Happiness Project: January

Well, friends, I may have mentioned in a previous post that I am embarking upon my own Happiness Project this year after reading The Happiness Project and Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin. Today is Day 1!

Since this is the first month, some things may change, like the format that I use to keep track of stuff, or even a resolution. I'll try my best to keep all of my resolutions, but if I realize quickly that one of them is NOT contributing to my happiness--if it makes my life more difficult, or makes someone ELSE'S life more difficult, if it feels so unnatural that I just can't keep doing it--then I'm going to take it off my list.

That said, here are my resolutions for January; there are five of them.
1. Streamline and organize
2. Go to bed on time
3. Keep a health journal
4. Follow the one-minute rule*
5. 10-minute tidy every evening

First of all, I'll say that I'm obviously modeling my own happiness project after the book, which is one reason why my focus for January is the same as hers. The second reason is that it just makes sense. Before I start trying to get craftier, or bake more, or spend more active time with Bob, it seems reasonable to think that the best way to start is to get my life (and apartment) better organized, and eliminate the junk that is in the way.

"Sure, okay, but why do you need a WHOLE MONTH? How much junk do you HAVE?" some of you may be screaming at me in your heads. Hush, now, I'm coming to that.

I'm taking the entire month of January because a) organization is important, b) I want to do it right, and c) you have to do things every day for it to become a habit. And I want to make organization a habit, not just a two- or three-times-a-year thing. So I have a month to practice before adding more.

Now, to each resolution individually: The first three, I think, are self-explanatory. I want to get rid of unnecessary items that clutter my life, and get the things that are important organized in such a way that I can find them and fully utilize them. Going to bed on time will mean I get enough sleep, which will hopefully lead to fewer naps in the afternoon. (You'll notice I didn't make "Not napping" a resolution. We all have our standards.) Having enough sleep is VERY important to me! And keeping a health journal will help me better understand my own patterns of eating, sleeping, and exercising, and also the role that different foods, weather, and activities may have on how I feel, both physically and emotionally. (I have GERD, or gastroesophageal reflux disease, frequent headaches and sinus pain, and earaches, in addition to to generalized anxiety disorder, depression, and some tendencies toward OCD.) As an adult I have come to accept that a pill won't cure everything and sometimes you have to suck it up and stop eating Wendy's spicy chicken nuggets unless you WANT to be miserable for the next 4 hours.

*As to my fourth resolution, "follow the one-minute rule," I took it directly from The Happiness Project. The one-minute rule means that if there's a chore or task that needs to be done and will take less than one minute, DO IT NOW. Let's say you just used the last of the milk. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, don't just leave the empty jug on the counter! It will take just a few seconds to put the jug in your recycling bucket or garbage can. So go do it. Then it won't still be there staring at you next time you go in the kitchen. Because if you put it off once, it's so much easier to put it off again. DON'T. Same thing with putting your dirty clothes in the hamper, starting the dishwasher, putting your shoes in their place instead of leaving them in the middle of the floor. These tiny, seconds-long actions help tremendously in my feeling of cleanliness and organization.

The last resolution is similar--10-minute evening tidy-up. If I take just 10 minutes before I get ready for bed each night to pick up stray trash, hang up jackets, stack books, and scrub out that pan, the house will look so much nicer in the morning, and next time I do a deep-clean I won't have to start with those little nagging chores.

I'm almost done, I promise.

The thing I love best about this project is that there's a super-easy way to keep up with whether or not I'm following my own rules: A CHECKLIST. Every month will have the resolutions at the top, and each day I'll get a check for each resolution I kept that day. It enables me to chart my own progress and reflect on what I have and haven't been doing, and I can see more concretely what is or is not making my life more enjoyable. Here's the checklist I'm using (it's just a snip because I can upload images, apparently, but not documents and this is the only way I could figure it out):

And of course it's a full page, with numbers down to 31.

That's enough for now. I bought noodles in a new shape at Walmart today and I'm excited for dinner! YAY FOOD TIME! Look for more January updates soon!

Happy New Year. Can I go to bed now?

Well, people, it's 12:37 on January 1, 2013 here in Birmingham. I went to a party tonight and I am proud to say I was there for AN HOUR AND A HALF. I got home around 11:30. I am safe and sound and warm and watching something I recorded about pagans (Pagans? Is that capitalized? I mean, it's a religion, right? Why is Muslim spelled so many different ways? Has anybody else noticed that when you spell it "Moslem" it looks a lot like "mausoleum?" I did.) And I am happy here at home by myself so BACK OFF AND STOP JUDGING.
Oh, I went to Subway for dinner tonight on my way to the party, and I got there at like 8:45 and there was one girl working there who said she had been there since 6:30 THIS MORNING. I asked her how long they were open and she said till 10:30, and when I was on my way back to my apartment I thought about stopping to see if she was still there to wish her a Happy New Year, but I wanted to go through Scottsdale and see the Christmas lights again (even though I already did it once) and going BACK to Subway would mean backtracking, and also even though I had the best of intentions I thought this girl would maybe think it was weird and be afraid of me for coming back to talk to her, and since I was already afraid of rapey murderers in my parking lot because the outside light over the apartment steps has gone out and that's totally asking to be kidnapped and raped and dismembered and have your remains scattered across 3 different states, I certainly didn't want to scare anybody else. I'm thoughtful like that.
Oh, I know you have all been worried about whether or not I have gotten my planner for this year (because not having a planner in time is one of the signs of the apocalypse, right?) so I would like to update you on that: I HAVE ONE. Actually, that's not true. I HAVE TWO. TWO PLANNERS. Because I'm thorough.
Actually I have two because one is little and goes everywhere with me and can even fit in my black purse, which is the smallest purse I have and that's why I took it with me to find the travel one, and the other one is bigger and will mostly stay home and keep track of EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN so that when I forget something, I have to come up with a really good excuse, and it will therefore be a good exercise in creativity. Only the problem is that I went to Staples and got a bunch of their stuff from the Martha Stewart line (because it is all color-coordinated and I saw an awesome example of it HERE>>>http://7thhouseontheleft.com/ but then when I got home and tried to put it all together THE DIVIDER TABS DID NOT FIT MY BINDER!!! And I don't even know what binder they WOULD fit because they certainly won't fit a normal-sized one, and mine is 5.5"x8.5" and other than that and normal what other size is there??? WEIRD. BAD MARTHA. So I have to go BACK to Staples tomorrow to exchange my dividers for a set that actually works. But at least I have my little planner and tomorrow the rest of my big one should come together.
Once I get it all put together and organized exactly how I like it, I'll post a picture and links to all the stuff. But right now it is time for me to go back to laughing so hard I give birth to a kidney, and you can have this much fun too if you will go buy Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson, although if you are opposed to profanity I don't advise this. But sometimes cussing just makes things funnier. (Sorry, Mom, but that's how I feel.)
I've got to go read my book and see what sort of trouble the Pagans are getting themselves into; happy celebrations and be safe!

New Year, New Projects

Hello, friends!
I hope everyone has had a lovely holiday season so far and that you continue to relax and enjoy the gifts and goodies that remain. For my part, I got a HUGE influx of coffee mugs--four to be exact, and Bob's makes five--but it's been really cold outside (delightfully cold!) so I'm using two to three per day. I also got some books and a bunch of Doctor Who stuff.....so much I think I'm going to create a sci-fi shrine somewhere in the apartment now. I also made a trip to Hobby Lobby and got a bunch of cheap Christmas ornaments for next year. But first let's focus on the 363 days before that.
Sometime in October, I believe, I stumbled across The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin in the library. I had heard it mentioned, but didn't give it much thought; the familiarity of the title struck a chord with me, however, and after flipping through a few pages, I checked it out. I also canvassed her website, http://www.happiness-project.com/, and needless to say, I was inspired. Like Gretchen, I am not unhappy as I am--I have a lovely apartment, a perfect match of a husband, a loving family, a standoffish cat, a job I love, and so much more--but I think I could be putting forth more effort to enjoy what I have.
I'm going to follow the format of Gretchen's project, which is to give each month of the next year a focus (marriage, family, gratitude, etc.) and make resolutions to help me experience the most happiness within my focus area. The resolutions build on each other, though, meaning that if I have 3 resolutions in January and 3 new ones in February, that I should actually strive to follow all 6 in February. I feel that I've found a kindred spirit in Gretchen Rubin, because she likes to make lists and check things off and even take notes on books she reads for no reason other than she likes taking notes--I had no idea anybody else did that. She wants recognition, or "gold stars" for doing good work, but struggles to give out those same stars to others (me, too.) If I could meet this woman, I think we'd be able to talk nonstop from dawn to dusk without taking a breath and still each make a list of talking points for the next meeting. (She also loves children's literature, but I can't imagine who wouldn't.)
Anyway, the point of this post is to warn you that I'm about to embark upon my own happiness project. I'll get into more specifics when I can, and I'll try to be consistent about updates, something that I'm absolutely terrible at right now. But alas, the new year and my new project shall begin soon, which means I have oodles of preparation and lists and notes and books to keep me busy.
Happy dead-time-between-Christmas-and-New-Year's, my friends!

Consistency

Okay.... In order to write more posts, I've decided that I'll write a post for each new recipe, craft, decorating endeavor, or other project I do. No, this does not include every picture I color with my kindergartners. Just stuff that takes some effort and has potential to a) inspire others or b) provide a lesson from which others can learn.

Tonight I tried a new recipe, lentil and ham soup, found on http://allrecipes.com/recipe/slow-cooker-lentil-and-ham-soup/detail.aspx
(I tried to make it link, but when I use the "link" option on Blogger it just shows a blank space where the text is. If anybody can help me fix this, let me know.)

This is what it ended up looking like:

Here's a close-up:

If you want the recipe, check out the above link, but a quick summary is chopped ham, carrots, onion, celery, garlic, some lentils, chicken broth, tomato sauce, and spices, dump it in a slow cooker and leave it the hell alone. I cooked mine on high because I didn't have the specified 11 hours to leave it on low, as we didn't drag ourselves out of bed until after noon today. It can easily be doubled, halved, what have you for whatever quantity you need.

It turned out okay. I have NO experience with lentils--never even bought them before. The soup tasted alright, not my favorite and perhaps a little too strong with some of the herbs. The lentils were perhaps cooked too long because the interior mush slipped right out of the skin once it hits your tongue, but everything else seemed perfect, including the consistency. If the lentils were added later, I'm guessing it would be more liquidy, but the lentils would perhaps be firmer. I don't know what they're supposed to be like, so I can't say whether that would be good or bad.

Bob seems to like it okay--we had it with cornbread (Aunt Jemima corn meal and recipe--a little too sweet for me), and he likes to dip the cornbread in his soup. His typical response when I ask how he likes something is, "It's not too bad." That can mean anything from toxic tar-like substance to what you would request as your last meal before your execution. Well, actually he usually tells me if there is something really wrong, but you get what I mean. He's eating it, so whatever.

I have to add for anybody who suffers from GERD (acid reflux) that I'm not feeling too hot at the moment--of course I'm also drinking Dr. Pepper, so that could be part of the problem.

Ooh, Bob just found the bay leaf, which means he wins the prize! I don't have a prize, but if there was one, he'd get it.

Coming up: I'm looking forward to baking some pumpkin snickerdoodles for Halloween at school on Wednesday--I'll post with pictures after that adventure.

Happy fall cooking!

Quarter-Life Crisis

Hello, friends. In less than a month I will be 25. While this is just an arbitrary number that does nothing more than save us some money on rental cars and insurance, many of you who are similar to me in age and career progress can certainly understand why it can seem so a) significant and b) depressing.

It is significant for several reasons. One of those reasons is that when you're a kid, 25 is "old." Most people this age who are not trying to be doctors are finished with school and have a career. I have friends who have had/are having babies, or getting ready to buy houses. Well let me tell you, me and Bob are not having babies anytime soon. In fact, I sent my mother a text the other day that I'm seriously considering animals instead of tiny humans. They are cheaper, you can leave them alone when necessary, they love you unconditionally, they don't go to college, and they don't wreak havoc on your lady parts.
Now, as far as buying a house goes, we aren't ready for that either. This one doesn't bother me so much (or at all, really)--we don't know where we are going to be in 2 years, we don't know what sort of house we will need, and we are already paying off a mortgage worth of student loans. I don't care really--renting is fine.
Now, the career thing is frustrating. It's not like I don't know what I want to do. I even know exactly what I want to get my master's degree in. But I can't go back to school until I get a job doing what I trained for (ironic, I know.) The way we live for the next 9 months depends entirely on what happens during the summer, and another summer has come and gone and I'm still on my "stepping stone." Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my job. It's why I want to go back to school for special ed. But I won't get anywhere until I get off this stepping stone, and my chance is pretty much gone until next summer. That really stinks.

I'm one of those people that feels lost without a plan. Having a plan doesn't mean I'll follow it, or that I'm organized, but it means I know what to expect. So I'm making a plan for the next year of my life.

1. Writing. Since I was in first grade I have been a writer. I love words--they are my medium for art. I don't paint or sculpt, because I'm terrible at it, but I am GOOD at writing. And I've started writing a book. I have a concrete idea and a solid storyline--the first I've ever had. This one actually might go somewhere, so I'm going to take my time and keep working at it until I'm done.

2. Plants. For the past several years me and Bob have tried to plant stuff and make it grow with limited success. I think a big part of the problem is that we usually don't plan ahead. It's like, oh, we should have planted carrots a month ago. Not this year. I'm getting started now. I'm figuring out what to plant and what we'll need to do it, I'm putting it on my Google calendar with reminders and this year we are going to grow some food!

That's all I have for now. I like these goals. They will have tangible results, with measurable progress, and they are things I really WANT to finish. I want this year to mean something, to be one I can look back on with pride instead of, "What happened that year?" I want it to count.

Dead Tigers

This post is concerning a lovely conversation I had with my mother around this time last year, "this time" meaning Football Season.

We were walking companionably along in a parking lot, possibly Hobby Lobby, and we saw an image similar to this:

My mom pointed to it and commented, "Now I don't understand that. I just don't see how that is showing support for Auburn. Do you get it?"

I was (understandably) confused by this, so I gave her a quizzical look and asked her what she meant. She elaborated: "Well, it's supposed to show support for Auburn, right?" I confirmed. "Well then, how is it supportive to act like you're driving around with a dead tiger in the trunk?"

I stared at her for a minute or two. Then, after I finished laughing, I explained to her that the point of the tail is to make it seem as if the CAR ITSELF actually is a tiger, what with the tail hanging off the back of the car just as it does the back of a tiger.

And now I am proud to say she knows and is no longer walking around with the idea that people are trying to pretend they have dead tigers in the trunks of their cars. Happy birthday, Mama, I love you!

Perspective

Perspective is a powerful thing, and it can change quickly. My perspective on several aspects of life has seen some things in a new light lately.

1. Texting and driving. Since the texting ban took effect in Alabama however long ago, I've sent maybe two texts while in the car, and have made/received less than 5 phone calls. Cause, you know, I don't want to get a ticket--I hate being stuck behind somebody driving the speed limit, can you imagine how frustrating it is to have to STOP and WAIT for a cop to write you a ticket? And then that slow person has just had that much more time to back up traffic EVEN MORE. But I digress. That's not what changed my perspective. A ban on something won't stop people from doing it. Seeing billboards and commercials and magazine ads won't stop people from doing it. What scared ME most was when I was on my way home from school one day. I was exiting off 65 south at Montgomery Hwy and going straight across to Lorna Road, and I was stopped at the light, third car back. The light turned green, and I had enough time to think, "WHAT'S TAKING SO LONG?!" before the little red Honda took off. The other light had been red for several seconds. And yet, that little red Honda got t-boned by somebody going over 50. 31 was shut down for awhile, and I'm sure both cars were totaled. It was LOUD. That's the worst wreck I've ever witnessed. Now, I don't know that the driver of that car was texting, but something distracted them from the road for a good 5 seconds or more. And that's what can happen in 5 seconds. I don't want to be the one responsible for totaling somebody's car, breaking somebody's leg, or killing somebody's child.

2. Prenatal care. Because I work in special ed, I see what can happen when you don't take care of your body, when your body is busy creating somebody else's body. I work primarily with a child who has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Just so you know, this is what alcohol exposure in utero does to a baby's brain:

This child is such a sweetie. Many kids with FAS can be aggressive, but he is not. When his medication is in full effect, he can sit at a table or on the floor, listen, and attend (somewhat) to a task. This doesn't mean he understands--what many kindergarten students come to school already knowing, he struggles daily to learn. Things like colors, numbers, shapes, and letters, and writing his name, things two- and three-year-old children know, he doesn't fully comprehend. Before his medication has kicked in, or after it has worn off, all self-control is left behind. He is incapable of keeping still, he constantly touches or pats his classmates, he makes inappropriate comments that get all the other kindergartners riled up, and he spontaneously attempts to do back-flips and lands on his head. When he's in that state, there's absolutely no way he's going to be able to learn efficiently.

I also have worked with kids whose disabilities are attributed to prenatal drug exposure--blindness, extra fingers, mood disorders, and mental retardation. Kids whose lives could have been so different. Don't get me wrong, each one is a blessing and I love each one for all that they are and all that they can be. But I see the frustration when a first-grader tries to write his name for the thousandth time and forgets how to spell it, or when a third-grader has to ask how to spell "him." And there's every chance that some of these challenges would be present even if every precaution was taken--but please, ladies, if you are of child-bearing age, even if you don't WANT children, take care of your body. I'm sure these kids' mothers didn't have malevolent intent, but the consequences are what they are, and it can't be changed. Some of these kids will never be independent. They will rely on others for care for the rest of their lives, robbed of the ability to make responsible decisions, control their impulses, or fill their own basic needs.

3. I'm grateful for so many more things in my life. I'm grateful that I have fruit flies to deal with at the moment (though I hate them too) because it means there's food in my kitchen. I'm grateful for the alarm clock that goes off at 5:45 in the morning because it means I have a job to go to, even if it's not the one I have dreamed of for the past 6 years. I'm grateful that I have twice as much laundry to do as I used to, because it means I have a husband who loves me and puts up with my erratic moods and various ailments, real or imagined (although I'd be grateful too if he'd put clothes IN the basket instead of NEXT to it, HINT OH HINT.) Finally, not to upstage the hubs, I'm grateful for the parents I have who have supported me (and us) when it was needed, whether I (or we) wanted it or not.

Yes, yes, I know, I've blathered on and you're probably all asking yourselves why you're bothering to read this far. Well, I'm done now. Go enjoy your weekend. Roll Tide.