Final Resolutions Update for 2013

Another year has come and is nearly gone. Time flies, and we really need to be sure to take the time to enjoy every minute we have. With the last day of December here, it’s time to do a final analysis of how my resolutions, shared with you on January 1, turned out. I’ll go ahead and acknowledge that for the most part, it was not as well as I had hoped back on January 1. However, that’s not to say that lot of good things didn’t happen in the wonderful year of 2013. It’s just to say that not all of my resolutions were successful.

My writing goal was a total flop. I did not even come close to finishing the project that I had said I would finish at the beginning of the year. I had intended to continue blogging on a regular basis, but as the year progressed, the blog posting was rather sporadic.

My reading goal was to read 75 books this year. This was the same goal I failed to meet in 2012. Over the course of the year, I read 76 books, which not only met the goal but surpassed it. Needless to say, after last year’s miss, I am thrilled with that result, especially with so much else going on and my failure to meet some of the other resolutions I’d set for the year.

The books I read in December included the following: Four Days in November, edited by Tom Wicker (New York Times news coverage of the Kennedy assassination); Elements of Style, by William Strunk (to make sure I wanted to include it on the English 200 syllabus as a suggested text); Rigor Is Not a Four-Letter Word, by Barbara Blackburn (ideas for how to increase rigor in the classroom); Amish White Christmas and An Amish Christmas Wish, both by Samantha Jillian Bayarr (I love Christmas stories in December; you’ll see that most of my December reading is Christmas stories); Christmas Awakenings, by Lorelei Conifer (a collection of Christmas short stories); The Crazy Christmas Angel Mystery, by Beverly Lewis (a cute kid’s story); A Little Book of Christmas, by John Kendrick Bangs (collection of Christmas short stories); Home for Christmas, by Kristin Holt, and Christmas Diamond, by Hallee Bridgeman (both simple Christmas stories); A Grosvenor Square Christmas, various authors (a collection of short stories); The Santa Shop, by Tim Greaton (possibly the most inspiring Christmas story I read this season); The Children’s Book of Christmas Stories (a collection of older Christmas stories); Twelve Days, by Teresa Hill (another Christmas story, this one by a Kentucky author); A Winter Dream, by Richard Paul Evans (another great Christmas story from Evans); A Cedar Cove Christmas, by Debbie Macomber (a cute Christmas story based on the original Christmas story);  5-B Poppy Lane, by Debbie Macomber (one of her Cedar Cove stories, that I thought was going to be Christmas-based, but wasn’t); The First Phone Call from Heaven, by Mitch Albom (a really great read). And possibly my biggest reading accomplishment is that included in the total books read for the year is the Bible. For the first time ever (and I’m really sad to admit that considering how old I am), I read the entire Bible over the course of the year. Using a reading plan, I read the entire Old Testament once and the New Testament twice.

My weight-loss resolution was partially successful. It wasn’t totally successful because I didn’t reach the 60-pound loss I had hoped for (5 pounds per month). While at one point, I had dropped 40 pounds, with the holidays, there was a slight regain, making my net loss 35 pounds for the year. Though I didn’t meet the goal of 60 pounds, I did lose 7.5 inches from my waist and 6 inches from my hips. That certainly made me happy. I achieved this much success because I changed my eating habits, and I exercised more than I ever had before. I’m healthier and feel better now than I have in quite some time. Given I’m 35 pounds lighter than I was on January 1 and I dropped two sizes, I’ll count this one as a success.

My resolution to try at least 12 new restaurants over the year was also successful. We found several new places to add to the places we like to eat, some more than others. Though a simple resolution, I’m glad this one was successful.     My resolution to watch 10 classic movies over the course of the year, and which seemed so simple at the time, did not come to fruition. We managed to watch just a couple of those. As the year progressed, this resolution meant less and less to me, and it wasn’t one I was really worried about. I just didn’t really care about it anymore. There were other things that filled my time and that I enjoyed so much more.

While some resolutions achieved success and others didn’t, the year was still amazing. If I could count every time I read Goodnight, Moon (or another book) to Mady, I would have tripled the number of books read for the year. If I had to choose again to watch a classic movie or to watch Paw Patrol with Mady, I’d still choose Paw Patrol. If I had to choose between staying home and working on the project or spending all those weekends in Lexington with Mady and Lily, I’d still choose to be in Lexington with those baby girls.

Having some resolutions and goals for the year is an important thing to do. It’s always nice to achieve success on those, but it’s also important to make sure you keep your priorities straight. Finishing a project or watching a movie is not nearly as important to me as spending time with my family. Of the resolutions I set, the weight-loss one is the one that mattered the most, because it allowed me to improve my lifestyle to become healthier, which in the long run can give me many more years to spend with my family; and for that resolution, I achieved success. It wasn’t the 60 pounds I’d hoped for, but looking back, that may have been a little unrealistic. When considering resolutions for 2014 (which you will get to read about tomorrow), I am trying to be sure that I’m realistic. For now, though, it’s time to spend some time remembering all the great things that happened in 2013. I hope your year was everything you wanted it to be, and more.

Goals Not Going So Well in 2013

Can anyone else believe it’s December 1? The older I get, the faster the year seems to go by, and here we are with just one month remaining in 2014. I suppose that I should update about the progress I’ve made on those five seemingly simple resolutions I made 11 short months ago, and I will, but when compared to last year’s progress, I’ve already decided that 2013 isn’t going to shape up so well, at least as far as keeping resolutions goes. Don’t get me wrong. This has been a great year, filled with blessings (I’ll talk about all those next month), but for resolutions, it wasn’t so great.

The writing resolution I made has been a complete bust. I’ve made some, albeit little, progress on finishing that project. I have only sporadically posted blogs. I have a feeling December won’t be much better. That’s the bad news, I guess. The good news, though, is that I am already rethinking how to revise this resolution for 2014 so that I can make sure it is a success.

In regard to reading, I once again set a goal of 75 books. If I could count every time I’ve read Goodnight, Moon or Yummy Yucky to Mady, I’d have no problem reaching that goal, but alas, I do not count the children’s books in my total. If I could count the student essays I’ve read this year, that could add to my total, but again, I do not count those. So while I’ve done a lot of reading, I haven’t (and likely won’t yet again) meet the goal of 75 books. In November, though, I did add four books to my total, bringing me to 56, which is 19 short of the goal. The good news is that I’m on pace with the daily Bible reading, and as long as I continue, I will finish the Bible this year, so that will be one more book to add. And I’m also only about 75 pages shy of finishing a 600-page book, so I should finish that one relatively soon. I won’t entirely rule out meeting this goal, but I will say it’s not likely. Even I have to be realistic sometimes.

So what did I read in November? I began with two works by William Shakespeare, Othello and Macbeth, and I read both because my classes at school were reading them. I also read Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain, and I read that one, believe it or not, just because I wanted to. I had read excerpts but decided I want to read the entire book, so I did. There were some boring parts, but mostly it was interesting. Finally, I read The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks, who once again did not disappoint.

For my weight-loss goal, I will not lose the 60 pounds that was the original goal; however, I have lost 40, and I’m happy with that. Considering in 2012, I set a goal to lose weight, and ended the year where I’d started, I’m thrilled that now I am 40 pounds lighter than I was on January 1. Given that the holiday season has begun, I’ve decided that if I can maintain this 40-pound loss, I will be happy. If I happen to lose a little more by the end of the year, that’s great, but if not, then that’s fine too, as long as I don’t gain any back. I’m thrilled to say that I weighed in on Thanksgiving morning and didn’t get to weigh in again until this morning, and I didn’t gain anything over the Thanksgiving holiday. If I can keep that up through Christmas, I’ll be quite satisfied with this goal, and I’ll reset a new goal for 2014.

We did manage to try another new restaurant in November, and this is probably the only goal that will actually be met in its entirety by the end of the year. We ate at Coba Cocina on Richmond Road in Lexington. It’s a Latin American restaurant. We sat beside the huge jellyfish tank, which added a nice element to the atmosphere. I wasn’t so crazy about how close the tables were to each other. I could hear the conversations of those close to us, which limits the conversation you can have with your own group, since if you can hear others, they can likely hear you, too. The food, however, was good, and we would go back to this restaurant.

The final goal I’d set for myself involved watching about ten, just ten, classic movies. I’d thought this would happen, even if we had to set a movie marathon to finish them, but now I’m not so sure. I’m going to have to decide between reading and watching movies, and frankly, reading will win, so I’m really starting to doubt that this goal will be achieved. To make it even less likely, I’m to the point where I don’t really care if it is, so odds are it will end up pushed by the wayside, especially with so many other things to do in December.

So, that’s how my year is shaping up. Not the best as far as meeting a few simple goals, but there’s been many other great things in the year, so I can’t complain. And let’s face it. Of these goals, the only one that really has life-changing implications is the weight-loss goal, and I’m doing well there, so I’ll take it. I may surprise myself, but I don’t expect the status to change a lot in December. I am, however, already thinking about how to revise the goals to be more productive next year.

I’m Positive I Didn’t Make Much Progress

The September update for the progress of my resolutions was late. I didn’t write and publish it until October 3. Well, the October update is really, really late, as I’m finally just now getting around to writing and publishing it. In my defense, though, I did have a new granddaughter born on October 30, and as I was in Lexington enjoying the first five days of her life, I was more than a little preoccupied. After returning home, I’ve thought about the need to get the update blog done, but first I wanted to write one about our newest addition to the family, and I’ve also been really busy reading rough drafts of the English 100 research papers so that I could do conferencing this week. Finally, I’m to a point where I’m caught up enough that I can actually reflect about October’s progress, which should be fairly simple to do as there wasn’t really much progress.

My first resolution was to finish my writing project, but as you are aware, I’ve already thrown in the towel on that one. It’s not going to happen. I didn’t get off to a good start to pace myself to get it done, and when time ran short, this was the goal that was pushed by the wayside. I’d hoped to do better about blogging, but with only four blogs published during the entire month of October, that too was an epic fail. With two months left in 2013, the best I’m hoping for now is to do better with writing the blogs. I’ll definitely have to revisit this resolution for 2014 and make more effort to make it happen.

My second resolution was to read 75 books this year. I did make some progress here in October, but I’m not sure if it was enough to allow me to reach my goal of 75. During October, I read six books, which is close to the monthly target of 6.25 books. If I’d managed to read 6.25 books each month, I would be on track to meet the goal of 75. However, I haven’t done that, and my total for the year is only 52, leaving me with 23 books to read in about seven weeks. It’s not an impossible task, but given everything else I have going on with work and with the grandbabies, it is an improbable one. I won’t entirely rule out that I could still make my goal, but I’m less hopeful than I was before.

As for what I managed to read during October, the list is varied. I read Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad because I’d just finished Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, and they’re loosely related, and I hadn’t read Heart of Darkness in some time, so I wanted to reread it. I also read The Last Patriot by Brad Thor. If you like political thrillers, then read some Brad Thor. I read The Convicts by Iain Lawrence about a young lad who ends up on a British prison ship bound for Australia. I read Michael Crichton’s final book Pirate Latitudes. It was a little different from some of his other work but was enjoyable nonetheless. I also reread Frankenstein by Mary Shelley because the AP kids were assigned to read it. I also managed to stay on target with my Bible reading, and if I keep it up, then I will have managed to read the entire Bible over the course of the year.

My third resolution was to lose at least 5 pounds per month, for a total of 60 pounds for the year. I’m at another plateau and I know it’s because I haven’t been counting those calories like I should and I haven’t been exercising like I should. I’m going to have to get refocused and start exercising again. I felt better when I was exercising regularly and the weight dropped off easier when I was exercising. I’m really going to try to motivate myself so that I will start exercising again Monday morning. As far as the pounds lost, I’ve made it to 39.2. This goal needs adjusted, as the likelihood of losing another 20 pounds in seven weeks, with both Thanksgiving and Christmas in that time period, is minimal. Therefore, for 2013, if I can lose that last 0.8 pound, and make it an even 40 pounds gone, I will be happy. If I can reach that and maintain through the end of the year, especially with two holidays thrown in there, I will reassess and set a new goal for next year.

My fourth resolution was to try at least 12 new restaurants this year. I did add two restaurants in October. First was Zaxby’s. The other was City Barbecue. I would have enjoyed Zaxby’s more if the food hadn’t been soggy. It was warm when they wrapped it up so by the time I got around to eating it, it was soggy. The City Barbecue was better, though, again, the wrapped fries ended up soggy by the time I ate them. The meat, though, was quite good.

My fifth resolution was to watch 10 classic movies during the year. This hasn’t changed at all as I didn’t watch any of the movies from the list during October. I foresee a movie-watching marathon in my future.

I didn’t think October could be worse than September when it came to meeting my goals, but obviously I was wrong. But there was so much other good stuff going on, that I’m not going to complain too much. I realize that with the holiday season upcoming, it’s going to be more difficult to reach those goals, but I’m holding out hope for a few of them. A positive attitude has to help, right?

July Was Hit-and-Miss

July has been a month of hit and misses for the New Year’s resolutions, but then, if I’m honest, the first six months were also hit and miss. Of course, there has been a lot going on, and with today being the first day back at work for me, it’s about to get even crazier, and as always, that does affect how well I do on the goals. Here’s my update for July.

First, the writing goal was a fail. While I got back on track in June and met the weekly goal I had set, July was a setback. Between days I had to physically go to work or the days I spent working on school-related stuff at home and days I had things to do for weddings and even some days when I didn’t do much of anything, I accomplished absolutely nothing on the project. The blog was also sporadic, and even though I intended to post more often than I had been, that didn’t really happen either. Now that I’m back at work, I’m not sure how this resolution is ultimately going to pan out. I’m probably being unrealistic to think the project will actually be completed by the end of the year. I can still try to do more on the blog, though, and I can still try to get a lot more finished on the project. It may not be finished, but maybe I can get close to finished.

Second, my reading goal is progressing, but I’m a little behind again. I’ve made it to 41 books and I should be at 43.75. Given what I’ve read in the Bible as part of my reading goal, I can probably say I’m at 41.5, which has me 2.25 books behind schedule. I’m not too worried about that because I’m confident I can reach my reading goal. This month, I added the books of 1 Samuel and Isaiah to books completed from the Bible. I reread Matthew. And I’m reading 2 Samuel and Jeremiah and rereading Romans. For other books, I’ve read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens , which are books on the AP summer reading list. The other book I read this month was The Heist, written by Janet Evanovich (from the Stephanie Plum series) and Lee Goldberg (from the Monk series). I certainly hope they collaborate again.

Third, my weight-loss goal has made progress, though not as much as I’d like. I had hoped to have lost 35 pounds by the end of July, but I have only lost 31.8 pounds, which is 3.4 pounds less than I ended June. Granted, that is close to the goal, and I do feel so much better. I think getting back to a regular schedule, with the return of school, will help me a lot as well. I did manage to get into the routine of exercising through the summer, so I’m hoping to continue that throughout the school year. Brief exercise both in the morning before I go to work and in the afternoon or evening when I get home should help me keep losing weight. Eating on a more regular schedule should also help. I will also continue to track what I eat to make sure I’m not going overboard on calories. I just have to keep motivated. Getting to buy new pants that were two sizes smaller than I bought at the beginning of last school year goes a long way towards staying motivated. I can do this, and I can still be down 60 pounds by the end of the year.

Fourth, we did try a new restaurant in July. It is called Roosters and it’s on Nicholasville Road in Lexington. They have a wide variety of food options, and we all enjoyed it. I had some BBQ boneless wings and bacon cheese fries. I was happy. We also had their fried pickles as an appetizer, and that was also good. Several of the kids had different pizzas, and they were happy with those. Mady had mac and cheese bites, and she ate every bite of mac and cheese, which is good for a one-year-old. I think it’s safe to say that Roosters is an establishment we won’t mind revisiting.

Finally, there was absolutely no progress on the movie resolution. There are still seven movies to watch and five months in which to watch them. I still feel confident that won’t be a problem.

There are a lot of reasons for the hit-and-miss progress on these resolutions, but I’m still feeling confident that I can achieve more success than failure by the end of the year. Of course, I still have a lot of other things to accomplish by year’s end as well, including much for work and reorganizing my house with only one child left at home. I’m going to be optimistic, though, and work toward making these resolutions as successful as I can.

Halfway Point Shows Progress on Resolutions

I’m halfway through the year, so how well am I doing at keeping five simple resolutions? It’s time for me to reflect and address any issues that I may have in keeping those resolutions.

For my writing goal, I’m doing much, much better than I was last month. I addressed the issue of making little to no progress on the project, and I’m now completing 12 pages a week, which should put me on track to finish the project by the end of the year. I just need to stay with it. After a few months of not doing so well, it feels really good that I’ve made as much progress as I have this month. I know with the busy schedule I have coming up (two weddings and going back to work) that it will again become difficult to maintain this schedule and finish by the end of the year, but I really need to keep at it and get it finished.

Last year, my goal was to post a blog every day, and for the most part, I did so, but I didn’t make that part of the writing goal this year because I thought after last year, I’d be doing that anyway. Well, I was wrong about that. Especially the last couple of months, I’ve gone three or four days, a few times even more, without posting a blog. While posting isn’t part of the 2013 New Year’s resolution, I am going to try to do better and post more often.

For my reading goal, I’m right where I need to be at 37.5 books (6.25 books per month). I’m halfway to my goal of 75 books for the year. As I said, I know it’s about to get crazy busy again real soon, so I hope I can maintain my current pace and meet the goal this year. During June, I read the following books: Dan Brown’s Inferno, Frank McCourt’s ‘Tis and Teacher Man, Rick Riordan’s The Red Pyramid, Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Identity, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, and Jack London’s White Fang. I have started and should finish either tonight or tomorrow Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Some of these are on the AP Summer Reading List, and I always reread whatever I’m asking my students to read. As part of my reading goal, I want to read the Bible completely through. I’m halfway there. I’ve read the entire New Testament, and a chunk of the Old Testament (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and parts of 1 Samuel and Isaiah). For the remainder of the year, I’ll finish the Old Testament and will reread the New Testament.

For my weight-loss goal, I’m a little disappointed. By this point, my goal was to have lost 30 pounds, and I’ve only made it to 28.4 pounds. I’m almost there, and while I’m a little disappointed, I’m also not going to count this as a total failure for the month. For the first three weeks, I was stuck on one of those dieter’s plateaus. I wasn’t gaining any weight, but I wasn’t losing either. That was so frustrating for me. I increased the amount of exercise I did each day, and I lowered the number of calories I was taking in each day, and still nothing seemed to be happening. However, when I did measurements of my waist and hips, I’d lost a half inch more on both during June, even though the weight was staying the same. That made me happy. Since I started, I’ve lost five inches off my waist and hips. Finally, a couple days ago, I started losing again. I feel like I’m over this first plateau, and that will keep me motivated to keep going. Cody’s wedding is in two weeks, and though my goal is five pounds for the entire month, I’d love to manage five pounds in this last two weeks before his wedding. With the new month tomorrow, a new exercise plan is in place. Hopefully all will go well.

For my restaurant goal, we did try another new restaurant this month, Jet’s Pizza in Lexington. We ordered two pizzas, one a deep-dish pepperoni and a regular supreme pizza. Both were delicious. We’ll definitely order pizza from here again, especially since the price was decent and it’s located close to where Trav lives.

For my movie goal, we did watch another of the classics on my list, Citizen Kane. Today, we saw Entertainment Weekly‘s list of the Top Ten Movies of all time, and guess what topped the list. I’ve always heard great things about Citizen Kane. While Orson Welles did a great job in his role, I’m not sure why this movie rates as the best of all time. I liked it well enough. I’m glad I’ve watched it. I doubt I’ll watch it again anytime soon. There are a lot of great movies out there, and while this one does deserve to be a classic, I wouldn’t rate it as the greatest movie of all time.

All in all, I’m pleased with my progress at the halfway point of the year. I’m finally on track to finish the project, and I’m on track to read 75 books. I survived my first plateau in the weight-loss journey, and I feel confident that with my exercise and eating plans I have in place, I will continue to lose inches and reach my goal of losing at least five pounds per month. I have no doubt that we’ll find six more new restaurants to try by the end of the year, and I’ve no doubt that we’ll watch the seven remaining movies that are on my watch list before the year ends. I think that overall I’m happier with my progress this year than I was this time last year, and I have confidence that the rest of the year will go well.

Some Goals Are Being Met, Some Are Not

It’s that time again. By the end of today, a third of 2013 will be over. This makes for a really good time to do an update. As I look at the resolutions I set in January, I still have 2/3 of the year left to make adjustments to make sure I meet all the goals I originally set. And, frankly, that’s a good thing because there are a couple that I’m not doing so well with.

For my writing goal, I did want to keep writing every day. I didn’t make blogging a part of the goal because I thought I had gotten myself into the habit of doing it. What I’ve discovered is that without the goal of posting a blog every day, it’s a lot easier to make excuses for not doing so. If I have writer’s block, then I just don’t write anything rather than starting to write and seeing where it leads. If I’m too tired, then I just rationalize not writing anything for that day. If it’s a day that is just inconvenient for writing, then I just let it go and don’t even try to work it in. And I don’t like any of that. I want to keep in the writing-every-day pattern that I put myself in last year, so I’ve got to get back on track. I really need to stop having nearly a week between blogs.

The primary focus of my writing goal was to finish the project that I returned to so that I’d get writing again. It’s been almost two years since I picked it back up, and I still haven’t finished. It would be really easy to rationalize reasons why, but that doesn’t matter. I set the goal to finish the project by the end of the year. I have done some organizational things with the project, but I have not done the writing I need to do. As May begins, I must find something that works so I can complete the project by December 31.

For my reading goal, I set a goal of 75 books for the year. I did the same last year, but I fell short of that. I made it to 67, which was a personal best but was still disappointing. Last year, at the end of April, I had read only 11 books total, and none of those were in April. This year, I’m off to a much better start as I’ve read 21 books so far. Based on needing to read 6.25 books each month to meet the goal, I’m still about four books behind for the year, but it’s a lot easier to catch up when you’re only four books behind instead of 14 behind. I read six books this month. My AP classes are doing nonfiction book presentations, and I wanted to reread the books that were being used for their presentations. I kept reminding them that they were reading one book this month, and I was reading six. Those books were Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar, and All the President’s Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. I’m in progress on a book right now, and if I’m lucky, I’ll finish it tonight, to make eight for April. An additional part of my goal is to ensure the Bible is one of the 75 books I read this year. I found a daily reading schedule which I have been able to follow. So far, I’ve read the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Psalms, Proverbs, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, and Philippians, and I’m in progress on Deuteronomy, Ecclesiastes, and Acts.

For my weight-loss goal, I’m doing so much better than last year. My goal for last year was to lose 20 pounds over the course of the entire year. That didn’t happen. In fact, last year, this goal was my most miserable failure. I lost absolutely nothing. This year, I am determined to lose a minimum of five pounds each month. To date, I have lost 22, which puts me slightly ahead of where I should be and makes last year look even more pathetic, since I’ve managed to lose just over 20 in four months. I’m still not exercising like I should. Right now, I simply can’t make myself get up earlier to exercise. Fortunately, though, we only have 19 days of school left, and I really think that when school goes out, I will be able to exercise a lot more. Maybe I’ll get so into the routine that I’ll be able to stick with it in the fall when school starts back. I’ve even happier about having lost this weight because I ordered a dress to wear to Cody’s wedding, and it came in today. It fits! And it’s a size smaller than the dress I wore to Trav’s wedding.

For my food goal, we visited just one new restaurant in April. For our anniversary, we went to Giuseppe’s Italian Restaurant in Lexington. I love pasta, so Italian restaurants are among my favorites, and this one did not disappoint. The food was excellent, and I think we’d definitely go there again. We went for lunch, which is a good idea because the dinner plates cost over twice as much as the lunch plates. I suspect you would get more food, but the lunch-sized serving was good enough for us.

For my classic movie goal, I am officially behind. I chose 10 classic movies to watch, so I could skip two months and watch one in the remaining months. Since, four months are gone, and I’ve only watched one movie, that leaves me eight months to watch nine movies. Obviously, that goal can still be met, but my husband and I are going to have to work this movie watching into our schedule and make sure it gets done.

I’m doing well on a couple of goals, not-so-well on a couple, and pitifully on the final one. I can turn this around, though, and be successful for all five goals. Just on the basis of the weight-loss goal alone, it is obvious I can do what I set my mind to. I’m just going to have to step it up to make sure these goals happen, and I’m the only one who can do that.

Chaotic February Wreaked Havoc on Goals

Two months of 2013 are gone. I know I say it a lot, but it’s really just unbelievable how quickly time passes. It seems like the older we get, the more time moves into hyper-drive. February was one of the craziest months I’ve had in quite some time. Jimmy and I both had health issues to deal with. I had the KCTE/LA conference. I went to watch my niece play basketball. In short, there was a lot of travel and long nights that made February a bit on the lackluster side for keeping my 2013 resolutions. A mere three snow days didn’t help the situation either.

My writing resolution probably suffered the most during the month of February. Compared to what I’d gotten in the habit of doing last year, I fell behind in February. First, as I already mentioned, I had many long nights in February, and by the time I would get home, if I had to choose between writing a blog or going to bed, the bed always won. I missed more blogs this February than I have for any other month, and I didn’t like that, but I came to a realization in the process. As important as getting something written every day is to me, there are times when it ‘s necessary to skip the writing. I will do my best to write every day and post the blog every day, but there are times it just won’t happen. The bigger deal, though, is the project. At this rate, I will fail miserably. I am going to have to step it up if I am going to finish this project by the end of the year. Therefore, I think that I need to set a goal of having a set amount finished each week. That will not only allow me to make some progress on the project but will also allow me to track the progress I make. Since this is Friday, next week will be a good time to start this new method.

My reading resolution is going much better than it was at this time last year. To reach my goal of 75 books, I need to read at least 6.25 books each month. By the end of February 2012, I had already fallen miserably behind. This year, I have finished 10 books, which would put me only 2.5 books behind. However, while in the past I wouldn’t normally have more than one book started at a time, right now I have two books started, one actual book I can hold in my hands and one on the Kindle, and I’m about halfway through one and a third of the way through the other. Given that, I’m not actually behind by 2.5 books. I feel much better about staying on track this year, and I feel confident that I can catch up on this quickly. The books I read in February include Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, Chocolate Kisses by Judith Arnold, I Wish I Knew That: U.S. Presidents by Christopher Davis, and The Duck Commander Family by Willie and Korie Robertson. In addition, part of my goal is to make one of those 75 books that I read be the Bible. I have followed a reading plan I found online, and thus far, I have completed the books of Genesis, Exodus, Matthew, Romans, and Mark, and the books of Leviticus, Psalms (over halfway through), and 1 Corinthians are in progress.

My weight-loss goal has been much more successful this year than last, in part due to the fact that I made up my mind to actually do something to try to make it happen. My goal is to lose five pounds per month. I was very pleased to weigh in this morning and discover that I have lost 11 pounds since the first of January. Given the amount of times I had to eat out in February, I decided that was impressive. With the many long days in February, I also failed to exercise like I should have, and I must get back into the habit of exercising. I didn’t eat as much fruit as I would have liked to in February, mainly because I refused to pay $5 a pound for grapes at my local grocery store. While in Lexington this week, though, I bought some more fruit and vegetables, so I’m really hoping to stay on track. I failed miserably at this goal last year, and I am looking forward to success this year.

My classic movie resolution is on track. I had identified ten classic movies I wanted to watch this year, and we began with The Shawshank Redemption, which I thoroughly enjoyed. After that, I read Stephen King’s novella that the movie is based upon; it’s in one of the books I have started. I feel good that I can cross one off the list, and I have 10 more months to watch nine more movies.

My new restaurant resolution was also successful. Jimmy and I ate at Sutton’s on Richmond Road in Lexington. It was OK, but I prefer Johnny Carino’s. I also ate breakfast and lunch at the restaurant inside the Marriott in Covington. Both meals were very good, and considering what they cost, they should have been.

Given how chaotic and hectic February turned out to be and that February is the shortest month of the year, I’ll have to say that overall February was more success than failure. I have a plan to make sure my writing goal stays on track, and I’m pretty sure I can easily catch up on the reading goal. The weight-loss goal requires a lot of work and dedication, but I am finding it easier to eat healthier; I just need to get the exercise part back on track. I really don’t think the movie and restaurant goals will be hard to keep. There are a couple of things I need to do in order to be back on track by the end of March, and I’m prepared to do them. I just hope March is a little less chaotic so it will be a little easier to do.

A New Year Brings New Resolutions

Happy New Year! 2013 has arrived, and with the arrival of the New Year comes the arrival of new resolutions. I’ve spent a lot of time over the past month thinking about what I want to accomplish in 2013. Coming to terms with the resolutions of 2012, what was successful and what was not, was a month-long task, but it was one that allowed me to determine what I wanted to put on my list of resolutions for 2013. Again, I think the list should be a rather short one. The more things we include, the more difficult it is to achieve them.

It would be easy to include my two most successful resolutions from last year as resolutions for this year. The two successful resolutions were trying a new recipe every week and updating readers every month about the success, or lack thereof, of keeping my resolutions. It would be easy to tweak the recipe resolution to trying two new recipes per week, but I think that now that we are in the habit of trying at least one new recipe per week, we will continue to do so just because we like trying new dishes. Since the goal was such a success (85 new recipes in 2012), I don’t think simply increasing the number of recipes would make for a great resolution for 2013. Therefore, this will not be on the resolutions list for this year; what is now a habit cannot be a resolution. There’s not a lot I could do to tweak the updating goal. However, just because it’s not a resolution does not mean you will not be updated. As with the recipes resolution from last year, this one has become a habit, and as a result, at the end of the month, you will get the update on my success or failure for the month. It’s just not a resolution in and of itself this year.

That said, there were three resolutions where I did not achieve the blaring success that I had with the aforementioned ones. Those resolutions related to my writing, my reading, and my weight loss. As such, those three will be tweaked and new resolutions will be set. Because I like having five resolutions, I will also add two new resolutions for 2013.

Resolution # 1 – Writing. I will continue to write something every day, and I will continue to post to the blog every day. These things have become habit for me, and habits cannot be resolutions, so while I will continue to do them, they are not the resolution for 2013. Last year, I said I wanted to work on my project at least two days per week. As we know, that did not work out. Here’s the thing. This project has now been in the works for a year and a half, and that’s just since I revived it. It had been sitting there for a while before its revival. I guess the good news is that I have been working on it over that year and a half, while the bad news is that I haven’t been working on it nearly enough. Therefore, my resolution for writing is to finish the project. When I update you about the success or failure of my writing resolution each month, I’m not going to focus on whether I wrote every day or whether I missed a blog. The real goal here is to finish the project by the end of 2013. And when it is finished, I will reveal what it is.

Resolution # 2 – Reading. I set a goal to read 75 books in 2012. Although I did manage to break my personal record for number of books read in a year, I did not meet my goal of 75 books. Because this resolution failed in 2012, I’m going to give it another shot in 2013. Once again, I’m going to set a goal to read at least 75 books during the year 2013. Again, if I can just manage to read 6.25 books per month, I should be able to reach this goal. I managed to make a late run and came closer to 75 than I thought I would for 2012. Therefore, I will simply pace myself and will meet my goal of 75 books in 2013.

Resolution # 3 – Weight Loss. This resolution was the biggest failure for me in 2012. I managed by the end of the year to weigh a whopping one pound less than I did at the beginning of the year. I know I can do this, and I’m going to work a lot harder at it. My goal for 2012 had been to lose 20 pounds over the course of the year. I’m going to put more pressure on myself this year. My goal is to lose at least five pounds every month. If I can do that, I will lose 60 pounds by the end of the year. That still won’t put me at my goal weight, but it would be a heck of a start. I’m going to use two apps on my Kindle Fire (the WWPP – Weight Watchers Points Plus – Calculator and Lose It!) to help me track what I eat so that I can make sure I’m staying within the appropriate boundaries to lose the weight I want to lose.

Resolution # 4 – Classic Movies. Every year in December, I show the movie It’s a Wonderful Life to my classes. It’s a classic, and many of the students have never seen it. This made me think about other movies that are classics, ones that I have not seen. As a result, I have compiled a list of classic movies that I will watch by the end of the year. It is possible that I may watch other classic movies that are not on this list, but after reviewing several online lists of classic movies, these are the ones I have decided I should watch. They are: The Shawshank Redemption, Casablanca, Schindler’s List, Citizen Kane, A Streetcar Named Desire, Sunset Boulevard, Rebel without a Cause, Roman Holiday, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and White Christmas.

Resolution # 5 – Food. Since trying a new recipe every week is now a habit for my family, my food-related resolution for 2013 will deal with restaurants. With three of our four children living in Lexington, we make frequent trips there. We have our favorite restaurants, and we usually make it a point to visit one of those whenever we happen to be in Lexington. For 2013, we are going to diversify. We are usually in Lexington at least twice a month, and at various times throughout the year we are in places other than Pikeville and Jackson. At least once per month, we are going to go to a new restaurant. By the end of the year, we will have visited 12 new restaurants and may even add a new favorite to the list. If we’re feeling really frisky and adventurous, we might even order something that we would never ordinarily consider ordering, though I’m not going to make that part of the resolution.

There you have it. My five resolutions for the year 2013. Five is a manageable number. Three of the five are more difficult and will require a significant amount of work on my part. The other two are fairly easy and shouldn’t be difficult at all to achieve. Remember, though, that we do need to feel good about ourselves, which means we have to have some success along the way. Hopefully the ease of the last two resolutions will help keep me inspired and motivated to achieve the more difficult first three. Either way, I’ll keep you posted.

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.

Making Memories in Sweetwater

Last Sunday, Jimmy, Nic, and I ventured to Sweetwater, TN, to spend the week with my brother and my nephew. My sister-in-law and my other nephew were going to a youth conference in Daytona, and my brother needed somebody to babysit while he continued to work during the week. The result? I ended up with an unplanned vacation, a week away to relax and not worry about anything. It was a great week.

After our nightmare on I-75 South on Jellico Mountain when we made our anniversary trip to Pigeon Forge, we found a detour and used that to head south. The detour did add some time to the trip, however, unlike in March when we spent over two hours on Jellico, moving six miles in two hours, I didn’t mind the extra time from the detour because at least we were always moving at a regular, normal rate of speed. Since I-75 North on Jellico isn’t really a problem, we didn’t use the detour coming home, but we did get a look at the slow, snail-like traffic heading south, and it actually brought back horrific flashbacks of our trip in March. I was thankful we chose to take the detour on that Sunday afternoon when we headed south. If any of you are going to be heading south and will be using I-75 through Jellico, I strongly recommend that you use the Internet and find a detour. Your trip will go smoother and you will still be sane when you arrive at your destination.

My nephew is almost ten, so it’s not like babysitting him was a lot of real work. He slept in, so I didn’t have to get up until between 9 and 10 each morning. I fed him breakfast and lunch. He played video games and watched TV, and every day, he chose a movie for us to watch after lunch: Monday – Toy Story 3, Tuesday – Shrek 2, Wednesday – Hoodwinked, Thursday – Ice Age, and Friday – Alvin and the Chipmunks.

I hadn’t seen Toy Story 3 yet. I kept putting it off. Everybody who had seen it and who knew me told me I would cry, so I had been avoiding it. As we watched the movie, the closer it got to the end, he kept watching. I’m proud of myself. I didn’t bawl, but he did notice that I did get teary-eyed. But I have a question. Really, who completely empties their kids’ rooms when they leave for college? Do they not plan for the kid to come home on weekends? Or Thanksgiving, Christmas, or summer breaks? It was totally unrealistic for Andy and his mother to be standing in a completely empty room, just because he was going off to college. My kids still have plenty of their stuff in their rooms, and they still use those rooms. Had the ending portrayed a more realistic point of view, I may have bawled. Since it didn’t, teary-eyed will have to do.

When we watched Hoodwinked, I told him I really liked that movie because it was a great illustration of point of view. We then started talking about things “literary,” which he did not enjoy. He pointed out that it was summer and we didn’t need to talk about school stuff during the summer. I told him I had let some of my students watch the movie and they had to do assignments based on the literary elements in the movie, and he thought that was awful. And he really wasn’t happy when I pointed out that all movies had things literary in them. From that point on, when I attempted to talk about things literary (which he called something like “literee” the first time he said it), he would cover his ears to let me know he didn’t want to hear it.

And later, he broke my heart. He did start by telling me he hated to break the news to me, but grammar stuff and English stuff were his least favorite things in school. Poor kid. My heart healed a little when he said that his favorite subject was history. I am, after all, a history minor, so even if he doesn’t like both my passions, at least he’s fond of one of them, so that’s something. The poor kid even tried to play games on my iPod, but he pointed out that all my games except for Fruit Ninja were grammar or word games, and he just wasn’t interested in those. He did become quite good at Fruit Ninja, though.

While he played, I accomplished a few things. One day, I got quite a bit done on my project. Another, I organized all the folders on my jump drive and fixed my blank calendars to get ready for the 2012-13 school year. I also found a couple great ideas that I’ll use for my classes this fall. During the rest of the time, I read a book and half of another. My AP kids will be thrilled to hear that I’m going to see if our librarian can get me a class set of the one I read so that they can also have the pleasure of reading it.

I’m not an NBA fan. I enjoyed watching Brandon play high school and college ball. I enjoy watching my niece Kayla play basketball. I enjoy watching the UK men’s team play ball. Other than, I’m not much for basketball. My nephew, however, watches a lot of different sports, and seems to have a favorite team for nearly all of them. Given that, we watched the NBA Finals games. His favorite team is the Heat, and his favorite player is Lebron, so Thursday night, he got to stay up late to watch the game, and it was fun to see him so excited that his team won the championship.

Even though for the most part, we just hung out at the house, the week flew by. We had a great, relaxing time while in Tennessee, but as with any traveling, there’s always the long drive home. I love to travel, but when it’s time to go home, I’m just ready to be home. By that time, there are two signs that make me extremely happy. The first is the big blue and white one that says, “Welcome to Kentucky.” About 2 1/2 to 3 hours later, I see the other, a smaller green one that says, “Breathitt County.” Regardless of what’s wrong with Breathitt County (and really, don’t all places have their problems?), it is home, and I’m always happy to return to it.