1. As usual, a cat picture seems like a good way
to start this Thursday 13. This is a
picture of my sister’s cat, Flitwick, that I took when we were there for
Christmas.
2.Speaking
of starting things, we started 2026 off by attending a party our friends Dennis
and James hosted on New Year’s Day. They
have two adorable Great Danes who think they’re lap dogs. This picture is of Magnus.
3.It
would be nice if there’s any truth to the idea that what you do on January 1st
sets the tone for your year. We had a
great time at the party, met a lot of nice people, spent time with adorable and
sweet pets, and enjoyed some delicious food.
Continuing that theme would make it a good year!
4.Another
fun start to the year was doing an escape room for the first time. We went with our friends Jen and Chuck. The one we did was Clue themed (we had to
figure out who, in what room, and what the weapon was, and we had an hour to do
it).
5.It was
the first time Nick and I did an escape room, and it was so much fun. I definitely want to do one again!
6.I’ve
set my reading goals for the year on The Storygraph.
7.My
2026 reading goal is 52 books, which is basically a book per week. It seems reasonable. I didn’t quite make it last year, but I think
I would have if I hadn’t worked so much overtime in December.
8.I’m
technically one book behind already, but I’m very close to finishing a book and
an audiobook, so I’m fairly sure I’ll catch up over the weekend.
9.Of
those 52 books, I’ve set the goal for 26 of them to be audiobooks. We have a backlog of purchased audiobooks we
haven’t listened to yet, and there are so many available through the Libby
app. Since I have so many available and
can listen to them while I do other things (I listened to an audiobook while I worked in the yard on Monday), it seems crazy not to make use of them.
10.I’ve also
set the goal for 12 of the 52 books to be non-fiction. I mostly read fiction, and I don’t think that
will ever change, but I would like to branch out and read a little more
non-fiction. Twelve a year is basically
one a month, which seems like a good goal.
11.If
you’re on The Storygraph and want to be friends, my super-creative username is
dlzecher.
12.We downloaded
camera pictures right before we left for my sister’s for Christmas, and I came
across this one of Caroline that I like.
I think it shows off how pretty her face is.
13.One more
cat picture seems like a great way to end this.
Theodore has started tucking himself into bed sometimes, and it’s
absolutely adorable.
Happy (belated) New Year!
Since I haven’t blogged in a while, this will be a catch-up post to wind up 2024.
First of all, we have heat. I initially wrote this post (the part below in green) when our heat was first fixed.
We have heat,
we have heat, we have heat!
I wasn't going to go under the house to photograph the furnace, so enjoy this picture of Mortimer.
Okay, I promise
the whole post won’t just be the same three words over and over again. It’s just so wonderful to have heat
again!
They finished
installing the new furnace/HVAC system around 3:00 the Wednesday before
Thanksgiving. It didn’t make my
Thanksgiving Thursday 13 because I wrote and scheduled that post ahead of time.
We’re still not
finished dealing with everything. I
think I finally managed to successfully update our application with FEMA. I received an email last week about updating
our application if there was additional damage.
We’ve only been trying to do that since mid-October.
Anyway, this
time, I was transferred to a different department that I was told is the one
that handles application revisions. I
started off as caller number 207 and spent about an hour and fifteen minutes on
hold. Oddly enough, that gives me some
hope. A lot of people have had to revise
their applications, so waiting makes me think that maybe, this time, I talked
to the right department. We shall
see. In the meantime, we aren’t getting
our hopes up too much.
We’re still in
the process of getting the HELOC loan.
It’s taking a long time because they’re backed up because so many people
are doing HELOC loans to pay for Helene repairs due to not getting any or
enough FEMA aid and no SBA funding. It’s
like a never-ending loop of delays and problems.
We were lucky
that the cold weather held off as long as it did, but in looking at the
extended forecast, we knew we were running out of time. So, we made the difficult decision to put a
large portion of the cost on a credit card while we wait for the HELOC
loan.
Putting that
much on a credit card is a sickening feeling!
And it may sound irresponsible, but it really seemed like the best
option. We’re 14 years into a 30-year
mortgage, and our house has more than doubled in value since we bought it, so
getting a HELOC isn’t really a gamble.
The biggest
issue so far is that the credit union won’t underwrite a HELOC loan for a house
with no heat. That’s another thing that
has been very frustrating. Ordinarily,
that seems like a very reasonable rule.
However, people here aren’t getting HELOC loans for anything fun or
frivolous. We’re getting them to repair
the damage from a natural disaster that was so unlikely to happen here that no
one could even get insurance for it. I’m
normally very much a rule person, but this has just added one more problem for
people to deal with when everyone is already at their breaking point.
So, we paid for
what we could, used the money generously donated to our GoFundMe, and put the
rest on a credit card. Now, we’re
desperately hoping that the HELOC closes before interest begins to accrue. Even if we do end up accruing interest for a
month, we still think it was the best decision in the circumstances we’re
dealing with. We’ve had days of the
temperature dropping to the low teens and not getting above freezing, and we’ve
had our first dusting of snow. We were
concerned about the potential for pipes to freeze and create yet another set of
problems to deal with. The new furnace
was installed just about 24 hours ahead of a big temperature drop.
I know I’ve
shared a lot of personal information in this post, and I’ve written, deleted,
and rewritten it a few times.
Ultimately, I decided to go ahead and share details since so many people
(and before September 27th, I was one of them) don’t understand how
long and complicated the recovery from a natural disaster is. I know I’m paying a lot more attention now to
how representatives vote for things like funding SBA loans and disaster
relief. It wasn’t that I didn’t care
before. I just had the very mistaken
idea that between insurance and FEMA aid, people were at least able to begin
the recovery process fairly quickly.
From some of the comments on some of my other posts, I don’t think I was
alone in thinking that. So, even though
my blog isn’t huge or popular, I think it’s important to document what average
people are dealing with after Helene.
And, I want to
say thank you again and again to everyone who donated to our GoFundMe. It means so much that people, in some cases
people we’ve never met in person, helped us.
Thank you.
Unfortunately, it has gone out so many times since then
that I’ve lost track, so I took the post down.
We think we’ve finally addressed all of the urgent issues, and are
hopeful that it won’t go out again for a very long time. In addition to the entire HVAC system and all
of the ductwork, we also had to replace the sump pump, replace the crawl space
door (it was destroyed in the process of getting the old system out and the new
one in), have some electrical work done, and work on some drainage issues. We haven’t finished everything with the
drainage project since the ground has been mostly frozen, but it’s something we
will have to take care of before the house is back to its pre-Helene
state. We haven’t started on replacing the broken
screen door because there have been bigger issues to deal with.
We closed on our HELOC loan right before Christmas and were
able to access the funds right before New Year.
We’re still waiting to see what happens with FEMA. Honestly, at this point, I don’t think we’re
going to get any FEMA aid.
Since my last post before this was right before
Thanksgiving, here’s how the rest of the year went.
Thanksgiving was a little different. For the first time since 2016, we didn’t take
Thanksgiving dinner to the hospice house.
I still feel a little bad about that, but I also think it was the right
choice. The HVAC company was here all
day the Tuesday and Wednesday before.
The breaker box is in the kitchen, so I really didn’t have access to the
kitchen until Wednesday night. I barely
got everything made in time for our Thanksgiving. We still hosted a big crowd at our house; our
neighbors and several other friends. It
felt normal and good, which was absolutely wonderful.
Christmas was also a little different. We normally go to my sister and
sister-in-law’s, but Nick and I were both sick with what we’re pretty sure was
the flu. Obviously, we stayed home
rather than share that. Our awesome
neighbors dropped tacos off for us on Christmas, which was really sweet.
We were both feeling better by New Year’s Eve. We never go out for it, but I made a lot of
little appetizers and snacks for dinner, and we burned the 2024 calendars. We started burning calendars in 2016 anytime
the year had more bad than good. It
feels good to watch the calendar from a not-so-great year go up in smoke. Here’s a video of the calendar burning.
At my job, our vacation time (over 240 hours) rolls over on
January 1st, so there’s always a big push to make sure all of our
time is entered and up-to-date by the end of the year. We’re encouraged to print out time statements
to make sure everything rolls over properly.
We also aren’t paid overtime, instead, we earn comp time. I worked on some extra projects and worked a
lot of overtime in 2024. So much,
that, for the first time ever, I didn’t use any of my accumulated vacation
leave. I did take vacation time (close
to four weeks total throughout the year), but I had enough comp time to cover
all of it. And I still have some comp
time hours left going into 2025. I’m
hoping not to do that this year! I
didn’t lose the accumulated vacation time.
It rolls into sick time, which we can use to retire early if we don’t
end up taking it as sick time. And,
speaking of retirement, I’m officially halfway (without using any accumulated
time) through my 30 years for full retirement.
I’ve only been in my current job for five years, but the ten years
before are part of the same retirement system.
Realistically, I can’t imagine that I will stop working in 15 years, but
it’s kind of weird to think that I could retire (at least from this job)
then.
Some other 2024 numbers are:
I read 27 books, which is a little embarrassing; my goal
was 52.
It was my second-lowest blog post year since I started in
2012. 2021 remains the year with the
lowest number of posts.
I posted more videos (74) and shorts (23) on YouTube than I
ever have before.
I didn’t crochet much in 2024. The biggest project I finished was making
little purses for the neighbor girls.
So, how was 2024 for you?
I hope 2025 is shaping up to be a good year for
everyone!
2021 wasn’t great, but it was certainly better than 2020.Hopefully, 2022 will be amazing.
I think it’s safe to say that 2021 wasn’t a great blogging
year for me. I considered writing a 21
things round up post or a 22 things to ring in the new year post, but those
would have been very long posts.
Instead, I opted to share 22 pictures I like from 2021.
2021 was another weird year. We spent less time at home than we did in
2020, but it still didn’t feel like life was back to normal. We also spent a lot of time outside, which
definitely isn’t a bad thing. It does
mean that most of my pictures are of outdoor things. So, in no particular order, here are 22
pictures I like from 2021.
Folly Beach, SC
Folly Beach, SC
Folly Beach, SC
Duke
Mortimer
Tara
Caroline
Angel Oak, Johns Island, SC
Colonial Dorchester, Dorchester, SC
Here’s hoping for a great 2022 for everyone.Happy New Year!
I can’t believe we’re already so far into 2021. I think even in normal times, without a pandemic, January shouldn’t really count when it comes to goals, resolutions, etc. It just seems like the weather is always truly awful, and a lot of it is filled with trying to re-set back to normal after the holidays.
I took this picture on January 2nd, when we were out for a walk. It seems fairly representative of 2021; bright spots of hope against a lot of gray.
My best/brightest news for 2021 so far is that Nick and my sister have both received both doses of the vaccine. My sister works in healthcare, and got her second dose two weeks ago. Nick works in the emergency services, and got his second dose last week. They both ended up with Moderna. There doesn’t seem to be any pattern to which vaccine people are getting. My sister’s boss got his vaccine a few days before her, and got Pfizer. A friend of ours got hers at the same hospital Nick did, a week after he did, and got Pfizer.
I don’t know about other states, but NC keeps changing the groups and priorities. I think most of the changes have been for the better, so I’m hopeful that it will keep getting better. Initially, they weren’t going to prioritize people in the emergency services, and said they’d get the vaccine based on age/medical conditions. That meant most of them would have been in the last group. How many 75 year old firefighters and police officers do you know? I was very happy when they changed that, and put them in a higher priority group. Last time I checked, teachers will be our next group. My job might fall under the second part of Group Three, but no one seems to know for sure. We’re still mostly working from home for the foreseeable future.
South Carolina has started vaccinating people 65 and older. My dad is over 65, but my mom won’t be 65 until July. My dad is on a waiting list, but has no idea when he’ll get it.
In non-COVID related news, we’ve had several days of high winds with wind advisories. We lost a tree to one of them. Nick has to go in to work really early every other Thursday, so it was still dark when he left, so he didn’t see the tree down. It was how I started my day because I saw it as soon as I let Duke out. And Duke barked at it, a lot, so once he saw it there was no missing it.
I’m not sure how much you can tell from the pictures, but we were incredibly lucky it fell the way it did. Most importantly, Duke was safely inside when it fell. It destroyed the hammocks, which I’m very sad about, but we think at least the stands are okay. And if it had fallen any other direction it would have hit one of the following: our house, our fence and our neighbors’ (on the right hand side) fence, our fence and our neighbors’ (on the left hand side) fence, or our back fence. Any of those would have been worse than the hammocks! And at least it happened when it’s too cold to want to spend time in the hammocks anyway.
Our neighbors have a fire pit, so we asked them if they wanted the wood, which they did. They were also nice enough to loan us a chainsaw, and help move the wood. So the cleanup was a lot easier than it could have been.
We’ve also had some snow. Definitely not as much as other places have had, but I’m still hoping we won’t get anymore.
I got a very sweet surprise from one of my chemo buddies in the middle of January. I checked the mail and there was a package addressed to me from a business I didn’t recognize. I thought it was a maybe a case of something I ordered from Amazon coming from an independent seller, but I usually pay fairly close to attention to that, so I was a little surprised. This was what I found when I opened the package.
And this is what it looks like all assembled.
It was totally unexpected. You’re told, over and over again, not to expect to hear back from your chemo buddy. The program isn’t supposed to put any pressure on them, so they have no obligation to write to you, let alone send you a surprise package. I think mine are just extra nice because I’ve heard from all three of my current buddies. My senior buddy sent me a sweet Christmas card, and my teenage buddy sent me a sweet New Year’s card. I’ll be honest, it totally makes my day whenever I hear from them.
So how has 2021 started off for you? Are you working from home? How is the vaccine distribution going where you are?
Happy New Year! A couple of days late. Blogging took a backseat during the holidays, so here’s my catch-up and holiday posts all in one.
1. Emma is okay for the moment. I almost hate to write that, but it also feels good. It was a wonderful Christmas present. We’re dog-sitting my parents’ dog this weekend. He adores Emma, and she seems to be reveling in the attention and change in routine.
Sweet Emma!
2. It got really cold really fast here. We were running the air conditioner on Christmas Day, which was total bliss. By New Year’s Eve we were running the heat. Winter is my least favorite season, so I’m disappointed that it seems to be here in earnest now.
3. Brie, blue cheese, walnuts, and apricot jam is a truly amazing combination. We had this dish on Christmas, and now I can’t wait to make it again. Nick isn’t a blue cheese fan, so I did half without blue cheese. It’s good without the blue cheese, but with blue cheese it’s amazingly delicious.
4. I had my yearly MRI to check on the hepatic adenomas on December 14th. I wasn’t really expecting results until after Christmas, but I got them the next day, and they were great. The largest one is now about a quarter of the size it was when the whole thing started two and a half years ago! We’ll continue with a yearly MRI just to keep an eye on things, but it’s looking good.
5. We started a new Christmas tradition with our next door neighbors. We’ve always exchanged baked goods, but this year we swapped out nights of cooking. It was fun, a little different (especially since there seem to be so many baked goods at Christmas), and getting a night off from cooking can be a nice gift.
6. We still have almost everyone’s Christmas presents. For various reasons we weren’t able to see most of the friends and family we normally see on or close to Christmas. The cats are thrilled by this since it means they still have boxes to sleep on and bows to tear up.
7. The upside to not getting to see everyone is that we were able to have a very relaxing day spent in our pajamas. Nick was off for Christmas, and it was wonderful to actually have a holiday together.
It still looks like Christmas here.
8. The downside (aside from not seeing everyone) is that we’re running out of places to stash people’s presents. The cats have already totally unwrapped one, and there just aren’t that many cat proof places in our house.
9. The other downside is that I really, really like one of the presents we got for my best friend Crystal. It’s a really pretty garnet ring. She and I wear the same size ring, so the temptation is real. Very real. But she’s my best friend, and I think she will really like it.
10. My phone/technology issues aren’t going away this year. I tried to call a friend last night and my phone informed me that it had been deactivated. After lots of frustration and on-line chatting with the company I discovered that because I have a new debit card (same account, the credit union just seems to really enjoy issuing new cards) my payment was declined. I had to text the information to my sister because you can only make payments over the phone. I’m not sure what plan I have now, but the phone is working again and Nick has promised to fix everything back to the way it was once he gets home from work tomorrow.
Not the best picture, but it's a great ring
11. The no-kill shelter we adopted Cookie from makes a video at the end of every year with highlights from the year and information about the number of animals saved. For 2015 they saved over 6,000, which included the ones they took in after the flooding in South Carolina. It was the most successful year yet.
12. We’ve started a list of all of the things we want to see/places we want to go that are within a day trip from home. There are so many things fairly close to home that we’ve been talking about doing, but never seem to get around to. We’re hoping a list will help.
13. January is Pantry Challenge Month. It’s a good way to get back on track after the holidays and use up all of those impulse buys from the grocery store.
14. We are finally completely finished with AT&T, a.k.a. The World’s Worst Internet Service. We switched to Charter about three weeks ago, and it has been wonderful. Netflix doesn’t freeze, we can both be online at the same time, and it doesn’t take forever to attach pictures now.
15. Despite having a smart phone, I’m still sticking with my usual day planner for 2016. I just don’t get along well enough with the phone to trust my entire schedule to it.
16. Even if you’re not the type to make resolutions for the new year, there’s just something promising about a new, blank calendar. Maybe it’s just the idea of a fresh start.
So what about you? What’s new in your world for 2016? Or what is staying the same?
I’m not really a New Year’s Resolution kind of person. I’m not really sure why, but I’ve never entirely bought into the whole "New Year, New Me" thing. A date on the calendar isn’t going to suddenly take me from being a temperamental caffeine addict with a frighteningly disorganized purse to being a calm, only drinks water girl with a perfectly organized purse. It would be nice, but it’s just not realistic. In my opinion and experiences with attempting New Year’s Resolutions.
That being said, I love the chance (and encouragement) to look back on the previous year that a new year brings. It’s a great time to reflect on what you did, didn’t do, wanted to do, etc.
The beginning of a new year does also bring a blank slate of sorts. Literally, if you’re like me and don’t have the best relationship with technology. I’ve been using this calendar for about seven years now, (it works really well for keeping up with Nick’s rotating schedule), and getting the new one for the year always makes me really happy. It has that new book smell, and I love all of the blank pages. It’s a whole year waiting to be filled up.
This, of course, begs the question of what’s going to be written on the blank pages of 2015. Work, obviously, represents a huge chunk of time for most of us. But what about the rest of the time? The beginning of the year seems to be a great time to think about how you want to fill the pages of the year ahead.
For me, a few things come to mind. I haven’t given up on writing. I’m still working on a cookbook and a novel (my inability to commit to one project at a time could be part of my problem). I still need to work on exercising, losing weight, and making better food choices. And there are a few house and yard projects we’re hoping to tackle this year.
Then there are the more intangible things like spending more time with family and friends, being more mindful of how time is filled, and doing something good. Those are the things that are a little harder to measure, but that certainly doesn’t make them any less important.
The pages fill up really, really fast. It never fails to amaze me how quickly a week can go from being a blank slate to being a constant rush to get everything done. I think that just makes it even more important to work on filling the pages, as much as possible, with the things that really matter to us.
So what about you? How are you planning to fill the blank pages of 2015?
I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. I never seem to stick with them, and I’ve read a few different places that’s it’s not the best idea because we tend to be vague – “I’m going to lose weight” (how much, how, etc.) or not realistic – “I’m never going to drink soda, or eat sugar, or junk food, ever again starting today” (only to binge on a two-liter bottle of Coke, a bag of Cheetos, and a tub of ice cream a week or two later). So, no New Year’s resolutions for me.
That being said, I can’t help but get drawn in by the idea of a fresh start, a clean slate, etc. It makes sense, the beginning of the year can be a great starting point, and having some goals kind of helps with the post-holiday letdown. I always find myself setting goals for the year, and this year is no exception. A few of my goals are writing related. I really enjoy blogging, but it seems to be one of the first things to go when things start getting hectic. I’m trying not to let that happen so much this year.
Of course that begs the question of what I’m going to blog about. I don’t seem to have much of a theme, and I did that on purpose. I’m interested in a few different things, but none of them seem to merit their very own blog. That’s why I post everything from recipes to pictures of adorable fur kids to my attempts at flash fiction, and everything in between. I try to keep it varied. I get bored easily, and if you’re kind enough to spend part of your valuable time reading what I write, I certainly do not want to bore you either.
One way to attempt not to bore you is to just ask you what you want to read. I’m not good at guessing. Sometimes I post something that I think will be really popular and it gets very, very few page views. Other times I post something, somewhat reluctantly, that I’m not so sure about, and it camps out on the side as a popular post. Like I said, I’m not good at guessing. So, what do you want to read when you visit?
Let me take this opportunity to clarify that I’m not trying to be lazy here and ask you for content. One of my other goals for this year is to actually post all of the things I write and intend to post, but never actually do. I write lots of posts, email them to myself, and then they’re lost in the black hole that is my inbox. (Organization is an ongoing goal for me.) But I’d still like to know what you actually want to read.
So I’m trying it myself. Is there a topic you’d like to read more about, a fur kid you’d like to see more pictures of, a type of recipe you’re interested in, or something else entirely? Just ask. I will endeavor to come up with something worthy of your time. The only things off limits are controversial topics. I’m just not going to get into my views on politics, religion, etc. There’s enough nastiness out there without my creating yet another forum for name calling. So, other than that, ask away. And if you like a question or topic and want to answer or expound on it as well, by all means tell us in the comments so we can check out your post as well.
Is it just me, or does 2014 still sound like something that should be far away, not something we’re already in the second day of? I guess it just takes some getting used to saying and writing a new year.
I hope the new year is treating all of you well, and that your celebrations were fun and safe. We’re pretty low key here in Sweet Tea Land (at least our little corner of it), so we stayed home, made breakfast for dinner (this fabulous pumpkin spice oatmeal), and watched lots of movies.
On New Year’s Day we made what has become our traditional dinner: collard greens, black-eyed peas, cornbread, and meatloaf. I know, being a southern girl, you’d expect me to have fatback, but we’re weird about pork in our house. And hubby was raised by Yankees. So we’ve just crafted our own New Year’s Day feast. You can read about the traditional one here, it’s kind of neat how some of these things got started.
The short version is that the collard greens are for wealth, the black-eyed peas for luck, and the fatback for health. That last part just really amuses me. People give you the stink eye for eating bacon because it’s “bad”, apparently fatback is “worse” than bacon, but on New Year’s Day it leads to health in the new year. Maybe I’m just easily amused, but it kind of cracks me up.
We substitute the meatloaf largely because it goes so well with collard greens and black eyed peas, which we love. And you really can’t go wrong with cornbread. Hopefully the meatloaf works, and we’re all set for a lucky, healthy, and wealthy new year. What is your traditional New Year’s Day meal?
This is why I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions anymore;
they seem to lead me to failure and disappointment. For example, if I did still make New Year’s
Resolutions, one of them would have been to get back to regular blogging, which
clearly hasn’t happened yet. In my
defense, I did manage to contract some sort of Plague (not really, The Plague,
but after being sick and tired for almost three weeks I feel better calling it
The Plague) right around the holidays. I
fought it and took lots of cold medicine and we managed to have a nice
Christmas, and Nick’s birthday party was wonderful.
By the Sunday before New Year’s Eve, though, there was no
more fighting it and no amount of cold medicine to make it through the
day. I worked a grand total of one full
day that week and spent the rest of it in bed feeling miserable. I did go to the doctor and get various
medications, including a cream for the cough syrup-induced rash. (Cough syrups are apparently full of dyes,
which I am allergic to.) I’m now almost
rash free, and down to an amount of coughing that isn’t leading to gagging and
headaches, so I have decided that I’ve officially rejoined the land of the
living, and it’s time to catch up on everything.
How many of you make New Year’s Resolutions? I used to every year, but I pretty much
never stuck to them, so I don’t so much anymore. Every year I tell myself that I will get
organized, keep the house and yard neater, be a nicer person, focus more on my
writing, exercise more, and volunteer more.
Every year, I tell myself this will be my year. There’s just something so hopeful about the
beginning of a new year.
I think each year does seem to get a little better; last
year I started my blog, we short term fostered one cat and one dog, I did some
rescue transports, my purse was cleaned out and organized for almost a month, I
did the Memory Walk with my mom, we planted an herb garden, we went to some
water aerobics classes for a few months, and the guest room was habitable for
my sister to spend the weekend after Christmas with us. I don’t think more than two, maybe three, of
those things went on at the same time, though.
So of course, this year I plan to get organized, keep the
house and yard neater, be a nicer person, focus more on my writing, exercise
more, and volunteer more. We’ll see what
happens with all of that.
On the getting organized and keeping the house neater front,
the house sort of looks likes a set from a disaster movie right now. It’s awful.
That’s what happens when you’re sick for a few weeks I guess. I intend to start tackling that (probably
starting with the mountain of laundry, because that’s what is driving me the
most insane) this week. Assuming that I
can stay awake long enough in the evenings, that is. The coughing seems to be much worse at night,
and the cough syrup knocks me out. I
feel better sleeping 9 – 11 hours a night, but it doesn’t lead to getting much
done!
On the volunteering front I am sorry to say that absolutely
nothing has happened so far. I blame The
Plague. It’s hard to volunteer for much
when you can barely get out of bed. I am
hoping that will change over the next few weeks.
Ditto with the exercising.
The idea of getting into a cold pool right now just makes me
cringe. Once again, hopefully this will
change in the next couple of weeks.
Being a nicer person is a little more intangible and harder
to quantify, I think. I equate that a
lot with volunteering. I think helping
some organization, working toward some greater good, something bigger than
yourself makes you a nicer person. But
there are other things too, I know that.
Now I just have to work on finding them and practicing them.
On the writing front, during my feverish haze during The
Plague, I decided that I would write and self-publish a cookbook this
year. It still sounded like a good idea
after the fever was over, so I’m going with it, even though typing it here is
making my stomach do some crazy flip flopping around. I’ve talked about it for years, so I’ve decided
it’s time to stop talking and starting doing.
I told my husband about this plan, and he has been
incredibly supportive. He’s helping me
round up all of the scraps of paper I’ve jotted recipes down on, and has agreed
to let me experiment on him.
I normally don’t tell anyone about my plans to do something
big like that, and then I don’t usually accomplish it, because no one knows I
failed. But I’ve realized that there’s
some accountability to be found in telling people what you’re trying to accomplish,
so I’m putting it out there this time. I
haven’t set a more firm deadline for myself than this year, but I’m thinking
before the holidays, so I don’t have that hanging over me during the holidays.
So how about all of you?
Did you make resolutions? Are you
sticking to them? How is 2013 shaping up
for you?
