2012 Aspirations Update

Thought I'd document, for myself and others if you're interested, how my 'aspirations' for the year are going...

1. Weight loss - UGGG!!!! Okay, not that I *really* expected this year to be different from all the rest, but I was hopeful. I'm pretty sure I gained the 3 lbs I managed to lose (probably a bit more too), but at this point I'm back down those same 3 lbs. Not where I wanted to be, but it is still in the right direction, so I'm going to take it and keep going. Trying to get out of the 'all-or-nothing' mind set with this.

2. Reading Goals - I'm doing really well with this:) (hince the sitting on my hiney and not loosing the weight!! :) I started with the goal of 12 books for the year, then upped it to 24 and then upped it again to 30. I've read 7 of those books so far, everything from books I had to really push myself through to ones that took less than 24 hours to read -and yes, some of those hours *should* have been spent sleeping and a LOT of those hours should have been spent cleaning:).

3. Stitching goals - I'm doing well with this, though I haven't had any finishes for a while, I'm still stitching away. I was having some problems being able to focus on my projects so I got my eyes checked and for the first time in my life I'm now wearing glasses. A pretty minor prescription, but it really does help on the close up things that I do. So while I'm still stitching I've decided to lower my goal on this for the year. I was hoping for 30 projects by the end of the year and now I am going for 24. This is still quite a step up for me and I think very realistic. I completed 5 in January, so even with no finishes for the month of Feb, I'm still ahead of the game. And I have one that is real close to being done and another that is getting there, but still has some time left.

4. Organization/housework - I never did a post on this 'aspiration'. I just wasn't sure what my goal would be for this. Surely I want to get 'more' organized and do 'better' with the housework, but I couldn't find a concrete goal to work towards. One thing that I have done is to create a school planner of my own. I bought a very pretty one at the homeschool conference last year and I really wanted it to work for us. I used it for months, though there are lots of pages I never touched, but it just wasn't flowing well for me. I know the creator of that planner made it with larger families in mind, ones that might need more reminders or lots of room to write plans and activities down, but we have an only child we are working with, and it just was too much for me. So I made my own, adding pgs that are relevent to me and dd specifically, and had it bound (for $4!!!). I just picked it up on Friday and have been super busy since then, so haven't gotten around to using it much yet, but will start today with it:) I put it together rather quickly, so I'm sure that next year's will be a bit different, but I'm really excited about it. And it has my daily chores in it as well as a blogging/crafting calendar (these pages will be riped out at the end of the year to leave us with a record of dd's school year), so this should help with the organizing and the housework all in one:)

I do hope to get more into blogging as well (hince the blogging calendar) as I really like being able to read back and see my progress with different things. It's also a good reminder for those things that I said I want to do, but never got around to doing. So while this isn't really an 'aspriation', it is something I'm working towards as well.

Well, that's all for today. Got to get dd to finish up her work for today as she has a 'communication/speech' class with a 4-H group later today. This has been a real fun way to practice public speaking for her.

Aspirations/Resolutions/Challenges #2

Oops, forgot to continue these:) How's that for getting off-track rather fast!! LOL First off, I did add a weight-loss ticker at the bottom of my blog, so I can keep track in a public way of my progress.

My second goal for the year is to read more. I looked and looked all over blog land for a reading/book challenge that I thought would work for me - and goodness there are TONS of reading/book challenges out there. However, since I really want to focus on weight loss and stitching, I didn't want a challenge that was too much or very restrictive. Most of the ones I found either had you reading 50+ books or had you reading a certain type of book (ie, young adult, mystery, horror, etc). I even found one that had you read 50 new (new to you anyway) books and watch 50 movies that you've never seen in a year. I like the movie idea, but that would mean about 1 book a week. If I didn't want to stitch so much I could do that, but it would take up a good deal of my free time.

SO, in the end I joined GOODREADS and set my own goal of 12 books in a year. I thought this would be VERY easy, however I'm only half way through my first book, so I guess this will be at least slightly challenging:) The only rule I put on myself is that I can only count books that I am reading for me. See, I read and read books as part of our homeschooling. We do read alouds for our Bible/religious studies (like missionary tales and stories of historical figures and their religious beliefs, etc), for our history studies (some of the same as biblical studies, also historical fiction, biographies, etc) and a couple here and there just for fun that we are interested in. We go through several books each month for our schooling but those won't count for this challenge. I do usually really like what we are reading, but it isn't for me. SO while some of my books will be from my dd's 'library', only the ones that I choose to read for my own entertainment will count for this challenge:) And she actually has several that I want to read. (NOTE: my dd is a book-hoarder:) She has a teenie-tiny room, but has around 250 books in it, which she has organized into categories (mystery, animals, fantasy, etc) and is presently cataloging into an excel spreadsheet alphabetically by title. At least it gives her practice typing and alphabetizing:).

I have one (maybe two depending on how I decide to go after it) more 'aspirations' for the year that I'll blog about soon. I am also real close to getting another stitchy project done and am hoping to be able to post a pic by the end of next week!! :)

Jan 11th Project

Today's project is from Barbara Ana's Designs and is called Thanksgiving Biscornu. I love making biscornus (sp?) because I get to hand-stitch them together and don't have to frame them or use a sewing machine to finish them up!! I can use a sewing machine, but I very quickly get frustrated with it:) I much prefer when I can hand sew something together!!

I just barely got a start on this one as I am trying really hard to get some older projects finished off. I am challenging myself to finish 30 projects this year. That is going to be a huge challenge as I think I only did 13 in 2011 and maybe 17 in 2010. I'm doing well right now though as I have 3 done so far for 2012. But I usually hit a major slump in late spring and last year I didn't get back into stitching until mid fall, though I usually start to rebound by late summer. Reverse seasonal depression? Not sure it's that serious, but it happens every year. More likely just major burn-out:) Either way I'm hoping to get lots done before that and maybe I can come out somewhere near this goal by the end of the year. A good deal of what I started this year are pretty small and easy, so that will help a lot!! :) We will just have to see.

Other Aspirations/Resolutions/Challenges #1

Contrary to how it has looked on my blog lately, I do have a life outside of stitching:) Actually I only stitch around a 1/2 hour to maybe an hour a day. I would like to stitch lots more than that, but well, I do have a family, though a rather small one, and they don't find my stitching nearly as important as I do!! LOL


So I thought I would list the 3 other things that I aspire to accomplish this year in order to give myself some kind of accountablity. I am planning on posting one per day (though it might not be consecutive days). If anyone wants to join me on any of these, or ask me from time to time how I am doing (or if I am still doing;) any of these things, please feel welcome.


First things first. I NEED to lose some weight. I am a bit over 100 lbs over my ideal weight (and I'm not talking super model skinny ideal weight, but just a healthy weight for me). So my goal for this year is to lose 1 lb a week. I think that is doable and if I stick to it I will be half way to my final goal in a year. Not bad considering how long I have been overweight and even 50lbs gone would do my body a world of good.


My action plan at this point is...

1. Exercise -

I have the Wii Fit, bought a year ago and hardly used:)

I just bought 'Extreme Makeover Weight Loss Edition' workout video - sadly I thought I could skip level one, but umm, it kicked my hiney!! :) So right now my goal for this is to keep working at level one until I can move up to level 2.

I'm not sure yet, but I may join our YMCA club. It is 25 min away from home though, so I'd only use it when my dd is in gymnastics or swim class, and maybe on Saturdays when I'm in town to do the shopping, but that is 2-3 days a week and most of that time I'm just sitting there anyway.

During the spring and fall I can ride my bike and take walks down our dirt road, but we have really cold winters and really hot summers, so right now I'll stick to indoor workouts.


2.Diet -

Hmm, well, I'll get back to you on that:) We are trying to eat more fruit and veggies and no fried foods, and have been doing that for a while. So keeping with that and cutting my portions down some.


3. Record Keeping

Keeping track of what I eat and when I eat it. Maybe this will help with the diet end of it.

Keeping track of weekly weigh ins - posting monthly weigh-ins on my blog.


4. Rewards:)

I'll have to come up with these as I go, but so far...

10 lb reward - New pair of jeans:) Which I really need anyway, but I'm going to wait until I reach this goal.

20lb reward - Haircut and style. I rarely get my hair cut and done up, so this will be a real treat:)


Well, that is all for this post. Will post another 'Aspiration/Resolution/Challenge' in a day or two.