Luggage and Literature

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. - St. Augustine

Archives for September 2017

August Goal Check-In

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Yellowstone
Mike and me hiking in Yellowstone.

I wrote a New Year’s Resolutions post at the beginning of January 2017 and was so thankful for the positive response that I received from everyone. I plan to come back every month with a goal check-in, so that I have even more incentive/accountability to continue working on my goals. Here is my August goal check-in.

Goal #1: Publish at least one blog post per week on Luggage and Literature.

Met! I published six posts in August.

Goal #2: Complete the Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenges.

You can check out my previous post outlining my 2017 reading plans here. So far, I’m ahead of schedule for completing both the Reading for Fun and Reading for Growth challenges. My August Reading List post lists the categories that I fulfilled this month.

Goal #3: Play cello at least twice (preferably more) per month. 

I played cello zero times in July, due to my busy schedule. But I did play my ukulele a few times.

Goal #4: Pay down debt.

 We continued making progress toward this goal. We have no credit card debt. I paid off my Acadia. Mike’s vehicle will be paid off in September. Our next focus will then be business debt and Mike’s smaller student loans. We haven’t been paying extra on our student loans or mortgage so far. 

Action Steps:

  • Prepare lunches on the weekend. Met this goal most weeks.
  • Pack lunch or eat at home every weekday for lunch, unless meeting colleagues. Met this goal for most of the month.
  • Eat dinner at home five nights per week. Met.
  • Prepare/freeze dessert items (I have a major sweet tooth, and if we don’t have dessert items in the house at all, I’m much more likely to go get ice cream or run to the store and purchase snack items). We have frozen peanut butter cookie dough so that we can make cookies after dinner. But I’ve been eating ice cream instead, as we needed to clean out the freezer so that I could put up pasta sauce (I ended up freezing 20 quarts of pasta sauce).
  • Curb spending on books by utilizing the library. I’ve been reading books that I purchased at the Friends of the Library book sale, and that I already had on my Kindle. But I did purchase the four books of The Neapolitan Novels used at a local book sale for $16.00, which I thought was a fantastic deal.
  • Curb spending on clothing and accessories, especially by utilizing Pinterest for remixing my existing wardrobe. I purchased a pair of Keens hiking shoes, and a raincoat from Cabela’s, in advance of our Yellowstone camping trip (stay tuned for posts about this!). Pinterest continues to be very useful in making my wardrobe feel fresh.
  • Use up back stock of MaryKay and hair products before purchasing more. I didn’t purchase any MaryKay or hair products in August.
  • Clean out refrigerator/freezers/pantry and use up existing food rather than just purchasing more. We have a well-stocked pantry and freezer, and are working out way through it. We’ve mainly purchased milk, bread, and produce. A friend gave us plenty of tomatoes (which I turned into 20 quarts of pasta sauce and a large container of Panera-style tomato soup) and peppers (which we just cut and freeze), which we’ve now frozen to restock for the next year.
  • Curb unnecessary trips to Kearney (this is about half an hour from our town, so the gas can get pricey when we run there for no reason other than we’re bored/want to go shopping/etc.). I don’t think we make any special trips to Kearney in August.
  • Take on additional cases and work more hours to increase income. In August I was really busy at work, but it was a much more manageable pace than I had in July.

Goal #5: Be healthier.

I got back on the health wagon in June, as it was simply necessary. Since then, I’ve been working my way through The Beck Diet Solution, and have found it quite helpful. Essentially the book isn’t a diet, but rather helps you to work through the sabotaging thoughts that lead to weight gain. I’ve already started catching myself in them, and am hopeful that I continue to make progress in the right direction (a decrease on the scale).

Action Steps:

  • Drink no more than 3 pops per day, preferably no more than 2 (but I’m realistic about my job). Met this goal.
  • Drink at least 8 cups of water per day. Met this goal. I’ve reduced back to the 8-10 cups per day range, as I think that it’s best for me right now.
  • Eat/drink at least 2 servings of dairy per day (when I did Weight Watchers, the studies showed that this contributed to weight loss, plus I know that it makes for healthier bones and teeth). Met nearly every day.
  • Eat at least one fruit or vegetable per day, preferably more. Met most of the month.
  • Drink 1 cup of water before each meal. Met some of the month, but not consistently.
  • Take my water bottle with me during the day. Met now that I have an RTIC bottle that keeps my water cold all day long.
  • Pack lunches or eat lunch at home during the week. Met this goal for most of the month.
  • Eat dinner at home five nights per week. Met.
  • Do 10 sit-ups and 10 push-ups 3 times per week (in law school, I had a professor who expected all students to do 10 push-ups at the start of each of his classes, and was surprised how doing this 3 times per week actually made me feel stronger by the end of the semester). Not met.
  • Exercise (walk/swim/yoga/YMCA class) 3 times per week. Not met.
  • Walk at least 6,000 steps per day, preferably more. Met probably 75% of the time, which is an improvement.
  • Sleep 8 hours per night. Met probably 90% of the time.
  • Continue taking a daily multivitamin. Met.
  • Track food daily in My Fitness Pal. Met probably 50% of the time.
  • Continue utilizing my Fit Bit to monitor activity, steps, food, sleep. Met.

Goal #6: Take one trip or visit one local area attraction per month.

I get stir crazy if I stay home for too long. To combat that, I think that this goal will help. Although monthly travels to exotic locations aren’t realistic in my stage of life and with my career, a monthly trip somewhere is realistic. So it can be international, domestic, or just a local area attraction, just some reason to leave my house and my town. Plus there are several museums in my area that I’ve been meaning to visit, but just haven’t gotten around to. So I’m actually really looking forward to this goal. This goal is in progress.

Action Steps:

  • January: The Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA), and The Great Platte River Road Archway, Kearney, NE (I’ve wanted to visit the archway since we moved to the area, but haven’t gotten around to it yet…probably because Mike is absolutely not excited about visiting it). We visited MONA in January. After looking at the admission price for the Archway, we opted to skip it for now.
  • February: Roatan! What a great time! I’ll be posting about this in the future, so stay tuned!
  • March: Scuba diving at Bonne Terre again, perhaps The Roatan trip was February into March and was glorious. Bonne Terre ended up not working out in March, but I did go to Sioux Falls, SD. I met up with my parents for a day, then also spent a day with my friend Tara. It was really fun!
  • April: Black Hills for Easter with family, I hope. Met. We spent 4 days in the Black Hills with family. We also spent some time wandering through downtown Rapid City, went for a drive in the Northern Hills, and stopped at Homestake Mine.
  • May: Topeka, Kansas to watch NHRA drag racing, and Witchita, KS to see family. This was really fun, and a much-needed escape.
  • June: Stuhr Museum, Grand Island, NE. I didn’t visit the Stuhr Museum in Grand Island, NE. My friend Tara did come and visit me for our local Swedish Days festival, though. And Mike and I have spent a fair amount of time at Sandy Channel lately (Mike to scuba dive, and me to relax and read). I’ll have to visit the Stuhr Museum another month.
  • July: Michigan again and Canada, perhaps This didn’t happen due to having trials scheduled. But I did go to the Black Hills for a weekend visit with my family, including some drag racing (against my sister!) and riding along with my dad (a 7 second 1/8 mile pass with lifted the front wheels off the ground).
  • August: Total Solar Eclipse on August 21 right in my area, Cincinnati, Ohio for a conference, and Norwalk, Ohio for a Pontiac car show and drag races. Whew! What a whirlwind of a month! Stay tuned for posts about all the fun I had!
  • Labor Day weekend (August-September): Yellowstone. This trip is something that we added this month. We went with our friends Randall and Paige, and had such a fun time!
  • September: Kaaboo in Del Mar, California, if I can find a partner in crime to go with me. This is going to happen! My friend Jamie can go with me! I’m so pumped!
  • October: Pioneer Village, Minden, NE or perhaps the Willa Cather museum in Red Cloud, NE
  • November: Florida perhaps (Mike wants to get his full cave diving certification, and I’d like to go back to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal) Mike is actually going cave diving in December now, and they’re going to a different part of Florida than last time, so I’m not sure that I’ll be going along. We’ll see.
  • December: ??
  • I also need to plan a get together with my dear friend Tara. She and I have talked about several different options, but need to nail down the date and location of our visit. Met! We got together in March in Sioux Falls, where she lives. And she came to visit me in June.
  • In 2016, I also had a super fun girls weekend with some of my closest friends from college. We talked about making it an annual occurrence, so I need to check in with those gals as well, then nail down the date and location of girls weekend 2017! I think this is going to be postponed to 2018.

August 2017 Reading List

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Every month I try to read at least one book from the following categories: nonfiction, devotional, and fiction. And this year I’m participating in the 2017 Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenges, so I’m also going to be listing which category my books fulfill. If you want to join in on the fun, you can check out the list of categories here! This is my August 2017 Reading List, my brief reviews and book recommendations for August 2017. Hopefully I’ll provide you with some inspiration for your future reading as well!

Books Finished:

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

I’ve been waiting to read this book for quite some time. The bit that I heard about it (you’ll like it if you’re a fan of Stranger Things on Netflix) made it irresistible. And the book absolutely did not disappoint. It was a totally mind-bending and mind-blowing at the same time. And just when you think that things will be wrapped into a nice tidy ending, Crouch sends you reeling yet again. So, so good!

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

Read by the author, this book on Audible was a no-brainer, for someone like me who really likes music history/music biographies. I didn’t like this one quite as much as Petty: The Biography by Warren Zanes, but I still really enjoyed it. Springsteen is quite a good writer, and his love of language comes through in the book. I would have liked a bit more about the why and the background for individual songs and albums, but it was still well done.

When God Says Wait by Elizabeth Laing Thompson

I’ve been working on this book for a couple of months now, and am glad that I read it. In each chapter the author breaks down a bible story and links it to what a modern person may be struggling with during a waiting season of life. I really liked the personal stories of the author, and how she describes the struggles, and sometimes even the blessings, of waiting for something that you desperately want.

Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous by Gabriella Coleman

I’ve heard of Anonymous…how could you not, when their operations and stunts are featured in the media, sometimes positively, sometimes negatively. Gabriella Coleman is an anthropologist who spent a considerable amount of time within Anonymous, studying the organization (or lack thereof) of the group(s), the major players, the moral codes and rules of the group, its motivations for ops, and the particular operations that it runs. It’s an enlightening look at a group that is not so easily understood, especially in simplistic media coverage.

The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel

My book club’s pick for August, this book was not at all what I expected. From the title, it seems as if it will be a lighthearted, fun book. It is anything but that. It deals with child sexual abuse, incest, suicide, and mental illness. But it is a total page turner that I finished in one single evening. I struggle with whether I even liked this book, but that may be because I’m dealing with many of these issues in a case that I’m working on at the present time, and it just feels a little to close to home. It is extremely readable, but it was also uncomfortable and often gross.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

After reading The Roanoke Girls, I needed a palette cleanser, and Fannie Flagg’s books feel that way to me. I’d seen the movie Fried Green Tomatoes, but had never read the book previously. I loved it even more than the movie, and about as much as The All Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion. Wonderfully written with characters that are incredibly loveable, if you’ve not read this book or anything by Flagg previously, you should start now.

Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy by Frances Mayes

2017 MMD Reading Challenge: a book set somewhere you’ve never been but would like to visit

I picked this book up after re-watching the movie, Under the Tuscan Sun, and assumed that they would essentially be the same story, but with much more detail in the book. I was wrong. The book differs in significant ways from the movie, and the only real similarity is that they both involve a woman who purchases a house in Tuscany. In the book, she’s a professor who is in a serious relationship with (married to?) a man who she buys and renovates the house with. The bulk of the book is about the renovations of the house and the food that they eat. I almost quit reading a couple of times, because it didn’t really feel like it was going anywhere, but stuck with it because I enjoyed the descriptions of the food, the house, the people, and the land. It did feel a bit like being there with her.

The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person by Judith S. Beck

This book is not a diet book, per se. It doesn’t tell you what you can or can’t eat, or a particular diet that you need to follow. Instead, it utilizes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) techniques to aid you in being successful with whatever diet you choose for yourself, and to keep weight off. I’ve now finished this book for the first time, and have started over at the beginning again. I found this book to be very helpful, and am just starting to be able to counteract some of the sabotaging thoughts in my head that say it’s okay to eat what/when I didn’t plan to. I want to read through this again, because I think it’ll only make me stronger at resisting those dumb thoughts.

The Happiness Project (Revised Edition): Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin

This book walks through the author’s year of trying to be happier in her own life. Each month she focuses on a different facet of happiness, and explains what she did, what it felt like, and what some of the challenges were. I really liked the book, and found it to be a pretty quick, simple read. And the strategies that she uses are simple to incorporate into your own life, if you’re interested in doing so.

Little House on Rocky Ridge by Roger Lea MacBride

As a child, I was a HUGE fan of The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. In fact these are among the few books in my life that have warranted a re-read. In addition to the series of books about Laura, I also had the second book in the Rose series, Little Farm in the Ozarks. For some reason though, I never had the first book in the Rose series, this one. I was visiting with my mom about it, and we can’t figure out exactly how this happened. Anyway, I decided to finally purchase (in the same edition as Ozarks) this book to fill out my collection a little more. I loved it just as much as the rest of the books. Frankly, these books just make my heart happy. But now I feel as though I need to purchase the rest of The Rose Years series…and then maybe the books about Laura’s mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. I may be in Little House books for the rest of my life. 🙂

 

Books in Progress:

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

New Enlarged Anthology of Robert Frost’s Poems by Robert Frost

2017 MMD Reading Challenge: a book of poetry, a play, or an essay collection

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

2017 MMD Reading Challenge: a book published before you were born

The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout

 

Books I’ve Abandoned:

None.

Friday Five 9-1-2017

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Eclipse
A cell phone photo of the Eclipse during totality and 360 sunset.

This is the thirty-first installment in my weekly series, called the Friday Five. In this series, I’ll tell you about five random things that I love, whether they be books, travel, music, movies…or whatever. So without further ado, 9-1-2017’s Friday Five!

1–Wreck of the Ten Sail. This episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class was fascinating. Now I’m curious if any part of the Ten Sail wreckage in the Cayman Islands is accessible to scuba divers.

2–Total Eclipse. For last week’s eclipse, we were directly in the path of totality. My friend Randall Purdy sent his drone up into the air to capture video of the shadows coming over and then receding. You can check it out here. So neat!

3–Southwest Points. I’ve started collecting Southwest points lately, and have even earned enough to acquire the Southwest Companion Pass (a friend or family member flies free with me). They really do have one of the most versatile rewards programs. If you’re interested in learning more, you can go here.

4–First 5. This is an app that you can download from the Apple and Google Play stores. I’ve had it on my phone for quite awhile, but my bible study group just started using it to be more intentional in our reading of Scriptures regularly. It’s put out by Proverbs 31 Ministries, and is just really excellent. I’m really enjoying some of the group functions in the app too.

5–Yellowstone. As you read this, I’ll be on day one of my Yellowstone camping adventure with my husband Mike, and friends Randall and Paige. Look for a post on this in the near future. But in the meantime, did you know that Old Faithful has its own Twitter account? Seriously.

 

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