Always Something to Do

There’s always something that needs to be done. Right now, I have a lengthy to-do list. And right now, I don’t feel like doing very many of the things on that list.

For example, write today’s blog is on the list. It’s taken all evening to come up with something to write about, and earlier I would’ve been fine with just skipping it, except for that little, nagging voice inside that kept telling me that I needed to get something written. There are several things that I could be doing here around the house. There are towels in the dryer that will need to be folded and put away. There are clothes on the bed that need to be hung in the closet. The kitchen probably should be swept. The dishwasher just finished up, so there are clean dishes to put away. I need to make a sandwich to take to work for my lunch tomorrow. I still need to do my daily Bible reading. Then there are all the things that need to be done for work. I need to finish up the lecture notes for Chapter 13 if I’m going to actually lecture about Chapter 13 tomorrow. I need to read the synthesis essays the AP kids wrote today. I need to enter some grades into Infinite Campus. And this is the short list.

There are quite a few other things on the list that aren’t even coming to me at the moment, which is one of the reasons I always have a written to-do list. The other reason is I like the feeling of crossing things off a list. It gives you a real feeling of accomplishment to cross something off a to-do list. If you haven’t tried it, I suggest you do.

The thing is I’ve spent most of the evening not doing anything on the to-do list. I read the newspaper. OK, that’s a very liberal use of the verb read. I read a few things, skimmed a few, and ignored most of it. I checked my Pinterest boards trying to figure out what recipe I want to try tomorrow. I perused Facebook and Chris Bailey’s weather blog, and did some generic web browsing. I did, however, cook supper. I had a pork loin in the crock pot, and I baked some potatoes and fixed some green beans, corn on the cob, and cheese bread to go with it. And I loaded the dishwasher after we finished eating, so I’ve not been entirely unproductive for the evening.

The thing is, though, sometimes it’s OK to be somewhat unproductive. Sometimes, regardless of how much is on the to-do list, we need to take a few minutes, or hours, to chill. The to-do list will be right there waiting for us after we’ve taken some time for ourselves. After taking some time for ourselves, maybe then we’ll have the energy and motivation to finish the things on the list. Of course, I wonder if I’ll ever truly finish a to-do list since I keep adding new things after I cross things off.

Now that I can cross “write today’s blog” off the to-do list, it’s pretty safe to say that the only other things I’m likely to accomplish tonight are the Bible readings and those Chapter 13 lecture notes since I do plan to give that lecture tomorrow. If it were not on the agenda for tomorrow, I’m sure that I would not do the notes. My English 200 kids might not mind if I skipped that, but I think we need to get Chapter 13 out of the way so that they can appropriately incorporate ideas into their essays. But if I’m going to finish those two things so I can cross them off the list, I’d better close the blog and get started, and now that you’ve read the blog, you can return to your to-do list and get started on whatever is next.

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.

A Pinterest Addiction

Today’s one of those days I’m not really feeling inspired about writing, or selecting something to write about. In fact, about the only thing I am feeling inspired about at the moment is continuing my nap. I had hoped to decided on a blog topic, get it done, and then take a short nap. However, the nap came first, and since I’m still not fully awake, I’d just rather go back to sleep than to write.

I love being able to take naps. However, on days like today when I’d just rather be napping, that doesn’t bode well for getting other things done that should be done, or that I’d just like to get done. I didn’t plan to do anything for school this evening, so that’s no big deal. I do have some just general things I wanted to do here, though. For one, I have some banana peppers that I need to get sliced and put in the freezer. For another, I have a book that I’d love to finish and another I’d love to start, especially since I’m way behind on the reading goal. At this point, I’m just hoping to make some progress on finishing the one I have started. Then there’s supper. I’m not feeling overly inspired about cooking, but I know we have to eat something, so I’m going to have to get motivated to get something cooked in a little bit. And if I can get really inspired, I might fix a dessert using a recipe I found on Pinterest.

Pinterest is a really interesting place. I see all sorts of things that all sorts of my friends “pin,” related from where they want to travel, what they watch or the music they listen to, to wedding ideas and, my personal favorite, recipes. Lots of folks find quotes to pin, and I do that on occasion as well, but sometimes these folks get a little crazy, and I must confess I sometimes question their judgment about whether that should have been pinned. I use a simple test. If it’s not something I would want my momma or my kids to see, I don’t pin it. I just scroll on down until I find something I like and that won’t make me look bad. Just because I see something doesn’t mean I must pin it.

Unless it comes to recipes, and I do go a little crazy there. I pin and pin and pin all sorts of recipes. Luckily with the recipe challenge of my resolutions for the year, this has actually come in quite handy. Many of the new recipes we have tried this year came from Pinterest boards. The only real problem there is that I’m not choosing as many from my recipe books and magazines as I normally would without Pinterest, but either way, I am still trying many new recipes and that ultimately was the goal. So far we’ve had pretty good luck with Pinterest and only found one or two recipes that we’ll never go to again. Most of the time, the recipes are definite hits and will definitely make it into the things we cook at least semi-regularly rotation.

For now, I guess it’s time to make myself get up out of this recliner and do something, either put those banana peppers in the freezer or start on that new recipe. Hopefully I’ll get both done this evening and even find time to come close to finishing that book. I may even get in bed early enough tonight so that I won’t have to take a nap tomorrow evening, which might allow me to be more productive. As it is, though, with it mostly just me here most of the time, I don’t stress too much about what does or doesn’t get done. Eventually it will all get done and that’s all that matters.

Mistake-Free Posts Are Worth Repeating

One of the fun things about Pinterest, other than finding great new recipes to try, is the page where you can find all the cute, funny sayings. Some of these are really funny, and if you need a laugh, go check them out. Here are a few of my favorites that I’ve seen on the site.

“It’s ‘Before,’ not ‘B4.’ You speak English, not Bingo.” (from a Your Card e-card) – I hate text lingo. I don’t think it really takes that much effort to write out your words, and when you do, if you will also punctuate correctly, people will be able to really understand what you’re saying. The chances of misunderstanding and confusion are significantly reduced.

“I want to repin that quote, but it has a grammatical error.” (from a Your Card e-card) – That’s me. In order for me to repin a quote that has an error, it has to be one fabulous, life-altering quote. There aren’t that many of those, so I end up passing it over and hoping somebody will correct the error and post it again error-free.

“Gun laws would prevent shooting sprees? Please tell me more about how criminals follow laws.” (attached to a picture of Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka) – Pencils don’t misspell words. Forks and spoons don’t make people fat. And guns don’t commit crimes. People do those things. And people who choose to be criminals will also choose to break the law, whatever that law is.

“The biggest lie I tell myself is I don’t need to write that down, I’ll remember it.” (no attribution given) – I’m not sure who gets credit for that one, and perhaps they don’t want credit, because there is that little grammatical error in there. This one is so true, though, I had to repin it anyway. I’ve finally come to accept that my memory is short, and if I don’t write it down, I will not remember it. I guess that happens when you get old and stay busy.

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, [and] that is all.” (Oscar Wilde) – You can exist without living, but since you are here, don’t you think you should live? It’s a big world out there, full of opportunities. Don’t let those opportunities pass you up. Don’t sit there and watch life pass you by. Get up and live it.

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.

Today Was Pinteresting

I’ve found another hobby, not that I needed another one. Between reading, writing, cooking, and holding down my day job, teaching, there’s not a lot of spare time as it is. After hearing and seeing all the interest in Pinterest, I finally asked a friend to send me an invitation. And she did. And I’m hooked.

This could prove to be a very time-consuming hobby, and I spent several hours today looking through the site and adding pins to my boards. I have no intention of doing that on a daily basis; after all, there are barely enough hours in the day to do what I want to do anyway. However, there are ways that Pinterest fits in with what I want to do.

My weakness is the food and drink category. The plus side is I have found a lot of new recipes that Jimmy and I can work into our resolution of trying at least one new recipe per week. The down side is that if I’m going to try all the recipes I’m finding, I’m going to have to tweak the resolution. I’m going to have to try at least two new recipes per week in order to try all the recipes I want to try. And that’s assuming I’ll be alive for the next fifty years like I plan to be.

There are also places to investigate travel opportunities, books and movies, and crafts. Now, I’m not a real crafty person, but for those of you who are, based on some of the pins I’ve seen from my friends and just from investigating the site, there are a lot of neat things you could try. I may look at the crafts every once in a while, but I don’t see myself really pinning any of them or trying any of them. I’ll stick with the cooking, reading, movies, and travel pins.

I created a dozen boards today (five devoted to recipes), and I’ve posted in almost all of them. I don’t yet have anything on my travel board and my music, movies, television, and bucket list boards are rather sparse. In the future, I don’t plan to spend as much time on there as I did today, but I do hope to add a bit more to the various boards. However, it would be really easy to get lost on the site, finding things to pin here and there. And it’d be real easy to justify since I could say that I’m just looking for more recipes to try or books to read.

I think I’ll be able to control myself. I only allowed myself the luxury of spending so much time on there today so I could become acquainted with the site. Of course, for those who started following me today, they will say that I did go a little pin crazy. But, hey, what can I say? There are a ton of good-looking recipes out there. Somebody needs to try them. It might as well be me.