Resolutions Month 4

It's that time again! ...drumroll... Oh, I know you're excited...

Here's the summary!

• The applications continue. I'm looking into Linked-in. Need contacts in Chicago in the schools...haven't heard back on any job leads yet.
• No comment on wedding photo hand-out.
• Prayer: God and I need to talk more...I need to make more time.
• Same as the previous. I have set aside Sunday afternoons to do things around the house and to spend with God. 
• Blog...I'm up to two a month! I'm thinking that this month may be a little more saturated by content than the previous.
• Calling: being sick for a week or more has put a damper on calls. I didn't feel kind toward anyone. But, hopefully Colin will finish school soon and we'll be able to talk.
• Exercise: Pshaw. No time!

And there you have it folks. My resolutions in a nutshell. Probably would go a little better if I thought about them more than when I write the monthly blog about it!

Resolutions Month 3

Here comes April's update. A little late, but at least it's still April!

• About a month ago my provisional teaching license from Illinois arrived, which means I can legally teach in Illinois schools as long as I finish the requirements I'm missing by June 2014. Those requirements are some college classes and a few standardized tests. I can see these next few years to be busy. Or perhaps I'll be able to do the studies over the summers. I've applied for some school systems and keep adding more, edging further out of the city. As a side note, who would know that school system applications could take about 4 hours each???
• Oops.
• Spring break should have been a time for lots of reading and prayer since we didn't go on vacation. Have I mentioned that I'm highly distractible? I continue to enjoy the journaling and learning with God. I'll post something from my journal soon.
• Still reading Matthew. :)
• And the blog...nope...not once a week.
• I got to talk to Colin this week. :) He's getting married in December!
• Writing friends...about the same. However, I am getting faster at replying to emails.
• Although I am convinced that my daily commute counts as my daily exercise quotient, this week I've done a half hour in Wii-Fit  two times. I love the games, though the music is a little annoying.

Resolutions Month 2

I know you just can't wait for March's update!

• No news news on the job search. Still sending the papers in and waiting for transcripts. The latest hitch in the road was trying to get money orders from Spain that are valid in the US. Note to self: don't try again. I ended up convincing friends and family to do it for me. It would be so much easier to pay for paperwork by bank transfer or debit card!
• Wedding album came in! It's HUGE...I'll bring it home over the summer if I don't break my back first. Photos for others...to be continued.
• My friend Meggan lent me a book called, "Praying in Color," which has an interesting way to pray for others and stay concentrated by doodling. My journal has been resurrected and is now full of colorful prayers, meditations on verses, and self-reflections. I can see God using the prayer time in my life to help me love others more and to slowly change other attitudes as well. 
• With the girls I disciple at church, I've pledged to read at least one verse a week. I'm reading Matthew, a few verses a day, and then write and journal and draw about one about every day. It's enriching.
• The blog...AHHHH!!! By updating you, I am faithful in telling you how terribly I'm doing.
• Calling family: Stayed the same...need to talk more!
• Friends: Jenny and Naila...I should be writing you soon. Or perhaps you could write me to remind me to write to you?
• Exercise: pitiful. I have tried to do more yoga in the living room. Isma walked in on me one day and gave me an extremely strange look. We went to play airsoft and run around in the countryside shooting at each other. Although it's not a work-out routine, I had sore muscles for half a week.

Resolutions Month 1

Well, a month has past since I made my first New Year's Resolutions in many years, and for my own accountability, here's my report.

• The new job in Chicago is going slowly. Slowly, as in I haven't finished the job applications. See, I got my new 5-year professional teaching license in Indiana last week, (Yay!) but I am waiting on getting the license transfer to Illinois' system to finish applications. My thought process is that no school system is going to jump up in down in excitement to hire me if I can't legally teach for them yet.
• The photos of the wedding to everyone...so sorry! I think this one may take a bit more time. The job comes first. On a happier note, I think we'll have the wedding album in less than a month, and we'll be able to show it this summer.
• Praying more fervently has it's ebbs and flows, though I've been enjoying praying for the youth at church and family on my daily commute. That is, when I don't become a space cadet for the entire time...maybe I need more work on that.
• Creating a devotional routine: not happened yet. 
• Write one blog entry a week?? Hmmm...not so hot either. But this one is definitely not the biggest priority in my life.
• Call my family more often: ummmm...uncomfortable silence...This one has definitely stayed the same. Neither less nor more. Will work on this. Colin, call me!!
• Call or write friends more: has improved slightly. VERY slightly. 
• And last but not least, the exercise routine. How do you think this is going?? Pitifully! It is probably the last thing on my mind. However, I have half convinced myself that it isn't necessary by counting up the physical activity I do every day. At eight-thirty in the morning I leave home and walk 10-15 minutes to the subway, ride for 10 minutes, walk 5 more minutes, ride for 1 minute, and then walk for 5 more. During the day I walk up three flights of steps and back down several times. And at 5:00 in the evening I repeat the morning routine. That is AT LEAST 40 minutes of exercise every day. Though yoga would be so nice... 

I'll report again in March if my fifth resolution stays firm!

A New Year

2011 has come to an end, and 2012 is now a week old. I remember when Colin, Mom, Dad and I used to sit down around the kitchen table and tell our New Year's Resolutions while Mom wrote them down on a steno-pad. I think I promised to stop chewing my nails (check), stop hiding to read when I wasn't supposed to (pretty much, check), and read my Bible more (back-slid, uncheck).

After that year, I don't remember making resolutions. But thinking back at the past year and now looking forward to the one to come, I don't think it would be a bad idea to have some goals (and some eyes reading this to perhaps keep me a bit more on track).

This past year was consumed by wedding planning: the dress, the ceremony, the premarital counseling, the trying not to go crazy. Then the wedding itself, the honeymoon, and the first months of marriage getting used to living with the man I've decided to spend my life with. (yes!) That being said, this next year may be a year of many changes as well, so here's what I want to look forward to in 2012 (in no particular order):

• Have a new teaching job in Chicago


• Get photos out to everyone in the wedding photos


• Pray more fervently


• Create a devotional routine


• Write at least one blog entry a week


• Call my family more


• Call or write my friends more


• Start an exercise routine

Here goes!