Spring is Here

Several things today made me confident that spring is here to stay for a while.

- A canopy of leaves has appeared over the forest road near my house. They make a pretty dappled pattern when the sun shines through them.

- Leaves equal shade, which is a good thing considering temperatures over the weekend. I lay out in the sun for about thirty minutes this afternoon wearing only a swimsuit and came inside sweating. I had to take my second shower of the day...a cold shower. It felt good.

- The trees also seem to be producing quite a lot of pollen, evidenced by the light yellow dust on every car parked outside. Fortunately, my car is beige. Unfortunately, I left all the car windows open last night and as a result there is pollen covering the inside of the car as well as the outside. Fortunately, I am not allergic to pollen.

I think this week I'm supposed to be focusing on physical wellness. I started a pattern of going to the gym every morning, so that's good. I decided to start training for the Crazy 8's 8K run that Kingsport's Fun Fest holds every year. I didn't run last summer and felt like I missed out. Anyway, it's more fun to exercise when you have a goal. The local track club has a training plan for newbies ("Trotties" Workouts - love the name) which lists a series of intervals to walk/run each week (e.g. walk three minutes, run three minutes, repeat five times). Eventually you're running the whole five miles. So I'll begin that program this week. I'll also try not to eat so much sugar. Ohhh boy.

And another spring thing - I got my tax refund! Maybe I'll buy some running clothes.

Notes from Time Management Week

It really feels like a chore to write a new post. I am SO not a writer. If I should ever go to graduate school I would first need to "make my peace" - as my choir director is so fond of saying - with writing.

My quote-unquote "self-improvement" project is going pretty well. As expected, pefection is not being achieved. So far I haven't even used the little chart, although I may eventually. I did observe an almost immediate shift in focus in my day-to-day activities last week, however. Appropriately enough for "spritual discipline week" (last week) it was a renewed focus on the important things, the eternal things - on God. That shift in focus effected a shift in priorities, and I watched in amazement as other areas of my life fell into place. For example, in order to have time to read the Bible I have to make time, which requires me to stick to a slightly more detailed schedule. I began to be more conscious of using my time well and being more prompt. And - bonus - this has allowed me to start going to the gym more regularly, even before "physical wellness week" (next week) starts. So cool.

Of course, now the challenge will be to turn these short term changes into good habits.

I could blather on, but with all this talk about my "self" I'm feeling a bit "self-conscious" (shout-out to Jessica G).

Mid-Week Review

Doing pretty well, I guess. Monday night I paid for my Easter frivolity and stayed up all night finishing tax returns and lesson plans. Tuesday I felt accomplished and, um, tired. Being tired is not good for praying and reading the Bible. I watched an Easter sermon before falling asleep and letting my computer run out of battery. Slept in a little too late this morning to have any real quiet time. This evening I made up my mind to go to a Handel's Messiah sing-along at church - kind of a preview for a performance we're doing this Christmas. Of course that was amazing (I even used the old orange score from Hillsdale).

It's sad how seldom I get up to go do things. I forget how much I'll enjoy activity and company - or conversely, I forget how bad I feel if I'm just lying around doing nothing.

So made up a little "self-improvement" chart but haven't used it yet. Tuesday I was too tired to remember; today I was too busy (the day having been cut short at both ends). Maybe tomorrow I'll be back on track.

I'm amazed at how much of the week is already gone. That's what comes with having Mondays off, I suppose. The upper school final exam schedule just came out - the entire last week of school is devoted to reviewing for and giving finals. That means, after this week, there will be only four weeks of class left! And my birthday is next week. My, how time flies.

Time-Waster, Procrastinator

Okay, it's a good thing "time management week" is coming up, because I just spent more time than I would care to admit working on the details of this new blog layout. I couldn't just paste in the ready-made template...no, I had to fiddle with the code in order for it to be perfect (of course it's still not perfect, but I'm trying not to think about that). See the little link at the top labelled "Blog Archive"? Yep, I put that there, having mastered the HTML command for a page jump. I also added the "Home" link at the bottom of the page next to "Older Posts". And the main reason I'm posting now is so that the ugly Star Wars video will be bumped of the front page. Even though probably no one would notice. Good night!

Self-Improvement

Regardless of whether it is good, right, and necessary, the Sisyphean task of improving myself is a something I'm going to be focusing on for the next several weeks. As all we Hillsdalians learned in Western Heritage, Benjamin Franklin had a certain amount success in self-improvement (and I must interject that I can't help thinking of that one episode of The Office whenever I think of old Ben)...so then why-oh-why can't I?

I have found, at lowest count, five areas I wish to strengthen:

1. Spiritual discipline
2. Time management
3. Physical wellness
4. Reading/leisure habits
5. Writing/communication strength

Continuing on the inspiration of our eldest founding father (and now, oh lord, I'm thinking of the musical "1776") I think I'll make a little chart. I'll have a description of what each category encompasses and make a little grid with a square for each for every day of the week. If I mess up in a specific category, I have to mark it with a dot. I'll focus on one area per week, but keep track of my progress in all of them.

I know this is kind of strange. I'm just sick of letting my life run away from me. I've been so lazy and I hate it. I think this kind of situation results from being a type-A/type-B personality mix. Anyway, I'll posts updates on how this crazy scheme is going (especially in week five, when my goal will be to update daily). Ta-ta for now.

My Mom Could Use This

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