2022’s First Update

             Since we’re a month in to 2022, I need to take a few minutes to reflect on how well I’ve done with my goals for the new year.

1. The first goal was to continue my healthier lifestyle. This one has been working out well. I’ve lost five pounds since the beginning of the year. I’m still faithfully tracking all my food. I’ve done more exercise than I had been, but not as much as I should be.
2. The second goal was to read one complete book per week. I’ve read three books so far this year and given that this is nearly the end of week five, I’m a little behind here. I do currently have several books in progress: one assigned to my AP Lit class, a couple devotionals, a Bible study book, and one I’m just reading. So, I may get caught up soon. The books I’ve read so far this year include John Grisham’s The Whistler, Janet Evanovich’s Tantalizing Twenty-Seven: Fortune and Glory, and Alex Trebek’s The Answer Is.
3. The third goal was to write and post one blog per week. Again, we’re nearing the end of week five, and I’ve posted three blogs. After posting this one, that just leaves me missing one week, but I’ll try to do better. I really would like to make it at least one per week.
4. The fourth goal was to complete a monthly Bible study plan. I’m disappointed to say I’m horribly off on this one. I started a study designed for forty days. Thirty-five days into the year, and I’ve finished ten or eleven days. I’ve got to do better. I had hoped to finish that one by mid-February and begin another, but I’ll have to revise it to finishing the current study by the end of February instead. This is doable. I just must make myself do it.
5. The fifth and final goal was to try a new recipe every week of the year, primarily from my cookbooks. I’ve excelled at this one. I have tried five new recipes this year, and four of them came from the cookbooks. I’ve tried Glazed Pork Medallions (from Taste of Home Comfort Food Diet Cookbook), Mandarin Orange Chicken Bites (from Cast Iron Cookbook), Pizza Soup (from Make It and Take It 2022), Shredded Steak Sandwiches (from Make It and Take It 2021), and Stuffed Pepper Casserole (from Pinterest). I enjoyed all of these recipes. I have several already bookmarked to try later.

Overall, I’ve done well on about half my goals and could improve on the other half. The great thing about goals for anything is they can be adjusted as needed. I don’t think I need to make any major adjustments to the goals I want to accomplish, but rather I need to focus on the ones that aren’t going as well and make sure I put myself in a position to do what needs to be done to be successful. Setting goals and working to achieve them is never easy. It does require a lot of work and focus. I simply need to improve my focus. I don’t like to fail so I will do better.

Some Resolutions Going Better than Others

It’s time once again for the monthly update on my progress for my resolutions for the year. So, how am I doing? For the most part, not so great.

The Project Resolution. Once again, I’ve done nothing. There’s a part of me that says I should just give up on it, since I’m obviously not very devoted to it. Then there’s another part of me that says I should not give up and should make myself find the time to get it done. At this point, I have no idea which part of me is going to win that debate. I really would like to finish the project. I think it’s a good idea. However, when I look at my schedule, I just don’t know when I’ll get it done. From now until the end of school is going to be very busy, not just finishing up this year but trying to get as much done for next year as possible so I don’t spend all summer doing that. And speaking of summer, this one is going to be so short, there won’t be a lot of project time there either. So, right now, I just don’t know if the project will get finished or not.

The Blog Resolution. I wanted to post at least three blogs per week. That didn’t happen in April. Today’s blog will make number seven for April. That’s an average of less than two per week. I had almost two full weeks in a row that I didn’t post anything. I don’t really have a good excuse for that. This, however, should be an easy resolution to fix. I’m just going to have to make sure I post more regularly, and at least three times per week.

The Reading Resolution. I was so excited to be exactly where I needed to be at the end of March with 21 books under my belt. Since then, I’ve added two to that total, which means I am now five books behind where I need to be to stay on pace to reach a total of 84 books for the year. I should get quite a few read in the next couple weeks, but that doesn’t help with the April reading goal. My AP class has chosen their project books, which gives me five books to read, but in order to get back on track, I’ll need to read a total of 12 for the month of May. It’s not an impossible feat, but given the May calendar, it may be improbable. I’ll do my best, though.

The Weight-Loss Resolution. I have actually made some progress here. At the end of March, I had only lost two pounds for the year. Now at the end of April, I’ve lost a total of 6.2 pounds. That doesn’t sound like much, but when I revisited this goal at the end of March, I determined I needed to lose at least 4.4 pounds per month to meet my goal of 40 total pounds for the year. In April, I lost 4.2 which is pretty close to what I need to average. Considering how poorly things progressed January through March, I’m going to count this as success. Now, I just need to keep it up.

The Try-Something-New Resolution: I set a goal to try at least one new something every month, and April was a pretty successful month. I tried Crock Pot Chicken Creole as a new recipe, and it was fabulous. I tried Crab on Chicken as a new dish at Olive Garden, and while it was pretty good, I think I prefer the Rosemary Garlic Chicken that I’d tried there in February. Finally, at Amy’s bridal shower, I tried a Spanakopita and a Grape Salad. The Spanakopita was OK, but I really liked the Grape Salad.

The Prayer Journal Resolution: I’m still updating the prayer journal, if not every day, at least two or three times per week. I probably could still focus more on it and say prayers more often than I do, but I like being able to write down the things I want to pray for.

The Gratitude Journal Resolution: This one is also going well. There are still some days when I have to really think about what to write down, but most days, it’s pretty easy to find something I’ve been grateful for that day. I’m really glad that I decided to keep a gratitude journal this year. For one thing, it requires me to stop and count my blessings. Sometimes when things get stressful, it’s easy to forget how blessed we truly are. Having to think of at least one thing each day to put in the gratitude journal forces me to find at least one positive thing that’s happened every day. We should all stop to think about what we’re grateful for every day of the year.

As seems to be par for the course, some resolutions are going relatively well while some are en route to becoming an epic fail. I’m really going to have to put some effort into improving those that are flailing and trying to revitalize them. Everything is still doable, and it’s still too early in the year to write any of them off as total failures. However, I’m going to have to take action to make sure they do become successes.

Fire Convenient, but Not Necessary to Kindle My Love of Reading

For Christmas, my wonderful husband got me a Kindle Fire, among other things. Last year (2011), he had gotten me a Kindle for my birthday, and I was enjoying it more than I thought I would. Don’t get me wrong, I still love holding an actual book in my hands, turning pages while I read, using a real bookmark to mark my spot, and closing up the book when I’ve made it to the end. I can’t do any of those things when reading on my Kindle, but I have still enjoyed the convenience the Kindle allows me.

As my kids starting getting the Kindle Fire for themselves, I was intrigued enough to want to upgrade, and thankfully my husband took care of that for me. Fortunately, Amazon doesn’t place a limit on the number of Kindles that can be registered to an account, because I currently have seven registered to my account – my original one, and then a Fire for Byron, Nic, Cody, Tiffany, Ashley, and, now, me. The great thing is that we can share books and apps.

For the most part, when it comes to apps, most of what has been applied to our account has been free apps. There is the occasional app that somebody will pay for, but even then, I don’t recall anybody paying more than $5 for an app. Often, we also choose free books. A lot of the books on our Cloud are classics, and I have chosen some free books as well. That’s not to say that on occasion one of us doesn’t buy a book just for the Kindle. The great thing about all these Kindles on one account is that whatever one person buys goes to the Cloud and is available for all of us. All we have to do is download it to our own device.

Now that I have the Kindle Fire, I’m quite happy. I’m not going to stop reading actual books that I can hold in my hands, but there are so many other things I can do with the Fire. I will use my Fire for reading books, but I also have several apps that I will enjoy. There are games, such as Scrabble, Unolingo, Tetris, Solitaire, Jewels Star, Logo Quiz, Words with Friends, Jeopardy, and The American Bible Challenge. I have apps for Pinterest, WordPress, and Facebook on there. Two other apps that I’m looking forward to using are the WWPP Calculator (Weight Watchers Points Plus) and Lose It! I’ll be revising my weight-loss goal for 2013, and I’m hoping the combination of these two apps will make achieving that goal a little easier for me.

There are many other things I could choose to do with my Kindle Fire, including adding music, videos, and pictures, but I’m not sure I will do that. I still use my iPod for listening to music. I don’t know that I want to watch videos on a 7-inch screen, and I have pictures on my iPod and my phone, so I’m just not sure if I’ll be moving pictures over to the Fire or not. There’s a tab for audiobooks, but I’ve never been fond of “listening” to a book, so I don’t see myself using that. I’m also not sure how often I’ll use the tab for the newsstand. The tab for docs may come in handy. I won’t upload a lot of documents to work with, but it will be handy for carrying around the file that has my booklist. Too often I’m in a bookstore and can’t remember if I have a certain book. Being able to access this list will make life much easier. I’m sure there will be times when I’ll have another document that it will be handy to have easy access to, and when that happens, I’ll simply move it to the Kindle. Finally, there is the web link, and I’m sure that when wi-fi is available and I don’t have the laptop handy, I will be using the web browser. I’m not sure how often that will be, but it’s nice to have it if I want it.

I’ve only had my Kindle Fire for five days, but I’m very grateful to my husband for getting it for me. I had used my old Kindle more than I thought I would in the year and a half that I’ve had it, and I imagine that I’ll use the Fire even more. A couple weeks ago, someone was talking to me and said that she had read her first actual book in over a year, and it seemed weird to her to be reading a book where she had to hold it and turn pages because over the year she had only been reading books on her Kindle. I don’t think I’ll ever get to that point. I have decided that I like the convenience of reading on the Kindle, but I still love to hold and read actual books. The great thing about this device is that it does not have to replace your books. It can complement them. As for me, I’ll use my Fire as much for the other apps as I will for reading, and I will still be reading actual books along the way.

October Update Shows End Is Near

The year is definitely winding down, and with just two months to go, it’s time to get serious about making sure those resolutions I set all the way back in January get accomplished. That may be easier said than done for a couple of them.

The writing goal has been one of the easiest to keep. With the exception of a few days while I’ve been traveling, I have been able to write every day. I’m still posting the blog every day. I know I missed a few days earlier in the year, but I have managed to post regularly. I have periodically worked on the project, and if I have something I need to do to tweak this particular goal, it will be to make sure that I give more time to that project. I need to finish it, which means I need to work on it a little bit more. I’m in a bit of a quandary right now, though, between trying to work in more time for the project and trying to address the reading goal, and right now I’m leaning more toward the reading one. It’s fairly safe to say that at least one of these will be a failure at the end of the year, and considering that I haven’t worked at least two days per week on the project like I’d said I wanted to, undoubtedly, the project will not be considered a success by the end of the year. I suppose I’m using that as my rationale to try to save the reading goal so that I only have to classify one as a failure rather than both.

The reading goal is still far from being successful. I had set my goal at 75 books for the entire year, a lofty goal but one I had no doubt I would reach. With just two months left, I’m finally starting to have my doubts. I’m only at 48, leaving me 27 to get done by midnight of December 31. In order to do that, I’m going to have to read at least 13.5 books each month. I do have some days off in both November and December, but with the holidays that cuts into the reading time as well. I’ve been doing less school work at home, which leaves more time for reading, or sometimes napping, and the napping interferes with the reading. I’ve only added five books in October: The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly, The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan, The Fables of Aesop, A Pleasure to Burn: Fahrenheit 451 Stories by Ray Bradbury, and Texas! Lucky by Sandra Brown. It’s time to get serious about this reading goal. I’m nothing if not stubborn and I’m not ready to throw in the towel just yet.

The weight loss goal is at a standstill. I had said I wanted to lose 20 pounds by the end of the year. I have lost five. While I suppose that’s better than gaining five, that still leaves me 15 pounds to lose in the final two months of the year, which just happen to be the big holiday months of November and December, the same two months when more baking occurs. Somehow in the midst of all that, I have to try to lose another 15 pounds. It is doable. It won’t be easy, but it can be done. One strategy a friend shared with me is to weigh every day. Now in the past, I’d read articles that said not to do this, but she had heard that this was the new trend. This supposedly helps because you see if you’re losing, and if you gain one day, you know immediately to cut back more the next day rather than not finding out until the end of the week when you may have gained two pounds rather than a half pound. I’ve been doing that for the last week, and it does help with focusing. Hopefully I can get rid of that final 15 pounds during the toughest part of the year for losing weight.

The recipe challenge is still a booming success. We’re finding all kinds of new dishes that we just love and can’t wait to try again. We’ve done 11 recipes in October. The two that were non-Pinterest recipes were the Lemon Pepper Fettucine, a recipe from The Chew, and Herb-Crusted Pork Loin with Potatoes, from about.com. The Lemon Pepper Fettucine was too lemony for me. I would have liked it a lot better if there were less lemon in it. The pork loin recipe, though, was really good. The other nine recipes came from Pinterest. Those included Pumpkin Crumb Cake (fabulous), Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings (already done this one a second time), Chicken Tacos in the Crock Pot (only three ingredients and very good), Apple Enchiladas (it’s no apple crisp, but it’s fast and easy and quite good), Butter and Brown Sugar Roasted Sweet Potatoes (can’t wait to do these again), Parmesan Pull-Apart Bread (easy bread recipe to add to your supper), Grilled Tomato, Mozzarella, Pesto, and Basil Sandwich (Jimmy used basil, and I didn’t, but still a great change of pace for grilled cheese), Pumpkin Bread (turned out OK, but think I’ll stick to box mix which seems to be eaten more), and Pumpkin Fudge (turned out better than the last recipe I tried for this). This is still one of my favorite resolutions, which is probably why it’s so easy to do. I still have a ton of magazines and cookbooks with tons of recipes, but Pinterest makes it so easy to find new things to try. I know a lot of people use Pinterest for a lot of different things, but for me, it’s pretty much just a recipe finder.

Keeping you updated is the easiest resolution to keep because it gives me a topic for the blog at least once a month. With just two months left, I’ve got to do some serious work in order to make a couple of these resolutions actually pan out. My stubborn streak is just long enough to make me believe that I can do that.

Where Am I at the End of July?

Can you believe seven months of 2012 have passed? It’s been an eventful year, especially with the birth of my granddaughter this month. I’m still working on keeping those resolutions I made back in January. So, how have I been doing?

1. Writing. Per my resolution, I have been writing every day, and I have posted a blog every day, though those from last week were short and brief; after all, I was a little preoccupied with my Mady. Some days I get more on paper than others, but that’s par for the course. I haven’t been as diligent with the project as I should have been. If I end up having a failure on the writing end of my goal, it’s going to be the progress I’ve made on the project. I’m not a quitter, though, so I’ll keep trying.

2. Reading. I’ve managed 11 books in July, which is a good thing since I had quite a bit of catching up to do. That brings my total for the year to 38. In order to reach 75 books, I need to average 6.25 books per month, which means I should be sitting at 43.75 for the year. I’m behind by 5. I’m hoping, however, that I can catch up in August. That will be a little more difficult with school starting, but for the most part, I’m going to be home by myself in the evenings, so that should open up some reading time. The good news about the whole situation is that if I can manage 6.25 each of the remaining months, I really only need to read one extra book per month to still hit 75 for the year. That is completely doable.

So what did I read this month? I started the month with Janet Evanovich’s Wicked Business, a series based on a character named Diesel. If you enjoy her Stephanie Plum books, you will enjoy the Diesel books. I then read Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, which was one of the AP summer reading assignments. I always enjoy this book, which I reread every summer it’s assigned. In January, I read all of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, so this month I read the first two books in the Heroes of Olympus series, The Lost Hero and The Son of Neptune. I’m looking forward to the third book’s release in October. I also read The Princess Bride by William Goldman. My kids love the movie so I’ve seen it several times, and when I ran across the book, I decided to give it a read. I read Angels Flight by Michael Connelly, a good mystery. I celebrated Christmas in July by reading Mary Higgins Clark’s Silent Night. Moliere’s Tartuffe also made the list for July as I needed to decide whether to include it on a reading list. I read Rainwater by Sandra Brown; it wasn’t a typical Sandra Brown-style book, but I do suggest it to those who like stories set during the Depression. Lisa Gardner’s The Other Daughter was a good mystery book, and I’m pleased to say I had it figured out by the end. I finished the month with Lee Goldberg’s Mr. Monk on Patrol. I love the TV show Monk, and the book series is great. If you love the TV show, you’ll love the books.

3. Weight Loss. I’m not even sure where I stand on this one. I haven’t done a weigh-in for several weeks. I was beginning to get a little frustrated with it again, and so I haven’t been watching my food intake quite like I should. Next week, school starts and I’m back at work and on a regular schedule, so I’m going to try to get it together. Wish me luck.

4. Cooking. We’re still trying new recipes. Jimmy created a couple of new dishes for us this month, sausage subs and a pasta salad. As with most things he creates, these were quite good. I made several freezer jams this month. I had done strawberry before, so that wasn’t new, but the peach jam, the blackberry jam, and the strawberry-blueberry jam were new. I’m pleased to say they were all successful. One new recipe that was very successful was Paula Deen’s Crab Cakes with Dill Sauce. The final two recipes were also very good, Southwestern Chicken from Pinterest and Spicy Stuffed Peppers with Andouille from Taste of Home magazine. We’ve managed to try so many new recipes this year, and for the most part, we’ve enjoyed all of them. This is definitely something we’ll keep doing.

5. Updates. This is the easy resolution to keep, just write one blog a month to tell you what I’m doing. I like this resolution for several reasons. One, it gives me something for sure to write about one day each month so I don’t have to struggle to think of a topic. Two, it’s easy to keep. Three, it helps keep me honest and on track.

Seven months down, five to go. For those I’m having trouble with, there’s still time to get on track and be successful. For those I’m not having trouble with, I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing.

Books Make a Home Reader-Friendly

I recently discovered and read an article that was originally published in 2010, but it justifies all the books in my house, so I like it. Not that I need anything to justify all the books in my house. I love books and that’s what I choose to indulge in. I have a job, so I can choose my indulgences. All that aside, though, it was interesting to read about a study that should encourage others to also indulge in books.

According to the article (I’ll include the link at the end), the more books in one’s house, the more likely the children who live there will have more educational success. The article is based on a 20-year study from across the world and highlights that the number of books in one’s home has more influence upon a child than the parents’ nationality, educational level, or income.

We all know that reading is important, and by the time a child enters school, he or she has already started to form opinions about reading. Those opinions are based on what they see at home, before they ever step foot inside a classroom. The presence of books in the home places an importance on reading. If a child believes the parents find reading important, the child will be more likely to find reading important. I have four children. Three of them are regular readers who love reading probably as much as I do. Trav reads less than the other three, but he does read.

I have often had people ask me what magic trick I used to get my kids to read. The answer is simple really. Whatever a child sees happening in his or her home on a regular basis is what that child will perceive as normal. I read to my kids when they were little. As they grew, they saw me reading. A lot. As far as they were concerned, that was normal. It was what people did. So when they learned to read, they did it. To this day, there are sometimes things they ask for that I have to tell them we just can’t afford right then, so they have to wait. The one exception is when they ask for books. If they asked for books, I always tried, and usually succeeded, at finding a way to get them the books they wanted. I believe reading is that important.

There are many things in the world today that compete for our children’s attention. We should always encourage reading and make books available for our children. If we find it important and place value on it, then despite all the other things out there, our children will choose to be readers. Children can be readers and still indulge from time to time in other activities. Just because my children are readers doesn’t mean they don’t also have other activities they enjoy. It’s up to the parents and caregivers, though, to make sure that children have access to books and to encourage reading by placing value on reading. I plan to continue this tradition with my grandchildren. I have no doubt they will grow up in homes with a number of books. In fact, some of the first things I bought for my granddaughter were books.

In the age of e-readers, I have to wonder how this will impact the results of this study as a home can contain many books without the book actually sitting on the shelf. Hopefully, owners of e-readers are mostly like me and still value the presence of an actual book. I do enjoy my Kindle, but I still enjoy the presence of all the actual books in my home, and there are still series that I will always buy the actual book.

One of the greatest gifts you can give a child is a love of reading. Before you can give that gift, though, there has to be access to books. In the home is a good place to start.

If you are interested in reading the article, you can find it at the following link: http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/chat/chat265.shtml

Going the Distance, and Beyond, for Film Franchises

The movie industry needs to find ways to make money. I understand this. Lately, it seems a lot of the movies are remakes of older movies. And they do make money on those remakes. Both the Batman and the Spider-Man series have been redone recently, and with great success. In a way, it leaves me wondering if original ideas are really that scarce.

Another way the movie industry makes money is to find a book series and build a franchise around it. If in doubt, look at the franchises around J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, or Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight. Franchises are currently being built around Steig Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, with just the first installment of those out and the rest being planned.

I have no problem with taking a good book and making a good movie based on it. I will likely always believe the book is better than the movie, for several reasons. First, the movie always has to cut some material in order to fit within the time constraints. Second, often directors and produces alter the book by changing characters or plot, a move which makes me very angry. My philosophy is this: if it was good enough for the author of the book and the readers who made the book go to the top of the best sellers list, then why change it? Anyway, it happens, I get angry, and life goes on.

When it was decided to release the seventh Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, in two installments, many wondered how that would go over. In a nutshell, it went over quite well and made a lot of money for everyone associated with the Harry Potter franchise. It was also a move that opened the door for others to follow.

I understand why the movie was issued in two installments. The last Harry Potter book is 784 pages in length. There is a lot that takes place to bring closure to the story. I already mentioned how the time constraint of a movie forces producers to cut material from the book. Because this book was so lengthy and so important, it made sense to break it in half and give the Harry Potter fans a great movie ending to their beloved series.

Shortly afterwards it was announced that the Twilight series would follow suit and Breaking Dawn, the final movie, would be issued in two installments. Since the book is 756 pages in length and Twilight has developed its own legion of fans who would like appropriate closure, this, too makes sense. There was an easily identifiable mid-point in the book that allowed for the break, and the two installments allow the producers to include a lot more details.

Yesterday, I saw an announcement that The Hunger Games is also going to follow this trend. I won’t be surprised to see even more series deciding to split their final books into two-installment movies. However, it is prudent to ask some questions before that decision is made. The primary questions are: are two installments being made in order to be true to the integrity of the book and the series, or are two installments being made in order to make more money?

In the case of The Hunger Games, splitting the final book Mockingjay into two installments is a money-making decision. The book is only 400 pages in length. Books of that length are made into movies of two to two and a half hours all the time. If movie producers are going to start breaking all 400-page books into two installments to be true to the integrity of the book, then perhaps it would make sense for Mockingjay to be presented this way. However, I doubt that will happen. Other 400-page books, or even books longer than that, will continue to be made into one movie. The only reason the decision was made to do Mockingjay in two parts is because producers see it as a trend after the Harry Potter and Twilight movies. I wonder if they even stopped to consider the length of this book in relation to the other two.

No doubt this move will make a lot of money for The Hunger Games franchise, and I understand money is the name of the game in Hollywood. However, this seems rather disrespectful to fans of the series. I hope that when other successful book series are adapted into movies those making the movies will consider the fans as more than just a way to line their pockets.

Half the Year Down, Half to Go

Wow. Six months of 2012 are gone. It’s almost unbelievable. The older you get, the faster time passes. I’m not sure how that is possible, but it is true nonetheless. The best thing we can do is make the most of each and every day. And now that the end of June has arrived, it’s time for me to update on the status of those New Year’s resolutions I made six months ago.

1. Writing. Yes, I have managed to write something every day, even on those days I didn’t really want to. I’ve also managed to post a blog every day, even when I spent five days in Sweetwater, TN, with no internet. Luckily, I can access WordPress with an app on my phone. I have also worked on my project, though not always two days per week. I have, however, made significant progress on it, and I am very happy about that. There are days when I work on the project when I start to feel very overwhelmed, but then I manage to make some progress and I feel much better, and I can convince myself that I will actually finish it.

2. Reading. I’m really starting to wonder if I bit off more than I can chew with this one. I set a goal of 75 books for the year, a measly 6.25 books per month, and then I got behind and have been playing catch up ever since. I’m still slightly behind. I should be at 37.5 books, and I’ve managed to read 27 and have started two others, one an actual book and one on my Kindle. I’m still hoping to catch up, but it will be a little more difficult. In July, I will start revising lesson plans to get ready for a new school year, and my granddaughter will be arriving, though I’ve been known to read and hold babies before. I’m still hoping to catch up. I’m nothing if not stubborn.

So, what have I read this lovely month of June? First up was The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Steig Larsson. I had read the first two books in the series a couple of years ago, and I thought I had read this one already, but after checking my database, I discovered I had not, so I had to remedy that. This may have been my favorite of the three. It best shows that this is Lisbeth Salander’s story above all else. Next up, I reread my favorite Ray Bradbury book, Fahrenheit 451. After Bradbury passed away early in the month, I just felt drawn back to the book and gave it another read. It never gets old for me. After that, I read bird by bird by Anne Lamott. This is a book that Cody was given as part of his creative writing class at Governor’s Scholars last summer. I’ve had it for nearly a year now, and when he said that Tiffany was also given a copy of the book in her creative writing class for Governor’s Scholars (she is on a different campus), I decided it was time to check it out. I’m glad it did. She reaffirmed some things about writing for me, and I decided I’m going to check with the librarian to see if she can order a class set to supplement Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft that I use for my AP Language class. Next on the list was Christine by Stephen King, a classic of his that I had yet to read. I enjoyed the story, but have decided that in the same way I will never own a Saint Bernard, I will also never own a Plymouth Fury. The last book to make it in for June was Lynn Truss’s Eats, Shoots and Leaves. This is one of the required summer readings for the AP Language kids, and I always reread the assigned books as well. This is a favorite of mine, this book about punctuation. The kids are usually 50/50 with the book; they either love it or hate it. I rarely have one in the middle on this one.

3. Weight loss. I have managed to lose a couple more pounds, and I have also rededicated myself to this one. Thus, at the beginning of the week, I began to once again use the Weight Watchers points system to track my eating. If all goes well, and I’m working hard so far to make sure it does, I can lose at least five or six pounds before school starts.

4. Recipes. This one is still going fabulously. Our first recipe was Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken, a recipe I found on Pinterest. This was amazing. Four ingredients are all you need – chicken, brown sugar, butter, and garlic. And as a bonus, a serving is only three Weight Watchers points. I can’t wait to fix this one again. We also made Kara Sigle’s Twice Baked Potatoes. She was a contestant on Next Food Network Star. The recipe turned out to be very similar to our own Baked Potato Casserole recipe, and we actually preferred ours to hers, so I doubt we’ll be using that particular recipe again. For Ashley’s baby shower, I made a Peanut Butter Fruit Dip and a Peanut Butter Cheese Ball. Both recipes are from Pinterest. The fruit dip wasn’t as big a hit as the cheese ball, but everybody seemed to love the cheese ball. I had several requests for that recipe. I also made Spicy Chicken Tortilla Roll-Ups for the shower, another Pinterest recipe, and these were also a success. We also found a Pork Tenderloin with Pan Sauce recipe on Pinterest, and it was amazing. And like the Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken, it’s low on the Weight Watchers points scale. The last recipe for this month was a creation Jimmy threw together to mimic the Applebee’s N’awlins Skillet dish. I didn’t taste the dish from Applebee’s, but I can say that Jimmy’s creation was really good.

5. Updates. This one is hard to mess up. As long as I post the update on the resolutions I manage to keep resolution number 5. Perhaps that’s the reason I made this one; I know it will be the most difficult to mess up, and I can feel some success. And perhaps I can use the success I feel here to motivate me to success on the others.

Travel, and Read the Book of the World

I have a quote on my Pinterest page that says, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” I really like this quote for two reasons: I love to read, and I love to travel. Having a quote that so effectively links those two things just makes me happy.

St. Augustine is the author of that particular quotation. For those of you who don’t know, St. Augustine was a theologian and philosopher from the fifth century whose writings were influential in the development of Western Christianity. Some things are timeless, and this quotation is an example of one of those things. If a fifth century philosopher figured this out, why do we still have people in the 21st century who only want to read a page from the book of the world?

I consider myself very fortunate. My parents liked to travel and took my brothers and me on several family vacations. Don’t get me wrong, I love being home, and you’ve probably heard me say more than once how happy I was to have a day or two where I didn’t have to go anywhere and was able to just sit home in my pajamas all day. And I do enjoy those days, but I like to get out and see the world, too.

The area where I live is beautiful. I love the mountains and the small town. After a vacation, I love to come back home. What I don’t understand are those people who never want to leave home. If that’s what makes them happy, then that’s fine. I’m not trying to criticize them. I’m just saying I don’t understand why someone wouldn’t want to see the world.

The world is a beautiful place. God made some beautiful country out there, more than just what is available from the view from your front porch. If you think the mountains here in Eastern Kentucky are beautiful, you are right, but you should check out the view from a cabin in the Smoky Mountains. If you think the lakes we have in Eastern Kentucky are beautiful, you are right, but you should walk on the beach and see the ocean. The view of a sunrise in the mountains is gorgeous, but so is the view of the sunrise over the ocean. Listening to frogs croak and crickets chirp is a peaceful way to go to sleep, but so is listening to the waves of the ocean as the tide comes onto the beach.

Many of the places on my bucket list are there because I want to see the beauty God has created in other parts of the world. I still hope to see the Grand Canyon, Old Faithful, Death Valley, the Mississippi River, and the Alaskan Klondike, just to name a few. There are many places I’ve been blessed to visit and others that are on the bucket list because of their historical significance. Not only was I lucky enough to have parents who gave me a love of travel, but they also instilled a love and appreciation for the history of our great country. I’ve been blessed to visit historical monuments and sites in Washington, D.C., New York, and Boston. Let me just tell you that if you get the chance to stand on the USS Constitution, and if you can appreciate what that means, it will be one of the highlights of your life. Visiting places for their beauty is one aspect of reading the book of the world. Visiting places for their historical significance is another, and this one allows you to really read that book of the world. Some of the other places on my bucket list of historical significance that I’d still like to visit include Pearl Harbor, Gettysburg, Philadelphia, and Birmingham.

I love to read actual books, and through the wide variety of books I have read in my lifetime, I’ve been able to visit all parts of the world and all time periods of history. As wonderful as that is, actually traveling and reading the book of the world is even better. Reading about these places and things in a book is one thing. Standing there looking at it with your own eyes is another entirely.

There are many other places outside the United States that I would like to visit. I’d love to tour Italy and Ireland. I’d love to see the Coliseum and Stonehenge. I’ll probably never make it outside the country, though if my husband happened to win the lottery, that might change. But realistically, travel does cost money, and I don’t foresee being able to afford traveling out of the country any time soon. So, I’ll be content to leave those places on my bucket list while I cross off the items that are here in the good, ol’ USA. One thing you can count on, though, is that I’m never content to just read one page of a book.

Marching on with My Resolutions

Another month has come and gone, so it’s time for my monthly update blog to let you know how well I’m doing with keeping my 2012 New Year’s resolutions.

You may remember I made five simple resolutions, because simple resolutions are much easier to keep. So, let’s see how I’m doing.

1. My writing resolution is working out about the same. I am managing to write something every day, and I am managing to post a blog every day. Sometimes I feel like it’s decent stuff, and other times I’m not as happy with it, but I think that goes with the territory of being a writer. Not everything will be a masterpiece. The third part of my writing resolution is still the part that needs the most work. I am making slow progress on my project, but it’s not getting the two days per week that I’d like it to. There’s only one month of school left, and I’m really hoping that during the three months I have off this summer that I can make up for what I’ve failed to do so far with the project.

2. My reading goal is progressing slowly. I’m up to having 12.5 books that I’ve read so far. That’s quite a bit under the 6.25 per month I’d hoped to do to stay on pace to hit 75 for the year. It puts me about a month behind. I’m not really worried, though, because with those three full months off this summer, I don’t anticipate having any trouble making up the difference, and even going ahead, of the monthly goal. I still believe 75 for the year is doable.

3. My weight loss goal has taken a step backward. As you may remember I gave up Diet Dew for Lent, and over the course of the last month, I’ve been drinking some Cherry 7-Up. I can’t find that in diet, so while Cherry 7-Up is a great-tasting drink, it was a bad choice. I managed to gain back what I’d lost so far, but that only strengthens my resolve. I’ve given up the Cherry 7-Up, and I’ve started tracking my foods using my Weight Watchers tools. The last time Nic and I signed up for Weight Watchers online, I bought both of us a set of the “tools” that were available – a tracker that calculates points values and tracks our daily usage and a set of books that include points values for a variety of foods and that includes point values for restaurant food items. I started using these tools again this week, and despite being in Pigeon Forge for my anniversary and eating out at some great restaurants, I think the week will turn out OK. If not, I only have an anniversary once a year, so I won’t worry about it too much, and I’ll be better with my tracking next week. Either way, I’m sure that once I start tracking regularly, then I’ll be fine, and I’ll see the weight start to drop off.

4. My recipe challenge is probably my favorite resolution, and one of the best ideas I’ve had in a while, though I do have to be careful to make sure it doesn’t interfere with my weight loss resolution. March was another good month for cooking in the Raines house. This month, we tried a variety of recipes. We tried two grilled cheese recipes, and both were successes: Grilled Apple, Bacon, and Cheddar Grilled Cheese with Roasted Red Onion Mayo and Tyler’s Mozzarella Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. Jimmy created a turkey club sandwich that was also very good. We tried a couple of casserole-style dishes: Chicken and Dumpling Casserole and Green Onion Chicken with Linguine. Again, both of these were a success. I did one side dish recipe, Baked Herb and Parmesan Potatoes, and these potatoes were delicious. Finally, I did two different crock pot recipes: Dr. Pepper Roast and Cajun Pot Roast. The Dr. Pepper Roast was OK, but I preferred the Cajun Pot Roast which was exceptional. Once again, we’ve managed to average more than one new recipe, and regardless of what happens with the other resolutions, I see this as one that will stay with us, even after 2012 is over. And as always I’ll be happy to share my recipes with you.

5. My final resolution of keeping you updated is once again achieved. I really like this resolution as well because it gives me a chance to stop and periodically take stock of how I’m doing. In addition, knowing I have to report it to someone helps to keep me on track. I look forward to the April update, and I hope to see further improvement in those areas where I’m lacking.