For five years I commuted over two hours a day to and from work. I loved my job, so it was worth it.

One of my after-work commute rituals included a “daily post-mortem.”

Sounds ominous right? I learned about post-mortem meetings when I worked for a global management consulting company. When I received my first “Project X Post-Mortem Meeting” invite, the image of cold corpses flashed through my mind — I wanted no part of it.

But, I quickly learned that post-mortems are brilliant. They’re one of the best performance improvement techniques I learned during my corporate career.

The beauty…

I almost killed a turtle today. Luckily, I saw him crossing our street and swerved.

I hit the brakes and yelled, “Cade! A turtle!” I flipped on the hazards and we exited the SUV.

“Where’s he going Mommy?”

“I think he’s headed over there.” I pointed to a pond about 100 yards away.

“He can’t make it that far, something will eat him! There’s too many doggies around here!” my 6-year-old son cried.

“I think he can. Let’s follow him and make sure he gets there safely.”

We creeped through the tall grass behind the little reptile. He moved faster…

“You suck! My life is horrible because you’re in it!” This is what my son yelled at his 2nd-grade teacher a couple of months ago.

Not a proud mom moment, to say the least. But, I don’t feel shame anymore when I get this kind of feedback.

He’s never been an easy child. He’s a fighter — fights norms, expectations, and authority. Rules are a starting point for him, not an ending point. These characteristics will serve him well as an adult. But, as a child, they lead to stress and exhaustion — for him and us, his parents.

With…

Have a book challenge? Sign me up. I love to earn shiny gold stars.

It brings back memories of plotting my school year so I could win as many academic awards as possible. I eventually learned that trophies weren’t the answer to true happiness.

Yet, I still succumb to reading challenges. Every year. I love them! They give my brain a dash of dopamine when I log a book as “finished.”

Am I stroking my academic ego with these challenges? Probably. Should I be reading for the pure joy of it? Yep. Am I a mere pawn in a capitalistic…

My kids joined their school’s summer reading program and it inspired me to create my own. My inner nerd and the not-so-small ego love to rock a good reading challenge.

I wanted to create a challenge that forces me outside my comfort zone. I tend to read similar authors, topics, and genres. That’s where Goodreads.com comes in! They run an annual “best books” contest and it includes 20 categories that cover a wide range of genres.

My goal is to read the winner from each of their categories by the end of 2021 (six months). Some of these books were…