Things I Know Today: 4-27-10

1. Korean children work very hard on their studies and their schoolwork.
2. I will be glad when the show (Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr. at the Albany Civic Theater) is finished.
3. I will be sad when the show is finished because I have been lucky to work with a fantastic group of women (and one great Dad) as we put this show on. I will miss hanging out with them--it will be somewhat of a letdown. Luckily, we can plan lunch dates!
4. I will be sad when the show is finished because there is a great energy that surrounds 57 talented kids working together to put on the show and that is nice to be around.
5. Today will be a long day. I'm working three jobs today. More on that later.
6. I'm ready for the sun to stick around for a little bit.
7. Caffeine in the morning really does give you a kick-start. I don't usually imbibe, but my sweetie surprised me with my favorite soda mix this morning, and I am enjoying it.
8. I'm turning 40 on Friday. And I'm okay with that.
9. The Cowboys, Jet and Cord should TOTALLY win The Amazing Race.
10. I'm not going to finish my 40/40 list before my birthday and I think I'm okay with that as well. I learned a lot about myself, and am already thinking of a list to guide and shape my next year.

My favorite picture (right now)

So so pretty to me. I have this as my desktop background and looking at it is a refreshing pause in a busy, busy day.

Thursday-- A Week in the Life

Homework waiting to be worked on in the morning

the breakfast of champions?

baking frozen cookie dough balls for lunches

Looking in the fridge for breakfast

Pouting because he wants cookies for breakfast and I won't let him.

all ready for school!

walking to the bus stop

driving the daughter to school (she went late)

going to lunch w/my cute hubby!

Happy mail from my mom.

Eye doctor--regular checkup. Only one eye dialated.

something pretty spotted on the way home. I'm sure my neighbors think I'm weird for stopping my car to take pictures of their flowers. I don't care.

...gets you pretty far. YouThespian rehearsal (after a trip to Costco and a 45 min sewing session to bust out a costume for "Interplanet Janet.)

"I'm just a Bill" (and daughter J is in the purple shirt and hat forming part of the capital rotunda)

Conjunction Junction, What's your Function?

Lovely Lady Libery and her great American Melting Pot

Elbow Room--up on the Moon!

"Mars is Red..and Jupiter's Big" (this is the start of the costume I sewed today)

Interjections!

Busy Busy Busy!

Yes, I know it's blurry. I picked it on purpose. My daughter is holding the sign on the right (that's for you, Mom).

We are in the final weeks of our Schoolhouse Rock Live production. My two oldest and I have been involved with this YouThespian group through our local Albany Civic Theater since last November. We open just before my 40th birthday. Many things in my life have been put on hold out of necessity, including the blog posts I'd planned as I counted down my 40/40 list.

Never fear! I am still crossing things off. I had my first pedicure last Saturday and enjoyed hanging out with some of my girlfriends. I hope to tackle a few more this weekend. I will not be finishing the entire list, but I am pleased with the results so far.

The rain is letting up and the dogwoods are blooming. Pink flowering dogwood might just be my favorite flowring tree. I'm trying to participate in Ali's "A Week in the Life"--I took pictures at rehearsal last night and today I took some pictures of the dogwood in my neighborhood. I also realized that I've lost the eyecup on my camera. Let me know if you see it.

I'll leave you with this beauty:

And this one (in case you want to make it your desktop background):

How this All Began (40/40)

As I celebrated my 39th birthday I thought about what I could do to mark this last year. To make my 40th birthday something that was filled more with celebration than with the usual dread (although, I must say, I wasn't really dreading turning 40--I am a mixed bag of emotions about the whole thing, but dread is something that the infamous "they" and their marketing campaigns cooked up, and is not necessarily one of the emotions I feel).

I decided to make a List. A List with a capital "L," patterned after some really inspiring lists I read on the Hula Seventy blog. And so it began.

I celebrated turning 39 by doing something I always wanted to try: singing karaoke. I've sang a lot. In a lot of places. It was still a bit nerve-wracking, trying to find a song I knew well enough to sing in public. I found I knew lots of snippets of the popular songs, but not really enough to get up there and sing it by myself. I mean, I would have been quite successul if it was "sing-along-with-the radio-version-oke" but alas, it was not. I sang twice, squeezing myself inbetween a couple of girls between the ages of 7 and 9 with a healthy Taylor Swift obsession (I should add this was "Family Karoke" night at the local Pizza King) I ended up singing two songs: "Part of your World" from The Little Mermaid, and a song I promised myself for years I would sing if I ever got a chance to sing karoke--"Passionate Kisses" by Mary Chapin Carpenter. It was a lot of fun! I thought it would be something I would do more often, but alas, haven't been back since then.

Still, it was doing something I'd wanted to try for years that propelled me to make the rest of the list. I wanted a mix of goals that were big goals--things that would stretch me a little--and small goals--things I could easily achieve. It's been an interesting journey. I definitely learned along the way. I'm also scrambling to finish off as many as I can in the next two and a half weeks!

I'll keep you posted.

The Countdown Begins!

Or rather, it began four days ago. The countdown to finishing my "40 before 40" list. I still have a lot to do! I'm totally making deals with myself at this point...things like "Well, you didn't do THAT, but you did do THIS which is pretty close, so..."

Here's the Original List:
forty before forty
1. sing karaoke
2. go to a movie all by myself
3. go away for a short weekend trip all by myself
4. run a 5k
5. participate in a “relay for life” or walk for some other cause
6. lose 40 pounds
7. work to join a professional level choir
8. create the habit of exercising daily
9. read five non-fiction books
10. finish the rough draft of my novel
11. reorganize my craft space and purge at least a third of my stash
12. enter my photography into a local contest
13. explore the local photography group and attend one meeting
14. visit the Oregon coast at least 5 times
15. have regular one-on-one “dates” with each of my children (I’m thinking quarterly at least)
16. put more things in my etsy shop
17. create the London scrapbook I was supposed to give my SIL for Christmas of 2008
18. purge my closet and only wear clothes that make me look good and feel happy and are in good repair
19. keep my desk clean for a week
20. make time for being spiritually fed on a daily or at least weekly basis (read my scriptures regularly)
21. color my hair again just for fun
22. get a pedicure (for the first time!)
23. go on a photo-taking walk around my house (Nebergall Loop)
24. go without processed sugary foods for a week
25. go without caffeinated sodas for a week
26. walk 10,000 steps in one day
27. donate my hair to locks of love
28. get all of my health check-ups up to date
29. revamp my living room
30. sew something for each of my children
31. go on a short outdoor hike
32. get all excess clutter out of my bedroom—make it a sanctuary
33. see one tourist site in Oregon I’ve never visited in the 20+ years I’ve lived here
34. learn to play 20 new hymns from the hymnbook on the piano
35. take one personal enrichment class through the local parks & rec or community college
36. write a new poem
37. finish the “no ordinary stories” coffee table book that’s floating around in my head
38. get a professional massage
39. go see a live play or musical, performed at least on the community theater level (no middle or high school performances)
40. watch the sun set into the Pacific Ocean

And what I've accomplished as of today, April 4th:
forty before forty
1. sing karaoke
2. go to a movie all by myself
3. go away for a short weekend trip all by myself
4. run a 5k
5. participate in a “relay for life” or walk for some other cause
6. lose 40 pounds (I've lost 20)
7. work to join a professional level choir
8. create the habit of exercising daily
9. read five non-fiction books
10. finish the rough draft of my novel (so not happening this year...it'll be first on the list for next year)
11. reorganize my craft space and purge at least a third of my stash (in progress--I have purged a lot, but probably not a third)
12. enter my photography into a local contest (See HERE.)
13. explore the local photography group and attend one meeting (Unfortunately, the club meets on Thursdays, which have been committed to YouThespian practices since about October, so this will have to wait until after my birthday)
14. visit the Oregon coast at least 5 times
15. have regular one-on-one “dates” with each of my children (I’m thinking quarterly at least)
16. put more things in my etsy shop
17. create the London scrapbook I was supposed to give my SIL for Christmas of 2008
18. purge my closet and only wear clothes that make me look good and feel happy and are in good repair
19. keep my desk clean for a week
20. make time for being spiritually fed on a daily or at least weekly basis (read my scriptures regularly)
21. color my hair again just for fun (I'll do this after I get it cut in a few weeks)
22. get a pedicure (for the first time!) (Scheduled for the 16th)
23. go on a photo-taking walk around my house (Nebergall Loop)
24. go without processed sugary foods for a week
25. go without caffeinated sodas for a week
26. walk 10,000 steps in one day
27. donate my hair to locks of love (This is happening in a couple of weeks as well)
28. get all of my health check-ups up to date
29. revamp my living room
30. sew something for each of my children 

31. go on a short outdoor hike

32. get all excess clutter out of my bedroom—make it a sanctuary

33. see one tourist site in Oregon I’ve never visited in the 20+ years I’ve lived here

34. learn to play 20 new hymns from the hymnbook on the piano

35. take one personal enrichment class through the local parks & rec or community college

36. write a new poem

37. finish the “no ordinary stories” coffee table book that’s floating around in my head

38. get a professional massage

39. go see a live play or musical, performed at least on the community theater level (no middle or high school performances) (I saw THREE!)

40. watch the sun set into the Pacific Ocean

I will give a full wrap-up after the month is over, point by point and step by step. Stay tuned!

Celebrating April Fools

I'm supposed to tell you that his clothes aren't on backwards, instead his head and feet switched places in the night...

I don't think the dog is buying it.