Small Investment
  64. Get More
  65. Stop at Nothing
  66. Sleep
  67. Sunny Outlook
  68. Giggle
  69. More Outdoor Life
  70. I Will Win
  71. Joy
  72. Lily Growing
  73. Peace. Peace.
  74. Family
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