What I have learned this week

I'm taking this journaling/scrapbook class from at shimelle.com called Learn Something New Every Day. It runs the whole month of September. The main thrust of it is to write one sentence every day of what new thing you learned that day.  She sends you a lesson every day, taking about what she learned & how she learned it, giving you ideas about how to pause & look around you at your life, plus she includes some examples of how she & others have scrapped this lesson. That is the other component - you scrap every one of the lessons.

I'm only 5 days into it but I am really enjoying it. I try to be 'in the moment' in Zen way in my life, but the routine sameness of it tends to turn off my brain. Or the need to be multitasking, always thinking about the other things you need to do, the next thing that has to happen, overwhelms the present. I am too busy doing to be considering & analyzing. This class makes me consider what happened & what new thing I learned that I can take from my day. It can be a big general thing like "show up 20 minutes early to pick up the kids from school if I don't want to wait another 20." which I learned when I had to pick up my bus riding kids for the first time or something less noticeable "Havoc is a very capable child & doesn't need me to run interference for him all the time" That lesson was learned in the doctor's office while I had to focus all my attention on Mayhem so the doctor could examine Havoc without distraction. Havoc talked to him, answered all his questions, fully participated in the exam & wasn't the least bit afraid despite this being a doctor we last saw 9 months ago and there being a med student we had never seen with him. My mind was on Mayhem, who was living up to his name. Why didn't I think to bring a couple of toys? Why can't has just sit still for a minute? Why won't he just shut up for 5 seconds? If I wasn't taking the class and going back over my day, all I would have taken away from that experience is what I already know - Mayhem can be really irritating. It also ties in nicely with my 365 project, even though that is mostly focused on the boys play & toys; I'm already in the habit of taking pictures every day of mundane things

I like Shimelle's classes. She gets me really thinking & they are things you have to do every day so you keep your motivation up.  This is the second of her classes that I have taken.  Last year I did her Journal Your Christmas class, which was wonderful. She sent a topic prompt every day about Xmas past & present,plus layout suggestions & you ended up an awesome 37 page album when it was finished. The other great thing is, when you buy the class the first time, you get to take the class every year after that for free. She has a bunch of different classes she runs, many of them she has been running for several years. This is the 3rd year she has done Learn Something New & I think it will be the 4th year for Journal Your Christmas. Each time she reruns them she changes things so you get a new experience every time. I'm looking forward to this year's Journal Your Christmas.

These are the things I have learned this week

9/1 - No matter how terrible I feel, I am always willing to go out to dinner

9/2 - Illness triumphs over sentimentality

9/3 - 15 minutes of peace is more important to me than the mess I will have to clean up after it

9/4 - Havoc is a very capable person & doesn't need me running constant inference for him

9/5 - I can still be surprised by the fury & vitriol people direct towards those who do not think the same way they do