I'm Back!
Resolution #1: Try to post here more than just once every other month.
Fortunately, the mimosas are starting to wear off, so this post might actually make some sense.
So here's what I've been up to since November:
Church: This, of course, is where most of my December was spent. I think I had something scheduled every single night in December until December 21st, which gave me exactly 2 days to get all my Christmas shopping done. All in all I was pleased how things turned out, although I agree with a couple of others on the Liturgy Planning Committee that we should not have canceled that meeting we had scheduled right before Thanksgiving. While it all came together nicely, communication was decidedly lacking and everything would have been much smoother to put together if we'd discussed the whole Advent/Christmas season as a group before we actually had to put it all into practice. Liturgy of the Hours turned out nicely and was definitely one of my favorite aspects of this Advent season. Michelle and I will be getting together soon to plan more Liturgy of the Hours services for Lent. I'm already switching my brain into Lent/Holy Week/Easter mode; you have to stay several steps ahead of where you're at or you wind up scrambling at the last minute, which certainly doesn't make for a very joyful celebration if you're exhausted and cranky from burning the midnight oil due to poor planning.
Recorder Ensemble: Tangentially, the Recorder Ensemble was AWESOME this Christmas season! They've sounded great all season long so far, which is so heart-warming and encouraging for me. Sadly, one of our members is battling an eating disorder; she missed Christmas Day Mass this year and was sorely missed. Please pray for her. She's been in and out of the ER throughout December and I'm not sure when or if she'll return to our group. She's one of my long-standing members, about 5 years or so now, and losing her would be so disappointing. Of course, her health is WAY more important than our Ensemble will ever be, so I certainly won't be pressuring her to return to the group before she's really ready. Her prognosis is pretty shaky right now and I'm very worried about her. She's only in the 7th grade - way too young to have the kind of health failures she's experiencing now because of this disease. On a much happier note, I am preparing to expand the Ensemble to include a group for beginners (it's just too hard for novices to jump into the Ensemble as it stands now; they're way too advanced and I don't want to hold my experienced players back - their favorite composer so far: J.S. Bach!) and an Adult Ensemble so that my quickly aging Student Ensemble will have a group to "graduate" into. I already have a high school student in our Youth Ensemble! Eek! Just a few more years and she'll age out. Thanks to VIRTUS and the whole child abuse scandal that the church has been reeling from for the last decade or so, I have to keep the adults and the children separated, and once a student reaches age 18, they can't play with the kids anymore without being putting them through a criminal background check and making them attend this big child abuse awareness training program that, quite frankly, I don't think any 18 year old should be subjected to. Besides, there's been some interest in starting an Ensemble for adults, so I'm willing to try to work something out. This will be an interesting exercise in scheduling, to be sure. I'll keep you posted.
Diet and Exercise: Can you say, "Epic FAIL?" I haven't tracked anything or worked out or anything all December long. I've stepped on the scale a few times, so far I haven't gained much - about 4 or 5 pounds - but I haven't lost anything, that's for sure. Current weight: 174 lbs. Primary Weight Goal: 150 lbs. Secondary Weight Goal (achieving this would be great, but if I don't make it, I can live with that): 130 lbs. Carl brought my bicycle in from the garage and brought the stand up from the basement, so I'm running out of excuses not to work out. We're supposed to go out to dinner this Saturday with Carl's sister, so I'll probably restart my meal tracking on Sunday. Carl wants to set up the DDR again, but I think I'll have to pass on that since my feet have been bothering me again. Our beautiful bamboo flooring is twice as hard as oak, so high-impact exercise is out of the question; there isn't enough padding in the world to make something like DDR safe for my feet (or tap dancing, unfortunately, but I haven't done a lot of that in a very long time anyhow). We also need to get rid of Carl's elliptical machine. It's tearing apart our knees. Exercise shouldn't make it impossible for you to climb stairs because your knees can't withstand your own body weight after working out. So maybe we'll trade it in on something else. We've been researching some alternative sources for organic, unaltered food, like grass-fed beef with no antibiotics ever and the like. We want to get back to the basics and use as many whole, unprocessed foods as possible. Carl is working hard on a new website tentatively called "The Healthy Habit Helper" where we can track our meals and exercise online, even when we're out at a restaurant and we have our Blackberries handy. We'll post more on this as it develops. In any case, Resolution #2 is to get back on the wagon and start making progress again.
New Music Skills: We bought an electric piano right after Thanksgiving and so far I'm about halfway through my Alfred's Adult All-In-One Basic Piano Course book (Level One - there are 3 levels). Then my in-laws gave me a practice chanter for Christmas, so I'm starting to learn a little preliminary fingering basics for the Great Highland Bagpipes. Not that I'm a fan of the GHB, but I do like the smaller Scottish Pipes, similar to the Uilleann Pipes of Ireland, but easier to play. Carl is interested in learning to play recorder so he can join our new adult Recorder Ensemble, and he still wants to learn to play the theramin (we finally got him the soldering materials he needs to actually assemble the theramin kit I got him last year for Christmas). Carl used to take piano lessons when he was a kid, so he's started relearning piano as well. By the time we're done, we'll be a two-person orchestra! I look forward to the day when we're both proficient enough on at least one instrument apiece to be able to play some duets for our own amusement. We'll just list that goal as Resolution #3, although it might take more than a year to accomplish.
That's pretty much it. We've spent some time relaxing and going to museums and zoos and such over the past few days. On Monday, the Museum of Science and Industry has free admission, so we're going down there on the 4th. On the 5th (my birthday) we're going to the Field Museum. I haven't been to the Field Museum since I was in the 8th grade, so it will be just like to going to see it for the very first time since I can't really remember what it was like back then. If you want to see the pictures I took at the Judy Istock Flutterbye House at the Peggy Notebart Nature Muesum and at the Lincoln Park Zoo and Conservatory, you'll have to check in to my Facebook albums. Hopefully I'll be able to keep Resolution #1 and you'll be hearing more from me over time. Happy New Year!
Fortunately, the mimosas are starting to wear off, so this post might actually make some sense.
So here's what I've been up to since November:
Church: This, of course, is where most of my December was spent. I think I had something scheduled every single night in December until December 21st, which gave me exactly 2 days to get all my Christmas shopping done. All in all I was pleased how things turned out, although I agree with a couple of others on the Liturgy Planning Committee that we should not have canceled that meeting we had scheduled right before Thanksgiving. While it all came together nicely, communication was decidedly lacking and everything would have been much smoother to put together if we'd discussed the whole Advent/Christmas season as a group before we actually had to put it all into practice. Liturgy of the Hours turned out nicely and was definitely one of my favorite aspects of this Advent season. Michelle and I will be getting together soon to plan more Liturgy of the Hours services for Lent. I'm already switching my brain into Lent/Holy Week/Easter mode; you have to stay several steps ahead of where you're at or you wind up scrambling at the last minute, which certainly doesn't make for a very joyful celebration if you're exhausted and cranky from burning the midnight oil due to poor planning.
Recorder Ensemble: Tangentially, the Recorder Ensemble was AWESOME this Christmas season! They've sounded great all season long so far, which is so heart-warming and encouraging for me. Sadly, one of our members is battling an eating disorder; she missed Christmas Day Mass this year and was sorely missed. Please pray for her. She's been in and out of the ER throughout December and I'm not sure when or if she'll return to our group. She's one of my long-standing members, about 5 years or so now, and losing her would be so disappointing. Of course, her health is WAY more important than our Ensemble will ever be, so I certainly won't be pressuring her to return to the group before she's really ready. Her prognosis is pretty shaky right now and I'm very worried about her. She's only in the 7th grade - way too young to have the kind of health failures she's experiencing now because of this disease. On a much happier note, I am preparing to expand the Ensemble to include a group for beginners (it's just too hard for novices to jump into the Ensemble as it stands now; they're way too advanced and I don't want to hold my experienced players back - their favorite composer so far: J.S. Bach!) and an Adult Ensemble so that my quickly aging Student Ensemble will have a group to "graduate" into. I already have a high school student in our Youth Ensemble! Eek! Just a few more years and she'll age out. Thanks to VIRTUS and the whole child abuse scandal that the church has been reeling from for the last decade or so, I have to keep the adults and the children separated, and once a student reaches age 18, they can't play with the kids anymore without being putting them through a criminal background check and making them attend this big child abuse awareness training program that, quite frankly, I don't think any 18 year old should be subjected to. Besides, there's been some interest in starting an Ensemble for adults, so I'm willing to try to work something out. This will be an interesting exercise in scheduling, to be sure. I'll keep you posted.
Diet and Exercise: Can you say, "Epic FAIL?" I haven't tracked anything or worked out or anything all December long. I've stepped on the scale a few times, so far I haven't gained much - about 4 or 5 pounds - but I haven't lost anything, that's for sure. Current weight: 174 lbs. Primary Weight Goal: 150 lbs. Secondary Weight Goal (achieving this would be great, but if I don't make it, I can live with that): 130 lbs. Carl brought my bicycle in from the garage and brought the stand up from the basement, so I'm running out of excuses not to work out. We're supposed to go out to dinner this Saturday with Carl's sister, so I'll probably restart my meal tracking on Sunday. Carl wants to set up the DDR again, but I think I'll have to pass on that since my feet have been bothering me again. Our beautiful bamboo flooring is twice as hard as oak, so high-impact exercise is out of the question; there isn't enough padding in the world to make something like DDR safe for my feet (or tap dancing, unfortunately, but I haven't done a lot of that in a very long time anyhow). We also need to get rid of Carl's elliptical machine. It's tearing apart our knees. Exercise shouldn't make it impossible for you to climb stairs because your knees can't withstand your own body weight after working out. So maybe we'll trade it in on something else. We've been researching some alternative sources for organic, unaltered food, like grass-fed beef with no antibiotics ever and the like. We want to get back to the basics and use as many whole, unprocessed foods as possible. Carl is working hard on a new website tentatively called "The Healthy Habit Helper" where we can track our meals and exercise online, even when we're out at a restaurant and we have our Blackberries handy. We'll post more on this as it develops. In any case, Resolution #2 is to get back on the wagon and start making progress again.
New Music Skills: We bought an electric piano right after Thanksgiving and so far I'm about halfway through my Alfred's Adult All-In-One Basic Piano Course book (Level One - there are 3 levels). Then my in-laws gave me a practice chanter for Christmas, so I'm starting to learn a little preliminary fingering basics for the Great Highland Bagpipes. Not that I'm a fan of the GHB, but I do like the smaller Scottish Pipes, similar to the Uilleann Pipes of Ireland, but easier to play. Carl is interested in learning to play recorder so he can join our new adult Recorder Ensemble, and he still wants to learn to play the theramin (we finally got him the soldering materials he needs to actually assemble the theramin kit I got him last year for Christmas). Carl used to take piano lessons when he was a kid, so he's started relearning piano as well. By the time we're done, we'll be a two-person orchestra! I look forward to the day when we're both proficient enough on at least one instrument apiece to be able to play some duets for our own amusement. We'll just list that goal as Resolution #3, although it might take more than a year to accomplish.
That's pretty much it. We've spent some time relaxing and going to museums and zoos and such over the past few days. On Monday, the Museum of Science and Industry has free admission, so we're going down there on the 4th. On the 5th (my birthday) we're going to the Field Museum. I haven't been to the Field Museum since I was in the 8th grade, so it will be just like to going to see it for the very first time since I can't really remember what it was like back then. If you want to see the pictures I took at the Judy Istock Flutterbye House at the Peggy Notebart Nature Muesum and at the Lincoln Park Zoo and Conservatory, you'll have to check in to my Facebook albums. Hopefully I'll be able to keep Resolution #1 and you'll be hearing more from me over time. Happy New Year!