Update 101 in 1001

Got to get moving - lots to do by May 28, 2011!

Personal
1. Post on my blog weekly, for at least 8 consecutive weeks.
2. Write a letter (not e-mail) once a week.
3. Call a sibling weekly.
4. Read 101 books (textbooks don’t count!). In progress
5. Lose 50 pounds. In progress
6. Work out 5 times a week for 3 consecutive months. In progress
7. Drink 80 ounces of water daily for 6 months.
8. Try a new cuisine (Thai?).
9. Be in bed before 10:30pm for a month.
10. Swim twice a week for a month.
11. Floss for 30 days straight.
12. Go to a concert. (DONE)
13. Take a dance class.
14. Wear sunblock every day from May 15 to September 15.
15. Shave my legs 3 times a week for 3 months ;-)
16. Watch the sunrise on a beach or mountain.
17. Finish my NP. (DONE)
18. Get a new job. (DONE)
19. Walk 1000 miles in a year. In progress
20. Bike 2000 miles in a year.
21. Don’t curse (aka cuss) for a week.
22. Complete a whole tooth whitening kit without missing a day.
23. Journal 5 times a week for 3 months.
24. Run a 5K.
25. Read 3 non-fiction books.
26. Enter a recipe in the Pillsbury Cook-Off.
27. Make homemade bread.
28. Bring my lunch to work every day for one month.
29. Select my clothes (for work) the night before for one month. In progress
30. Try a new dish at an old favorite restaurant.
31. Do not buy coffee (or any other beverage) at a coffee shop for one month.
32. Have 3 servings of dairy daily for one month.
33. Consume my 60 g. of protein every day for a week.
34. Go bowling.
35. Fly a kite.
36. Jump rope.
37. Walk to work 101 times.
38. Get a massage. (DONE)
39. Do not eat after 7 pm for one month.
40. Go to the dentist, as recommended, every 6 months.
41. Go to Nashville meetings 9 out of 12 months in 2009 and 2010.
42. Look in the mirror and say something positive to myself everyday.
43. Don’t make a joke about my size, or other physical feature, for one week.

Creativity
1. Make my Mom a quilt.
2. Make my Goddaughter a quilt.
3. Learn to knit.

4. Scrapbook our European adventure.
5. Take a quilting class. (DONE)
6. Finish a counted cross-stitch Christmas stocking.
7. Sort the boxes of photos and get them in albums.
8. Make Christmas gifts for my work buddies. (DONE)
(50 total)

Love
1. Go on a date with Steve once a month.
2. Hide a surprise love note for Steve twice a month.
3. Go to a movie that Steve wants to see that I don’t. (DONE)
4. Take Steve on a weekend get-away.
5. Have breakfast with Steve, outside in the backyard, on 12 Saturdays.
6. Make one of Steve’s favorite dishes once a month.
7. Get Steve something he would never get himself. (DONE)
8. Tell Steve thank-you when he says I’m beautiful instead of making a negative comment about myself, 20 times.
(58 total)

Friends and Family
1. Do not watch TV for a week.
2. Go camping…real camping in a tent!
3. Get family photos done.
4. Have a weekly game night.
5. Go a week without using the computer at home to do work or check e-mail.
6. Do not play computer games for one month.
7. Each month send a card or care package to each of the kids, for 12 months.
8. Have a dinner party once a month for 6 months.
9. Stay at the Wig Wam motel.
10. Go canoeing.
11. Visit one of Steve’s sibs.
12. Visit one of my sibs.
13. Go to an event of a niece or nephew (graduation, play, dance recital, soccer game).
14. Call a friend 5 days a week for one month.
15. Have a girl’s day with my daughter and daughter-in-law(s). (DONE)
16. Go with Steve to a marathon in another country.
(74 total)

Charity
1. Do something nice for a stranger anonymously. (DONE)
2. Do something nice for someone in my family anonymously. (DONE)
3. Purge and donate 101 items to St. Vincent DePaul, Goodwill, etc. (DONE)
4. Pay for someone’s coffee or tea anonymously at Starbuck’s or another coffee shop. (DONE)
5. Do a service ministry. (DONE)
(79 total)

Home
1. Cook at home 7 times a week for 1 month.
2. Try one new recipe a month for a year.
3. Make a will.
4. Clean a closet once a month for one year.
5. Make a sweet dessert only once a week for 6 months.
6. Paint the front hallway.
7. Work with Steve in the yard, every other week during one consecutive spring, summer, and fall.
8. Talk to a neighbor once a week for 6 months.
9. Sort and purge PhD stuff. (DONE)
10. Sort and purge magazines every 3 months. In progress
(89 total)

Spiritual
1. Try a new style of prayer.
2. Go on a retreat.
3. Add to my spiritual log once a month.
4. Say a rosary every day for 6 months.
5. Offer up an act of sacrifice one a week, for the intention of someone I love.
6. Say a prayer before the start of every meeting at work. In progress
7. Go to 2 FOP’s a semester while Emily is at Franciscan.
8. Go to a daily mass 101 times.
9. Coordinate a spiritual book group.
(98 total)

Finishing Up
1. Write a thank you e-mail to the person whose blog suggested this. (DONE)
2. Put $1 into a box for every item I cross off and then do something fun with it at the end of 1001 days. In progress
3. For every item on the list not completed at the end of the 1001, donate $1 to charity.

Have I mentioned...

...that I love my job?

Yes, I do. It's been along time since I've been able to say this, but I would do this job for free. Love, love, love working at a community health center.

Why? you ask (yes, I heard you). Because it is NOT work, it is really a ministry. Are my patients aggravating? Yup, sometimes...just like me. Are they needy? Yup, sometimes...just like me. Are they crabby and unreasonable? Yup, sometimes...just like Steve.

But, they are wonderful, varied, beautiful human beings. Sometimes smelly, often unintelligible (do to my lack of ability to speak Spanish, Russian, Bosnian, Croatian, Burmese, and southern) and many times with a bit of a chip on the shoulder. But, one look in most patient's eyes is enough. They want someone to care about them. To make them feel that their well being is important, that they have been listened to, and to recognize them as individuals, not just an invisible member of the lowest class. They are smart and funny. They are beautiful chubby babies and onery toddlers, tired parents and weary elders. They are men who have lost their hourly wage job and are ashamed of not being able to support the family. They are women who run the family and make it look easy. Parents who worry about their children, and children who are worried about their aging parents.

What do they have in common? For the most part: not much money and a health care system that doesn't have a place for them.

I love working to solve the puzzle of what is wrong with someone. To hear "you do that just like _______ (fill in the name of a doctor or practitoner that I respect) And best of all, those rare occasions when someone returns and says "You made me better."

How can you not love a job like this?

6 Months?

The view from my seat has been...a blur. I wonder how life can be so busy that 6 months has passed since I last posted here.

This is the time that I thought my life would be so much simpler...no little ones in diapers. No kids involved in soccer, baseball, gymnastics...no living in the car. No teens learning how to drive. No staying up until 2 hours past curfew waiting for someone to arrive home...unrepentant.

I think that answer maybe similar to the answer to that age old question - what is financially comfortable? For the financial question the answer has always been "someone who makes just a bit more than I currently do". Yes...what is considered a NEED grows in accord with income, leaving most folk looking ahead to whatever the next salary level is. Surely, that will be the income that will feel "comfortable". Comfortable defined as "able to have whatever I think I need without having to wrestle with delayed gratification.

In the case of my current question, "When will life not seem so busy?" I have arrived at the conclusion that my here-to-fore answer of "when my family gets past _______ stage" is inherently wrong. Just as with balancing the household budget, balancing my calendar/schedule is NOT wishing for the next seemingly better phase. It is a matter of choosing to step off the race track and consciously adopt a life that affords what I see as important.

For me, quiet time is important. Time alone, to read, sew or pray. But when I am on the day-to-day treadmill, not attending to consciousness, I do not make the choices that I need to in order to have that time. It's not my life that needs to change - it is my attention!

Perhaps that should have been my New Year's resolution. To be attentive. Not to late to make a new resolution, is it? Unfortunately - I think I may have more success with the original 2010 resolution: "Eat more chocolate".