Wednesday, September 30, 2009

The Thursday... 101?

It's done! I did it, I came up with 101 things! (With a little help from my friends, of course.) Now, following through on the 101 is going to be the hard part...

Anyway, in case you're confused, or missed my first post about this, check out dayzeroproject.com. It's an interesting concept, I think, and I think more people should jump on the bandwagon, even if they don't start on 10/1. For me, I'm doing it because I feel like I've been in a bit of a daze for about four years now. My pregnancy, the broken leg, the broken arm, the broken oven... I haven't felt like myself of late, and I'm ready to make a come back. So, without further ado:

101 Things in 1001 Days!


Spiritual Growth:
1) read every book in the Bible again
2) say prayers with Small One every night
3) pray every day and keep an accurate prayer journal
4) have a family devotional at least 5 nights a week
5) volunteer to teach Sunday school at least twice
6) participate in a women's Bible study

Things to Learn:
7) learn to knit and complete 2 knitting projects
8) learn to cook 10 completely new recipes (1. corn dog muffins 2. frito pie 3.oatmeal pecan laceys)
9) learn to play one song on the guitar
10) learn how to make hairbows
11) once a month, learn a cool new craft to do with Small One


Places to Go:
12) take a no kids trip
13) take a girls only trip
14) take an overnight trip to Chattanooga, just for fun
15) go to 3 festivals
16) take Small One on the Ferris wheel
17) go out and see 3 local bands
18) visit 2 significant places in the us that I've never seen before
19) spend a weekend doing touristy things in Atlanta
20) go to a Christmas parade


Things to Do:
21) watch 3 classic movies I've never seen
22) bake bread once a week
23) make homemade pizza twice a month
24) do something funky with my hair at least once
25) update the baby books (yes, I'm aware the oldest baby is 19!) =P
26) make a book of family and collected recipes
27) plan weekly menus every weekend
28) try three new restaurants
29) buy something at a silent auction
30) try 3 kinds of wine we've never tried
31) once a month, buy a random gift on sale to put in the gift closet
32) sing karaoke


People to See:
33) host a game night
34) go to the movies with a friend once a month
35) once a month, email someone I don't regularly email
36) host 5 dinner parties
37) host a party on a holiday


Family Bonds:
38) have Mom and Middle Child day once a month
39) get a really good picture of the three kids together
40) get a really good picture of me with each of the kids
41) get a really good picture of me with The Man
42) get a really good family portrait and frame it
43) 5 times, mail photos to the in-laws
44) once a month, send a card to my grandmother
45) every other month, mail photos to my parents
46)mail photos to 5 relatives I don't communicate with regularly
47) once a week, go out with The Man
48) once a month, call my grandmother
49) take Small One to 10 community events, like story time at the library
50) take Middle Child to visit 5 college campuses
51) once a month, take Oldest to lunch and talk


Intellectual Growth:
52)read books by 10 authors I've never read before
53) complete an entire book of crossword puzzles
54)find 3 poems with significance to me
55)submit a manuscript for publication
56) blog every day for a month 6 times
57) write a children's story


Setting the House in Order:
58)paint the hallway
59)replace all the hardware in the kitchen
60) clean out the craft closet every 6 months
61) clean out my sewing baskets and complete projects lingering there
62) frame family photos and hang them in the living room
63) organize all snapshots
64) get rid of 50 books
65) sort out 10 boxes from the basement
66) have a yard sale
67) create a truly comfortable guest room/office


Personal Health and Growth:
68) take a walk every day
69) declare one week a month "no sweets week"
70) achieve my goal weight
71) go to bed before midnight at least 6 nights/week
72) train for and participate in a 5k for charity
73) declare one day a month "no technology day"- no phone, no tv, no computer, nothing. the oven is still allowed. =)
74) once a month, do something alone that isn't an errand or chore
75) take a dance class


The Great Outdoors:
76) work in the yard once a week
77) grow a garden every spring
78) add one new thing to the garden each year
79) take Small One to a playground once a week
80) pick blueberries
81) pick apples
82) take a walk in the mountains every fall to look at the leaves
83) watch the sunrise from the beach
84) watch the sunset in the mountains
85) try letterboxing or geocaching


Monetary Matters:
86)set up an Etsy shop
87)have $500 in savings by the end date
88) have $100 in Small One’s savings by the end date, in addition to what’s already there
89) list everything I have set aside for ebay
90) be a seller at a consignment sale every spring and fall


Random Kindness:

91) donate to a food bank once a month
92) spend one holiday doing volunteer work
93) once a week, leave a comment on someone's blog
94) once a year, do something nice for someone anonymously
95) Write and mail an encouraging letter to someone once a week
96) donate to 3 charities to which we've never donated before
97) at Christmas, take Small One to buy a toy for Toys for Tots
98) twice, donate money towards the groceries of the person behind me in line


Keeping it Real:
99)save $1 for every failure on this list
100)update this list weekly on my blog
101)on day 1001, publish a new list and start over!

Edited again, because I realized that updating this publicly is too much pressure! =)


Monday, September 28, 2009

Not Enough Things

No, I have not suddenly become materialistic- not to worry. But I've become inspired to participate in the Day Zero Project , and make a list of 101 things to accomplish in 1001 days. Several of my cyber friends are doing it, mostly because of the example set by our talented friend Sarah... and reading their lists has made me want to jump in there and make one of my own. People are starting on October 1st, and that would be a really interesting day for me to start as well, because I’d hit my 1001 days the day after Middle Child’s 18th birthday.


Sadly, I may be too boring to do this. I have been working on this list for 3 days now, and have only come up with 28 things. How pathetic is that? The Man won't contribute ideas, for some reason, and I'm having a mental block. Is it possible that I'm too boring for this? Or maybe it's the opposite, and I've just lived way too interesting a life, so I'm out of things I want to do? (Just kidding about that last one.)


Anyhoo... I thought I'd bring it here, and make a plea to you, my friendly readers. Make some suggestions, please! Here's what I have so far:

101 things in 1001 days

  1. read every book in the Bible again (0/66)
  2. visit 2 significant places in the US that I've never seen before (0/2)
  3. learn to knit and finish 2 knitting projects (0/2)
  4. read books by 10 authors I've never read before (0/10)
  5. find 3 poems with significance to me (0/3)
  6. submit a manuscript for publication (0/1)
  7. learn to cook 10 completely new recipes (0/10)
  8. take a walk every day (0/1001)
  9. declare one week a month "no sweets week" (0/33)
  10. declare one day a month "no technology day"- no phone, no tv, no computer, nothing. the oven is still allowed. =) (0/33)
  11. work in the yard once a week (0/143)
  12. grow a garden every spring (0/3)
  13. add one new thing to the garden each year (0/3)
  14. take Small One to a playground once a week (0/143)
  15. set up an Etsy shop (0/1)
  16. donate to a food bank once a month (0/33)
  17. have mom and Middle Child day once a month (0/33)
  18. take a no kids trip (0/1)
  19. host a game night (0/1)
  20. take a girls only trip (0/1)
  21. watch 3 classic movies I've never seen (0/3)
  22. blog every day for a month 6 times (0/6)
  23. spend one holiday doing volunteer work (0/1)
  24. go to the movies with a friend once a month (0/33)
  25. learn to play one song on the guitar (0/1)
  26. watch the sunrise from the beach
  27. bake bread once a week (0/143)
  28. make homemade pizza twice a month (0/66)

So what do you think, readers? Do you have any suggestions for me? I just KNOW I can get a few from at least one of my list loving friends...

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

You know it's been a nutty week...

...when you post your Wordless Wednesday on Tuesday.


Monday, September 14, 2009

Laughing is better than crying, right?

I will admit, I'm easily tickled. More embarrassingly, I crack myself up all the time. Something simple comes up, and my brain takes it in a direction that just makes me laugh, and there I am, an appreciative audience of one to my own stand-up act. Loser-y, but true.

Typos really make me giggle. This takes me back to my high school typing class, in which I performed miserably, at least partly because Richard League was in my class, and that guy was FUNNY. I am absolutely no good at typing without glancing at my hands, and I was perpetually shifting over a key, which Richard dubbed "typing in Swedish". Today, though, I'm always giggling by myself at other people's typos, though I am pretty good about not pointing them out.

Tonight, though, I have to share. I'm a member of an online mother's group, and though I mostly go on there to hang out with other moms who have children the same age as my Small One, I have recently discovered a group for moms of teens as well, which I'm thinking I could really use, because dealing with teenaged kids pretty much REQUIRES a support group. Today, one of the topics was "How to keep your cool when they get so mouthy", which is, of course, pertinent. People were talking about all the same things I deal with on a weekly basis with Middle Child... the eye rolling, the door slamming, the yelling, the back talk, the fit throwing... I can't decide whether it's encouraging or depressing to know we're all in the same boat.

One post in particular, though, caught my eye. This mom states that her daughter throws fits that involve "screaming and whaling".

REALLY?!?!? Whaling? Now, that's interesting. Ingenious, even! What a creative way to burn off that negative energy!!! Where does the child get the whaling vessel and harpoons? And isn't that illegal most places? Surely the legality is an issue which needs attention. I am telling you, I elaborated on this and giggled at myself for hours. The mental image of that child dressed as a whaler was enough to keep me going for a long time. Call her Ishmael. (See, I'm still going with this!)

In her defense, the mom who wrote that is extremely intelligent and articulate, and I don't know that I've ever even caught her in a typo before, but somehow, that made it funnier.

Well, anyway, I guess laughter is my drug of choice. And red wine, but that's a topic for another day. Middle Child is back, as I've said, and she is back with a vengeance. Many days I'm actually physically tired from standing my ground. Boarding school, where art thou?

(I'm kidding, we can't afford boarding school, I've already checked.)

The other day, after suffering through a particularly ugly "mouthing off" incident at Target, I put M.C. out of the car. Yes, I did. It wasn't too far from home, it wasn't a busy street, but I was making a point. At first she tried to stare me down and refuse to get out of the car, but I won that one by offering her a chance to trade the walk home for two weeks of being grounded. She has enough sense to know that was a bad deal, so she reluctantly left the vehicle, but not without yelling at me, just before she slammed the door,

"You'd better HOPE I come HOME!!!"

Oh, I laughed so hard at that one! I'm still laughing, truth be told. I mean, seriously? What was her plan? And if you're going to threaten me, at LEAST pick something SCARY!

Someday, she'll look back on all this and laugh too, right?