5.31.2010

A Year's Worth of Goals to Achieve

This week has been a bit of a roller coaster.

One minute things seem to be rolling along, kind of easily, then it takes a sharp turn and leaves me flailing my arms in the air wondering where the road is taking me.

With that, I decided it was time to put the goals in writing. Set them with a serious goal in mind. I thought I was doing that signing up for a race that happens to be next weekend. I did not stay serious about it. I need to stay the course on this new list of goals.

The first goal I began working on was taking a photo every day. I want to start with a month, and see how I go. So far I stuck with it for a week, up until today. I could get up and put my battery back in my camera, and may still do that before I head off to bed, but I would rather take some time and update my blog. (since this isn't posted yet - you should know I didn't get a shot taken, instead I took about 300 photos Saturday and Sunday - tomorrow will most likely have me hitting about 400.)

I have been enjoying the process of a daily photo which entails finding something different to take photos of (instead of my son). It kind of reminds me of college photography classes. The exercises the teachers assigned us to go out and take photos of (minus the darkroom time and film expense). What is the most challenging about this project is finding the time to post the pictures. I am going to have to figure out how I can get them posted and which website is going to work best to help me continue with the 365 photo challenge. I'm going to post some shots at the end of this post. I am really pleased with them all, and even more excited to attempt to take pictures tomorrow at my sister's dance performance. I am even planning on taking a tripod (haven't done that in years) to see what might happen. If you are just logging into my blog, I have a serious L.O.V.E. for my camera. I just can't even express how happy it makes me.

As for the year of goals - it is really more like this: I signed onto the Day Zero Project website. What is that? It is a place where you log in and put 101 goals into writing and are committed to making happen in 1001 days. Yikes, right? Yep!!! 101 goals. I have posted 18 so far. I need to put something about finding time to make my list! That will need to be goal one.

Well, I never finished this post Friday as planned. It's now Sunday night, late. I hope to get some more photos up from the Saturday performance, which were great - for what I had to work with. I also found out today that I had changed a setting and the at some point my settings got shifted and my images are not shot at the highest resolution. Maybe that is a sign I need to start trying some raw photo shots? What a change that would be for me. Hmmmm...


Okay, this is a long post. Hopefully I didn't bore you and you enjoy the photos! I am now getting it posted live so it doesn't continue for 3 more days before it gets live. Happy Memorial Day!




















écarté dance theater 
Spring 2010 Performance. 
The Path Forward 
Choreographed by Natasha Ramminger
Performed by Melani Coles and Natasha Ramminger.




5.24.2010

Biggest Loser, and Big Goals

Tomorrow is the finale for Biggest Loser 9. I am so excited. I think each season I seem to get more emotionally tied to the contestants. This has been a great season. To the point that I really don't know who I think should win. It's a hard call. I am sure we'll all love the outcome. I think the reason I liked this season so much is because it was a team effort throughout. It wasn't so much about ME ME ME, which I think is why we disliked those that really just wanted to win. The rest of the contestants wanted everyone to be the biggest loser. It has been a great ride with these inspiring people. I am going to be very sad to see it end, however I am excited to see Jillian's new show. I hope it is just as inspiring. I work hard to keep Tuesday nights all about ME and getting myself back in shape, and really want to keep it that way, besides, I will miss all the twitter about!

Speaking of getting back in shape. I have been having some physical limitations again, and with that, I have put off working out as much as before. It's amazing how quickly weight comes and settles in when I don't workout. And then it is twice as hard to get moving again. But it's time. I am going to have to work through the pain. As much as I would rather not. It's kind of hard -it's my spine, which obviously is huge when it comes to working out. It's really hard when you are signed up for a race that you know you are no where near prepared to run and it's only a week and a half away. (YIKES!)

Regardless of pain and all that, I am now the proud owner of EAS more workouts and am very excited to get using it. I started yesterday with the first of the 6-week challenge workouts. I went ahead and used the low intensity mode, but mainly because it was pretty late. Tonight I boosted it to medium, then did a few extra boxing workouts to see which I liked best. So far the workouts are good. I like the warm up and cool downs. I am a huge fan of the boxing, hence me adding more of that in later. I hope that as I progress, the workouts change up and get faster.

Other than that, I am working on a new challenge for myself. Not that I really need to add anything else t my list of challenge, but I was already thinking of taking a photo a day or something like that. I realize that those have been done, so I keep trying to figure out how to change it up a bit. One blog I ran across tonight has a challenge on it where the goal is to take a photo of yourself with your kids. I think that would be really hard for me. I LOVE taking pics of what is going on around me, HATE taking photos of myself. Wonder if that is why I should try that one? I am going to wait a bit longer before I set my goal. I just am not ready to commit to this one just yet.

What I am ready to do, is get fit!

5.17.2010

Flowers & Faces

It's time for Flowers and Faces at iheartfaces, and I am officially sending a photo in for this week's contest.

I took these photos early Sunday morning as my son excitedly told me I had to "COME" he had something to show me. It was a sweeping vine of blossoming honeysuckle. They are perfect for picking right now, it's been a while since I have seen a plant so 'juicy'. He had a blast tasting it's nectar. Here's one showing the dripping, our fingers got quite sticky! I love spring though I am quite thankful the allergy meds are working this year!




If you haven't seen some of the beautiful shots or contests on their site, you should check them out now at iheartfaces. I get lost for hours looking at the beautiful photos there. There are always great tips and submissions on their site. 


5.12.2010

Amazing

Seriously - amazing.

I have blogged about this before, but I really must say it again.

Tonight I made Spicy Shrimp from The Pioneer Woman (I originally found out about this recipe through a favorite website A Year of Slow Cooking. Her recipe was called CrockPot Barbecued Shrimp.)

I was nervous switching recipes. Whenever I deviate from a version I know we like, it never tastes the same, but there were two reasons I decided to try her way.

  1. The Pioneer Woman's recipes have never failed me (try her cinnamon rolls 101 for example), and 
  2. It was seriously faster her way. (10 minutes vs 2 hours)

My son assisted with tonight's meal, he's 3 and a half. His job was to inspect the wonderful and helpful pictures on TPW website and let me know when my dish was looking the same way as her's. So helpful! I must have done it right though cause, Oh. My! It went fast - and that I made 3lbs of shrimp. For the two of us.

It didn't matter, this is all that was left. (for the record, this was my plate, my husband's was piled much higher!)

That was not on the list of diet foods, but I don't care!

Thank you to both of the ladies that posted these recipes, it is a keeper! I really hope everyone that reads this will try it, you will not be disappointed!

5.04.2010

Taking my own advice

That is so much easier to say than to actually do.

I am speaking specifically of me relaxing. I just wrote that to a client. "Relax - we'll get it done." And I will. I will complete the job needed for them, and it will be okay. Their deadline will get met. 

The question I pose is, what will get put off to make it happen? Will it be other client work, or will it be personal things. Most likely the latter. It's what happens. I quantify putting my life on hold by saying I get paid OT for this stuff. And I will, I will get paid extra for sacrificing my life for my work. 

Is the money worth the sacrifice? Somedays it's not a big deal, but other times I see myself getting gipped of my family time, and of the sacred minutes I save for just ME. 

The reality is: I won't finish my book for this weekend's bookclub meeting. I won't find as much time for my race training and I will be more than grumpy when the job is complete and I have lost hours of special bonding time with my husband and son. Am I setting myself up to not have a close relationship with my child? I certainly hope not, because that would make helping my client and my company an even bigger sacrifice than it's worth (for money's sake). If all that was here in this world was a job that might be a different answer. 

Work is not all there is for me to live for. I know this. I know that what is there is my dear son and husband, my friends and family, And somehow I need to work towards taking my own advice and - Relax, with them!