Making Progress

Well, the end of August brought me 2/3 of the way through 2010. Hard to believe, at least for me. And so it is time to report my progress once again on the goals I set at the beginning of the year :). I'm quite happy to be able to say I have definitely been making progress on almost all of my goals! So here are the updates... And if you need to refer to when I first made the goals, click here. And if you want to see my update at 4 months into the year, click here :).

I really need to work harder on my spiritual goals. I know that all the time. But when I have to account to how I'm doing with it, it makes me feel even more aware that I have not done so well on that front. How easy it is to allow that aspect of life to continue on as always. I mean, I'm not this total spiritual slacker. I do read scriptures. But I don't feel like I study them quite as I should. And I'm pretty sure I'm not any more humble than I was. I still have some ideas for my life and what it should be. And it's pretty hard to swallow that pill of Thy will be done, even if I do want to feel that way. Need to work harder on this.

Temporal goals have been easier for me to accomplish. I continue to slowly build my savings account. I think, after my trip to Savannah with Julie, I will be increasing how much I put into it each paycheck. Not by a lot. But by a little. Just to keep building. When I last updated, I was still paying on my student loan. I can happily say I did accomplish the goal of being debt-free. Currently I have no debt and continue to pay off my credit card each month, but use it to accrue points. I love that my credit card company is paying me to use their card. And the gift cards I'm earning (I have enough points now for one $25.00 card and am only about 400 points away from another one) will be helping me to finish off my Christmas shopping :). As for food-storage and supplies... I have not done anything toward that goal since I last updated. However, I'm reading a book right now that, quite frankly, is freaking me out! It's a young adult book I picked up at the public library (saw it while I was shelving and it's part of a series and sounded interesting, so I am on book 1). It's called Life As We Knew It. Basically, in the book, a meteor has hit the moon and knocked it off its orbit and it got a lot closer to earth. This resulted in a change in tides, earthquakes, and volcanic activity. And the story is about a 15 year old girl and her family and how they are dealing with life now. And while I don't know that the moon could be knocked off it's orbit and create this scenario (nor do I know that it couldn't...), I have very little doubt that such situations as occur as a result of such an event are possible. And it's scaring me a little bit. And making me want to follow the counsel of the prophets even more and get our storage. And add mosquito repellent to the list. Because I never thought of that before... Laugh if you will. The book is awesome and I'm flying through it. But it's freaking me out a bit. And I have kep constant updates flowing about my garden. So that turned out far better than I dreamed :). I have picked and either shared or used about 25 cucumbers, 7 strawberries (okay, not much, but maybe next year will be better...), and 5 acorn squash (with 3 more on the vine ripening). I have 1 tomato ready to be picked and used with 2 others not far behind. And I'm still holding out hope that some of the others will take off and ripen. If not, I'll be trying to ripen them in brown paper bags or finding a lot of recipes for green tomatoes! And I now have at least 8 green peppers growing! I don't know if they will amount to much as far as size goes. We shall see. Like I said, I'm giving them until the temperature drops below 50 at night. That hasn't happened yet, so there's still time. In fact, right now, the sun is quite bright -- even if it isn't a hot Labor Day.

Physical improvements seem to be doing well. I have not walked as much as I was doing. Lea's schedule got busy and both Sue and I have had other committments that have prevented us from going 3 days a week. But I do still walk when I have the chance (mostly with other people, because I'm not really motivated by myself), and from climbing all those steps at The Column, I can tell it is paying off as far as conditioning myself. And weight loss is finally happening! Yay!! Depending on the day and the scale, I have now lost between 9 and 11 pounds. It kind of fluctuates between those for now. Which is fine. I'm content to lose it slowly and hopefully get back to where I was in Tuscaloosa where it was totally easy for me to maintain it. So I'm so happy to be able to report good news there, since I didn't have good news to report on the weight loss front at the end of April.

I pretty much covered the first two items in my Miscellaneous category last time. I didn't do the apple tree trimming. But it did produce! And while the fruit had a lot of issues and just dropped off the tree rather than being picked, I still was able to use enough of the fruit for 3 homemade apple crisps! Woohoo! I haven't made the 3rd one yet. That one will get made mid-October for Buck's birthday at the funeral home. He's one of the grounds crew guys who helped fix the roto-tiller and who has given me tips and such on my gardening. He loves apple stuff and really enjoyed the apple crisp I took up there before. So I shall do that for him. And the laptop -- well, I'm using it now and still happy with my purchase. I don't know if I consider myself as accepting that there are things I cannot control and just letting go. Maybe I'm doing better at it than I have in the past. I don't feel as despairing as I have, or haven't broken down in tears or anger over this situation that, try as I do to change it, doesn't seem to change. And as for my goal of seeing a new place... Well, technically I can say I've done it. Because I saw all of the Oregon Coast, none of which I'd seen before. But I will also be seeing Savannah, GA with Julie in about 3 weeks. And that's something I've never seen either :). Always wanted to go there, but never did. So now's the chance. And I think we're going to try to hit Paula Deen's restaurant there. Just something I think will be cool to do.

So, yeah. My update is about a week late. But good enough :). I'm pretty happy with most of the things I've accomplished this year. There are definitely things I would like to do better in the next 4 months. The ones I haven't worked on as much as I should have... And I'll let you know how that goes :). In January. When it's time to set new goals :).

And just because I do love to talk about food... Tonight is the weekly feast night at Lea's. Pretty much walking has mostly gone out the window for now. But not the food. Hahaha. So I'm making the meat and the dessert today. The meat (barbecue beef that I make in the crock pot -- last time I made it was when I was living in the townhouse, and I'm not sure why I've waited so long!) is in the crock pot cooking away. And the dessert will be peach cobbler. Which I've never made before, so I'm hoping for the best. But I wanted something summery, since it is the end of Summer, after all. And Brad and Tarylyn got free peaches from their neighbor and didn't use them all. So I shall be using those :). And so, really, it was quite inexpensive for me :).