Guard Your Energy

The raw material of personal performance and productivity is contained in your physical, mental and emotional energies. Your body is like a machine that uses food, water, and rest to generate energy that you then use to accomplish important tasks in your life and work. When you are fully rested, for example, you can get two time, three times, and five times as much done as when you are tired or burned out.

One of the most important requirements for being happy and productive is for you to guard and nurture your energy levels at all times.

From the book “Eat That Frog!” by Brian Tracy

A Poem About Toilets

I have decided that since
I hate cleaning bathrooms so much
I will clean them in pieces
Last night I did all the mirrors
Tonight I will do all the toilets
I was spoiled at the condo
I had only one bathroom
Now I have five
FIVE

May Resolutions

May Resolutions: hey, not bad, I did 9 out of 10 this month!!!!

1. Go to a Museum - Matt and I went to see the Jean Shin - Common Threads exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum here in DC. It was a really cool exhibit using recycled materials. There were all sorts of textures and colors and as we entered each room I would say, "Oh, this is my favorite." Each time we read the description on the wall we were blown away by the backstory. It was a VERY very interesting, thought provoking exhibit. If you live nearby GO!


2. Spend time with an Old Friend - I had the most amazing conversation on facebook with a bunch of folks that I went to high school with. I had had a dream about a friend of ours who died at age 42 of heart attack and we all remembered him with stories. It was lovely.


3. Try a New Recipe - http://sarahneverstops.blogspot.com/2009/05/bacon-bowties.html. Oh the beauty of bacon.


4. Spend Some Quality Family Time - had Mama, Cricket and Miles over for Mother's Day. It was a lovely visit, the first time Mama saw the new house and the first time we all saw Miles' new hair. Plus we gorged ourselves on PW goodies!


5. Make Sheldon Watch One Chick Flick - Somehow this man has managed to avoid every chick flick, but not for long. It is now my mission to make him watch my favorites. We started with Steel Magnolias. He said it was "Cute." humph.


6. visit my Mama - see number 4. :)


7. EXERCISE - walked for an hour Friday night and an hour Saturday morning in the neighborhood. Need to do it every day, but at least I started! (Yes I have gained ALL the weight back! YES, I need to do something!)


8. go letterboxing - yay! It is letterboxing season again. Sheldon and I found two in Pittsburgh! Oh what fun!


9. Sell Something I Don't Need Anymore - fail, but I at least made inroads in this, I did gather everything in a box in my office, now I just need to take pix and post them on craigslist.


10. Crochet or Cross Stitch Something - started crocheting a baby afghan for one of Sheldon's co-workers.

April Resolutions - Epic Fail

Okay this month was an Epic Fail. But hey, I was moving! I have also decided to change up a little on the choices, cause hey, they are my resolutions and I can do whatever I want!

April To Do List
1. Meet someone new - Lots of new neighbors!
2. museum - fail, although I did try to make a plan with Matt.
3. paint - Sheldon painted the kids rooms in the new house, does that count?
4. spend time with an old friend - fail
5. new recipe - oh a big YES for this one...Pioneer Woman's Apple Dumplings!!! YUM!!!
6. dancing - fail, sad, this is probably the one that I want MOST to actually do!
7. sushi - took Miles one night during the move, but he wasn't speaking to me at the time so it wasn't very enjoyable.
8. sell old stuff - fail, but I am determined that MAY is the month for this one!
9. lose 5 pounds - fail, again!
10. quality family time - played a game of Sorry! with Trixiebelle and Sheldon the other night.

For May this is the list:

1. go to a museum
2. spend time with an old friend
3. try a new recipe
4. spend some quality family time
5. make Sheldon watch one chick flick
6. visit my Mama
7. exercise
8. go letterboxing
9. sell something I don't need anymore
10. crochet or cross stitch something
    

Monthly Resolutions Month 3

I got so excited about my resolutions last month that I actually looked at the handwritten list that I wrote on January 1st and realized that there were originally ten instead of six. So this month I worked with ten resolutions. I posted it on my bulletin board at work so that I could keep track of what I was supposed to be doing.

I have to say that I really do like this new "system". I am most definitely a "system" girl. I don't accomplish much in this life until I have figured out what my "system" is. Are y'all tired of the "quotes" yet? So to recap...


Here is the February List.

Monthly Resolutions for March:

1. Meet Someone New - I sat down on my morning train into the city yesterday and hefted "Breaking Dawn" out of my tote bag. The guy in uniform in the seat beside me was suitable impressed with the SIZE of this hardbound book of wonderfulness. He struck up a conversation with me. Now I don't know how many of you commute by train in the DC area, but I can assure you that talking, on the train, in the morning, is pretty much not done. Anyway, this lovely gentleman made some funny remark about my heavy reading and I laughed and then showed him what it was. We ended up getting into a whole conversation about the Twilight series. His son's "little girlfriend" has read them all, and his son read them to be supportive. Mr. Soldier said that he should probably read them too since everyone talks about them so much. I encouraged him as I believe they are fabulous and everyone should share the love. Then we talked about other books we liked. I ended up recommending that he read "The Time Travellers Wife" As I do to all my male reader friends. Sheldon first recommended it to me and I loved it. Anyhow, as with last month, I didn't get his name, but we had a moment on the train.
2. Go to a Museum - Tuesday evening I went walking a mile or so to my local library (which I will soon be leaving far behind, as I move into the wilds of Loudoun county, wah) and I ran into my friend Kiki who just happens to work there. She and another librarian started talking about the American History Museum which is where Kiki used to work. The museum just re-opened after a few years of being closed for remodeling. The other librarian was talking about the long lines at the First Ladies exhibit which reminded me of this very resolution and I thought, OH, if I go on a weekday I won't have to wait in line, and I all but shouted I'm Gonna Go Tomorrow! I'm sure that Kiki and her friend thought I was nuts, but I did go less than 24 hours later! I saw the First Ladies gowns, the original Star Spangled Banner, a lovely doll house that was amazing in its scope and detail and, last but not least, Julia Childs' Kitchen. I love going to museums by myself so that I can read each and every description and take all the time in the world without someone huffing over my shoulder about how hungry or bored they are. Sigh.
3. paint a room - FAIL, but mostly cause I'm moving in a couple of weeks and I know I'll be doing lots of painting in the new house!
4. spend time with an old friend - Got to visit with Wren AND Kiki in the past week!
5. try a new recipe - Oh Lord the goodness of Grandma Iny's Cake.
6. go dancing - FAIL, this one just makes me sad. I really need to get off my butt and GO! It will be such fun and I will burn so many calories too!
7. sushi - lunch at my favorite "fast food" sushi place in DC. Yum!
8. sell old stuff - FAIL, damn, again.
9. lose five pounds - COLOSSAL FAIL. I think I gained five instead of losing five. Sob.
10. spend time with a family member - Had a smoothie with my cousin AJ last week. She is going through a rough time. Her husband of five years informed her that he had a girlfriend and wanted out of the marriage. She is in the process of moving out of her house and is understandably crushed. We hadn't seen each other in a while and it was nice to catch up and hopefully give her a boost.

Monthly Resolutions - Month 2

I started a new habit this year, setting monthly do-able resolutions.  

Here is the January list.

Monthly Resolutions for February:

1. Meet someone new (I had a lovely conversations with the people around me in line every time we went to the Birchmere last month.  I didn't get any names or numbers, but I'm sure I will see them again, the Birchmere is a small family of fans!!!)
2. go to a museum (FAIL)
3. paint a room in the house (FAIL)
4. spend time with an old friend (Kiki and I hadn't spoken in 8 years and we talked for 4 solid hours last Tuesday)
5. try a new recipe (Sheldon and I tried two new recipes on Valentines weekend!  Nos 108 and 111 in Rachael Ray's 365: No Repeats Cookbook.  Park City Cashew Chicken and Pork Chops with Grainy Mustard and Raisin Sauce.  Both were Yummo!)
6. go dancing (FAIL)

49.5.5 books

The BBC recently stated that most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books listed below. I find this a little hard to believe, especially after I marked all the ones I had read. I mean, I know I like to read, but I thought everyone read the classics. I had to laugh when I got to the Russian authors. My dad had a large collection of those in the bookcases at home and I would resort to them when I was finished with my library books. I think I made it through all of them on his shelf before I left home.

Here's the list:

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (x)
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (x)
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (x)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (x)
6 The Bible (parts)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (x2)
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (x, I read this in 1977 and it scared the crap out of me! I thought it could all still happen, hey I was 12!)
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (x)
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (x)
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (not sure)
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller (x)
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (prolly half of these)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (x 2, first time at age 8)
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (x)
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (x)
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (x2, first time at age 10)
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (x) (and everything else he wrote)
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens (x) (and everything else he wrote)
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (x)
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh (not this one, but others by him)
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (x)
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (x) (and a bunch of others by him)
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (x)
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (x)
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (x)
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens (x)
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (half of these)
34 Emma - Jane Austen (x)
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen (x)
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (x2)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (x)
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne (x)
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell (x)
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (x)
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving (x, thought this was the best book I had ever read at the time)
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood (x) (and a ton of others by her)
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (x)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan (I have this on my pile to read right now)
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (x)
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (x)
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (x)
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (tried to read this and just couldn't do it)
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (x)
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (x)
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt (x)
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold (x)
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac (may have, can't remember for sure)
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding (x)
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville (tried and couldn't)
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (x)
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker (x)
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (may have, not sure)
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson (read others by him and love him)
75 Ulysses - James Joyce (oh lord, tried and couldn't)
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath (x)
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (x read it and acted in the play twice with a professional company)
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker (x)
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry (x)
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White (x2)
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom (tried and couldn't, does that make me a bad person?)
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (x)
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (x)
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams (x)
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (x, took me three months. might be the longest I ever spent on one book)

You realize that now the rest of them have to go on my list of books to read...right?

Monthly Resolutions

At the beginning of the year I decided to make a list of things I wanted to start doing on a regular basis. I didn't post the list here, cause I didn't want to be embarrassed if I didn't many to DO any of them! But I did MOST of them and I am proud! I am resetting the list for the month of February. Here is how I did in January. :)

January To Do's

1. meet someone new (finally met Matthew in person)
2. go to a museum (went to see the Cassatt Exhibit with Matthew)
3. paint a room or part of a room in the house (FAIL)
4. spend time with an old friend (although we didn't see each other in person, I did reconnect with the Tall Willowy Queen online)
5. try a new recipe (New Years Day SOUP!)
6. go dancing