A Little Sunshine, Part 1

When I get an e-mail from WordPress saying that I got a comment on a blog post, it usually turns out to be spam…which is totally cool, because I (a) don’t aggressively market my blog and (b) I have hitherto primarily used it for catharsis and cyber-accountability.  Bearing that in mind, I was quite surprised (and touched) when I discovered that Kim at Craft-Create-Connect nominated me for a Sunshine Award.

I’m still pretty new to the blogosphere and therefore had no idea that such a thing existed, but her acknowledgement brought a little bit of sunshine and encouragement into my life when I was feeling rather blue.  (I have 2 sick babies with 4 infected ears between the two of them.  Being Momma, I have been contaminated myself, and right now, the sound of my voice is alternating between post-Ursula Ariel and an adolescent gosling who was just hit by a bus.)  Thank you, Kim!

Apparently, this particular award has a few rules.  Boom.

Rules:

1. Share 11 facts about yourself.
2. Answer the 11 questions that were asked by the blogger who nominated you.
3. Include 11 questions for your nominees to answer.
4. Notify your nominees about this post.

In the words of the immortal Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, “Alllll-righty, then.”

1. I would absolutely love to be a Mythbuster.  It is the perfect blend of art, science, electronics, and explosives…and I do love me the smell of gunpowder in the morning.  Or any time of day, for that matter.  Plus, I think Kari needs a friend.
2. I cannot make pancakes or grilled cheese sandwiches without setting off the smoke detector.
3. If I were a crayon, I would want to be peacock blue.
4. I still love Nancy Drew and occasionally stay up too late reading her stories.
5. I have never had a cavity, but I had 6 wisdom teeth that were taken out 1 at a time.
6. I need the sun.  As soon as it gets dark outside, my brain powers off.  On dark and cloudy days, it never fully boots.  When I was stationed out in the Pacific Northwest, I was never fully alert.
7. If I were trying to be the Next Food Network Star, I would want to be mentored by Alton Brown.  I never understood cooking or baking until I started watching him and learned “why” it all works.
8. I don’t like chocolate ice cream.
9. I can’t draw with charcoals without looking like I’ve been playing in a fireplace.
10. If I were a scent, I would want to be a citrus.
11. Sunflowers are my favorite flower.

And now…Kim’s questions.

1. Let’s start with something important…white, milk or dark chocolate?  Dark.  Really dark.  Like 80% dark.
2. Coffee or tea (or something totally different)?  Tea!  I’m not usually allowed to drink coffee without adult supervision…I kind of turn into Dr. Krunklehorn from Disney’s Meet the Robinsons.
3. Where do you find your inspiration?  Life.  I haven’t really narrowed my blog’s focus yet, so I tend to write about whatever is currently going on in my life.  Like gestational diabetes, sewing projects and kitchen experiments.
4. Monday mornings… love them or loathe them?  Love them!
5. What is it that keeps you blogging?  As I said earlier, writing is cathartic.  Also, I can’t lose a blog.  I tend to lose my diaries.
6. Curl up on the couch or night on the town?  Curl up on the couch.  Preferably, with a book.
7. Who would you say is your hero?  Winston Churchill.
8. Best film of all time?  Oh, dear.  I’m going to go with Mary Poppins.  Do I seriously have to narrow it down to just one?
9. How would you describe yourself in 10 words or less?  If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing.
10. Do you have a job not associated with your blog?  If so, what is it?  I am a stay-at-home homeschooling wife and mother.  I am also a part-time student, a piano teacher, and I occasionally paint on commission.
11. Where else can we find and follow you?  You can find me on Pinterest and on Twitter!  (Side note: I don’t really tweet much but my blog posts, but I’m there.)

Because I am a morning glory and am still sick, and therefore need to get some sleep, I am going to stop here for now.  I will pick up with my own nominees and questions for said nominees in my next post.

To be continued…

Non-Resolutions for 2014

My mom used to repeatedly remind me that “Patience is a virtue,” to which I would repeatedly reply that “Impatience is a virtue, too.”  I didn’t mean to be disrespectful, although upon reflection, I can see that it might have sounded that way.  It just seemed (still seems) to me that if everyone was patient and waited for things to happen all the time, than nothing will ever happen.  For example, as a sailor, I could wait for the deck to strip and wax itself, but since the likelihood of that happening is slim to none and the lack of completion posed a very serious risk to my liberty (and the rest of my division’s liberty as well), it behooved me to take action and “git ‘r’ done,” so to speak.

In 2013, I decided to set goals rather than to make resolutions.  I know.  Semantics, right?  I think that the reason that goals resonate with me whereas resolutions do not is that action is at the heart of a goal.  Resolutions sound great, but more often than not, they are just words that sound great. Goals have quantifiable outcomes, which makes it much easier to determine whether they have been met (or not).  It worked, though.  I definitely had more success than failure this last year.  Bearing that in mind, here are my primary goals for 2014:

1. Get an A in my ART 351 (Digital Imaging) class.  I am actually looking forward to this class for a number of reasons.  The first is that, obviously, it is a digital art class.  Totally awesome.  The second is that this class is my last undergraduate class.  Ever.  That I am able to say that makes me nearly weep with happiness.  It has been nearly 14 years since I started working on my bachelor’s degree.  As a goal-oriented person, the fact that it has taken so dang long to finish has been like pouring lemon juice in a paper cut.  However, I’m almost done!
2. Graduate Magna Cum Laude on 10 May 2014.  If I get the A mentioned above, I will finish with a GPA of 3.84…exactly 1/100th of a point away from Summa Cum Laude, which I am trying to not let bother me too much.  (Curse that B in my sophomore theology class…)  Oh, well.  Magna’s not too shabby, right, especially considering that I got my degree spanning across an overseas tour, three sea tours (two mine, one his), two full-time jobs, two pregnancies?  Please say that you agree with me.  (Obviously, this little Magna/Summa thing is still bothering me.  I’m working on it.)
3. Date my husband more often.  As I mentioned in my last post, last year we got to have 2 out-of-house dates, which was 2 more than we got to have in 2012.  However, I read something (maybe in my Babywise book?) that said that one of the most important things parents can do for their children is to show them how much they love each other and to make sure that the romantic side of marriage isn’t neglected.  Since I’m all about quantifiable goals, I’m shooting for 6 out-of-house dates.  That’s one every 2 months.
4. Find a good (and relatively inexpensive) babysitter.  Otherwise, item 3 ain’t happening…at least, not out of the house.
5. Read the Bible in a year.  I’ve done this in the past (most notably reading it through during one summer while I was in high school), but it’s been awhile since I’ve done it from cover to cover.  I’m going to use a plan like this one to keep me on track.
6. I’m back to where I was before I had both babies, which is good.  However, both of these pregnancies have been super hard on my body.  We definitely want more babies, but I need to give myself some TLC to give myself the best fighting chance of having a normal pregnancy next time.  My body will never be the same again…and that’s okay.  I run around like a crazy woman all day, but my energy-burning isn’t, shall we say, targeted.  So, my goal is to put a minimum of 3 workout sessions a week back into my routine.  Oh.  And drink more water.
7. Recondition my hands.  My dear piano teacher reminds me periodically that pianists are like athletes, and need to train and build dexterity.  My hands are a little out of shape, so my goal is to work a minimum of 30 minutes of piano a day back into my routine.  I’m hoping to have at 5 pieces remastered/mastered by the end of the year. (Bach, Chopin and Ravel are all on my list.)
8. Earlier last year I discovered the Fly Lady.  She makes it pretty much the easiest thing in the world to build a routine that gets your life organized.  My chaos is pretty organized, but it could be much better.  I started the Baby Steps and was doing pretty well, but something threw off my groove.  So, I’m restarting on Monday.  Hello, Shiny Sink!
9. Maintain academic excellence in our little home school and have fun doing it. *
10. More of the good stuff. Painting/drawing, crafting, reading, family game nights, kitchen science, writing, homemade Christmas presents…you get the idea. *

This is where it gets a little dicey.  I applied to graduate school on a whim and got accepted, which is awesome.  I still haven’t completely decided if I want to do the program to which I was accepted (Masters of Education in History) and know I will use or the one I am absolutely drooling over (Masters of Public Policy in Campaigns and Elections) that I will not immediately use.  My G. I. Bill benefits will cover about half of my graduate degree, but I need to figure out where the rest of the money is going to come from before I go ahead and jump into anything.  With that in mind, I applied for an art scholarship that would cover the rest of the money I need ($10K), but I won’t find out about what’s happening with that until the middle of March.  I’m planning on applying for other scholarships as well, but I had kind of been thinking about taking a break from school for at least the next year, so I wasn’t going to really stress about it as of yet.  I mentioned the 14 years for my bachelor’s, right?  Plus, my husband wants to start working on his bachelor’s when I finish with mine.  (We do the tag-team thing.)  However, my academic advisor said (afterwards, since I was awesome and didn’t think to ask before I applied) that if I win the scholarship, I have to start taking classes, or they’ll send the money back.  I have very mixed feelings about what I hope will happen here.  In any case, it’s an opportunity to trust God, so that’s where I’m leaving it.  Without further ado, here are my secondary goals, which are contingent on whether I win the scholarship.

1. Either…Take 3 graduate classes (1 in the summer term, 1 in each of the fall subterms) and earn A’s in each class.
2. Or…Participate in and finish the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) challenge of completing a 50, 000 word novel in the month of November.  I have tried every year for the last 4 years, and since I have been taking classes simultaneously, have not been able to finish.  I have a story in my head that I want to get out of my head and onto metaphorical paper, but it hasn’t happened because I need sleep.

And, there you have it, Sports Fans!  That’s my Plan of the Year…because if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing.

* You will see these goals every year, more likely than not.  Just sayin’.