Made at Home

Friday, February 3, 2012

February Goals

Spiritual
Read through the Bible in a year
- get up on time to read Bible in the morning, otherwise finish reading at night
- read Exodus, Psalms 1-45 by the end of February

Physical
Run a 10K at <10 min mile pace by August
- run 2x per week in February
- run 5K at <10 min mile pace consistently
- run at least one 5 mile run per week in February

Lose the rest of the baby weight by end of May (20 lbs total, 4 lbs per month)
- track points with WW
- run/swim/exercise video at least 5 days per week
- weigh 167.8 by the end of February

Educational/Professional
Teach professionally by the end of the year
- apply for 3 jobs in February, put up signs for tutoring

Participate in one seminary course per term with husband
- read 3 books for Luke's reading course
- write review/response for each book

Community/Social
Open our home to others at least once per month
- have LW for dinner
- host game night

January Goals Review

Here's a follow up to my January goals:

Spiritual
Read through the Bible in a year
- print out Bible-in-a-year plan
- get up on time to read Bible in the morning, otherwise finish reading at night <- weak on this
- read Genesis, Mark, Exodus 1-14, Psalms 1-23 by the end of January <- not quite

Physical
Run a 10K at <10 min mile pace by August
- run 2x per week in January
- run 5K at <10 min mile pace consistently <- down to 10:15 pace
- increase distance to at least one 5 mile run per week by the end of January

Lose the rest of the baby weight by end of May (20 lbs total, 4 lbs per month)
- track points with WW
- run/swim/exercise video at least 5 days per week
- weigh 167 by the end of January <- down to 171.8, lost two lbs since I started keeping track

One mile open water swim under 30 minutes by end of September
Realized I can't realistically work on swimming and running with time constraints. Will work on swimming goals when weather warms up.
- swim 1-2 times per week
- increase total distance to 1800 yds by the end of January
- increase timed distance to 500 yds by the end of January

Educational/Professional
Teach professionally by the end of the year
- write a resume
- send out resume/apply for 5 teaching/tutoring jobs in January <- applied for 1 job, plus put out ads for tutoring
- look into childcare options for the kids

Participate in one seminary course per term with husband
- read 3 books for Pastoral Ministry class in January <- read 2, counting this as a success given time constraints
- write review/response for each book <- wrote 1, still need to write 1

Community/Social
Open our home to others at least once per month
- make & follow chore chart
- make & follow kids' chore chart
- set aside 1 evening per month to invite people over: 3rd Friday in January <- plans fell through, but we DID invite people and we hosted a small group once this month

Conclusions:
My dad often says, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it." I let a friend borrow my scale so she could weigh her suitcase early on this month, and I failed to get it back until the last week in Jan. Without the ability to measure my weight, I think I actually ate MORE than usual. Now that my scale's back and I have a plan in place, I'm making progress toward my goal. Similarly, my running watch has needed a new battery for... awhile now. I can't measure my pace while I run without a working watch. The best I can do is hope I'm running fast and check my time (on my iPod) when it's all over. New watch battery came in the mail yesterday, so this should be better in Feb as well.

I stayed diligent about the resume writing until after I applied for the first job. I'd like to get serious about applying for the remaining jobs and putting up tutoring signs around campus here this month.

I'm re-evaluting my reading and exercise goals as I consider my time constraints. I'm happy with how much I read and worked out this month, especially compared to how I spent a lot of my time in months past.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

I Did It!

Despite some wacky family drama here at the house this last week, I managed to apply for a job tonight!

My kind & brilliant father helped me with my resume, (thanks, Dad!) I could have done more work on the cover letter, but this particular job starts Monday, so I thought it best to submit it sooner rather than later.

Completing the resume was a really worthwhile task all on its own. I now have a complete resume with information about every job & credential in my background, as well as this specific resume for the job I applied for tonight. It was very helpful for me to assess my skills, experience, strengths and weaknesses. I can now look at the kind of work I'd really like to do and see where the holes are that I'd need to fill in order to get there.

If I hadn't set the goal of applying for jobs in January, I would have continued to put this off indefinitely. Now that I have a working resume, I'm looking forward to applying for four more jobs this month!

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Jellyfish Crochet Pattern

My children have been playing turtle all week and requested some lettuce (for when they are freshwater turtles) and jellyfish (for when they are sea turtles). The best part about this pattern is that my daughter can crochet the chains for the tentacles.

Seamless, No-Stuff Crochet Jellyfish

Yarn: worsted to bulky, I used Eco-spun, 50% cotton, 50% recycled soda bottles in pink/white
Hook: size I, but gauge isn't umportant in this pattern

chain 2
Rnd 1: sc 8 in 2nd chain from hook
Rnd 2: 2sc in each st around (16 sc)
Rnd 3: *2sc in 1st st, sc in next st, repeat from * around, (24 sc)
Rnd 4: sc in each st around (24 sc)
Rnd 5-8: repeat Rnd 4 (24 sc)
Sl st in next st, fasten off

To make tentacles, ch 16-20. Attach with sl st to underside of jellyfish near middle. Fasten off and weave in ends. Make around 6 tentacles of varying length.

Feed to hungry sea turtles!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

January Goals

Spiritual
Read through the Bible in a year
- print out Bible-in-a-year plan
- get up on time to read Bible in the morning, otherwise finish reading at night
- read Genesis, Mark, Exodus 1-14, Psalms 1-23 by the end of January

Physical
Run a 10K at <10 min mile pace by August
- run 2x per week in January
- run 5K at <10 min mile pace consistently
- increase distance to at least one 5 mile run per week by the end of January

Lose the rest of the baby weight by end of May (20 lbs total, 4 lbs per month)
- track points with WW
- run/swim/exercise video at least 5 days per week
- weigh 167 by the end of January

One mile open water swim under 30 minutes by end of September
- swim 1-2 times per week
- increase total distance to 1800 yds by the end of January
- increase timed distance to 500 yds by the end of January

Educational/Professional
Teach professionally by the end of the year
- write a resume
- send out resume/apply for 5 teaching/tutoring jobs in January
- look into childcare options for the kids

Participate in one seminary course per term with husband
- read 3 books for Pastoral Ministry class in January
- write review/response for each book

Community/Social
Open our home to others at least once per month
- make & follow chore chart
- make & follow kids' chore chart
- set aside 1 evening per month to invite people over: 3rd Friday in January

Goals 2012

We try to set pretty clear goals around here. The desire to plan and measure achievement has been given to us naturally and pounded into us through training, I think. As a student, the goals were straightforward with built-in time limits and metrics. Now that I stay home with my children, it can be much harder to determine if I've "succeeded" at anything on any given day. So I make lists.

Here's my list for 2012:

Spiritual
Read through the Bible in a year
- print out Bible-in-a-year plan
- check up on my progress monthly
- get up on time to read Bible in the morning, otherwise finish reading at night

Physical
Run a 10K at <10 min mile pace by August
- run 5K at <10 min mile pace consistently
- increase distance to at least one 6 mile run per week

Lose the rest of the baby weight by end of May (20 lbs total, 4 lbs per month)
- track points with WW
- run/swim/exercise video at least 5 days per week

One mile open water swim under 30 minutes by end of September
- swim 1-2 times per week
- increase total distance to 2000 yds
- improve time trials for 1 mile pool swim
- find a place & a plan to swim in open water when it's warmer

Educational/Professional
Teach professionally by the end of the year
- write a resume
- send out resume/apply for 5 teaching/tutoring jobs in January
- look into online teaching/tutoring
- look into childcare options for the kids

Participate in one seminary course per term with Luke
- read 3 books for Pastoral Ministry class in January
- read 1000 pages for Covenant Theology course in Spring
- write a book review/response for after each book I read

Community/Social
Open our home to others at least once per month
- make & follow chore chart
- make & follow kids' chore chart
- set aside 1 evening per month to invite people over

My plan is to break these into smaller goals for each month, and then check up on my progress and post about it here. There's a risk in this, because if I fail to meet a goal, it's in print. On the internet. Where anyone can find it! But if there's no accountability, it isn't really a goal.

There's also a risk that I'll look like a nerd. I remember reading Benjamin Franklin's autobiography and laughing at his attempts to change his behavior and the candid way he tracked his progress. But I guess if I'm blogging about goals and reading Benjamin Franklin, I should probably just take the nerd title and run with it.

Run a 10K at a 10-minute-mile pace, that is.