16 June Report Card

Each month, I set 5-6 resolutions, and at the end of the month I grade myself. You can read about my June Resolutions and the reasons I made them here.

Complete and Submit Social Security Paperwork | A+
I DID IT! It only took me 22 months but I finally submitted my social security name-change paperwork. I even took pictures for proof! It feels really good to have that done.

Stick to the Budget | B
I did okayyyyyyyy with this.. I went over the budget a little bit for Josh's birthday, but I did so well with the groceries this month that it all balanced out. Unfortunately, this was a tax month for us self-employed folk.. and our taxes just went up unexpectedly, so even if I'd followed our budget to the penny, we'd be saving less than planned anyway. Oh well, y'know? It's just a sign that it's time to rework the budget to accommodate Uncle Sam.

Eat at Least 4 Salads Each Week | A+
Admittedly, I didn't keep track the first week, but the last three weeks I've done really well. Mostly I'm on a Greek Salad kick.. can't really go wrong with lettuce + tomato + cucumber  + onion + feta.

Read at Least 3 Books | A
√ Love and Marriage by Bill Cosby
This book was not what I expected. It was mostly just a string of funny stories about Cosby's dating life and marriage.. there wasn't much substance, but there were certainly a lot of punchlines.
√ The Gospel According to Larry by Janet Tashjian
Josh read this out loud to me because it was one of his favorites growing up - and I really enjoyed it! The story was intriguing and the ideas presented were thought-provoking.
√ The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
I think this book just became one of my all-time favorites. I can't stop thinking about the characters and their stories.. I don't want to give anything away because Josh is going to read it next.. but I think that some of the ideas in this book are changing the way I see things. I want to read it again, but this time with a pen and notebook in my hands!

For those who are wondering, we still haven't finished Catching Fire... we're very slowly working through that one. Maybe we'll get through it by the end of the summer!

Healthy Traveling | A-
This resolution may not make a whole lot of sense if you don't know that I have an autoimmune disease called Crohn's disease. It's nothing too serious (as in, it's manageable and I'm not going to die from it), but it makes life a little more complicated - especially traveling. My big triggers are stress, lack of sleep, sugar, and various preservatives/food additives. So when I set this goal, I meant that I wanted to A) maintain a healthy mindset (i.e. not stress myself out), B) take extra care of myself in the weeks leading up to the road (i.e. get lots of sleep and avoid trigger foods), and C) make wise food choices while on the trip. I am honestly pretty proud of myself for doing so well in the first two categories. The reason for that little minus up there is that we enjoyed frozen yogurt and In-N-Out while we were in TX. Not exactly diet-friendly. But because I did so well with the first two, the last one didn't effect me at all. Oh, and I guess I should mention that we went to Texas for Adventures in Odyssey's 25th Anniversary Live Show - so that's the reason for this resolution. :P

Create a Summer Bucket List... | A+
Check! I gave myself a + because I created a cute graphic for it AND we've already crossed off 14 items! We are having fun.

Overall Grade | A
It feels good to have a good grade up there! After getting a couple C's on my record, I'm proud of myself for sticking with these goals this month and doing well in each of them... even if I was late sharing them with you guys. Thanks for all your encouragement! I'll be back on Monday with July's Resolutions.

How'd you do with your goals and resolutions in June?

10 Currently Digging

Fresh Tomatoes

We've been enjoying these babies on sandwiches (even by themselves! I'm on a huge tomato sandwich kick), in salads, in our eggs, etc. We finally started getting tomatoes in our CSA share this week, and I couldn't be happier! Tomatoes have to be my favorite "vegetable." 

Firefly

Source. (via google images)

On the recommendation of a sci-fi-savvy friend, I've started watching Firefly on Netflix. I've only watched the first two episodes (if I understand correctly, they are actually two different versions of the pilot episode - thanks to Fox going back on their agreement to give them a two-hour premier). I'm really, really enjoying it so far! What's not to love about a space western?! *edit: turns out I had a couple of my facts mixed up. An anonymous commenter straightened me out, if you're interested: "..they air[e]d the episode titled 'The Train Job' first because they decided that it was more exciting than the pilot that Joss Whedon originally wrote (the two hour episode that comes first on Netflix). Unfortunately very few people understood what was going on in the show because they skipped the introductory episode and it was cancelled :("

Goodwill

Last week I found two sleeveless shirts and two pairs of shoes - all for under $15. Josh found four board games for under $10. Goodwill is awesome.

Our 2012 Summer Bucket List

This week, I created a physical version of our 2012 Summer Bucket List so I'd have it as a visual reminder and I could cross things off as we complete them. I also added a few items because I realized that I was only 12 away from 100.. I figured I might as well make it an even number! If you're curious, these are the items I added:

Centennial Park • The Bicentennial Mall • develop 2-3 disposable cameras • Josh's b'day week extravaganza! • finish reading Catching Fire • Fannie Mae Drees Park (aka "dragon park") • rearrange dining area • journal • keep house tidy • smoothies • walking bridge 

I'm looking forward to all the adventures we're going to have this summer. I've enjoyed crossing off a few of the items on this list already! Seriously, this is going to be the best summer.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Mug Cake

Specifically, this recipe. It is SO. FREAKING. GOOD. Especially with a cold glass of:

Chocolate Hazelnut Milk

It's like Nutella milk. Need I say more?!

Tell me what you're digging these days!

28 Our Adventure in Odyssey!

Last weekend, the whole Taylor family packed up and headed to Irving, TX for the Adventures in Odyssey 25th Anniversary Live Show. WE HAD SO MUCH FUN!

I've mentioned how much Adventures in Odyssey has influenced us growing up (and even today!). The experience was something we won't soon forget. Getting to watch the actors play their roles.. was surreal. I've seen pictures of the actors before, so I knew what they all looked like.. but hearing Connie and Eugene's voices come out of Katie Leigh and Will Ryan - it was still such a surreal experience!

Going into the event, we expected that Jordan might get recognized by a few people as "that kid from Messy Mondays" (given that there were bound to be a good amount of home schoolers at an Adventures in Odyssey event).. but we were surprised by the amount of people who recognized not only Jordan, but Josh and I, too! It was so strange to see lines forming for people to take pictures with Jordan. People were saying, "meeting you is the highlight of my day!" And we're like, "um HELLO you're at a live AIO show?! THAT should be the highlight of your day! It's the highlight of ours!" Haha. But it was really cool to meet so many Blimey Cow fans.

We started heading home right after the event. 11 hours is a looong car ride, folks! The only notable stop we made was In-N-Out Burger for dinner on our way out of Texas. Overall consensus: it was awesome. We were a fan of the simplified options, cheap prices, and fresh-food philosophy. The taste was great, too! 

Jordan's face in that last picture cracks me up.

What a cool experience.

Who else loves AIO? What was the last road trip you went on?

30 2012 summer bucket list

Friends! Today is the official first day of summer. To celebrate, I made our 2012 Summer Bucket List:

Looks like it's going to be a super fun summer! I know it's unrealistic to expect that we'll complete all of these adventures, but the goal is to do most of them! I'm really excited about this. You KNOW I'll take pictures and share with you guys as we go :)

Do any of you create summer bucket lists? What are you looking forward to most about this summer?

8 June Resolutions

Complete and Submit Social Security Paperwork

Seriously.. I need a kick in the pants. If I don't take care of my Social Security papers this month, then I'll... forfeit my personal spending money for July! I definitely don't want to do that. I've got to just suck it up and get it done.

Stick to the Budget

June is Josh's birthday month, which means I want to spend a lot of money spoiling him. :P I'd like to avoid going too crazy.. especially since we fell off the budget wagon last month a little bit.  This doesn't mean we can't spend any extra money, I'd just like to know ahead of time where we're going to spend it.. and then stick to that plan. 

Eat at Least 4 Salads Each Week

This was going to be "Eat one salad every day" but that hasn't quite happened.. so I'm going to cheat and change it to 4/week! I get tired of eating the same kinds of salads all the time, so this is mostly a scheme to learn new combinations and "trick" myself into liking salads again ;)

Read at Least 3 Books

(Again). I really enjoyed reading more last month, and I found that reading multiple books at once helped me not get too sucked into any of them - I was able to enjoy each of them but still set them down when I needed to take care of my responsibilities in the real world. So I'm going to continue the Anne of Green Gables series, keep working through Women's Wisdom, and of course whatever book my book club decides on. I think it'll be a C.S. Lewis classic or two - I'm excited! I also plan to make a list of books I'd like to read over the summer, so you can expect more in the coming months. 

 Healthy Traveling

(Technically, this item is completed now that we're home from Texas, but it has been one of the goals I've been working on all month!) This included emotional health as well as physical health - traveling can be stressful for me, so I wanted to prepare myself in the weeks leading up to our trip. 

Create a Summer Bucket List... 

...and start crossing items off that list! I've got some ideas for this already. It should be really fun! I'll share the list with you all by the end of this week, hopefully.

Well'p, there it is. Sharing my monthly resolutions 18 days into the month... shameful! Better late than never though, right? How are your resolutions going? Did anyone else get a late start like I did? 

26 May Report Card

This post has been sitting in my drafts for two weeks. I haven't touched it in about that long, either.. I just haven't published it because it's not quite polished... well. I think it's time to give up on the dream of getting around to polishing it up. Here is is - two weeks late for no good reason.

Keep on Top of Dishes and Laundry | C+
I've still got some work to do in this area. I find it difficult to motivate myself when we're as busy as we have been - when I have a chance to work on chores, I usually choose not to. So.. I don't know. I gave myself a + because I've figured out a good system for the dishes. Laundry, not so much. But we'll keep working on it!

Take More Pictures With My DSLR | A++
I didn't take pictures consistently throughout the month, but I did use my camera more than usual. I used it to make our Mother's Day gifts, I pulled it out to play with more than I have all year, and what else.. oh yeah, I shot a wedding. Haha. I'm very slowly working through the photos from the wedding, but this one is one of my favorites (for obvious reasons). Isn't my sweetheart handsome?

Complete and Submit Social Security Paperwork | FAIL-
Holy epic failure, Batman! Seriously. If I don't get this done in June... I need to come up with some sort of consequence for myself.

Get Some Art on the Walls | B
I got a couple pieces up. I keep meaning to take pictures, but I only remember at night (when there's no good lighting in our townhouse) or when we're about to leave for the day. This is part of the reason that this blog post has been unpublished until today.. I've been waiting to publish it until I had the pictures.. But I never took them, so. Ha! Theme?

Implement a 10:30pm Internet Curfew | A
I've actually gotten to bed before the curfew started a few times this month. It was awesome. I've also found that my interest in the internet is waning. I've been much more interested in reading, so that's a plus in my book.

Read at Least Three Books | A+
√ Blink by Ted Dekker
√ The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
√ Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Can you guys believe that Josh has only let me read one chapter of Catching Fire to him this month?! One! And he fell asleep, too! I keep telling him that we're not to the good part yet and he has no idea - NO IDEA - what he's missing out on. But he won't let me read it to him unless he's not doing anything else. And he's never not doing anything else. Boo :( I gave myself an A+ because even though I only just met the required three books, I've been reading a LOT. I'm in the middle of three other books currently (not counting Catching Fire - I'm about to give up hope that we'll ever get through it..) and I've really enjoyed the upswing in reading.

Overall Grade | C+
We've had another full month, and I didn't devote as much time to these resolutions as I probably should have. But I guess the items that brought my grade down were the least enjoyable ones, haha. That's not really the point of setting monthly resolutions, but I think it's okay.. as long as that doesn't become the norm around here!

Note: I mentioned in my Mid-Month Progress Report that I was struggling with indulging in a little too much sugar. My attitude has improved since then, but I just couldn't say no to all the sweet goodies that Mr. Danny provided at the Memorial Day Cook Out. He had home made sherbet, mandarin orange jello, chocolate chip cookies, cheesecake, raspberry cobbler, strawberry shortcake, and a to die for gooey butter cake. I had a bite of each :P Bad Kelli.



How did you do with your May Resolutions? Hopefully better than I did!

5 Right Now...

...It's been almost two weeks since my last blog post. Y'all, I am really sorry. We've been incredibly busy with Blimey Cow, and on top of that I've been sick and I've just had no desire to be on the computer. I've used the iPod to fulfill my Blimey Cow Photo a Day duties and troll around twitter and Facebook a little bit, but the iPod is no good for blogging or keeping up with messages. Anyway. I'm back now! I have a very overdue May report card to share with you all, as well as my resolutions for June.. hopefully I will get that ball rolling tomorrow and things will be back to normal in no time.

...My sweet Momma is over for the day! We've been watching season two of Downton Abbey all day. It's been wonderful! We had leftover tacos for lunch and Momma brought a big ol' bar of dark chocolate to share ♥ She's the best. Speaking of sweets...

...I've been craving creme-filled donuts for, like, ever. At least since I started feeling poorly, that is - haha! Why do our bodies crave toxic junk food when we need good, quality, healing foods the most? That's one thing I wish I could get rid of - my taste for crappy food. I rarely ever eat it, but I'm tempted by it all the time. I promise I'm not going to eat one! That's just asking to stay sick.

...Josh is so busy. Not only is he overwhelmed with the extra work that Summer of Blimey Cow has brought on (writing, directing, and editing two videos a week, figuring out new equipment, etc), but the workload for his day job is picking up as well. Add two planned summer trips that he has to get ahead for, and I've got myself one stressed-out man. This isn't a picture of him sleeping on the floor (I wouldn't let it get that bad!) - he's pretending that he died from all the work he's had (both BC and otherwise). He's so silly! I suppose that "too much work" is a good problem to have these days.. But if you think about it, please pray for us! We're figuring this stuff out as we go.

...Next on the agenda: replying to messages, emails, and comments. I can't say this is my favorite part of blogging; I've never been one for texting or IMs or even phone calls.. I prefer face-to-face communication! But I do love you guys, and that's the way I get to communicate with you all. So I'm willing to learn better electronic communication practices, if that means I can connect better with you guys. Because you guys are awesome :) Thanks for sticking with me through my (unplanned) hiatus.