Hiding Out

I'm not actually hiding out but the weekend kind of got away from me and I didn't get any actual posting done. I thought about it though. The weekend was really busy since my brother and his family came into town Friday night. We hung out with them on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and had a great time. The kids were a ton of fun and we did a lot of running around on the front lawn shooting nerf things at each other. I helped my nephew Keith make a stop motion film and watched my nephew Scott play two new video games. We watched movies (lots of Pixar, yay!) and played games but spent most of our time eating. I ate so much this weekend and most of it good food.

Yesterday was a quiet day for Jeff and I. I had told everyone that it was our day. We went out to breakfast and then I came back home with the desire to get organized. I started upstairs and cleaned up our bedroom. Then I moved on to my library which is starting to look more like an actual library and less like a storage room. I did load after load of laundry and then finally settled on the couch to watch old NCIS reruns and go through all my magazines in order to get rid of them. I will be able to recycle at least 75 pounds of magazine and am keeping only about 100 pages of articles. And I got to see 4 new episodes. That show is my new favorite. And as is typical of me, I only seem to catch the reruns.

And although all of this was a lot of fun, my major excitement for the weekend was finding out that I have 30 pages on a story already written. I started this children's story about 10 years ago when I wrote the prologue. I have been adding to it slowly over the last couple years. Now I'm finally ready to finish it. I had thought that it had been lost due to replacing my old computers and lost discs so I was thrilled to find it, and to realize that it's not half bad. It's not good by any stretch but it's not terrible. That is what I have been focusing on. I finished the chapter that I had left open before and am now working on continuing on with the story. I hope to have it done by the end of fall so I can start revising it this winter. I may also post some of it here. We'll see.

All in all a wonderful weekend.

Resolving to be less Resolute

Every year at this time I sit down and write out my resolutions. And sadly they are always the same resolutions: lose weight, get more organized, write more...etc. Since I use the same ones every year you can safely assume that I only follow them for about three weeks until I slip up, decided that it isn't going to work, and return to my normal habits. Every year is the same.

This year though I have decided not to be so general. Lose weight is an incredibly general idea. It normally means dieting for me, which I hate. So this year I actually have a plan of attack. I won't say that I want to lose weight. Instead I'll say that I plan to write down what I eat each day. Starting today. Five years ago I decided that I was going to lose weight and I bought a food journal. I wrote down everything I ate, walked more, and managed to lose 60 pounds. I maintained the exercise but stopped writing things down about three years ago. And slowly gained back 50 of those pounds. So I know that a food journal works. I'll just go back to that. Not with the idea that I will lose weight but with the idea that I will make food journaling a habit. If I lose weight, great. If not I have developed a habit that will improve my overall heath.

I keep a paper journal just because I find it more convenient, but for anyone who would prefer an electronic version I recommend SparkPeople. This site is free and allows you to track both food and exercise. Plus you just have to let them know what you eat and they keep track of the calories for you.

As for getting organized, I am also creating a plan. Rather then the vague statement "I'll get organized" my plan is to focus on each room of the house. My first will be my library. That is the one that needs the most work. I'll be starting tonight with three boxes: one to keep, one to give away, and one to toss. And if I keep doing that each day, I should be leaner in two weeks or so. Then I just have to focus on making organization a habit. Putting things in their place rather than just leave them on the counter to do later. We'll see how it goes. But I'm focused on daily improvement, not just some general ideas of what to improve.