Unintentional hiatus and some new accountability
So... I accidentally took a hiatus from LJ the last few months. I can't say I had a real reason for it. I used to update my LJ a lot during lunch at work, but now I pretty much always take less than an hour for lunch and I no longer eat alone at my desk. Now I have lunch with friends. I'd blame being busy, but when am I not busy? It just happened, it wasn't intentional, and I don't intend for it to happen again. Whoopsie.
Let's move on to new business, shall we? Lets.
I was watching a show on my Saturday/Sunday morning addiction, Food Network, and a host of one of the shows talked about having her Accountability Group over for dinner for their weekly meeting. My brain perked up; I was intrigued. In a blog post, that host talked about a group of close friends that met weekly and firmly but lovingly helped hold each other accountable for taking steps toward fulfilling their goals. As a chronic procrastinator, I thought this might be a good idea for me.
I brought it up to my friends at work, my wolfpack (a reference to the movie The Hangover which makes me laugh despite myself), and a bit to my surprise they were enthusiastic about it as well. Excellent! So, the 5 of us are meeting every two weeks to help encourage each other to do things we might not get to otherwise.
To give things a bit of a focus, and to keep everything from being too much of a downer (because, really, who amongst us isn't going to have some variant of losing weight on the list), I suggested we make a list of 50 things we wanted to do - they could be giant things or smaller things that can be accomplished relatively easily. The idea was just to do things. And so, at our first meeting I made my list of 50 things, some of them are really long term goals, some are medium term, and some are short. I also tried to focus my list on things which were solely within my realm of influence. By that I mean that I picked things within my control. For example, since I'm not a scientist it's unlikely I'm going to find a cure for MS, but I can raise money to help find it. So without further ado, my list:
1. Find the perfect shade of red lipstick and wear it without feeling self-conscious about it.
2. Make my own big batch of chicken stock.
3. Find a great, comfortable pair of heels.
4. Organize the guest bedroom closet.
5. Bake cupcakes from scratch (no box mix) and bring them to work.
6. Go through all of my books and cull the ones I no longer want.
7. Crochet a throw blanket.
8. Own my own home.
9. Travel to London.
10. Stop drinking soda every day.
11. Lose enough weight to be able to shop in the regular sizes, rather then the plus sizes.
12. Step foot in all 50 states.
13. Visit the Smithsonian for several days.
14. Write a novel.
15. Visit the Biltmore Estate.
16. See the redwoods.
17. Visit Seattle.
18. Visit San Francisco.
19. Blog more frequently.
20. Organize an intimate fundraiser for Multiple Sclerosis.
21. Grow a small herb garden in the kitchen.
22. Be able to do 5 pushups.
23. Do a pullup.
24. Eat a six of the best local restaurants in Des Moines.
25. Own a Kitchenaid mixer.
26. Go see all of the doctors I'm supposed to see annually: primary care doc for a physical, female visit, dentise, eye doc, dermatologist.
27. Find a good way to store my jewelry.
28. Build a greeting card library so that I have cards for lots of occasions.
29. Improve my posture.
30. Bake a quiche.
31. Blog about the books I read for a year.
32. Be a Community Supported Agriculture member.
33. $0.00 credit card debt.
34. Own a Macbook.
35. Learn to make my own graphics using Photoshop.
36. Make my own flower pin.
37. Make 5 home decorating projects: book page wreath, book page canvas, 3 more to be identified...
38. Own a cast iron skillet.
39. Buy a beautiful dress at Anthropologie.
40. Have a panini party.
41. Bake a chicken.
42. Bake a pie.
43. Vegas, baby!
44. Spa weekend with the girls.
45. Make some sort of jewelry.
46. Build a collection of awesome seasonal home decorating pieces.
47 Scan family photos to be stored online.
48. Make a creative family tree.
49. Grow my own tomatoes.
50. Take more care with my appearance (makeup, hair, etc.)
Bonus: Throw a fancy New Year's Eve party.
The plan is to post updates as I cross things off the list. I've already done two of these. I'll post about them as soon as I have my camera back for pictoral evidence. (Jeff has my camera at the moment.) So, there you go.
I'm hoping this is a good step toward more regular updates. I hate that I've stepped too far back. How are you? Have I missed anything I should know?
Let's move on to new business, shall we? Lets.
I was watching a show on my Saturday/Sunday morning addiction, Food Network, and a host of one of the shows talked about having her Accountability Group over for dinner for their weekly meeting. My brain perked up; I was intrigued. In a blog post, that host talked about a group of close friends that met weekly and firmly but lovingly helped hold each other accountable for taking steps toward fulfilling their goals. As a chronic procrastinator, I thought this might be a good idea for me.
I brought it up to my friends at work, my wolfpack (a reference to the movie The Hangover which makes me laugh despite myself), and a bit to my surprise they were enthusiastic about it as well. Excellent! So, the 5 of us are meeting every two weeks to help encourage each other to do things we might not get to otherwise.
To give things a bit of a focus, and to keep everything from being too much of a downer (because, really, who amongst us isn't going to have some variant of losing weight on the list), I suggested we make a list of 50 things we wanted to do - they could be giant things or smaller things that can be accomplished relatively easily. The idea was just to do things. And so, at our first meeting I made my list of 50 things, some of them are really long term goals, some are medium term, and some are short. I also tried to focus my list on things which were solely within my realm of influence. By that I mean that I picked things within my control. For example, since I'm not a scientist it's unlikely I'm going to find a cure for MS, but I can raise money to help find it. So without further ado, my list:
1. Find the perfect shade of red lipstick and wear it without feeling self-conscious about it.
2. Make my own big batch of chicken stock.
3. Find a great, comfortable pair of heels.
4. Organize the guest bedroom closet.
5. Bake cupcakes from scratch (no box mix) and bring them to work.
6. Go through all of my books and cull the ones I no longer want.
7. Crochet a throw blanket.
8. Own my own home.
9. Travel to London.
10. Stop drinking soda every day.
11. Lose enough weight to be able to shop in the regular sizes, rather then the plus sizes.
12. Step foot in all 50 states.
13. Visit the Smithsonian for several days.
14. Write a novel.
15. Visit the Biltmore Estate.
16. See the redwoods.
17. Visit Seattle.
18. Visit San Francisco.
19. Blog more frequently.
20. Organize an intimate fundraiser for Multiple Sclerosis.
21. Grow a small herb garden in the kitchen.
22. Be able to do 5 pushups.
23. Do a pullup.
24. Eat a six of the best local restaurants in Des Moines.
25. Own a Kitchenaid mixer.
26. Go see all of the doctors I'm supposed to see annually: primary care doc for a physical, female visit, dentise, eye doc, dermatologist.
27. Find a good way to store my jewelry.
28. Build a greeting card library so that I have cards for lots of occasions.
29. Improve my posture.
30. Bake a quiche.
31. Blog about the books I read for a year.
32. Be a Community Supported Agriculture member.
33. $0.00 credit card debt.
34. Own a Macbook.
35. Learn to make my own graphics using Photoshop.
36. Make my own flower pin.
37. Make 5 home decorating projects: book page wreath, book page canvas, 3 more to be identified...
38. Own a cast iron skillet.
39. Buy a beautiful dress at Anthropologie.
40. Have a panini party.
41. Bake a chicken.
42. Bake a pie.
43. Vegas, baby!
44. Spa weekend with the girls.
45. Make some sort of jewelry.
46. Build a collection of awesome seasonal home decorating pieces.
47 Scan family photos to be stored online.
48. Make a creative family tree.
49. Grow my own tomatoes.
50. Take more care with my appearance (makeup, hair, etc.)
Bonus: Throw a fancy New Year's Eve party.
The plan is to post updates as I cross things off the list. I've already done two of these. I'll post about them as soon as I have my camera back for pictoral evidence. (Jeff has my camera at the moment.) So, there you go.
I'm hoping this is a good step toward more regular updates. I hate that I've stepped too far back. How are you? Have I missed anything I should know?