Holiday multi-tasking

I've been plugging along, working on my 101 in 1001 goals.  It may not look like I've accomplished much from looking at my list over there on the side of this page, but I have been focusing on those goals.  I've committed an hour a day to working on them.  Some days I might spend the entire hour on one item, some days I spend a few minutes on multiple goals and some days I spend a lot more than one hour working on the list.

If you notice, one of the items on the list is to post a photo to this blog every day for 30 days.  I've been a little worried about that one.  What on earth am I going to photograph?  I can only imagine how bored we'd all be if I took 30 photos of the dogs sleeping or the kids playing video games.  I thought about photographing my cooking attempts but I doubt seriously you want to see that either.  Plus, I have a hard enough time cooking.  I can only imagine the disasters I'd create if I was trying to take pictures as I went.  So, what to photograph?

How about photographing Christmas memories?  Each year when I pull out the Christmas decorations, I have my own personal walk down memory lane.  Almost every ornament and/or decoration reminds me of someone or something.  So, what if I photograph the ornaments?  That might be a good idea.  There are a few important people in my life that don't relate to a specific ornament, however.   I wouldn't want to leave anyone out so for those folks, I'll just throw in a photo of something that reminds me of them.  

So, in no particular order....

The above is a beautiful wreath given to me by my friends, the Mount family.  Their son, Logan, made it and the wreath always hangs on our back door.  While it sounds like it's not getting much of a place of honor, it actually is.  The washing machine is right there beside that door and I spend an awful lot of time at the washing machine.  During the Christmas holidays, I have the opportunity to think of my friends while I do the laundry.   Merry Christmas, Mounts!

T.R.O.U.B.L.E.

Uh-oh!  I might be in some serious trouble.  I think I've learned to bake bread from scratch.  My inability to make edible bread has been a major source of irritation for me for years.  My dad used to make homemade rolls and it looked so simple, and they tasted so divine!  My attempts at rolls have always been disastrous.  Instead of nice, soft rolls, I make hockey pucks.  Even when I made the dough with the bread machine, I ended up with small, hard, unrisen hockey pucks.  Over the years, I've attempted to make loaves of bread as well as rolls with basically the same result.  Instead of small hockey pucks, my loaves turn into bricks.

I recently discovered a book called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/  The theory behind their recipe(s) is that you make a huge batch of unkneaded dough, stick it in the refrigerator and over the next two weeks, you cut chunks of dough off and bake it.  Simple.  Making the dough really was a breeze.  Stir together some water, a lot of flour, a little salt & yeast and presto!  Dough!  It literally took me longer to gather the few ingredients than it did to make the dough.  I stuck the dough in the fridge and the next day, I cut off a chunk and baked.  And...

Bread!  Ok, it's a little small.  I needed to use a larger chunk of dough, but the point is, I got bread!  Yummy, delicious bread.  And best of all, I still have a great big Tupperware container of dough in the fridge just waiting to be baked.  I can have fresh, warm, yummy delicious, homemade bread again today!   I might be in serious trouble.

My new obsession with knitting lace...

Finally!  I finally finished a lace knitting project.  I have been trying for years and years it seems but I always either screw it up so badly it's not worth fixing, or I give up on it because it's 'too hard' and takes too much concentration.  But not this time.  This time, I actually finished two projects within days of each other.  I loved knitting both of these items.  While I did have to pay attention to what I was doing, I didn't begin to have the struggles I've had with past lace attempts.  I find myself wondering why.  I wonder if the fact that I'm eating so much healthier is affecting my brain and allowing me to do more difficult tasks.  I also wonder if the running has calmed me to the point that I can stay focused on something difficult.  Or, perhaps, I've finally matured a bit.  Nah, probably not.

Ok, once again, I seriously need to take a photography class.

But there they are.  A shawl and a scarf.  In the above picture, they are being blocked.  I was a bit terrified of the blocking process but it turned out to be a lot of fun.  It was absolutely amazing how a shawl that was only about three feet wide at it's widest point grew into something about six feet wide and the weird lumps along the edges turned into points.  Very cool.

Here's a little detail:

The pattern is the Meadow Flowers Shawl from Knitters Stash http://www.amazon.com/Knitters-Stash-Favorite-Patterns-Americas/dp/1883010896   The yarn is Gloss Lace in the Sterling colorway from KnitPicks.  http://www.knitpicks.com/yarns/Gloss_Lace_Yarn__D5420172.html    And, I noticed as I posted that link, that a few of the colors are currently on sale.  Awesome, because I'd really like to knit that pattern again.

The scarf was knit with Wildfoote Luxury Sock Yarn in the Purple Splendor colorway.   http://www.brownsheep.com/wls.htm   

The pattern came from The New Knitting Stitch Library  http://www.amazon.com/Knitting-Stitch-Library-Easy-Follow/dp/1579900275  I simply added a garter stitch border to the pattern and voila!  A scarf.  I used two skeins of yarn and it worked out perfectly!  I finished knitting the border repeat and had just enough yarn left to knit the final garter border.  When I was finished, I didn't even have enough yarn left to knit one more row.  

As I said, I thoroughly enjoyed knitting both of these items and I'm now totally obsessed with knitting lace.  Too bad I don't have anymore lace weight yarn in my stash pile.  Sounds like I need to go on a shopping trip!

November 24, 2010

Great blog title, huh?  Guess I'm feeling a bit uncreative today.

Anyway...

I finally finished reading Eat, Pray, Love.  Or is it Eat Pray Love, without the commas?  What ever.  I finally finished it and am glad I stuck with it.  I thoroughly enjoyed the Love part, mainly because of the varied and kooky characters the author met while in Bali.  I'm not sure what I'll read next.  Probably either one of the many Philippa Gregory books on my list or Point Blank.  After struggling through Eat Pray Love, I feel the need for a quick, fun read.  The Gregory books aren't what I'd call "quick & fun" but I have very much enjoyed all of her books that I've read so far.  Point Blank looks like it would probably be a very quick read, but because of that, I'm thinking I might save it for when the Christmas Madness is threatening to destroy me.  But then, do I really want to have my nose buried in a book for 24 hours straight during Christmas Madness?  Decisions, decisions.

In other news, tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  How on earth did it get to be Thanksgiving already?  I don't even feel like we had a summer this year.  How can it possibly be the end of November?  And how could summer have gone unnoticed when we had record breaking heat just about every day?  Maybe the heat is why I didn't notice it.  I stayed holed up inside the air conditioned house the whole time instead of enjoying my normal summer activities.  But no matter how I feel about it, there's no getting around it.  Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  Which means today is baking day.

We go to my sister's for Thanksgiving every year so luckily, I don't have to worry about the turkey and all the trimmings.  I simply worry about desert.  And garlic biscuits.  Paula Deen's garlic biscuits to be exact.  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/garlic-cheese-biscuits-recipe/index.html
We love these biscuits & I have to triple the recipe.  My son and I eat the first 12 straight off the baking sheet when they are still so hot we end up with "pizza burn" in our mouths.  The remaining two dozen get eaten at the Thanksgiving table and there are rarely any left overs.  And if there are a few stragglers left in the serving dish, my niece claims them and takes them home with her.

As for desert, I'll be making the traditional chocolate cake with mocha icing, pecan pie muffins and a pumpkin pie.  I'm not sure if the pecan pie muffins will actually be a desert or another bread to serve with dinner.  I've never made them before but I'm intrigued with their name, they look awfully easy & I just happen to have all the ingredients on hand, so....  Here's a link if you'd like to check them out:  http://www.livingonadime.com/pecan-pie-muffins/    The pumpkin pie is at my husband's request and the chocolate cake is basically for my sister & I.  The cake recipe comes from my grandmother.  I remember her making it for special occasions when I was a child and I was SO excited when I came across her recipe while looking through the family records.  I'll post the cake recipe one of these days when I'm in need of blog fodder.   But for now, it's time for me to go destroy my kitchen.

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving!

Destroy the Joy

I sure am having a hard time reading these days and I wonder why.  Is it because I hate to be told what to do and I made that list of 101 things and put, "read the books I already own but have never gotten around to reading" on it?  Or is it that I'm just not enjoying the book I'm currently reading?   Normally, I love to read, but I really don't like to be told what to read.  I once joined a fantastic book group.  The other women involved were great, the books tended to be books I wanted to read, and the food was always excellent.  But from the very first month of joining, I could not force myself to read.  Not even the newspaper.  I finally quit the group after failing to read the book of the month four times in a row.  And promptly went back to obsessive reading.

So, knowing my history makes me wonder.  I'm I struggling to read Eat, Pray, Love because it's on my list or because I just don't like the book that much?  I sort of enjoyed the Eat part.  It took place in Italy and made me want to learn Italian and visit Italian restaurants.  The Pray part seemed to drone on and on and on.  I'd finally decide that life is too short to waste time reading something so boring.  I'd decide to quit reading the book as soon as I got to the end of the chapter and Bam!  The author would write something that moved me or gave me one of those light bulb moments about my own life and I'd decide to keep reading.  After all, it may get better.  What if I've struggled this far through the book and the last part is where it gets really good?  I wouldn't want to miss out on the fun.

I sure hope it doesn't take me another two weeks to get through the Love part though.  At this rate, I'll never make my goal of reading 89 books in 1001 days.  Specially since Eat, Love, Pray is one of the thinner books.  Which is why I chose it to read next.  Well, that and the fact that it happened to be laying on the floor next to the couch when I finished my previous book.

And that leads me to realize that rather than worrying about what I'm reading, I should really be working on that goal of "getting the house clean and keeping it that way."

101 Goals Update

Wow.  I can't get over how motivating having that list of 101 goals to accomplish in 1001 days is.  While I haven't fully accomplished many goals yet, I've been steadily working on small parts of many of them.  I think this 101 goals project is going to fit my personality quite nicely.  I love making lists and checking tasks off as they are completed.  I get a real sense of accomplishment seeing all those little check marks add up.  But, I'm also immature enough to hate being told what to do.  I hate "having" to do something and I'll drag my feet and kick and scream and do pretty much anything to avoid doing what I "have" to do.  But by having 101 goals and the huge, long list of Next Action items that goes along with it, I experience the best of both worlds.  I have a list, I get to check things off and I have plenty of options to choose from.  There is nothing on that list that "has" to be done today.  I'm really liking my list.

And having said that, I can go check off, "Blog at least once a week."  Yay.

If you think you might be interested in starting your own list, visit http://101goalsin1001days.com/about/ for the details.

101 Goals in 1001 Days

In my constant search for the perfect way to get organized, I came across someone's blog that suggested working on 101 goals in 1001 days.  (http://101goalsin1001days.com/about/) The idea is that you create a list of 101 things you want to accomplish.  These goals should be challenging, but doable.  In other words, you wouldn't list doing the laundry and you wouldn't list becoming debt free if you currently owe over a million dollars.  You could, however, list paying off your Sears card and/or paying off your car.  

Once you have your list of 101 items, you then list the steps necessary to reach those goals.  Or at least the first step you need to take.  Depending on the item, you may not know all the steps.  After you've done that, you make a third list of "Next Action" items.  This becomes your master to-do list.  At least weekly, you should review your Next Action list and check off and add items.  You should always have at least one item on your Next Action list for each goal.  

I'm slightly worried about my list of 101 things.  That original blog I read and the other folks working on their own 101 goals who had linked to it all mentioned that they'd had a hard time coming up with 101 goals.  Me, I had no trouble.  In fact, I had to cut quite a few items.  Several of my goals probably aren't doable.  For instance, I want to read all the books I own that I've never gotten around to reading, and that's a lot of books.  I could list my goal as reading ten of them, but I figured I'd stay more motivated if I listed them all.  And, since I know up front that the goal is not very realistic, I won't be upset if I don't reach it.  Same thing for my yarn.  Another goal is to use up all the yarn I have stashed away.  Well, I could knit 24/7 and not use up all that yarn in the next 20 years.  But I can work towards reaching the goal.  And then there's the debt thing.  Since I'm currently unemployed, paying off my Sears card is about as likely to happen as becoming debt free, but debt free sounds great and you never know - I may win the lottery and be able to pay off all my creditors.  So, I'm listing becoming debt free.  It's something to strive for.

I'd also like to note that on the list you see here, many of the items are rather open ended.  Some things are that way because I don't really know what my goal is.  Take "learn more about i-Photo" for example. In this case, I simply don't know what it is that I don't know.  Hopefully by August 5, 2013, I'll know everything.  For "learn more about the computer," I have a whole great big list of things I want to learn but there simply wasn't room to list it all on the sidebar.  There's also a few items like "wash windows" and "replace light bulbs."  While those things may not be a challenge for you, they are for me.  They are things that have been on my to-do list for over a year.  Hopefully, by putting them on this list, they'll get done.

My plan is to list my 101 goals down the side of this blog and I'll indicate which ones have been completed.  So, in no particular order....