2014: A Year in Review

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Teacher Goes Back to School

Dear Friend,

2014.

It was a YEAR. I started by taking the month of January to reflect on the previous year and then spent the rest of the year really putting my self-care practices to the test.

Looking through all these posts, I can, without a doubt, say I feel genuinely proud of the work I’ve put out in the world this year.

I hope you find something that helps make your life feel more healthy, happy and sane.

Please click that link over there to make sure you don’t miss any updates in 2015 – get email updates (it’s FREE).

Without further ado, here’s 2014 in review.

With lots of love and compassion,

Tami

xoxo

January 2014:

Looking Back in Order to Look Forward

February 2014:

Tips For Starting and Maintaining a Daily Meditation Practice

Permission to Rest (For As Long As It Takes to Feel Better)

19 Tips On Taking Care of Yourself While in the Middle of Taking Care of Those That You Love. Plus 6 Tips for Helping Others Who are In Need

10 Things I Loved In February 2014

March 2014

Simple Techniques For Adding Self-Care to An Already Over-Scheduled Life

Want More Energy? Make Less Decisions.

Celebrate YOU.

Featured Teacher Nikki Stern: Connecting Food and Mood

10 Things I Loved in March 2014

April 2014

Removing Obstacles to Your Self-Care

May 2014

The Healthy Happy Sane Teacher Home Study Program – self care isn’t just for teachers!

Books I Love

Please Introduce Yourself (and how can I best be of service?)

Even Imperfect Self-Care Counts!

June 2014

Summer of Intentionality Part 1: To READ

Summer of Intentionality Part 2: To DO

Summer of Intentionality Part 3: To LEARN

10 Things I Loved in June 2014

July 2014

Links Worth Clicking Through

5 Reasons to Go On A Yoga Retreat

9 Ways to Keep Your Cool This Summer (+ 12 More)

August 2014

Favorite 15 Minute Dinner (vegan + gluten free)

10 Things I Loved In Summer 2014

September 2014

Treat Yourself: 8 Reasons Why Private Yoga Sessions Might Work for You

Life Lesson From My Mom

TGBTS Cooks! Green Muffins (aka my girl’s birthday cupcakes)

October 2014

Top 7 Podcasts of 2014

Links Worth Clicking – Fall 2014

All the Self-Care in the World Can’t Save You

November 2014

Can Your Smart Phone Improve Your Health?

December 2014

Restoration Not Resolutions the WHY behind my annual New Year’s Day workshop.

Feel Lonely and Sad at the Holidays?

Why Choose a Word of the Year?

10 Things I Loved: November 2013

Posted on December 5, 2013 by Teacher Goes Back to School

For the last few months I have been doing these reflection posts after being inspired by Rosie’s. Taking time each month to reflect on the good things that happen each day/week/month has done wonders for my ability to actually stop and notice the good stuff.

Ten Things I Loved In November

Things I/We Did

1. Celebrated my niece’s marriage. Saw my whole family in one place and a new city at the same time. Beautiful wedding and lots of family connection. Plus a photo booth.

2. Dug deep into The Gifts of Imperfection ecourse with Brene Brown.

3. Worked with Nikki Stern, Holistic Health Coach. Hello, patterns. Hello, vegetables at breakfast. Hello, soup. Who knew I needed you so much? So much great information in a relatively short amount of time.

If you struggle with self-care especially around food, I highly recommend working with Nikki.

4. Worked with a private yoga client setting up a home practice as well as practices to do at work, to transition from work to home and more. As it turns out, I love working with clients one-on-one and helping them incorporate yoga into their busy lives on their terms.

Does this sound like something you’d want to do? I’m starting to schedule for January now.

5. Reconnected with Out of Town Friends! You know you have great visits when no one takes photos. Too much talking and hugging.

Products and Services I Dug:

6. Instagram! I got a (yellow – omg! it’s so cute!) iPhone 5c and exactly 3 minutes after I got it, I wasn’t sure how I ever lived without it. Then I got my first bill and I remembered. OUCH. But then I look at all the pretty on Instagram and I’m better. Kinda an emotional roller coaster, but I think I’m good now.

Books I Can Highly Recommend:

7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I am totally going to miss Harry, Ron and Hermonie and all the awesomeness of Hogwarts.

I get it now. I’m so glad I finally read this series.

8. Fire Starter Sessions by Danielle LaPorte. This book (or Danielle LaPorte) isn’t for everyone. And not for every time in your life. But if you are on the precipice of making some big changes, this book can help.

Real talk: I’ve tried reading this book three other times and it didn’t work for me. I came back to it because of the video series and POW! This time was the real deal.

I highly recommend it, but would caution that this book is one that needs to be read slowly and with a highlighter in your hand. Good stuff.

9. The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown. Courage, Compassion, Connection. Re-reading it for a course and wow. I’m feeling it this time much deeper.

Watch this video. It will change you life. Then pass it on and consider it your public service.

10. Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff, PhD. The 3 core components of self-compassion: 1. self-kindness 2. common humanity 3. mindfulness. Seriously, life-changing.

Videos I Fell For: .

Convos With My Two Year Old.

My life in a nutshell.

Hackschooling Makes Me Happy.

I want to be this kid when I grow up. (Thanks to DavidG for posting on FB).

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So what are you loving lately? I’m always on the lookout for what is delicious in food, drink, fashion, and life. Leave me your favorites in the comments or write a post of your own and link back here.

If you enjoyed this post, get email updates (it’s FREE).

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Image Source: I took these pictures. Please do not use them.

Ten Things I Loved: October 2013

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Teacher Goes Back to School

Ten Things I Loved In October

Things I/We Did

1. Celebrated Family Day. Two years ago we met our girl for the very first time and we celebrate that day every year. It’s like Christmas and your birthday all rolled into one. This year we went to Apple Hill and celebrated with hot apple cider donuts, apple pie and pulled pork sandwiches followed by a giant car nap on the way home for Little Girl.

2. Completed The Healthy, Happy, Sane Teacher. You how they say you should write the book you want to read and create the program you want to take? THAT. Met some amazing teachers along this segment of the HHST journey and now we’re seeing where it continues to take us. Stay tuned. This ride isn’t over yet.

3. Began getting serious about creating my business. I’m in full on learning/researching mode. I love learning new things, so this is fun. {ed note: “fun” turned into massive self-doubt.} Now just to make it all a reality. Look out 4th quarter 2013!

4. Connected with friends in person and on the phone. I love social media, but nothing replaces seeing faces and hearing voices. This month saw walks with kids in strollers and in ergos, breakfasts out, office chats, tea around the dining room table and watching kids play in the backyard.

5. Cousin time! Running, chasing, climbing, pretending, laughing. So happy to see my girl so happy.

Products and Services I Dug:

6. Inequality For All. The movie. Go. See. It. NOW.

It is not your imagination. The middle class is shrinking. The uber rich are richer than ever. Like richer than any other time in the history of the world. And you aren’t one of them.

Robert Reich is a super smarty policy dude with lots of charm. He’s funny and engaging and able to make complex issues digestible.

Go see it.

Books I Can Highly Recommend:

7. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I think this one is my favorite yet. The writing seems a lot better than the others. Or have I just fallen under a magical spell?

{ed note: I wrote the comment above before I finished the book. HOLY HELL. I SOBBED at the end. As if I knew these people in real life. Dude.}

8. Fat, Forty and Fired: One Man’s Frank, Funny, Inspiring Account of Losing His Job and Finding His Life by Nigel Marsh. I LOVE stories about people quitting their jobs to find more meaning in lives.

9. The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown. Courage, Compassion, Connection. Re-reading it for a course and wow. I’m feeling it this time much deeper.

Videos I Fell For: .

10. Fire Starter Sessions videos with Danielle LaPorte. I freaking love the smart people on the internet.

BONUS! Sidesaddle Kitchen. I may or may not have watched every single one of these videos in one go. What can I say? Laura Miller is adorable and makes raw vegan food not gross. Who knew?

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Image Source: I took this picture. Please do not use it without permission.

Ten Things I Loved: September 2013

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Teacher Goes Back to School

Ten Things I Loved In September

Things I/We Did

1. Sacramento Free Day of Yoga – Full house in my class with almost every person being brand new to restorative yoga. Love that people (about 1,700) were trying new studios, classes and teachers. A day full of love and rest.

2. Played at the park in a rain storm on Labor Day. It NEVER rains on Labor Day in Sacramento and it did this year and it was kinda perfect. Little Girl looked up in the sky from the sandbox and shouted, “Mama, rain! Mama, rain!”

3. Finished Take15 meditation program with Headspace. And started Take 20. I have been trying to formalize my meditation practice FOR YEARS and with the help of this program, I can honestly say it is becoming a regular part of my life. I took the plunge and bought a year’s subscription, so we’ll see where I am next August.

4. Enrolled in Parent Education Preschool. I’m the student and Little Girl comes with so I can learn from her and all the other little ones. We’re learning positive discipline, what to do with anger (hers and mine), how tiny people learn and develop and lots of fun age appropriate activities. The teachers are AH-MAY-ZING. Easily the most enjoyable 2 hours of my week.

5. Cooked up a storm thanks to the meal planning and life scheduling instruction in The Healthy, Happy, Sane Teacher. Is it weird I’m doing the program while I am teaching it?

Whatever. This is life changing stuff. Why should those enrolled be the only ones who benefit?

Interested in what we’ve been chowing down on lately? I’m meal planning on Pinterest usually on Tuesdays. Check out my This Week’s Menu board for what we’re currently eating and my Recipes to Make Again board for meals we’ve enjoyed so much we’ll be eating them again. We’re mostly vegan eats at home because I’m allergic to dairy and the hubs is vegetarian.

Products and Services I Dug:

6. The post scheduling feature on Facebook pages. Who knew? Thanks to Smaggle I am now in the loop.

Do any of you have any other little tidbits of information you think everyone already knows? I could use some more life hacks. Obviously.

Books I Can Highly Recommend:

7. Seating Arrangments by Maggie Shipstead

8. Last Letters From Your Lover by Jojo Moyes.

9. Get Some Headspace: How Mindfulness Can Change Your Life in 10 Minutes a Day by Andy Puddicombe. At some point, I’ll stop talking about Headspace and meditation. Or not.

Videos I Fell For: .

10. Olive Us. Design Mom’s kids have a series and it is inspiring. I would like to be in the Blair family please.

BONUS! Good Life Project with Jonathan Fields. I’ve been listening to the podcasts on my Bay Area trips. Makes my time on the road fly by.

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Ten Things I Loved In June 2013

Posted on July 2, 2013 by Teacher Goes Back to School

Ten Things I Loved In June

Things I/We Did

1. School’s Out for Summer! Having a teacher husband makes for super sweet summer break times. Can you say spontaneous family road trips to the Bay Area when it gets to be 100 degrees?

Also not really knowing the days of the week is kind of awesome.

2. Swimming pool business meetings. Possibly the best thing that has ever happened. I love talking business and I love standing in a swimming pool on a hot day. Yup, standing. A glorious combination.

Also recommended: reading whilst standing in a swimming pool.

3. Curvy Yoga Certification, baby! In case you haven’t heard, I completed my Curvy Yoga certification. I’m busy setting up some yoga for all bodies workshops and scheduling one-on-one sessions. If this is something you are interested in, contact me as soon as possible to get on the schedule!

4. Roamed rural Minnesota for a week with the grandparents. We played endless games of cards and board games, got schooled hard in ladder ball, ate popsicles on the deck, got chewed on by mosquitoes, caught lots of fish, cruised the lake on the boat with the two-year old driving (with grandpa), continuously ate crackers on all the flights (baby) and pretty much unplugged for a whole week (mama). All in all a seriously excellent trip. Hooray for Minnesota!

5. Escaped the blisteringly hot valley into the cool Bay Area – two weekends in a row. Point Isabel, Tilden Botanical Gardens, Redwood Valley Railway (aka Steam trains in Tilden), Fernandez Park, Cheese Park (LaMoine), Cordenesis Park…. love, love, love them all. Thank goodness for living so close to the Bay.

Products and Services I Dug:

6. PicMonkey. I love this service. You can do so much photo fun stuff for free. If you haven’t tried it yet, do it.

7. Feedly. With one click of a button in a Dairy Queen parking lot I was able to transfer my entire Google Reader(RIP) blog roll. That’s some service!

8. Windows Movie Maker. Have I mentioned the yoga video part of The Healthy, Happy, Sane Teacher program? No? That’s because I wasn’t sure how to make it a reality until I downloaded this program. Can you say totally intuitive and ridiculously easy to use?

In My Blog Reader

9. The Healthy, Happy, Sane Teacher is having an Independence Day Sale! Rosie said it best:

The Healthy, Happy, Sane Teacher is the program we both needed most when we were teachers trying to navigate lesson plans and life plans and coming up short on the life part over and over and over again. We know that we aren’t the only teachers who put themselves last in order to put everything else in their school building first. And we also know, even though we didn’t back then, that it doesn’t have to be that way. You can still totally kill it in the classroom without killing yourself.

10. .What To Do When People Disappoint You (Or Act Like A-holes or Dillwads) by my favorite, Yes and Yes.

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Are you a teacher or know one who loves teaching, but wants to have more work balance in their life? Have you heard about The Healthy, Happy, Sane Teacher: Sustainable Self-Care for A Successful School Year? Check it out!

Image Source: v3 original of me and my kid playing at the park.

Ten Things I Loved In May 2013

Posted on June 4, 2013 by Teacher Goes Back to School

Ten Things I Loved In May

Things I/We Did

1. Solo parented for a whole weekend. I know people do this ALL THE TIME, but I don’t. I was super scared for months before and then my friends stepped up and totally helped this mama out and life was fun. Yes, we missed papa. But now I know I can take care of Little Girl if necessary.

2. Night swimming. Have I ever told you how much I love swimming pools? Seriously, my happy place.

3. Taught a yoga teacher training class. The weird/awesome part was they were upright and taking notes. These days when I teach, I’m usually looking at napping-ish faces.

4. Faced some internal demons. A long, ongoing process, but I’m feeling hella proud of myself that I’m taking these beginning steps to put this mess to bed already. Trauma be gone!

5. Announced The Healthy, Happy, Sane Teacher. Have you hear about my partnership with Rosie Molinary? O!M!G! I can’t remember ever being this excited about a project. This is a class I’d want to take and I hope you do too.

Products and Services I Dug:

6. Delta Workshop is opening soon! I got to sneak peek because the owner is awesome and I know one of the artists being featured in the shop.

7. Google docs, reader, etc. I can’t even remember life before.

8. Mailchimp. So nice to have a service that is easy to use and makes you look like a pro. A restorative yoga newsletter (Restorative Resources) is coming soon – are you on the list?

In My Blog Reader

9. Rockstar In The Classroom AND In Your Life. First post on the Healthy, Happy, Sane Teacher blog. Have you read it yet?

10. Web Time Wasters – Sarah from Yes and Yes finds amazing links every week. And every week I click through. You should too! It’ll be fun.

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Image Source: Bunny Bear Print Original Ink Drawing Black … by mikaart on Etsy

Ten Things I Loved In October

Posted on November 1, 2012 by Teacher Goes Back to School

Taking time each month to reflect on the good stuff has done wonders for my ability to actually stop and notice the good stuff. I’m truly thankful for Rosie’s inspiration.

Ten Things I Loved In October

Things I/We Did

1. Celebrated one year as a family. Day off from work, breakfast out, haircut for baby, playground with mama AND papa, a long nap, and massages for the grown ups.

2. I gave up my beloved gym membership and during my 30 days notice period, I actually went to the gym. Oh the irony.

3. SwapAsana! Free clothes and great conversation with cool women in a beautiful venue? So much fun.

4. I had a massage. I was reminded why I used to get regular massages and how I need to get them back on my schedule. Magic fingers!

5. Saw so many friends. Happy hour! Movies! Dinner parties! Brunches! Playground dates! Walks! I want more friend dates. Call me greedy, but the more time I spend with inspiring, funny women friends, the more I want.

On The Plate

6. Pasta with Baby Broccoli and Lemon Garlic Sauce

7. Vegan chocolate chip cookie bars. We had to give most of them to our neighbors and friends because they were so delicious we sort of made ourselves sick.

On The Bookshelf – such a great reading month.

8. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain

9. MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend by Rachel Bertsche

10. Happier At Home by Gretchen Rubin

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My friend, Rosie Molinary, made a list and I loved hers so much I stole her idea. Now I’ve been inspired to pause and notice the good stuff each month.

Teacher Goes Back to School

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Tag Archives: monthly check in

2014: A Year in Review

10 Things I Loved: November 2013

Ten Things I Loved: October 2013

Ten Things I Loved: September 2013

Ten Things I Loved In June 2013

Ten Things I Loved In May 2013

Ten Things I Loved In October

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