New Year, New Goals

             I’m going to start the year the way I have traditionally done in the past, by identifying the goals (resolutions, if you must call them that) that I have set for myself for the year.

1. Continue my healthier lifestyle plan. This isn’t just about losing weight, though that is a big part of it. I’ll detail my entire plan in a later post, but here are the highlights. I use the Lost It! app to track all the food I eat; it also tracks exercise that can be imported from my Fitbit. I make healthier food choices and I stick to a maximum number of calories per day. I make it a point to do some sort of exercise each day. This worked incredibly well for me throughout 2021; I lost 50 pounds! Since I want to lose at least another 40, I’ll keep doing what is working for me.
2. Read at least one complete book per week. This will allow me a minimum of 52 books over the course of the year. For a lot of reasons, I haven’t read as much the past three or four years as I have in the past, and I want to return to reading at that level.
3. Write and post at least one blog per week. This will ensure that I make time to write but will not be so tedious that it is unattainable. I’d also like to return to some poetry writing, but that seems to work better for me when I’m feeling a particular emotion, so I won’t set a number for how many poems I should produce. I’m just going to hope that I can produce some good blogs and a few good poems throughout the year.
4. Complete a monthly Bible study plan. Last year (2021), I made it my goal to read the Bible entirely through. I had done that before, but it had been a while. So, my goal was just to get through reading it once again. This year, I want to have a more focused plan of study. I have some ideas (and even a plan for January), but I’m still working on developing those into something feasible.
5. Try a new recipe each week of the year. I have a lot of cookbooks on the bookshelf in my kitchen. Lately, the past few years, I’ve been focused too much on Pinterest recipes and have largely ignored those cookbooks. Recently, the past few months, I’ve gotten back into buying cookbooks, but then I realized that I have all these cookbooks that are just sitting there. As a result, I’m going to make it a point to find a variety of new recipes to try from those cookbooks.

If you’ve been with me in the past for these New Year’s Day blogs, you know I try to keep it simple when it comes to goals for a new year. I’ve been guilty of overestimating the things I can accomplish in a given day, week, or year. However, five goals are manageable, and when things are manageable, they’re more likely to get done. I’m looking forward to the journey that 2022 will provide. I’m praying God’s blessings for each of you as we begin this new year.

May Was Not Such a Good Month for Resolutions

After April being such an awesome month for resolutions, the struggle returned in May. These are seemingly simple goals, but I am struggling as the sixth month of the year begins. I’ve really got to get myself motivated to see all the resolutions through, not just a few.

Writing – My goal is to post five blogs per month, and I did do that for May. I also have a goal of working on two separate writing projects each month. This month, I did a little (though it was very little) work on one of them, but not the other. I need to stay on track here and make some progress.

Reading – This is the goal I’m still doing the best with. My goal is to read 90 books this year, and at the end of May, I had read 42, which is over where I should be at this point. I just need to keep reading and stay ahead of where I need to be. If I can do that, not only will I meet my goal, but I will also exceed it, and that would make me feel good.

Weight-Loss – My goal is to lose 25 pounds over the course of the year, and while I made a little more progress in April, May is yet another stagnant month. I really need to get my eating and exercise on the same page, and my best chance to see some success is now that I’m home every day. However, that also makes it more difficult because there are so many things here to grab to snack on.  I’m currently rereading a book by Denise Austin, and I’m going to have to follow her advice more closely. I can do this. I can still lose a total of 25 pounds for the  year, but I obviously can’t keep doing what I’m doing and expect it to happen. With just seven months left, now is the time to get my attitude, and then my actions, where they need to be.

Family Tree – My goal is to add something new to the program each month, but that did not happen in May. I still have lots of family tree information to enter and much more to collect. This will be a lifelong project and will still not likely be totally completed, but I do need to stay focused enough to keep working on it a little every month.

Gratitude Journal – My goal is to write in the journal weekly, usually on Sundays. As far as writing each week, that is something I have accomplished; however, it isn’t always on Sunday. Sometimes there’s just too much going on on Sunday to find the time to get things written down, but I try to get the entry completed no later than Tuesday. Usually that’s possible.

So after a month of great success, May turned out to be a month of halfway success, and halfway isn’t good enough. Even with some successes, as long as I’m faltering on the weight-loss goal, I feel like I’m failing, so I’m going to have to work toward improvement. It’s time to give myself that mini-pep talk, and then it’s time to listen.

Resolutions for 2014

While 2013 saw minimal success with the resolutions I set, that doesn’t deter me from setting new resolutions for 2014. I’m trying to be realistic with what I set as my resolutions for the year, and I’m trying to set resolutions that will be important to me. This should make it easier to attain my goals for the year.

Resolution # 1: I’m going to revisit that project that I didn’t finish. I’m considering revising the way I have it set up. I do want to finish the project this year, and I know that means working on it, which happened very little last year. I’m not sure if the revision I have in mind will require more or less time to complete the project, but I am going to have to commit to finishing 10 pages of the project each week. Hopefully, I will do that.

Resolution # 2: I’m going to continue with my blog, and to keep it from becoming as sporadic as it did last year, I’m going to set a minimum number of blogs to post per week. The first year, when I committed to posting daily, I discovered that was really difficult, though I did it. It was sometimes hard to come up with something to write about, and some days were filled with so many other activities that it was hard to get time to do the blog. Last year, I didn’t set a minimum per week, and as a result, there were weeks with no post at all, and I’m not happy about that. Therefore, for this year, I’m committing to a minimum of three blogs per week. I really do enjoy writing for the blog, but I don’t want it to feel like a job, nor do I want to make a commitment that will be too difficult to attain with everything else I have going on, so three seems like a reasonable number.

Resolution # 3: Having met, and surpassed, my goal (finally) of reading 75 books for the year, I’m going to increase the number to 84 books per year. When the goal was 75, reading 6.25 books per month was the magic number. With a goal of 84, it would be necessary to read seven books per month. That’s just a slight increase which should make this doable. Again, as part of that number, I am going to include that I want to read the Bible all the way through. Last year, I read the English Standard Version. For 2014, I will read the New International Version. Also as part of this resolution, there are three books that I want to reread in July, before school starts, because they are very inspirational and will help me get refocused and ready for the upcoming school year. Those books are Teach Like a Champion, What Teachers Make, and Rigor Is Not a Four-Letter Word.

Resolution # 4: I still need to lose weight so I’m going to set a weight-loss goal of 40 pounds for the year, which averages to 3.33 pounds per month, and seems very doable based on last year’s results. If I can lose more than 40 pounds by the end of the year, that would make me happy, but if 40 more pounds is all that I lose this year, that will also make me happy. Starting this year 35 pounds lighter than I started last year is great motivation to keep this going. Towards the end of last year, I went into maintenance mode and was happy to maintain where I was. With the beginning of a new year, however, it’s time to get back into the routine of losing weight. This requires that once again I start tracking what I eat and making sure I’m staying within limits that will allow me to lose weight. Just as importantly, it requires that I get back into, and stay into, my exercise routine. I did attempt to get back on track with that in mid-December as I knew it would help with the maintenance, especially with all the extra holiday goodies available for snacking. I’ll just have to make sure I make myself get up and do the walking routines before I go to work each day, and do extra miles on the weekends. If I can lose another 40 pounds over the course of the year, then I would only have another 20 to go to be where I want to be. I’ve always read that losing the weight slowly is one way to make sure the weight stays off, and that’s why I’m content to consider just 40 pounds for the year acceptable. It helps that I’m already into the routine of a better lifestyle, with exercise and portion control, so I am looking forward to this resolution.

Resolution # 5: When I started tracking my resolutions two years ago, I included a food resolution because my family likes to eat. The first year, my husband and I made a new recipe every week of the year. Last year, we tried twelve new restaurants. Because we still really like food, I still want to include something food-related, but I want something a little different. Therefore, I have decided that this resolution is simply to try something new, at least every month, but more often is entirely acceptable. This something new can be a new recipe, a new restaurant, a new dish that we haven’t had before at a restaurant we’ve visited before, or a new food (last year we tried asparagus). This gives us a wide range of options for trying new foods, and I must say, I’m really looking forward to this one.

Resolution # 6: For the past two years, I had just five resolutions but I’ve decided to add a couple more for this year. This year, I’m going to keep a prayer journal. We all could make improvements to our prayer lives; I know I need to grow in my relationship with my Savior, and I know prayer is the simplest way to do so. Because I am so fond of lists, keeping a prayer journal seems to be the easiest way to make sure that I’m following through on prayer. While I do pray frequently, I want to make my prayers more focused. My pastor suggested praying for protection, power, provision, peace, and perseverance for those around us. By keeping the prayer journal, I think this will be easier for me to do. In my prayer journal, I will have a list of those I pray for daily, and I will have lists of those special prayer requests that come our way. This doesn’t mean prayer can’t still be spontaneous when needed, but it does provide a way for me to focus more on my prayer life.

Resolution # 7: I saw this idea on Pinterest on Christmas Eve and right away I knew I had to add it to my 2014 resolutions. This year I’m going to keep a Gratitude Jar, and I’m going to encourage my husband and my children (and that includes the daughters-in-law) to also keep one. The concept is simple. Each day, I will write down either something I am particularly thankful for on that day or something good that happened that day. According to the Pinterest post, the jar can be opened either at Thanksgiving or at the end of the year. I’m thinking that my version of this will actually end up being a Gratitude Journal. Rather than writing these entries on a small slip of paper and putting it in a jar, I will get a spiral notebook of some sort and write the entries in that. By doing so, the entries will remain in order and I can review the year from start to finish. At the end of the year, I will be able to read all the wonderful things that happened throughout the year. Some of these might be things that I would easily remember, but I’m willing to bet that by the time December 31 rolls around, many of them will be things I have forgotten. In addition, by taking the time to write either something I’m thankful for or something good that happened every day, it’s a reminder that regardless of how bad a day might seem, there is still something good in there and something to be thankful for.

And there you have it, the seven things I want to accomplish for the year 2014. I love the idea of a new year and the chance to do over what we didn’t get right in the old year. Every new day is a blessing, and it’s up to us how we spend it. I’m looking forward to many hours with my family, but I’m also looking forward to making these resolutions become a reality.

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.

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.

Resolutions Off to a Great Start in 2013

The first month of 2013 comes to a close today. It’s already been a busy year, and if the weather for the month of January is any indication, this year is going to be a doozy when it comes to weather. Temperatures in the 70s one day, then plummeting to the 20s with snow the next day. Just this week, we’ve had 70 degrees and sunshine, rain, severe thunderstorm warnings, and now 30 degrees and snow. You can’t help but wonder what the rest of the year will hold.

Despite the weird weather patterns, however, I have been able to make some progress on those New Year’s resolutions that I set just 31 short days ago. I’ll update you on the progress I’ve made, partly to satisfy your curiosity and partly because it’s a way to help me stay focused and on track.

My first resolution related to my writing. Yes, I intend to write every day, but mainly because that has now become a habit for me, and I intend to post a blog every day, which is also habit. I did miss posting a blog a couple days in January, but sometimes things just come up, and there doesn’t end up being enough time left in the day to get it done. My real resolution for writing is to finish the mysterious project. I have made a little progress on that, not nearly what I should have by this point, but I can say that I have worked on it a bit, which is better than having to say that I haven’t worked on it at all. As I rededicated myself to another resolution about mid-month, I find that I do need to rededicate myself to this resolution, and I need to take steps to ensure that despite my busy schedule, and despite my other resolutions, this one gets some of my time, so that by the end of the year, a short 11 months from now, I will have the project completed. This one is a lofty resolution, indeed, but if I focus, I can do it.

My second resolution related to my reading. Because I failed to hit the 75-book mark in 2012, I’m trying to do so in 2013. In order to stay on pace to reach 75 books by the end of the year, I need to read at least 6.25 books a month. As of the writing of this blog (around 1:00 P.M. thanks to a snow day), I have read five books: Many Waters and An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L’Engle, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, and The Education of Hyman Kaplan by Leonard Q. Ross. The first two by L’Engle finished up the five-book set in her time travel series. I reread The Hunger Games because my English 200 class has been assigned the trilogy, and I needed to reread it so I could write test questions and discussion board topics and so I could remember enough to be able to answer any questions the students might have. I read Macbeth with my English IV classes. Finally, I read the Ross book because my “other” son, Jeremy, suggested it and let me borrow it. It’s a very funny read about an immigrant in the 1930s who is attempting to learn the very confusing English language.

I’m aware that five books is less than 6.25 books. However, I have read one-fourth of Catching Fire, the second book of The Hunger Games trilogy, again because the English 200 students are reading it, and I need to write test questions and discussion board topics. And according to my Kindle, I am 60% finished with Dracula. My hope is that by the end of the day today, I will have finished Dracula. If I can do so, then I will be at exactly 6.25 books, which is right on target. I believe this is doable, and I will come back to the blog later today and leave a comment letting you know whether it happens. On January 2, I posted a blog “Read the Bible in a Year,” and though I didn’t mention it in my January 1 resolution blog, this is part of my reading resolution. By the end of the year, I want one of those 75 books to be the Bible. I included in that blog, a daily reading plan to make that happen. I have followed that plan and have read every day in January. Thus far, that means I have completed the books of Genesis and Matthew. I’m a third of the way through Psalms, half way through Romans, and a few chapters into Exodus. This plan is so simple and easy to follow, as long as I stick with it, reading the Bible in a year won’t be a problem.

My third resolution related to weight loss. Last year, this one was a major fail. I ended the year at the same weight I began the year, though I had wanted to lose 20 pounds. I knew it was something I needed to work on, but I just simply failed to do that part. I started 2013 with a slightly different goal, lose five pounds per month, for a total of 60 by the end of the year. By January 21, when I weighed in, I discovered I was still on the 2012 track. I knew if this was going to happen, I had to be the one to make it happen. At this point, I did a blog about my weight-loss goal, “Diet Food for Thought.” During my grocery shopping that day, I bought more fruits and vegetables, and I set my mind to achieving this goal. Ten days after that blog, I’m very pleased to be able to say that I have lost a total of 6.4 pounds, which means that for January, I have met my goal of at least five pounds for the month.

So, what have I done these last ten days? Exactly what I should have been doing the first 21 days, and then perhaps I would have actually lost more during the month. I started exercising on the morning of January 22. Using Denise Austin’s Daily Dozen DVD, I got up a half hour earlier so that I could do the 12-minute exercise for that day. This video is great. It has seven days’ of exercises, each lasting just 12 minutes. Each minute, there is a different move. There are exercises for cardio, for toning, and for yoga. It’s a great variety so you don’t get bored. It’s fast and easy so you can work it in. I did these exercises on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of that week. On Friday, we had a snow day, so I did the Daily Dozen routine, and I added the one-mile walk from the Walk Away the Pounds DVD with Leslie Sansone. It takes just 18 minutes to do the one-mile walk. I did the same routine on Saturday. I did skip exercising on Sunday and Monday, went back to it for Tuesday, but skipped it again yesterday. Today, with another snow day, I did the Daily Dozen routine but not the walk. The point is I am exercising. I can’t do all the moves, and I sometimes go a little slower than they do, but hey, I’m terribly out of shape. I’m at least trying to work myself up to the level that they do on the DVD. As I get better at it, I’ll add more to the routine. In addition to exercising, though, I am using the Lose It! app on my Kindle, and keeping track of what I eat and how much I exercise. This keeps me on track. I stay within my daily budget for calories. It also forces me to make healthier eating choices. Finally, I weigh every day. It’s great motivation to see even a half-pound drop in the weight, and it’s helpful for staying on track as well. I also wrote down my measurements as they were on January 21, but according to the Denise Austin plan, I won’t do measurements again until February 11, which is three weeks from the original date. Right now, having met my goal for January, I’m feeling very good about moving into February.

My fourth resolution related to movies. There is a list of classic movies I have not yet seen, and I identified ten classics that I would like to watch at some point during the year. In January, I haven’t watched any of them. Jimmy did bring The Shawshank Redemption for us to watch one night, but there was something on television that we’d forgotten was going to be on, so we ended up watching that instead. I’m thinking, though, that with the snowy forecast ahead for the weekend, Saturday night would make for a great movie night.

My final resolution related to food. I’m still trying new recipes and finding keepers. At some point I’ll share with you some of the recipes I’ve tried this year. However, this year’s goal was to try at least one new restaurant every month. This was successful. We tried Mi Pequena Hacienda in Lexington, Texas Longhorn Steakhouse in Lexington, and the Big Blue Smokehouse right here in Jackson. I would return to all of these restaurants. We called in the order to the Mexican restaurant, and though there were a couple mistakes (it was a huge order), the food was really good. We dined in at the other two, and the food and service were both good. I’m already thinking about what restaurant we might want to try in February.

All in all, I’ll have to call January a successful month in regard to my resolutions. Yes, there are some things I need to improve upon, such as spending more time on the project and watching a classic movie, but I’m confident I will finish Dracula by tonight, which will have me on track for the reading goal, and I’m also confident with the success I’ve had in just the last ten days of January, I will remain motivated to continue my weight-loss plan through February. I’ve no doubt the restaurant goal will be met; we love to eat out when we travel. Keeping a resolution is a matter of making up your mind about what is important to you. We can all do it. I’m looking forward to following through with my resolutions during the remainder of the year.

A Year of Success … and Failure

Wow. It’s finally here. December 31. The last day of 2012. It seems like only yesterday I was writing my January 1, 2012, blog setting my five resolutions for the year, and now it’s time to evaluate how successful I was at achieving those five, seemingly simple, goals.

First, with my writing goal I did achieve some success, but there was also some failure. I wanted to write every day. For the most part, I did actually write something every day. Not always something that would turn out to be anything worth much, but something made it either to paper or to the word processor. Notice, though, that I said “for the most part,” which does mean that there were a few days in 2012 when I didn’t write anything. When that happened, there was usually a pretty good reason, but nevertheless, good reason or not, I can’t claim to have been entirely successful with writing every day. Next, I wanted to post to the blog every day. Again, that didn’t happen. And again, when it didn’t, there were good reasons why – I was on senior trip and had no access to wi-fi to publish or I was sick and in bed for days – but again, good reasons or not, I can’t claim to have been entirely successful with posting to the blog every day. About the best I can claim with these two parts of the writing resolution is that I was more successful with these two areas than I was with the third. The days I spent writing and posting far outnumbered the days I missed. On the third and final part of my writing resolution, though, I can’t claim any real success. I had wanted to work on my project at least twice a week. That didn’t happen by a long shot. Obviously, this resolution needs some tweaking because I would like to finish this project.

Second, with my reading goal, I must finally admit that I did not reach my goal of 75 books over the course of the year. I ended up doing better than I thought I would, but I still fell short of the desired 75. I can take a bit of a hollow victory in the fact that by reaching a total of 67 books, I did set a new record for the number of books I have read in one year. I surpassed the old record by five books. I can feel good about that, but I don’t feel so good about being eight books short and not reaching my goal of 75. This is the point where I’m telling myself that if all those English 100 and AP essays had been bound and in book form, I would have easily surpassed the goal of 75 books. I have read a lot of essays this year. However, student essays don’t count toward the reading goal, so sadly, I have fallen short.

In case you’re wondering what books I read in December that pushed my total up to 67, here’s the list: Bah! Humbug by Heather Horrocks, Christmas Bells by Beverly Nault, The Christmas Tree Treasure Hunt by Joan Campbell, Reflections from a Jesus Follower by Mark Driskill, Home for the Holidays by Christin Lynxwiler, Secret Santa: A Bluegrass Novella by Kathleen Brooks, Miss Kane’s Christmas by Caroline Mickelson, The Angel of 1776 by Jeffry S. Hepple, The Christmas Tin by Roderick Robison, Christmas Future: A Sarah Anne Story by Rita Garcia, The Con Before Christmas by Erik Hanberg, 199 Promises of God by Barbour Publishing, Know Your Bible by Paul Kent, and by Madeleine L’Engle A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, and A Swiftly Titling Planet. You may notice a lot of Christmas titles, but that’s what I really like to read in December. Of those, I recommend my favorites: The Christmas Tree Treasure Hunt, The Angel of 1776, and The Christmas Tin. I also recommend Reflections from a Jesus Follower, which should be read in conjunction with the book of Luke from the Bible.

Third, with my weight-loss goal, I totally failed. I had set a goal of losing 20 pounds by the end of the year. When all is said and done, I have lost one. I suppose that’s better than none, but it’s still pretty awful. My daughter has managed to lose more than 50 pounds in just under two years. I’m so very proud of her. I’m going to have to set a goal for 2013 and I’m going to have to make myself meet that goal so she can be proud of me.

Fourth, with my cooking goal, I can claim success. The goal was to try a new recipe every week of the year. As you know, there are 52 weeks in the year, and we tried 85 new recipes. Most of those we thoroughly enjoyed, though there were a handful along the way that we decided we would not be making again. Of course, one could argue that my great success with this goal may have interfered with my weight-loss goal, but I’d have to disagree since regardless of how good each dish tasted, it’s still up to me to have the willpower and know when to stop eating. Given the course of the previous three goals, I’m just glad to be able to claim such success with this one.

Fifth, with my update goal, I can also claim success. I did manage on the last day of every month to provide an update blog to allow you to follow my success. This was probably the easiest goal to keep, but hey, we all need at least one easy goal, right? If nothing else, it can make us feel a little better about ourselves when we don’t achieve some of our other goals.

There you have it, my successes and failures for the year 2012. I do feel bad about those goals that I did not achieve. After all, meeting a goal and achieving success feels much better than having to admit defeat. I do take pride, however, in the goals I managed to meet. So where does that leave me? Right now, it leaves me thinking about my 2013 resolutions. I’m a very competitive person, even if the person I’m competing against is just me. I’ll take what I’ve learned in both my 2012 successes and failures and I’ll create a list of resolutions for 2013, and I’ll do my best to make them all a success.

Failure isn’t always a bad thing. If we learn from it, improvise and make changes, and move forward, then failure can be a good thing. Resolutions aside, overall 2012 had a lot more success than failure, and I’m looking forward to what 2013 holds.

Make the Best of Every Day

The year is almost over, and unfortunately, that also means that our Christmas break is almost over. This first week flew by, and now we only have the weekend and two days left before we have to return to work. Given the forecast, it seems safe to say that we will be returning to school as planned on January 2. Considering the last two snow “storms” that passed through Kentucky passed right over Breathitt County, it’s enough to make one believe that we are sheltered by a snow dome of some sort, which means our snow days will be few and far between. In one way, that’s kind of nice because we’ll still get out in mid-May and have a lengthy summer. In another, it’s awfully nice to get a snow day every once in a while. And if winter is going to be so dreadfully cold, there should be a snow day involved.

I’ve enjoyed the break so far. I’ve been able to spend lots of time with the hubby, the kids, and Mady, which always makes me happy. I’ve been reading like crazy, trying to hit that goal of 75 books, but slowly realizing that with only two full calendar days left, I’m probably going to fall short. It won’t be by much, but it will still be disappointing. I’ve eaten way too much over the days off, which has mostly killed the goal of losing 20 pounds by the end of the year, but, hey, it’s only Christmas once a year, and this is the only time of year we go crazy with making all kinds of goodies to snack on, so if I can just break even then I’ll be happy enough.

How do you plan to spend the last 2 1/2 days of 2012? I plan to read some more to put myself closer to that goal of 75 books, even though I’m starting to realize it probably won’t happen. Notice, though, I’m still using the word “probably.” Even with just 2 1/2 days left, I’m still not quite ready to concede defeat. I’ll write my blog detailing my failures and successes with the five resolutions that I set on January 1 of this year, and I’ll be planning my blog for January 1 of next year where I’ll set my new goals. Today, I’ll be doing another Christmas celebration since my brother Artie and his family was not able to be with us on Christmas Day. So in a few minutes, we’ll be heading back over to Mom’s for more good food and family fun.

The one thing I’ve not done over the entire break, and that I plan to keep that way, is to do anything related to work. When I left there on December 20, I had things organized so that I can go back on January 2 with a game plan. I made it a point to get that done so that I could enjoy the break without having to do anything work-related. It has worked out well, and I’m glad I had the foresight and the opportunity to do that.

For now, though, it’s time to finish getting ready so we can head on over to Mom’s and have some more Christmas fun. I realize that everyone isn’t as fortunate to have as much time off as I do, but I do hope that you are making the best of whatever you have. As I’ve said before, time is a precious commodity, and it’s up to you how you spend it. My prayer is that you will attempt to make every day your best one yet.

Looking Forward to the New Year

Can you believe there are only four days left in 2012? Where has the year gone? The older I get, the more I believe that time is relative, and it moves in proportion to your current age. There seems to be something inherently unfair about that, but one lesson I learned a really long time ago is that life is anything but fair. Therefore, the lesson you need to learn with time is to enjoy it while you have it. Don’t wish for time to move faster, for one day you will get your wish and realize what a foolhardy wish it was.

This year has had both its good and bad moments, and we experienced those both personally and as a nation. Hopefully, in the end, when you are assessing your year, you will have more good than bad moments.

For us, 2012 was a big year. Cody, my baby, graduated from high school, sharing valedictorian honors with one of his friends. Nicole graduated from college and began working on her MBA. Cody and Tiffany set a wedding date, so we’re counting down to July 13, 2013, and are busy making wedding plans. Byron and Theresa have yet to set a date, but we anticipate getting one soon. I got to see Rick Springfield for the first time in April, and then got to see him again in October. We also saw Journey and Bruce Springsteen this year. And, of course, perhaps the biggest event of 2012 happened on July 27 when my first grandchild was born. Mady has been a wonderful blessing to us all.

We have a lot to look forward to in 2013. As I’ve already mentioned, there is at least one wedding, possibly two, for our family. We’re looking forward to all the “firsts” that Mady will experience. My daughter will finish her MBA. We’re hoping Trav will be accepted to medical school.

Of course, we have no way to know all that 2013 will hold for us. We have to hope and pray for the best. Simply watching the headlines can leave us in quite the funk. There seems to be very little to look forward to, especially with that fiscal cliff looming there threatening to make 2013 a near-disaster for many of us. That may very well be our reality. However, if we’re to function, we have to do our best to try to keep a positive point of view. Trust me; I know how easy it can be to let an overwhelming situation encompass and drown you. We can’t do that, though. We have to look for the positive things that will occur in 2013, and there will be some good things that happen.

Over the next couple of days, I’m going to have to reflect about 2012 and how successful I was with my resolutions, and I’m going to have to decide what I want my goals for 2013 to be. Many of you will be doing the same. It will be easy to get caught up in what we didn’t do in 2012, but we need to focus instead on what we were able to accomplish and then focus on what we would like to accomplish in the new year. None of us had a perfect 2012. None of us accomplished everything we wanted to. However, all of us can us build on what we did accomplish and can work to make 2013 an even better year.