Resolution Update

April is here.  It's spring.  Fully one-quarter of the year has passed by.  I figure it's time to check in on myself and see how I'm doing on my resolutions.

Project Life is a partial fail as far as resolutions go.  BUT, I am getting lots of pics regularly, and documenting our life.  So maybe I should say Picture A Day is a partial fail, but Project Life's going OK.  When it's all said and done, I'm sure we'll have a great photo album documenting a year in our lives.

Working out is right on track.  I've been getting to the gym several times a week, much to the aggravation of the H. H., sometimes, I think.  But I go anyway.  I made a promise to myself, and promise to my mother, and I'm not backing down.   I'm not going to let myself slip on my health.  And, I firmly believe it should be OK for me to feel that way.

Blogging, well, let's not even go there.  You can see how well I'm doing on that one.  I have so much to write, but by the time I am able to sit and do it every evening, I'm too exhausted!  I'll get better at that, though....  I will.

Meal planning is a breeze now.  I've been finding one or two new recipes to try every week, and working them into my plan.  I'd have to give myself a pat on the back for this one.  Jack helps me cook, and pretty much everyone's willing to try new things.  And if the new things don't turn out to be quite what we'd expected, we go with the flow.  There's always grilled cheese.

And there you have it.  My resolution update.  Some positives, some not-so-positives, but all-in-all, it's all good.

New App

Once again, I must admit I've been a slacker.  I'm not living up to my blogging resolution.  I'm ok with it.  You'll just have to be ok with it, too.

On the other hand, I'm on top of my exercise resolution right now.  I bought a new app called Couch to 5k from Felt Tip, Inc.  I LOVE IT.  It lets me turn on my music, and when it's time, it lightly beeps in my ear, and tells me it's time to run, or time to walk.  It's great!  It's keeping me on task.  When I'm in charge of my own intervals, it's just too easy to cut my run time short.    Definitely the best $3 I've spent in a long time!

Tuesday

It's Tuesday.  That's almost all I've got...  not quite, but almost...

This past weekend, the Handsome Husband and I went out for a nice Valentine's Day dinner date, albeit a day early on Sunday...  Talk about yummy! We both got terkiaki salmon, and enjoyed it thoroughly.  We also shared appetizers of summer rolls and lobster rangoon.  (Yes, my tummy did get a little mad at me over those, but it was worth it.)

Our Sunday night dinner out wound down an aggravating week of total grouchiness on the part of the H.H.  After the kids and I got him a new phone for his birthday on the 8th, everything went downhill...  the cellular provider sales rep messed up and switched over his data package before he should have.  Then there were a few glitches with some of the apps we installed.  The sound quality was horrible, and then, well, then...  the crystal broke.  Then we got the data package switched back to the old phone, but there were glitches with the texting.   All-in-all, it was pretty much a disaster as far as birthday presents go.  Now the phone's getting sent away for repair, and then maybe even replacement.  I'm just hoping things go better when we get it back, and "start over".

I'm not really doing so fantastically well with my picture of the day lately.  I've missed a few days.  But, I'm looking at it like this - I'm still capturing memories from most every day, and that's alot.  And it's going to make for a fantastic album to look back at.

The best news of my day was....  I lost another 1.4 pounds last week.  Ya-hooooooo!   My 2011 total is right around 7 pounds over the past 7 weeks (I didn't start on the first).  Not bad at all.  And, since I'm really just trying to eat clean, and exercise regularly, it's just proving to me that the very simplest changes really do make a difference.

the "More"

Naturally, I'm totally exhausted again today, but...  I suppose that's just the way it is these days.  I can't expect to get enough sleep AND do all the 'stuff' I want to do.  But I said there'd be more today, so...  here's the "more". 

I figured out why I've not written anything this week.  I've been trying to decide just how to put into words some memories of my mom, and that's oh-so-very hard for me.  When I work on writing about her, I usually end up avoiding it.  I still miss her every day, and writing makes me miss her even more.   But I will, because it's important to remember.  I'm just not going to do that today.  Instead, for right now, I'm going to think more about my resolutions...

I've been doing so-so on the picture of the day thing.  I'm sure the kids will wonder why some days there are pictures of snow, or of my running shoes, or of some other silly thing that's not so silly to me.  Hopefully, my journaling cards will explain why I choose the pictures I choose.

Speaking of pictures, I'm trying to expand my photographic horizons by using various filters and effects in photoshop.  Here's the photo I'm using as the blog background for the next couple of weeks until Valentine's Day.

And here's the original

I like both, but in different ways.  I think I'm going to have alot of fun with photoshop!

FAIL!

Ok, well...  So...  I said I was resolved to post at least every other day, and the last post I wrote was on the 17th.   And today's the 25th.  I gotta admit...  that's an extreme FAIL. 

Oh, well....  Back at it.   I guess it's only real failure if I just give up.  And I'm not doing that!

More on that tomorrow, though...  I'm exhausted tonight, and it's off to bed for me!

Grrrr....

Life in Illinois.  Grrrrr...  

The state's broke
They've raised our taxes
The state's still going to be broke
Illinois jobs are being filled by non-residents
Illinois residents are still unemployed

I could go on for days.  But that's a sampling of why "grrrrrr..."

On a brighter note, I did lose 5 pounds last week.  I guess cutting those snickers out of my diet really did make a difference!  Ha!  Of course, I'm sure the massive quantities of celery I've been ingesting hasn't hurt.  Or the other fruits and veggies, the tons of water or the regular, small-ish, human-sized portions I've returned to having.  

Whatever combo of things, I lost 5 pounds.    Life is good.  Even if I am living in Illinois.

Week 1

OK, well..  I, uh, well...  I tried really hard to not get carried away and get all "mom" and start posting pictures of my Project Life project, but...  I can't take it.  I gotta do it.  On the oh-so-extremely remote chance that Matt (or anyone else, for that matter) actually occasionally checks the blog, I gotta make sure it shows what's goin' on here in my corner of the world. 

Besides, I was scanning through about 50 different blogs tonight, lots of which have posts about various styles of picture-of-the-day projects, and I've gotten "the bug" to share.

The girls started the year off as karaoke rock stars, after spending the day re-organizing the video games and game systems.

On the 2nd, Jack realized that we were serious about getting ready to go back to school after the break.  He was very pouty while he practiced spelling.

 The 3rd took us to a J.V. Girls' Basketball game, where Kathryn played almost the entire game.  She was totally AMAZING!  (Even if my photographic efforts weren't!)

Since she got it, the shirt's been Sarah's favorite.  'Nuff said.

Jack got a new Bop It for Christmas, and by the 5th, he'd mastered the "master" level.  He could perfectly follow the commands  - even with the Bop It behind his back!

Just before the first of the year, Jack joined the Sherman-Williamsville Wrestling Club, and during his second week of practices, he really started to get into it.

We finished up the week with a little housework.  A Jack in trouble = A very clean room!

And that sums up our first week.  I have no idea if I'll post all of every week's entries, or if I'll end up posting occasional pics here and there, but I'm sure you'll see more of my POTD/Project Life project.

Workin' Out

Well, resolution #1 is coming along just fine.  I walked yesterday (in the super-cool vibram five-fingers shoes), and today made it to fitClub for about 40 minutes on the eliptical.  Ah.... I feel so much better.  A short break of a few days would have been a good, but not working out at all for the past few weeks was just plain awful.   You know you've made exercise a part of your life when you actually MISS it.   Now if I can just figure out how to get a handle on eating, I'll be great! 

I think resolution #2 is going to help with that.  Knowing what we'll be having for our dinners makes it ALOT easier to make the day healthier.  Tonight, I made shredded chicken enchiladas.  Yum.  So much yum that there was actually some discussion around who got the last one.   AND - they thought I'd gotten carry out because they tasted so good.  Although, I'm not sure that's a good thing.  I'm hoping that eventually, homemade will win out over carry out.  On tomorrow night's menu, I think, is a spinach-cheese stuffed steak.  I can't wait!

Day 2

Ya-Hooo!  January 2nd, and all is well. 

On the resolution front, I am sticking to the meal plan...  today, I fixed homemade chili.  As in homemade.  From scratch.  No spice mix.  No canned "starter".  All homemade.  And it was pretty darned tasty.  I used about double the ground beef, and it turned out to be a really meaty, hearty chili with a good warmth.  At least, that's what I thought.   And I think the fam agreed - they all said they liked it, anyway.   Of course, it will be tweaked a bit until I get it more "perfect". 

As far as Project Life goes, I'm not going to get silly with sharing my pictures of the day.  I think I'll try to post some about once a week.  The kids are totally into the POTD, and keep posing for me at every opportunity.  Even Jack, in trouble and studying spelling, posed several times.  So....  I've gotten my pictures for these first two days without any problems.

It's definitely starting out to be a pretty decent year. :)

Happy New Year!

Ah, January 1st.  Its so funny, if you really think about it, the way our society acts as though life's reset button gets pressed every January 1st.   And it's even funnier, really, that it actually kind of works that way.  We all make new beginnings based on the calendar.  And I'm sure I'm not the only one who'll say that today just "feels" different somehow.    "Visualize, Believe, Realize" is so true.  In our own ways, we each visualize January 1st as a new beginning, we do believe in it, and so it's just the way it is. 

A big part of the "new beginning" thought is the concept of the new year's RESOLUTION.  Because we get another chance to start over every January 1st, we make resolutions based on what we didn't quite get right in the past year.   Some of us, myself included, have made the same resolution over and over - and over - again.  Like losing weight, or quitting smoking.  I resolved about 10 times to quit smoking on January 1st, but ultimately my quitting had nothing to do with the calendar.  When I threw out the smokes, it was on an August day.

New Year's Day resolutions seem to be for the fun of it, in alot of cases.  People recite their resolutions with a chuckle, and often throw in a disclaimer about how long they think they'll last.  Like "I'm going to exercise every day this year!  Of course, by about February I'll be back on the couch, but I'm going to start off right."    It's like people are giving themselves an out...  like if they say something about the possibility of failure, it'll make it OK.

I'm not taking my resolutions lightly this year.  And failure is not going to be an option.  And that is why I'm not making a super-duper long list of things I resolve to change.  That just wouldn't work.  I'm realistic.  I do have a super-duper long list of things I intend to accomplish this year.  But those aren't resolutions.  Those are my "2011 To-Do's".  I still have to figure out a place to post those to keep them in my sights all year.  But...  that's for later today.  Right now, I'm thinkin' about the resolutions.

Mary Sunshyn's New Year's Resolution #1 - Consistently exercise at least 4 times a week.  The key there is "consistently".   Since I re-joined fitClub last year, I've exercised, but not very consistently.  Some months, I worked out almost every day.  Others, though, I worked out for 10 days in a row, but then skipped 10.  And THAT is why I haven't achieved my goals yet, and  I know it.  So....  this year, I'm committing to being consistent.

Mary Sunshyn's New Year's Resolution #2 - Plan our meals a week at a time, and STICK TO THE PLAN.  I've noticed that I get lazy way too often, and stray from the plans I make for our meals.  Which is not a big deal, on one hand.  But on the other hand, when I stray from the plans, I end up at the grocery store WAY too often.  I also end up feeding the fam less-than-stellar meals.  And, I'm sure I spend more, since I go to the store based on an idea for the week's meals, and then go back for MORE.  :)  I know I'm not alone - lots of us do it.   But this year, I'm sticking to the plan.  This business of going to the store all the time cuts into my days way more than I like...  which, in turn, leaves me less time to go work out, sit down and write, and lots of other things.  So, that's enough of that!

Mary Sunshyn's New Year's Resolution #3 - Project Life.  Picture of the Day.  'Nuff said. 

and, kinda-sorta going hand-in-hand with #3...

Mary Sunshyn's New Year's Resolution #4 - Blog, blog, blog.  I'm resolving to blog at least every other day. 

Now, in the world of resolutions, I know that the only way to succeed is to have a plan.  I'm one of those weirdo people who really and truly believes that saying "Failing to plan is planning to fail."   So...  I've got the plans.  But I won't blabber on and on about them right now.

There you have it.  January 1st.  Resolutions. Thoughts.  Plans.  Now, it's time to get busy!