Second Update of 2022

             I decided it was time for an update blog about the progress of my goals for 2022. Considering this is only the second update and it’s the last week of April, that should tell you something about how it’s going. But, hey, it is what it is.

             My first goal was to continue my healthier lifestyle. I’ve lost 52 pounds since December 2020. Originally, part of continuing this included losing another 40 pounds this year. And, that’s still a part of the plan, I’ve just modified it slightly. I’m still counting calories. I’m still tracking what I eat in the Lose It! app. I’m still exercising. For the moment, however, I’ve moved myself to maintenance mode. One reason is that I hit one of the infamous dieting plateaus and it didn’t seem to matter what I was doing, I wasn’t losing any weight. A second reason is that I realized I’ve been losing for over a year and I’m tired. It’s hard to maintain that for the length of time I have. So, I set the Lose It! app to maintenance mode during spring break, and I will stay there until after we return from vacation, around the first part of June. The last day of school is May 20, so I’ll have about another two weeks to do maintenance mode. My hope is that by maintaining my current weight for two months, continuing to exercise and eat within a set calorie range, that when I start back, I can move past the plateau and start losing again. It makes sense in my head; hopefully, it works out. Regardless, I’m still avoiding pop and exercising, and I’m not overeating.

             My second goal was to read at least one complete book per week. I wish that were happening, but it’s not. I’m reading, just not quite at that pace. In fact, I’ve read just four, though I do have a couple more in progress. There’s a lot going on, and while I’ve pretty much stopped bringing work home, there’s still a lot of other things going on. I have several other projects that I also want to work on, and I’ve decided to spend a little time each week on each project, which means the likelihood of finishing a complete book every week is basically non-existent. To modify this goal, I’m just going to read what I can as I can. I’d still like to hit at least 50 books for the year, so I’m hoping that I can do some catch up in the summer.

             My third goal was to write and post one blog per week. Well, this is the ninth blog of the year, and it’s week 17, so it’s pretty obvious this goal isn’t proceeding as planned either. That’s alright, too. At least I’m back to blogging after a terribly long hiatus. If I can produce 26, or one every couple weeks, I’ll be doing quite well.

             My fourth goal was to complete a monthly Bible study plan. Don’t be too surprised, but I haven’t kept this one either. I’ve been doing some Bible study, but not the way I had envisioned it at the beginning of the year. I’d written out a specific plan. I’m still going to try to work through the ideas I outlined, but it’s not moving as quickly as it should. I’m going to keep at it though.

             My fifth and final goal was to try a new recipe from one of the cookbooks on my bookshelf. I’ve tried eight new recipes from these cookbooks, which isn’t even half of seventeen. I have a bunch marked in several of the cookbooks. I just haven’t gotten around to trying them yet. I’m thinking that with summer break coming up, that would be a good time to do a lot of those.

             One thing I’ve learned about myself is that I am usually overambitious in what I want to accomplish. That has proven true yet again. But I’m going to keep plugging along and I’ll get some things done this year. It may not be as much as I originally envisioned, and that’s OK. Another lesson I’ve learned is to be flexible. I’ll lose some weight, read some books, post some blogs, complete some Bible study, and try some new recipes. I’ll also complete (or at least work on) some other projects I have in mind. I’ll get done what I get done, and what I don’t will just carry over to next year. And I’m retiring in 2024, so I’ll have plenty of time to set bigger, loftier goals.

            

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 Reach Halfway Point

Six months into the year I should be well on my way to achieving success on my resolutions. At the end of May, I had dropped one because I simply was making absolutely no progress on it, and I was tired of reporting said lack of progress. Overall, most of the other resolutions are faring relatively well.

The Blog Resolution. I revised this one so that I would write and post at least two blogs per week instead of the original three. I thought this would be more manageable based how things were going. For June, this proved to be true. The only week I did not post two blogs was the week we were in Pigeon Forge on vacation, and I was too busy enjoying time with my husband, children, and grandchildren to worry about a blog. So, on a technical level, I suppose since I did miss a week, this resolution would be a fail; however, considering the family time we enjoyed and that that was the only week I didn’t post, I’m going to lean toward calling this one a success. Of the weeks that I was available to blog, I did post twice per week. I think I can continue this through July. It will be more difficult in August when I’m back to work.

The Reading Resolution. I am mostly on track with this one. At the end of May, I was behind three books for where I needed to be if I was to consider myself on track to reach my goal of 84 books. At the end of June, I am still behind two books for where I need to be if I want to consider myself on track to reach my goal. However, the positive part of that is that I actually exceeded the individual monthly goal of having read seven books in June by reading eight. I still need to catch up, though. By the end of July, I need to have read 49 books to be on track. I have read 40. I must read nine books in July. I have seven of those already picked out. Six are school-related readings and the other one will catch me up on a series I’ve been reading. Finding another two to read won’t be a problem. I just have to make sure I have the time to do so. And ideally, before school starts, I would love to get a jumpstart on August and actually end July ahead of the game.

The Weight-Loss Resolution. This is the one I’m having the hardest time with. I’m not gaining weight, and for that I’m grateful, but I’m also not losing at the pace I’d like to. That’s very frustrating. I know I’m the only one who can fix that, and I keep telling myself I resolve to do so, but I’m going to have to make myself be more active in doing so. I do want to do that Superhero 5K in September, so I’m going to have to spend more time walking at the track in July, which should help with the weight loss. I’m also going to have to pay more attention to what I’m eating and when. At the end of June, I’ve still just lost 6.4 pounds total for the year, which is 33.6 pounds shy of what I want to lose. Meeting this goal is still possible, if I can lose an average of 5.6 pounds per month, and that it completely doable, if I make it happen. I must make it happen.

The Try-Something-New Resolution. This one had major success in June. The goal is to try at least one new thing each month, whether that be a new food, a new restaurant, a new dish at a restaurant we frequent, or a new recipe. In June, we had a little of all of it. First at Johnny Carino’s rather than order our standard appetizer of bruschetta, we ordered their breaded zucchini and squash. It was OK, but I prefer my own breaded zucchini and squash, so we’ll probably return to the bruschetta at Carino’s. Jimmy found some cashew butter, and I love cashews more than peanuts, so I had to give this a try. It was delicious, and it’s probably a good thing I don’t have a jar of it just sitting around. It wouldn’t last long and it would kill the weight-loss resolution. At Bubba Gump’s, I tried the jambalaya. To say it was on the spicy side is to imply water is a little wet. The waiter asked if I wanted regular spicy or extra-spicy. I’m sure glad I just went with regular. It set me on fire. Another new product I tried this month is a breading from the Old Mill Store in Pigeon Forge. It said for use with fried green tomatoes, but in addition to putting it on fried green tomatoes (also a new thing for me to make), I used it on my breaded and fried zucchini and squash. I love just coating those in cornmeal, but this breading added even more flavor. At Huck Finn’s restaurant in Pigeon Forge, I first tried the fried green tomatoes, and I like them (dipped in ranch), which is why I decided trying to make them at home. The at-home ones were OK, but the Huck Finn’s ones were better. Finally, we tried two new restaurants while on vacation: the Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant in Sevierville and Vittorinio’s Cucina Italian Restaurant in Sweetwater. Both places had amazing food. The waitress at the Applewood Farmhouse made our experience a great one, where we felt right at home. The service at Vittorinio’s could have been better. They were very slow. If you have plenty of time to wait, it’s a good place to eat. If you’re rushed, find some place else. Finally, we tried a new local restaurant, Kelsey’s on Main. I’m fortunate enough to know the proprietor of this establishment, and I was very anxious to give it a try. The food and service were fantastic as I knew they would be. I chose an item of Kelsey’s that I’d eaten before, so I knew I’d like the food, and I wasn’t disappointed. Next time, I’ll choose something new from the menu. I also tried the pizza and cheese sticks from Porky’s Pizza in Paintsville. These were very good. The cheese sticks are better than those of Variety Pizza and Pizza Hut, and the pizza was as good as the pizza at Variety; it just had a thinner crust, which for somebody who’s counting calories is a good thing. Finally, Jimmy made the Pioneer Woman’s Bruschetta recipe, and it was very good. It was different than the bruschetta we normally make, but I would definitely eat it again.

The Prayer Journal and the Gratitude Journal Resolutions. These are on track to be successful. I have something in the gratitude journal for every day of the year thus far. I update the prayer journal as I hear of prayer requests. I could spend more time going back through the prayer journal and saying an extra prayer for some of the folks included in there. I should probably work on that for the remaining six months. Just because we survived our current situation doesn’t mean we can’t use prayer to help us to continue to deal with whatever fallout has occurred because of that situation.

Six months down, and six months to go. I feel confident that I’ll see more success than failure as the year races on toward its end. However, even with a feeling of confidence, if you have a prayer journal, please include me and pray for my success. Thanks, and may God bless you.

Some Resolutions Going Better than Others

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

February Was Not a Good Month for Resolutions

Just like that, two months of the new year are gone, and we’re to the point where we can hardly refer to 2014 as the “new year” anymore. After two months, some of my resolutions are going relatively well, and others, not so much. I don’t think it’s a matter of having too much on my plate; instead, it’s a matter of a lack of willpower to do what I had intended to do. I’m definitely going to have to work on that in March so the third update can show more results.

My first resolution is to revisit the project and decide what direction to take it so I can finish it that year. And I’m still in trouble with this one as I haven’t touched it yet, even with an abundance of February snow days. I can make all sorts of excuses for this, but that’s just what they are, excuses. Yes, I’ve been busy, and, yes, I’ve been working on other things, but if I really set my mind to it, I could find some time to address this project. I’m going to have to make myself do this. I’d really like to finish the project this year.

My second resolution is post to the blog at least three times per week. While that worked out well for January, it didn’t work out so well for February. I only posted five blogs, and one of those was one of my poems I wrote years ago, accompanied by a brief introduction. Again, I could make excuses, but I won’t. I’m simply going to have to do better.

My third resolution is to read 84 books for the year, which is up from 75 from 2013. In order to do that, I need to average at least seven books per month. While I got off to a great start in January, February wasn’t so good. I read nine books in January, which put me ahead of the game. I only finished three in February, which puts me two books behind where I need to be to stay on pace to finish 84 this year. I can take some solace in the fact that I am continuing with my daily Bible reading, so I know by the end of the year that will be one more book completed that I can add to the list. I also am in progress on two books, one I’m reading for pleasure and one because the AP kids are reading it. I’m going to have to do better in March, though. I need to get back on track, which means more reading.

My fourth resolution is to lose an additional 40 pounds. In order to do that, I need to average 3.3 pounds per month. While I managed to lose 4.4 pounds in January, I haven’t lost any additional pounds in February. Last week, I did get back on track with the exercise and with paying more attention to what I was eating, so that should help. In addition, for my last grocery shopping trip, I bought more fruits and vegetables. I am planning to stay on track with the exercise this week and doing a better job of staying within my limits for what I eat. The menu planning helps with that, and I’ve got to stick to that. There are plenty of things I can do to achieve success here, and I just have to make sure those are the things I’m doing.

My fifth resolution is try something new at least once a month. The first four resolutions may be stalled, but this one is going great. Once again, I managed to try more than one new thing this month. My first great endeavor was making homemade boneless chicken wings and four sauces. These were fabulous (a lot of work, but fabulous). We did those for the Super Bowl. I also tried a recipe for a Pepperoni Stromboli, which was OK, but would’ve been better if I had used actual pizza crust instead of substituting pie crust because I didn’t have pizza crust. Jimmy also made a garlic cheese sauce to put on our cheese fries; it was good. In addition, Jimmy bought some Guy Fieri sausage and we used it to make sub sandwiches. The sausage was good, but I don’t know if a sub sandwich was the best way to use it. We’ll likely experiment with it again later. The final new thing for February occurred at Olive Garden when I ordered Rosemary Garlic Chicken instead of my normal Chicken Alfredo Fettuccini. That’s definitely something I would order again.

My sixth resolution is to keep a prayer journal. Again, I’ve been doing well with the keeping part of this resolution, but I feel like I could do better with the prayer part. Again, this is something I could make excuses for, but won’t. I simply need to make an effort to do better with the prayer part.

My seventh resolution is to keep a gratitude journal. This is still one of my favorite resolutions, and I’m looking forward to rereading all the entries I’ve made for the year. I am keeping up-to-date with this one and enjoy deciding what to include and making the entries each day.

With two months down, I’ll have to say that January was definitely more successful than February, and I’ve no one to blame but myself. I’ll definitely have to work harder in March, so that my progress will improve over the next month.

 

2014 Off to a Great Start

The first month of 2014 has come and gone. It’s already time to do the first update on the status of my resolutions for this year.

My first resolution is to revisit the project and decide what direction to take it so I can finish it that year. If I had to base my success on completion of the first resolution, I’d be in trouble. Despite having more snow days than work days, I didn’t do anything toward the project. Obviously, I will have to remedy that if there is to be any success for this particular resolution.

My second resolution is post to the blog at least three times per week. This will make my 14th blog for January, so if we consider that 12 per month would average to three per week, then I can claim success for this resolution.

My third resolution is to read 84 books for the year, which is up from 75 from 2013. In order to do that, I need to average at least seven books per month. With all the snow days, I’ve managed to get off to a great start here. I have finished nine books this month, and if all goes well, I’ll have another finished late tonight or tomorrow. I’d really love to keep this pace going. As part of the 84 books, I intend for the Bible to be one of those, and I have stayed on track with my daily reading schedule to make sure that happens. As of now, I’m thinking this is shaping up to be a successful goal by year’s end. Last year, I detailed all the books I’d read for the month in the update blog, but I think for this year, every couple months, I’ll just do a blog to share what I’ve read during those months.

My fourth resolution is to lose an additional 40 pounds. In order to do that, I need to average 3.3 pounds per month. January was a bit difficult because with so many snow days it was hard to get motivated for the exercise portion of the weight-loss program. I’m definitely going to have to work on that. Even with my lack of consistent exercise, I have still managed to lose 4.4 pounds this month. I’ve got to rededicate myself to the exercise portion of this so that I can see better success, but for now, I’m very happy to say that I’m on track to meet my goal.

My fifth resolution is try something new at least once a month. I’m excited that this resolution is going great. This is one of the resolutions that will be the easiest to keep. In January, we actually tried six new things: Pioneer Woman pot roast (a recipe for my new Dutch oven) chicken tacos at Chili’s restaurant, vegetable soup (a recipe created by combining my soup recipe with Jimmy’s), pizza from Papa Murphy’s Pizza in Lexington, crispy broccoli (a recipe we saw online), and spicy pork chops (cooked using our new two-burner cast-iron indoor grill). We were very pleased with every choice except the crispy broccoli.

My sixth resolution is to keep a prayer journal. I’ve been doing well with the keeping part of this resolution, but I feel like I could do better with the prayer part. Having the prayer journal is a good idea to help assist with productive prayer, but making sure to use the prayer journal more frequently is a better idea.

My seventh resolution is to keep a gratitude journal. I’ve also been doing well with keeping up with this, and I have something that I’m grateful for for every day of the month. I’m looking forward to going back and rereading this at the end of the year. This is one of my favorite ideas.

Considering there’s only one resolution on which I’ve accomplished nothing, I’ll have to say that overall the success rate for the resolutions is great. Now I just have to keep it up for the next 11 months.

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.

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?