I had intended to post this on Friday — my list of goals for 2010. Once again, I refuse to call these ‘resolutions’, as some are long-term goals. Besides, you’re expected to break resolutions – that’s the nature of the beast. You might fail to reach a goal, but if you are at least working towards it you should see some progress.

So, here we go.

• Lose 5 lbs a month. This is different from my past versions of this goal. Yes, I want to get back to my high school weight, or even my college weight – this is a restatement of that goal in a way that helps me keep it sane. I’ve been working out and walking, and working with my dr on this, and I think it is totally do-able.
• Read at least 10 new books in 2010. I have a large collection of books, and quite a few that I haven’t cracked the cover on. In the past five years or so I’ve been bad about keeping up with my reading list, although I’ve still collected books here and there that I intended to get to. Time to stop reading the fluff in bed (or at least read new fluff – which tends to be my major time for reading.
• Get more organized. There are still a few boxes around here with books needing shelves, plus items that don’t always find their home again at the end of the day. I’ve successfully kept my apt from being a disaster area this past year, now I need to step it up just a little more.

There, that’s pretty much it. I could wax eloquent about some other things I should or want to do, but keeping it simple is more realistic. Gone are the days when I thought I could change my habits by some simple resolutions in the first week of the year.

Okay, the title has little to do with this post, but for some reason the lyric got stuck in my head. At any rate, the year is almost over, and I feel the need to do a retrospective. That takes time, however — so here’s a meme (after the jump) in the meantime. Read more »

…the year is almost over. How did that happen? How can a new decade be about to start? (Yes, you start counting at zero, not one. Sorry, I am a bit pedantic about math as well as grammar – even when I screw it up. )

Since my birthday, I’ve made a new fitness resolution (which I’ve mostly kept to), I’ve started the most expensive med that I’ve ever had the ‘privilege’ of taking, and sang a few (3 plus 2) concerts — the plus 2 actually being church services, so they don’t count so much as concerts. I’ve been weaving, knitting, and crocheting like mad. There are even a few things I can show off, like this purse I made for my niece:

Sonie's purse

Yeah, been making a few of these bags, some scarves and some other items – some for pressies, some just because I can’t stop playing with the yarn!

Sometime this week I think I’ll color my hair, as at some point this year the first gray hairs decided to start making themselves known — and they have to be right at the top edge of my bangs. There are only a couple now, but once they get comfortable I know they’ll be inviting friends. Ah, the joys of getting older. …and I haven’t even hit the midpoint yet.

Today I turn 35. Mark that well, because it may very well be the last time I admit my real age.

This past year was supposed to be about change – changing my life for the better. Well, there was change, and quite a lot of it was good I suppose – but most of it wasn’t quite in the direction I was hoping. Although I have gotten much more active and taken better care with my nutrition, I still can’t seem to take off any weight. Some of this problem may stem from PCOS, but I can’t pin the blame squarely on that. I’d also planned to try buying property this past year, which didn’t happen — but I am at least in a bigger (and NICER) place and much happier for it.

So just over a year ago I changed jobs, moved into a better place, and in the past year have worked a lot on getting more active. If I can continue that trend in the year to come, maybe by this time next year I will have realized the rest of my goals. Of course, once you hit one goal you’ll immediately find another worth achieving, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

As I look back through my blog posts I find that in the past twelve months I’ve fallen away from blogging quite a bit – down to an average 2 posts per month I think – but I’ve gotten more active in social media. This doesn’t entirely surprise me – my favorite job I think was when I was working with the forums (fora?) at my place of employment. Perhaps one day I can settle back into that arena, but for now I am at least mostly satisfied with my job.

Still single, no children – but I’ve gotten more at peace with that, and having 3 of my sisters’ kids nearby gives me younglings to spoil. And to hand back to their respective guardians when they become pills. Heh.

In the meantime, I am still singing, still crafting, and still being a general busy person. TCC just started rehearsals for the fall holiday concert, and I’ll be singing with Conspirare in the spring. I don’t think I’ll be able to financially make a Shanghai trip that I was invited to sing for, but perhaps in 2011 or 2012 I’ll be able to take the next TCC trip overseas.

In crafting news, I finished a couple of projects and I’ve got this beauty currently on my loom.  Oh yes, I’ve rediscovered the joys of weaving — but don’t fear, for I haven’t given up my hooks and needles by any stretch of the imagination. The loom is a heck of a lot less portable, even if my rigid heddle is a travel loom.

So, forward as we mean to continue. This morning I enjoyed a bit of a lie in, but before too long I got up and worked out and had a healthy breakfast. Today I mean to go walking and perhaps do a little shopping as long as I’ve got the next few days off on vacation. (By the way, for anyone interested, Wii Fit Plus is actually much better than its predecessor, but if you want a serious workout I still recommend EA Sports Active. With the former you get more flexibility and balance, but you get more straight up exercise with the latter.)

Time to step away from the computer and go have some fun.

The chilly weather has descended upon us once more, heralding football games and holidays and snuggling under warm blankets. I decided I didn’t already have enough projects in play, and pulled out my long-forsaken loom. Unfortunately, I’d forsaken the poor thing long enough to have forgotten half the steps I need to remember to get the warp started – and then I remembered the Knitters Loom. Ah yes – glorious fun to be had while I re-assert myself in the ancient art of weaving!

The KL I have is the Ashford – although there is another popular model called the Cricket. This little wonder is fast to set up, fast to warp, and fast to get to the business of weaving. Here’s a shot of the warp I set up last night:

New warp on my KL

It took me a couple hours to get it arranged how I really wanted it, but now that I know what I am doing, it won’t take me near as long in the future. The warp is cotton Sinfonia in burnt orange, one of the last two skeins I have of that marvelous stuff. It’s a little too stiff of a cotton for me to make the BSS I had thought of and I have enough burnt orange hats, but I felt a scarf would be an appropriate use of this. One light enough for fall in Texas and perfect for those football game Saturdays — at least until it really gets cold.

This afternoon after work I came home and decided to use a white for the weft — Lion Brand Microspun, as a matter of fact. I cannot stand to knit or crochet with this yarn as it is so splitty, but it is so amazingly soft I couldn’t bear to part with it either. So before I was to head off to church for choir, I wove about a foot or so in this. I’ll have to post a picture later as apparently my widget isn’t working at the moment to send from my phone. I’m not entirely sure I like the white and orange together, at least not in a plain weave, but it should be one heck of a soft scarf.

There is one ball remaining of the burnt orange – enough for perhaps another scarf, with a different weft this time. My first scarf on this loom is much like the first piece of work I did on a four-harness table loom, a little hesitant and with a few errors. The errors this time are mainly spacing — which I am not sure whether they are a result of the type of loom I am using or whether they come from user error. Time will tell – and in a couple weeks, I think I’ll take the four-harness out for a spin again.

Not sure from where the following originated… However, here is a bit from a great clipping my mother has on her refrigerator door — I thought this was important to share.

12 WARNING SIGNS OF HEALTH

1. Persistent presence of supportive friends.
2. Chronic positive expectations — a tendency to frame events in a positive light.
3. Regular signs of joy in living.
4. Sense of spiritual renewal in the Lord.
5. Increased sensitivity to others.
6. A tendency to adapt to changing conditions.
7. Increased appetite for physical activity.
8. Tendency to identify and communicate feelings.
9. Repeated episodes of gratitude and generosity.
10. Compulsion to care for other people.
11. Persistent sense of humor – known to laugh out loud.
12. A life centered in the forgiveness of Christ!

Much as several friends like to tease, I have not passed nor have I given up on blogging. This summer, however, I seem to spend more computer time working (either for the day job or for photography-related stuff) than I do writing. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I feel I need to have more outlet to the world than just Twittering (and an occasional vent to Facebook .

One of the things I finally found was a WP app that will grab the tweets I do make and digest them here – so yay! Since I am more often out and about with my Pre, this will save much time – and occasionally I’ll try to remember to come back and post the rest of the story.  Heh.

Normally I do not forward funnies or chain-letter style emails. I usually read them, perhaps chuckle a bit, and then relegate them to the recycle bin. Once upon a time I filed the genuinely humourous ones, but I’ve stopped doing that since I never refer to the file and I get copies of things over and over again.

However, this one I have to share (and not just to one or two people). If anyone knows the correct originator of the following, please let me know and I will post attributions accordingly. Otherwise, enjoy!

I’m a sucker for feel-good movies. Got a good chick flick? Sign me up. A little action is never bad, as long as there is a happy ending.

I just finished watching a film that I cannot truly say had a conventionally happy ending, but it was well worth the watch. The movie was The Bucket List, with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. Without giving anything away, I must say that the cycle of life surprised me in this film. I started watching, knowing that it is a movie about two dying men, fully expecting to break down in tears at some point. That never happened. Instead, this story made me reexamine my life, my feelings toward death, and what I know about the people close to me.

Perhaps having a bucket list is cliche. Wouldn’t it be neat if we at least had the chance to try? What can we change in our own lives to make those dreams, those special passions, happen?

As the ancient Egyptians believed – have you had joy in your life, and has your life brought joy to others? I believe that’s perhaps a too simplistic view of eternity, but it makes a heck of a mission statement for the present.