Comments | sparkfrost: On a New Year

sparkfrost

On a New Year

Jan 01, 2015 15:53

A lot has happened since my last post (checks, shudders) four and a half months ago. But this post is not for a life update! It is for a discussion of what I'd like to work on in 2015. Not a resolution (it's a trap!) but goals and aspirations. So ( Read more... )

big plans and lofty goals

Comments 6

yendi January 1 2015, 21:00:25 UTC

How is Duolingo? I'll never become a language master, but I'd love to get a better reading and even listening vocab in a language or two.

sparkfrost January 2 2015, 03:03:25 UTC

It's fun, I enjoy it. It's a mixture of listening and reading comprehension, and each section introduces new vocabulary while also building on what you've already learned. Apparently if you do it regularly it is easy to get to a conversational level - which is what I'd really like to get back to. My accent has held, despite the years, but my vocab hasn't.

yendi January 2 2015, 13:59:28 UTC

Heh. I think the key word there is "do it regularly." But I've downloaded it, and will give it a shot. Thanks!

lostrack621 January 14 2015, 17:25:52 UTC

I love that more and more of my friends are ditching the resolutions and instead focusing on goals / aspirations / "evolutions" because it is so much more positive! Even if you only make a micro-change in any of the goals you mentioned, that will be more than before ( ... )

sparkfrost January 14 2015, 20:41:54 UTC

Meal planning is what I really do need to get better at. I like your idea of doing a cook day once a week, but on weekends I like to veg out, so changing that would be a thing in and of itself. So to start, I think I'll focus on the planning part, and then actually follow through with the cooking. :-)

Thanks for the encouragement and advice!

lostrack621 January 14 2015, 21:06:09 UTC

Oh, I *totally* getting vegging out on the weekends...much of the time I don't even feel like I've had a weekend because of all the things I've "had" to do! It blows, and is one reason why I'm slowly trying to move chores to during the week and break them up in to smaller tasks (like, downstairs and upstairs, etc).

One thing I would recommend as part of your starting bit is to take a piece of paper and write down all the things you know (and like) to cook so you have a visual guide to go off of for planning purposes. I need to do this again - I did it when I was finishing my dissertation and it really helped me choose somewhat different meals each week, instead of continuing to make baked chicken and meatloaf. ;)

IMHO, planning can be the hardest hurdle so I think that taking the planning part as a first step is AWESOME. Hooray! :)