I FINISHED!!!!

It took me 13 months, not 12, but I finished reading the Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price in a year-ish!!  (Or a baker's dozen of months...)

What did I get from speed reading my way through?  It's a good question, because I certainly wasn't studying the scriptures.

 Because of how fast I was going, I was much better able to see and track the pride cycle, and also the linear story line in the Old Testament. The rises and falls of the Israelites were much more tragic because of how quickly I was seeing them go by.

I will confess that speed reading through the New Testament almost killed me.  Because I didn't have time to savor and ponder the words, I realized how much of the New Testament is the same thing repeated over and over and over again.  Although, rushing through Paul's writings made me dislike him less, so that's something.

When I was in college I took 2 years to read the Doctrine and Covenants.  I took 2 months this time.  I believe there is a happy medium somewhere in between. Although, because we visited Nauvoo, IL and Carthage Jail this summer I had a much easier time visualizing some of the sections that were written during that portion of church history.

I've read all of these books before, but while doing this challenge, I also came to realize that not as many people as I would have thought have.  That's bizarre to me.  If you claim to believe or not believe in something, you've got to know what you're talking about.  I don't think you need to be able to quote chapter and verse, but at least know generally the wheres and whys.  Or know the scriptures well enough to have a book that speaks to you most or one that you would rather stab yourself with a fork than have to read again.  (Todd says Leviticus. I say Numbers.)

Anyway, I'm glad I did it. But now I'm ready to slow down and study.  I think I'm going to use this book:

It's set up a bit like a text book and there are lots of opportunities to stop and read the scriptures where the specific stories are coming from or where the author draws her conclusions from.  I'm looking forward to a less frantic pace.

One thing I learned all over again, though, was how for me taking time out of my day to spend with scriptures helps the rest of my day feel more focused.

A Month of Winnowing 2014

Jan 1- Have made a pile of the following things to get out of the house: A crock-pot (I just received a new one for Christmas), a Golf calendar for 2013-2014, a bag of used clothing and shoes to be donated.

Jan 2- Found new homes for the crock pot and calendar through our neighborhood Freecycle type group.  Also added some little boy baseball caps and toddler clip-on ties that we no longer need to the ever growing pile of things to donate.

Jan 3-  Found a LEGO set to sell.  It's just a little one, but my kids already have it, and we certainly don't need duplicates of the millions of legos currently underfoot in this house!  (Sold for $2 on neighborhood site!)

Jan 4-  plastic Princess shoes that don't fit Lilyanna's wide feet.  Sold for $2 on neighborhood kid's stuff site!

Jan 5- Some sparkly dress ups that a friend gave to us, that are doubles of things we already have.  I gave these away on a neighborhood forum.

Jan 6- Adding to the donation bin a pair of old slippers

Jan 9- Found some little toys to put in "The Anti-Claus Box".  Happy Meal type stuff.

Jan 10-  In cleaning off the kitchen counters, I found some overpriced snack food from Whole Foods that nobody in my family liked.  I will give away to someone in the neighborhood.

Jan 11-  A gorgeous tie that Todd owns but he feels is to "pastel-y" for him.  It's a really nice tie, so I'll sell that.  (Got $5 on the neighborhood site!)

Jan 12-  Started putting together a box for my friend, Liz, and her little girl.  (Hi, Liz! The box should be full by the end of the month!)

Jan 13-  Sorted through some hand me downs we received and added a few really well loved items to the donation bin.

Jan 14-
Jan 15-
Jan 16-
Jan 17-

Jan 18-  In cleaning out my closet, found several shirts and sweat shirts that I haven't used in years and am not likely to use anytime in the future.  Will add them to the donation bin.  Also, it made it so I found a dress I bought a year ago, wore twice, and forgot about.  I'll wear that to church on Sunday.

Jan 19- added 2 pairs of my own shoes to the give away bin.  They have served me well for many years and I'd already sort of replaced both of them.  One can never have too many pairs of black shoes in my opinion.

Jan 20- cat food leftover from when we had the hedgehog.  Gave to the neighbors across the street.

Jan 21-
Jan 22-
Jan 23-
Jan 24-

Jan 25- Made my 11 year old clean out his closet and dresser and bring me things that don't fit him anymore.  He's notoriously picky about how things fit, so even though I know some of the items in the pile technically fit, I also know he won't wear them so we might as well pass them along.

Jan 26- compiling a box of cleaning supplies I don't use.  I typically use baking soda and vinegar as my main cleaners, but have acquired others over the years in hopes of magic!  Alas, buying cleaners didn't magically make anything clean.  (What do you mean I have to actually use them??) ;)

Jan 27- Took a whole box full of tap, jazz. and ballroom dance shoes to try to pawn off on the belly dance crowd.  Alas, there were no takers, but I decided I would donate everything but the ballroom shoes.  I paid too much money for those and they were only worn for a week of ballroom dance camp each!  (My friend took them to a local high school who is doing a production of "Shrek: the Musical" and they were able to use all the shoes!  Hooray!)

Jan 28- Found a red faux snake skin hat that I once bought in NYC during a torrential rain storm when I had neither a hood nor an umbrella.  It's hideous.  The only time it's been used since then is for dressing a snowman.  Straight to the donation bin!

Jan 29-  Cleaning out my cedar chest and am finally passing on a beautiful wool jumper that my Mom made for me years ago.  It hasn't fit me since college.  (It fit well for years everywhere but the chest...).  I have a hard time passing on things that were specifically made for me, because I remember the process.  I helped sew seams, pick out buttons, patterns and material.  But it's more than time to pass it on to someone who will be able to use it.

Jan 30- In cleaning under my dresser (terrifying!) found a kid's book and a belt to add to the donation box.

Jan 31-  Woo hoo! Just got an email from Once Upon a Child that they're looking for Spring and Summer things, so I'm packing up a box to take over there to sell.  I'll either donate what is left or add to the box to mail to Liz.


Well, there we go.  One more month of getting rid of at least 30 things.  I still have WAAAAY more to get rid of, but the closets are a little cleaner and I will have made about $20 after I take the summer clothing to Once Upon a Child tomorrow.  Not bad at all.  I should probably do this hard core more than once a year.  Maybe quarterly...

The Half Dome

We were joined by Gurmukh, Sukhvinder's brother, whom I haven't seen since he was in middle school. He's more fun now. ;) We had good Thai food for lunch and reacquainted after he rescued Marc and I from our long walk.

That night our entire group gathered together (The Fellowship of the Cables, because, yes, we are that geeky) and made the journey down to Yosemite with another stop for delicious Indian food. Mmm. Yummy food....

We had far too much fun in our car, but arrived at our hotel in a relatively timely manner. The Wawona (or as Marc said, "Vavona") was just fine for the few hours we had to rest our weary if giddy heads. In the morning we ate a good breakfast and hit the trail after a few minor setbacks.
Above, is Gurmukh posing on the hotel porch. Below are Marc and Sukhvinder. So cute.

If you look closely, you can see the steps carved into the granite. That's mostly what we climbed for seven miles Straight Up. And then seven miles straight down.

But it was beautiful. And totally worth a little pain.
That little ribbon you see was the trail. Steep. It was worse coming back down in the dark with two teeny tiny flashlights. (Oops.)


The Verizon bars! a.k.a. Sunny, Gurmukh, and Marc:
Marc, Patrick, Gurmukh, and Bobby taking a brief rest:
Sunny and Sukhvinder are so cute! They held hands for about two miles on the way back down, but I couldn't get a picture of it because we were trying to cover as much ground as possible before nightfall.  Still, there's a lovely picture of it in my head. 

The incredible view from the almost top. The picture doesn't even begin to do it justice:

"All we really are is squirrels."

Almost to the top! I climbed all the way up, except for that last little pointy piece that people need cables to get up. I was done at that point and knew that if I tried to go up the cables, I wouldn't have enough left to make it back down the mountain.
See the little ants climbing up the mountain? People climbing up the cables:
Sukhvinder looking radiant with the Half Dome behind her:


Bobby, Marc, Sukhvinder, and Patrick looking tired but happy after coming safely back down the cables:
Me, feeling quite satisfied with myself for not falling off the mountain on the way up.
It is not an easy hike. My midwestern lungs did not love the high altitude. But my muscles held up just fine. I didn't feel completely awful until the next day. (Sitting in a cramped airline seat is not a good way to keep one's sore body limber after a long hike.) Still, I'm really glad I did it. I don't think I need to do anything that challenging again. Shorter and steep or longer and flat is fine.

Now that I've spent the last year doing intense endurance training and my body is ridiculously bulky, it's time to change up my routine, lose the bulk and slim back down. Thanks, big muscles. You've served me well, but I don't need you quite so big anymore.

So, this is one more thing to check off my TTIWTDBID list. CHECK MARK!!!

List

A few weeks ago after a conversation with broads Katey and Dena, I decided to make a list. I like lists. They make me happy. This particular list was "Ten Things I Want To Do Before I Die". Todd keeps telling me it's called a bucket list, but that's just because he saw the movie by the same name. I don't like the name bucket list, so it's my TTIWTDBID List.

My stubbornness is often ridiculous.

Anyway, here is my list:

1. Go back to the U.K. with my kids and Todd and spend at the very least two weeks romping about. I'd rather spend 3 or 4. We'll see. I did all the math a few weeks ago at how I can make this happen financially. It will take 8 years. Which will actually be perfect timing since the boys will be 16, 14, and 12. It will sort of be the last summer of kid. The following year Benjamin will need to be working and getting ready for exiting the nest. But the summer that he's 16, he will still be mine.

2. Send a manuscript to publishers (well, a letter to book agents, anyway) and collect the stack of rejection notices that follow. I will put them in a lovely book with all of Todd's rejection notices from poetry submissions years ago. I have one manuscript one solid day away from being done. I never have one whole day, though. So it's more like a week away. Then there's the letter. I'll make Todd write the letter. He's in marketing...

3. Visit every state in the U.S. I'm getting closer all the time on this one. I picked up South Carolina on our most recent visit to FL. But I'm missing the entire southwest of our country. A vacation clearly needs to be planned for that region. I have 14 states left to go.

4. Get and keep all of my family's scrapbooks up to date. When I read the list to Todd he laughed and said that this one was the most likely to be the one left undone when I died. It's true. I'm going to make a goal to spend a couple hours every Sunday night working on the kid's books, though, so I can get closer to realizing this one.

5. Take a ballroom dance class with Todd. On my list it actually says, "Take a ballroom dance class with Todd, dammit!" Every year that we've been married I've said, "Hey, Todd, wanna take a ballroom dance class with me?" and every year his answer is "Not right now." The years that I was pregnant or nursing a baby, this answer made sense to me. Now, I'm all done with it. For TEN years we have moved his ballroom dance shoes from apartment to apartment to house to house and never ONCE has he put them on. I am going to take a ballroom dance class in the next couple of years. He is becoming less of a factor in the decision. But if I take it without him, his shoes are so going to end up on ebay.

6. Take our boys on a backpacking adventure. When we were younger and less tired, we wanted to take six months and do the entire Appalachian trail with the boys. Now, we're thinking more like two week sections of the trail every summer. They're still a little young for such adventures, but in about five more years we can start.

7. Act in a play or a musical again. I miss the stage. I'm very happy to be in the chorus or just be an extra, but I miss the thrill of being on stage.

8. Hike to the top of that really tall mountain in Yosemite. My friend, Sukhvinder, keeps sending me pictures from the almost top. I want to go all the way, though. So, I just have to get back to California, so she and I can have a new adventure!

9. Learn how to swim for real. I'm a really strong swimmer. My Mom liked to swim underwater and tug our feet down when we were kids. Consequently, I learned to swim strongly to avoid drowning. But I never learned how to do all the strokes. I can mimic what I see, but I don't know how to do them officially. And the whole breathing under my arm thing never worked out for me.

10. Participate in an organized race. DONE!!! Big check mark for ME!!!