Happy Number 7

THE FUN AND SOMETIMES NOT SO FUN STORIES ABOUT RAISING 5 KIDS UNDER 6!

Archives for January 2016

An ambitious 2016 full of resolutions.

Life Reflections Resolutions

I know it is already almost February and that it is starting to feel like it is too late for New Year’s resolutions… but this year I am trying a “new and improved” method from what I did last year.  I am hoping not only to be continuously reminded of my resolutions, but also to find ways to actually achieve them, while holding myself accountable for my successes and my shortcomings…

I’ve always made resolutions. However, beginning last year I decided to actually write my resolutions down in a place where I could reference them at any time.  I created a draft email in my Inbox at work with the list of things I wanted to accomplish in 2015. Not only was it an easy to reference list, but it also refreshed my memory and helped me become more accountable.

Although it was a great improvement compared to years prior, I did not succeed at all of my resolutions. But the idea of writing them down in a draft email allowed me to look back and evaluate my “performance” and helped me understand what things I still needed to accomplish in the new year, as well as opened up new challenges I wanted to tackle in 2016.

Needless to say, I have a very ambitious year ahead of me (on paper at least) but I am going to try my darndest to conquer it all!  In fact, this year, I made a tweak to my resolutions’ list…. I also wrote down methods and ideas to accomplish them! That’s right! I have a plan! (or an idea of one ;)).

So without further ado, below please find MY resolutions for this year and my ideas on how to accomplish them…  As you will see, one of the reasons this post is so late in the month is also because I’ve done some research on how I want to accomplish things. So, if anyone has similar resolutions, feel free to use my ideas or, of course, if anyone has better ideas, please do share!

My 2016 New Years Resolutions: 

  1. Spend more time with family: Enjoy more time doing activities together, whether it is going to the beach, supporting the kids at their sporting events/activities, or visiting places like the zoo!  In years past we were Disney World Annual Passholders and it was great fun! However the babies are too little and wouldn’t enjoy it yet, so we bought tickets to Lowry Park Zoo! They are running great specials –  check it out here: http://www.lowryparkzoo.org/visit/tickets
  2. Teach my kids Spanish: In 2015 I did a better job than in the past however it was still not enough.  This year I am going to schedule 1-2 days to read Spanish books, learn with Flash cards and watch kids’ movies in Spanish.  These are the flash cards we got: http://amzn.to/1RSmi3H
  3. Connect/Re-connect with Friends: Make a conscious effort to reach out to friends randomly via text, phone, skype etc. Be more in touch.
  4. Meditate:  I’ve been wanting to learn how to meditate for quite some time now but I get distracted very easily and my mind loves to wander.  To try to learn how to do it, once a month I have scheduled meditation & lunch time with my sister! Not only do we get to bond more, but we can do it in a super cool environment while bettering ourselves. Win-win.  We will be going here:http://meditationinsarasota.org/  I am also downloading the apphttps://www.headspace.com/ to help me achieve my goal. Hopefully my learnings will teach me how to be more patient at times with the kiddos and not set super high expectations of their behaviors.  Here is another source of knowledge for Meditation: http://www.mindful.org/
  5. Wake Up Earlier:  Currently I wake up between 6:30am and 7am to help out Becca with the kiddos, making breakfast, etc.  I’d love to wake up earlier so I can be productive earlier and make it a habit.  Here is an article with ideas on how to accomplish it: http://www.wikihow.com/Wake-Up-Early
  6. Complete a Spartan Trifecta:  Last year one of my resolutions was to compete in an Obstacle Course Race (OCR). I chose the Spartan Race and did a sprint (5 miles) with a couple of my buddies. Needless to say, I got hooked and training for Spartan Races is my new thing.  This year, my eyes and training are set on completing the “Trifecta” and will compete in the Elite level.  A “Trifecta” consists of finishing a Sprint (5 miles, 20+ obstacles), a Super (8-10 miles, 24-30 obstacles) and a Beast (12-14 miles, 30-35 obstacles).  Learn more here:http://www.spartan.com/en.  My training comes from ideas from that website as well as the Men’s Health site and magazine on strength and conditioning.http://www.menshealth.com/fitness
  7. Grow my Agency (www.modusdirect.com):  This will be my focus for the year. I will be networking more, attending trade shows for opportunities, doing a lot of research on prospects to have as clients in our agency – looking for not only the right products & services but also the right client – those with the right culture and that are fun to work with.  I will work on educating prospects on why Direct Response is the most cost efficient way to grow both your revenue and your brand awareness and show them how awesome agency is. We are off to a great start with our first ever Super Bowl spot!!
  8. Grow my small business (www.packlessplaymore.com): For our small business, this year we are dabbling more with Facebook Ads and boosting our SEM and SEO.  We will also do some Guerrilla marketing trying to grow our network to help us spread the word and get us in front of families with children visiting St Pete and Sarasota.
  9. 36,500+ push ups: This is the equivalent of 100+ push-ups per day. To keep me on track, I’ve started a Google spreadsheet where I enter number of push-ups per day. For days that I fall short, I need to make up for it on the following days.
  10. Listen to Podcasts: In late 2015 I really got into podcasts. This year I am going to commit at least one night a week where I listen to a podcast for 1-2 hours.  Here is my list of Podcasts I listen to:
    • Ted Talks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/tedtalks-audio/id160904630?mt=2
    • The Tim Ferris Show (author of 4 hour work week): https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tim-ferriss-show/id863897795?mt=2
    • Serial (investigative stories): https://serialpodcast.org/
    • This American Life: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/
    • Market Place Tech and Corner Office (APM podcasts): http://www.americanpublicmedia.org/programs/
    • Smart Passive Income: http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/
    • The Top (Interviews with entrepreneurs): https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/top-entrepreneurs-in-money/id1023761733?mt=2
    • Mixergy (Startup stories): https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mixergy-startup-stories-1000+/id348690336?mt=2
    • Spartan Up!: http://www.spartan.com/en/media/podcast/episodes
  11. Read/Listen to 6 books:  I am the first to admit, I am NOT a very good reader. I prefer Audio books but I hate paying so much for them…  However, I am conscious I need to read more, so I am going to force myself and be held accountable for at least 6 books this year. First on my list: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
  12. Continue to learn Italian:  I started learning Italian a few months before I played in the Ultimate World Championships in Lecco, Italy in August 2014. Once we got back I basically gave it up. I want to get back into the habit of taking lessons at least once a week and see how much I learn. My tool of choice?www.DuoLingo.com – it is free and the story behind it is awesome! Check the Ted talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/luis_von_ahn_massive_scale_online_collaboration?language=en
  13. Learn to Code: I am a strong believer in technology as a way to become more efficient and make human kind better. I know I won’t be changing the world with my basic coding skills, but it may open my mind and make improvements to my problem solving skills if I learn how to code.  Plus I could potentially teach my kids and get them started into coding early. Why not? There are so many online resources now that teach specific skills. I think these sites/models will play a huge role in our post secondary education as more and more people migrate to these technical skills education paths that teach specific skills for a job.  My tool of choice to learn how to code among other things? www.treehouse.com. It has a very affordable monthly fee that gives you access to a ton of courses depending on what you are interested in. We’ll see how it goes. 🙂
  14. Continue to grow and diversify investments: Late 2015, after seeing how my IRA did not grow much year after year, I decided to look for alternatives to invest some of my savings on a monthly basis.  I found www.wealthfront.com which is an automated investment fund with various options and www.LendingClub.comwhere you become one of the many lenders that fund loans for applicants.    To date, my results with Wealthfront have not been very good… however I know this is a marathon and not a sprint so I am going to keep an eye on it.  Lending Club was fun to set up and to see how your money is divided among many loans.  I started the account in January so I will not be seeing any returns any time soon but it looks VERY promising on paper. I highly recommend checking it out!

2016: Are you ready? I AM.

#Blessed

Happy Number 7 Life Reflections

 

Before I forget and realize is already the end of 2016, I want to make sure I acknowledge how blessed we feel at home.

As probably most parents can attest, one of the most important things for us parents are our kids’ health and happiness. I pray to God every night prior to going to bed and thank him for keeping all our babies healthy and happy and thank him for the amazing environment and love that surrounds our kids and our family.  I pray for his constant protection and ask to keep them healthy and happy throughout their lives.

I can’t emphasize enough how true “it takes a village” really is. So many times we hear from people that they don’t understand how we manage to raise 5 kids and maintain our “cool”. What lots of times people don’t realize is that we are able to maintain our cool and we are pretty chill most of the time because we are surrounded by so many amazing people in our lives. Whether it is our loving immediate family, or our awesome positive and loving friends or our friends at work, we are always surrounded by positive and chill vibes, words of support and more importantly surrounded by love to our kids.

We feel #blessed and we have God and ALL OF YOU that touch our lives in one way or another to thank you for it. I probably have not said this to all of you individually but please know that we constantly feed of the love and positive vibes you send our way.  Thank you, thank you, thank you. Needless to say, we feel #blessed we are given the opportunity to raise 5 amazing kiddos that bring so much joy and livelihood to our household.

So cheers to another #blessed year to all of us. May love, health, peace and happiness be with all of us throughout this new amazing year.

Much love from our Happy Number 7.

IMG_4721