D is for Dreams

Do you remember back when you were little and everything was possible? You could be and do anything in your imagination? And you dreamed of growing to be a _______ (fill in with whatever you wanted to be). At one point I was going to be a cheerleader at night and a doctor during the day.  Seriously.

Tomorrow Where the Wild Things Are is coming out in the theaters. Oh how I remember this book from when I was little! I wanted to be Max and float away on my magic boat to lands far away where there are strange creatures (that resemble Sweetums from the Muppets) who want to play with me all the time, and I get to be in charge of them. Me, queen of the Sweetum monsters!

My boys have the book and love it as well. I hope that it inspires them to reach beyond themselves into that space where imagination and ambition comes together to create greatness. Fostering their imagination and dreams now is my job, but it is their job to create those dreams and goals, and to hold onto them.

C is for Creating

I consider myself a fairly creative person - kind of like if Macgyver needed to decorate his house and a new wardrobe he'd call me and I'd show up with my knitting needles and a glue gun. I love to create - not just knit. You might recall my table from August. We use it everyday and still love it. These are the kind of projects I love the most - the ones that are useful from day one and continue to be useful for many years. Many of my knitting projects are like this - I use them for years and hopefully some of the knitted gifts I've given are used for years.

When I'm creating I go through a mental process of seeing a need or desire, brainstorming on how to best meet that need, planning, and then executing my plan. Sounds simple enough, but can take anywhere from a couple minutes to a couple months.

I've been thinking lately a lot about goal setting, bucket lists, etc. Today's project with my sons is actually going to be sitting down and having each of them write down 10 things they want to learn more about and 10 things they want to do someday. The boys are 5 & 7 and I have to admit I got this idea from a friend. I think it will teach them a lot about goal setting and it will teach me a lot about my boys - what a great way to get to know them more deeply. And I can't wait for us to look back at everything in a year and see what we've accomplished and write new lists.

So what about me? What are my goals, creative and otherwise? Today it hit me that I should try to shape myself the way I shape my projects - find my need/desire (in this case a mental picture of my ideal me), brainstorm on how best to become that person, plan, and then execute. I feel closer to the person that I want to be than I ever have been before. Kinda cool. But I know there's a lot more I want to do/be/feel. And I know that this vision will change over time, but what better way to honor who I am now and who I want to be than intentionally planning how to become that ideal me? It's really exciting in a way - rather than drudge through things, I'm going to create the person I want to be.

B is for Bono

My A is for Alex post has me mentally stuck on the alphabet. And since we went to UVA on the 1st to see U2, Bono is still on my brain.

U2 is the only band left that we both wanted to see in concert. Sadly, every time they're close enough for us to go something comes up. This year the planets aligned - my parents were here to watch the kids, we got tickets, and we could actually get away for a couple days. Our 10th anniversary was back in August, so it made the perfect 10th anniversary get-away.

I've grown up listening to U2. I remember seeing them on MTV singing "Do they even know it's Christmas?" when I was 7 or 8. I still have Rattle & Hum around here somewhere on tape. This is a band that I have never let go of from childhood, and I'm amazed that they still are making incredible new music. People grow up, musicians retire, not much stays the same. But for some reason I've always been moved by U2's music. And now I've finally been to a show - I hope it's not my last!

Charlottesville knew what they were doing when planning for this concert. We arrived at 6:30 and stopped to grab dinner about 3 blocks from the parking lot. We parked in one of their designated parking lots at 6:50, and then walked the mile or so to the show. We were in our seats by 7:15. Seriously. It was painless (other than the pebbles in my shoe). Yes, it was busy and there were a phenomenal number of people there, but it was so well planned you barely felt crowded. We were up in the top section of seats and it was fun just to watch everyone arrive. The opening band, Muse, sounded like they were having technical difficulties. Musically they sounded great, but the lead singer was just off. Oh well.

The stage was amazing and fun to see change over the course of the show. Since we were up high I feel like we had the best vantage point to see everything - especially the stage. There have been so many reviews of the show, I'm not going to get into how great it was - and it was great, incredible, amazing, etc. I was shocked at how you could feel the energy from the band all the way up to our seats. I was shocked at how their music touches me still. I'm still in awe of how Bono manages to run all over the stage like he's 20.

The entire experience was just amazing and exhilarating. We left excited and energized and happy and all those things that you should be after a wonderful evening of fantastic music. I've never seen anything like it, and I hope they tour in our area again because we'll be there.

Images courtesy of powerlinead.wordpress.com, huffingtonpost.com, and U2Star.com.

A is for Alex

Recently, my husband's best friend's wife had a baby early. So I'm the slacker who didn't start knitting the baby blanket until two weeks after Alex had been born. Here's my A is for Alex blanket!