2011 Report Card

Last year, I set 6 goals for myself for 2011. Halfway through the year, things weren't looking good. At all. If I were to give myself a grade, I'd have to give myself nearly straight F's. Well, maybe that's being a little too hard on myself, but when I look at the fact that there were only 6 things, well... Instead of dwelling on that, though, let's see how I ended the year.

Goal 1: Bible Study - A
In June, I gave myself a D because I had basically quit having any kind of personal study. I got myself in gear after that and got back to the "Journey Through the Old Testament" that our church had put out at the beginning of 2010. At the end of 2011, I was finishing up the study on a passage from Jonah - which left just 7 passages to study to complete the booklet.

Goal 2: Weight Loss - B
In June, I had given myself a C. Over the 2010 holiday season, I had gotten back into the bad habit of mindless snacking. By the summer, I had gained most of the weight I had lost the previous year! But I had realized it and had gotten back to doing something to get it off. Since then, I've been more mindful of what I eat and I joined a Zumba group at church. I love it! It's helping get me in shape and now I'm 2 pounds less than where I was at this time last year - 10 pounds less that I was at my highest point during the summer. Now if I can just keep it up throughout this year and not slide back again...

Goal 3: Cooking - B
In June, I had given myself an A because I had learned to make some things from scratch - and without relying on recipes. That was great, but I never did take a cooking class at Central Market. Nor did I cook anything from my Now Eat This! cookbook by Rocco DiSpirito. At one point, I was considering signing up for a series of six international cooking classes through Le Cordon Bleu in Dallas, but I've since changed my mind. There are other things I'd rather do with my money...

Goal 4: Photography - F
Wow. As much as I love to take pictures, I hate formatting and filing them. I let it pile up (again) and it got to be too overwhelming. Still, I need to get it done. Yes, 15 months of photos need to be managed now... The monstrosity of all that kept me from participating in Photo Friday and from keeping up with my Project 52. It turned out to be more like Project 3.

Goal 5: Reading - C
My goal was to read 36 books, including one classic a month. The classics just weren't very interesting to me anymore, and reading them slowed me down. I quit after three of them and went back to reading just what I wanted to read. I did read some great books, but several of them were slower reads and cut into my time quite a bit. Then other busyness got in my way. I ended up reading about 25 books this year - slightly more than half of what I read last year.

Goal 6: Blogging - D
Again, busyness got in the way. And Facebook. And then Pinterest. I lost interesting in reading Real Simple magazine each month because a lot of what they promote is either not so simple or it's too expensive to worry with. Then I got behind in reading my issues of Cooking Light. There's also the fact that many of their recipes are complicated and/or have ingredients that aren't very common. I love to cook, but I want easy. I don't want to spend all my time in the kitchen cooking and cleaning up. I want to watch some TV and knit or crochet in the evenings.

Once again, this is showing where my priorities lie. They're on track, but I would like to get these things I love to do a little more balanced in my life. Maybe I can in 2012.

Lost: Inspiration

One of my goals for this year was to blog more about life in general instead of playing the meme game so often. I did a little of that, but I seem to have fallen off that horse in March or April. I don't know why. Life didn't get any busier than normal. I think I just lost my inspiration.

I've also dropped off quite a bit in my reading. By this time last year, I had read more than 20 books. I'm currently reading book #9. It was Lord of the Flies, my classic for April. But I got George W. Bush's Decision Points from the waiting list at the library, so I had to focus on it. I put LOTF away, lost interest, and returned it to the library. I also lost my interest in reading one classic a month. I just want to read what strikes my fancy, when it strikes my fancy. I'm still reading Decision Points. It's a slower read for me than most books - non-fiction usually is - but I'm really enjoying it. I'm also finding it very timely, what with Osama bin Laden's recent death.

Another area I've lost inspiration: photography. I WANT to take pictures, but I just haven't taken the time to do it. What I want to photograph is hard with the boys in tow. I haven't participated in the weekly Photo Friday meme in months. I haven't gotten back to my Project 52 since I rethought my angle two months ago. I found my new angle, but I haven't done anything since. I've also basically quit participating in a Facebook photography challenge group.

Maybe I just need to finish out this school year with the boys. We have just over a week left. Maybe then I can find some new inspiration.

Codes

As part of my blogging this year, I want to write about things I read (other than books) and things I watch - things that make me think. Since I'll be writing about things from the two magazines I subscribe to, as well as some of my favorite television programs, I want to note them in the titles of my posts. I've decided to use a sort of code instead of the whole name.

Cooking Light - CL
Real Simple - RS
Biggest Loser - BL
American Idol - AI
Meal Plan Monday - MPM
Photo Friday - PF

As I find other things I'll be blogging about regularly, I'll determine a code for them and add them to this list.

Now if you're a sporadic reader (and have read this post), you'll be able to glance at the blog titles for each month and skip over the ones that don't interest you.

January 21
Update: The codes aren't working. They're confusing me! I'll just start posting the full titles.

Velvet

I don't like velvet. It makes me feel like I'm smothering. I don't know how long it's had that effect on me, but I remember wearing velvet dresses when I was a little girl.

I don't understand why I still feel the urge to run my hands across velvet when I see it. Knowing how it makes me feel, you'd think I'd run the other way when I see it - especially when sometimes just the sight of it makes me start taking deep breaths. Maybe I'm just curious to see if it still makes me gasp. It still does. And I'm sure it will the next time.

The Welcoming Bark of a Dog

It's hard to imagine the welcoming bark of a dog when you live next door to Buddy. Most of what I hear from him is whining, and it's not welcoming. At all. It makes me want to run the other way. Actually it makes me want to contact the neighborhood office and complain, in hopes that they'd tell the neighbors to control him or get rid of him. Thankfully I haven't heard him in quite a long time. I don't know if that's because he's learned to shut up or he's content with the warmer weather or if they actually did get rid of him. He'd probably be better off since they rarely took any time with him. *grumble, grumble, grumble*

There's another nuisance related to barking dogs that makes me not think of them as welcoming. Every time I open my back door to go outside, all the surrounding dogs start barking. Excuse me, but it's my back yard and I should be able to go out and enjoy it if I choose.

I want a dog whistle or another high-pitched instrument that I can use whenever I go out back that would make them shut up and let me enjoy my yard. Then I might find the occasional bark of a dog welcoming. For the time being, though, it's just annoying.

A Pillow

I don't know how I came to have it, but when I was a little girl I had a small down pillow. It was about half the size of a regular pillow, and softer than anything I had ever known. I loved the way I could feel the little feathers inside, and if I worked my fingers just right, I could get a feather shaft to poke out through the cloth and pull it out. I'd tickle my face and arms with it, then probably leave it laying around for Mama to throw away. As I grew older, I didn't outgrow my pillow. I slept with it every night, even when I was in high school.

I don't remember when I finally put my little pillow away, or if I did it by choice. My younger middle sister would often see something she liked and claim it as her own. All I remember is that one day I realized it wasn't there and I couldn't find it. I still think of it from time to time and wonder what happened to it.

Hot Soup

I love a bowl of hot soup in the fall or winter. Campbell's had it right. Soup is good food.

We have soup nights once, sometimes twice, a week from October through March. Granted, some of the dishes aren't truly soup, but for us, they fall into that comfort food category: chicken & dumplings, red beans & rice, gumbo, chili,...

The one soup that brings back bad memories of childhood is chicken noodle soup. I always equate it with being sick. To this day, I can't eat it.

The one soup that brings back wonderful memories of childhood is Vegetable Soup. That rich, red tomato broth is chock full of bright colored veggie goodness: carrots, corn, green beans, potatoes, and green peas. (I ignored the lima beans, and now that I make it myself, I leave them out altogether.) Oooh, and sopping up all the leftover juice with a piece of hot homemade cornbread... Not Jiffy, but the real stuff, made from scratch. Second night soup is even better, after all the flavors have had time to blend...

One of my favorite soups is Baked Potato Soup. It's perfect with some crusty French bread for dipping. Or maybe it's Broccoli Cheese Soup. It's perfect with some crusty French bread for dipping. Or give me a baked potato smothered in Broccoli Cheese Soup. Crumble a little bacon on top and it gives the best of both.

Now that the weather has warmed up, I can't bring myself to eat hot soup. Cold soup doesn't sound right. I can't think of any cold soup I'd want to try. Well, maybe Strawberry Soup. I don't remember who told me about it, but I remember they loved it and had good family memories associated with it.

Hot soup days are only 4 short months away.

Classical Music

Classical music always reminds me of Memaw. When I was a little girl, I would spend Friday nights at her house. I'd often wake up on Saturday mornings to the sounds of classical music playing as she'd clean house. I didn't like it then, but as I grew older, I developed quite an appreciation for it.

When the boys were babies, I'd play classical music in their rooms when they would go to sleep at night. Studies supposedly showed that doing that would sharpen the logical, mathematical parts of the brain. Both of the boys are strong in math - above their grade levels. But I'm not so sure it's because I played classical music for them when they were infants. I think it has more to do with the fact that Billy and I are strong in math.

I recently took the boys to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. I wanted them to experience seeing a symphony play, to see the instruments being played, to hear the individual sounds they make. I wanted them to begin to develop an appreciation for classical music at an earlier age than I did. They enjoyed it, but I think I enjoyed it more. As I'd listen to some of my favorite pieces being played, I'd find myself tapping my hands or feet, smiling a goofy smile as I enjoyed the music.

I'd love to go back one day, but without the boys. They were very well-behaved on our field trip, but they admitted they had started getting bored. I don't want it to be drudgery for them. And when I go back, I want to be able to enjoy all of it and not worry about trying to keep two bored boys still and quiet.

Writing Exercises

I've mentioned several times that I'd like to write a children's book. In fact, I started one a few years ago, but once I got stuck, I put it away indefinitely. I've gotten it out a time or two since then and tried to work on it, but I'd hit that wall again and put it away. I'd think about it for a day or so, trying to work out the kinks, then I'd get busy with other things and forget about it again. Recently I've wanted to take it up again, but I know I'll see those difficult places again and put it away to ponder a while. Then I'll forget. Again.

While on one of our weekly library trips, I wandered into the section with writing guides. There are guide books for all sorts of writing: drama, comedy, stand-up, poetry, etc. I just wanted some practice. As I kept looking along the shelves, A Writer's Workbook caught my eye. I took it off the shelf and glanced through it. It looked promising, so I dropped it into the abyss of my library bag, along with several books the boys had chosen and a few other random things I had picked up.

Two weeks later, I finally opened it and began reading. Author Caroline Sharp talked about how you can't stop when you get stuck in your writing. You can't put it away and think the words will flow more easily the next time you put your pen to paper (or your fingers to the keyboard). Just as gymnasts and swimmers must practice before competitions, just as musicians must tune up before playing their instruments, writers must practice writing - finding the right words, getting into a flow of brain activity, etc.

Hmmm... There's something to that, and that's something I haven't been doing. Yes, I blog, but not consistently and not about anything of consequence. The writing I've been doing isn't doing anything to move me forward on my book.

So, I'm going to make an effort to follow through with the writing exercises in A Writer's Workbook to get my mind sharpened again. I'll post some of the exercises, but probably not all of them. In fact, the first "assignment" focuses on honing the power of description by writing about a circle, the color red, a bench, and 27 other random things. My first impression is that these won't make for interesting reading. Then again, they might. I'll post what is post-worthy and keep the rest hidden away.