JGoode Designs

I just stopped to hunt down a topic idea, as it’s definitely past the beginning of the day and I am still drawing a blank on suggested topics. Things have been busy at my house… for the first time in years we have plans to go places and see people… multiple times within months. We have baseball and soccer and swimming and school ending and registration starting. We have creativity coming out of our ears, but it’s all handmade crafty types of projects, not visions of fabulous new doodles.

And then, today, my baby girl turned a year old.

My world is standing still in the midst of the universe’s ever changing frantic chaos. I can’t begin to remember where the year went. I remember this day last year and all of the sudden today is here.

What have I been doing with the year? What have I accomplished? What great new designs have I created for you to enjoy? I don’t know. It’s all fuzzy when I try to get a good picture to recap the events over the last 12 months. I do know i was here to see her first tooth and hear her first babblings… and watch her first stepswith accompanying first falls. That makes up for all the lost time and definitely all the lost sleep..

So back to my topic searching, I looked on one of my favorite daily trivia sites and found that today is “Pick Strawberries Day”. What a brilliantly colorful and happy kind of view that brings to my mind’s eye. Just yesterday I played hookie from doodling while my 5 year old and I planted our first real veggie garden. We included strawberries.. just because they’re our favorite to pick and eat fresh.

The thought of this brings a smile… a great big smile. Every day should be a strawberry picking day. Giggles and skipping and a little bit of silliness. A day to enjoy something sweet, no matter how many seeds and no matter how small. Because, when there are strawberries, you know there had to have been some fabulous sunshine in the recent past, if not today… there definitely was last week. The kind of days that are filled with sunshiney smiley happy oh-so-joyful visions of delight.. or the thoughts of such rainbowness.

i don’t have any smiley strawberries to share with you today — I have a baby girl’s birthday to celebrate instead. — but next week, watch out… smilies galore!

I’m a Strawberry Girl!

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Today is Tuesday and I do indeed have a topic for you today… it’s the “I think I can do more than can but I’m going to add more to my list because I love new ideas day”, otherwise known as the Over Achiever Syndrome. Yes, I have it. I sometimes get it confused with my “need to be productive even while I sleep disorder” as well as the “busy me busy bee flu” but they’re all actually quite similar.

This is how it works…

I have a to-do list. Usually when I begin my to-do list I run across something else (sometimes related, sometimes not) that I have forgotten about. Sometimes it’s not a forgotten item but a brand new thought. Now, many people would stop right there and write down the new thing and continue on their list. Me, no… I have to stop and ponder and sometimes just jump on board the new bus and take a ride. This of course always leads into to new “oh cool idea” moments and “wow I didnt know that” findings that I must, of course, also investigate. Next thing I know it’s 3 weeks later and I’m back at the beginning of my to-do list… and it’s twice as long as it was the last time I looked, but I’m sure I haven’t enjoyed a single bon bon.

Sorry for missing last week by the way - I was distracted with myself being distracted.

So how do we, the over achieving workaholics battle this? We get married, have kids and add to the list. We work for ourselves so we don’t continually get fired for not finishing the to-do list someone else dictated. We also work around our own self distractions and call it intentional. Sometimes we even allow ourselves to venture off into one of these unending distractions and we label it research. I am a particularly exquisite breed of researcher; I research, don’t mark the path I followed - 3 months later forget I went on the journey to begin with and stumble upon it as if it were new, all over again. So  self entertaining!

So the next time you find yourself feeling as though you’ve accomplished nothing because your to-do list is a mile long and you’re positive you haven’t finished a single project in weeks… stop for a moment, one last distraction for the day, and walk memory lane to rediscover how your new to-dos got on that list. I’m sure you’ll find you’ve accomplished mountains of over achieving. You’re just not ready to show the world what your great doings are

Today’s comment have no image for your viewing enjoyment. If i stop to find an image that will fit my thoughts, I’ll decide there are none that fit just perfectly so I’ll have to doodle up something and that will remind me of other doodles I’ve been meaning to do and next thing we’ll both know….

-breath

It will be next Tuesday and you’ll really be wishing for my silly Tuesday’s topics which are two weeks missing. So I’ll let you distract yourself for a moment while you envision your own doodle for today.

-moment of silence for the doodle day dreaming….

I’d love to see your distraction doodles and hear your stories of cluttered discovery!

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I hope today is filled with spring in your yard… because it is National Adult Public Skipping Day “a day for adults to skip in public to feel like a child again”.

I think this is a great way to spend the day, even if you have to sit at work all day, add a little skip to your step and a smile on your face!

Today is also (so they say)…

National Hairball Awareness Day. - Is this for the cats or the peoples

National Warm Weather Lunch Hour Appreciation Day. - What a perfect way to spend lunch, outside in the fresh air. Hope you brought some treats to share!

And, today is also National Teach Children to Save Day. - Teach your kids how to save their money, it’s invaluable lesson. There are tons of fun games and activities available at Positive Promotions and “Thousands of bankers nationwide will teach young people valuable savings lessons as part of the ABA Education Foundation’s National Teach Children to Save Day on Tuesday, April 29, 2008.” Check to see if your bank is listed on the American Banker’s Association Honor Roll.

I’m a big fan of the piggy bank, so here’s my recommended doodle for the day…

Pig Lovin’ Girl by JGoode

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I grew up understanding about conservation. I regularly heard basic little things we could do every day to help conserve energy “turn off the lights!” or “dont leave food on your plate” or don’t let the water just run”. Occassionally my mom would go through health food kicks where organic and natural were the way things would be — she even worked in a health food store for a while - which I LOVED to hang out in.

Every Day Earth Day Framed Tile

But now, as an adult, I am understanding the deeper message, the bigger importance, and I hope I can somehow pass the message on to my own children… but it’s not easy. Although conservation and “earth friendly” options are available, it’s not the norm and by no means always an easy option to move forward with. It’s almost trendy at this point… and especially on days like today… to be concerned with the world around us. For many, however, a few weeks from now the good intentions get pushed aside by time constraints, price differences and general motivation. Sometimes we have all the right thoughts, but the options we want just aren’t options within our reach.

Love the Earth Penguin Tote Bag

So I started thinking today… what can we do, what habits can we replace or start new just to begin to make a difference in our own individual little worlds? Thanks to some great conversations with friends and a lot of insight from media today, here are some simple ideas I think we could all put on our list to at least try..

• Use items that can be reused rather than throw away items whenever possible
• Don’t buy styrofoam and plastic when there are biodegradable option
• Buy recycled items whenever possible
• Carpool whenever possible
• Know what you are buying…

Some product Ideas that I can recommend from my own collections…

• Tote Bags - use the canvas tote bags for groceries instead of “paper or plastic”
• Mugs - carry around the mugs instead of using paper or plastic cups

Peace Love and Earth Sticker (Bumper)

Happy Loving the Earth!

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