January 2013

Highlights of the Month

Cancun, Mexico Wedding

Dreams Cancun Resort & Spa

Frenchie and I

Last Brother-In-Law gets married!!

Congratulations Robyn and Marc!

Photo by: Dean Sanderson Weddings

Their wedding was so low key and beautiful. Had an amazing time with family and friends. Meeting up at a resort is definitely the best family reunion I can think of. We will be heading to their current home this weekend for the wedding reception to celebrate with everyone who wasn't at the wedding in Mexico. Should be a fun event!

I did a lot of soul-searching this month and I believe 2013 will be a year of doing. 

Life is too short to be unhappy. 

You're never too old to make changes. 

Spend time on the things that make you happy.

There is so much in store for us this year.

I had originally planned on reading 40 books again this year. I have to revise it to 30 in 2013. A few of the things I have up my sleeve for this year will cut into my reading time greatly. While they are still books, they are of the textbook variety.

Book Recap

You have read 3 books toward your goal of 30 books.

Great work, you're 1 book (2%) ahead of schedule.

What I Read

Days of Blood & Starlight(Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #2) by Laini Taylor 

2 Stars - review here

The Happiness Project: 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 

3 Stars - review here

Shadows (Dark Touch, #1) by Amy Meredith 

2 Stars - review here

What I'm Currently Reading

The Evolution of Mara Dyer(Mara Dyer, #2) by Michelle Hodkin

Across the Universe (Across the Universe #1) by Beth Revis

Monthly Book Spending:

My plan this year is to try and use the library, borrow from friends/family and read what I already have on my shelf. There are currently 48 books on my physical to-read shelf. I've run out of room to put new ones so they old ones must be read!

Spent: $16.99

Saved: $16.97

Happiness Project - February 2013: Energy

February is a good month to focus on Energy. I turn another year older (Happy Birthday to me!) and I'm finally out of vacation mode. While it's a great idea to start the year off on vacation, it takes that much longer to "get going" when you get back. Plus, everyone around is already in go-mode.

Take care of my body and mind.
- Focus on working out twice a week with weights according to my chiropractor. I need to kick my own butt and start healing. "My body is the only one I have" and if I don't take care of it, it will breakdown. I'd like to be a smooth running brand new Ferrari over a 1980's clunker.
- Focus on running 2 - 3 times a week. I will be signing up for a 5K this May with my sister and need to get myself running more consistently.
- Keep up the gluten-free diet. I can't believe what a difference it makes. I need to start baking muffins again so that I stop buying them at work. Not only are mine gluten-free (work ones aren't) but I'll save money too.
- Cut the caffeine. I really need to stop going to Starbucks. There is no reason I need it. I can still go for a break with the rest of my coworkers, but I can have tea instead. I have so many different kinds, it's well worth the Starbucks break-up. And I can't be doing the once a week thing. I tried that. It then became 2, then 3, then every day. Cold Turkey. I think this be the hardest resolution to keep.

Get ready for bed an hour before bed time.
- I say an hour because that will give me a chance to settle, relax and watch a show or read. Then when it's time to go to bed, I can fall into bed without going through a huge process. My hope is that I will also fall asleep more easily as well as get more sleep altogether.

Organize: Punt/Keep
- I'd like to focus on not only cleaning out the closets but the basement storage rooms as well. There is a lot of stuff in bins that I didn't even know we had. That should tell me something. There is also a lot of things that I can either sell, or donate or put in a garage sale and get rid of it!
- I also want to clear out my online life. Being away for a week and coming back to so much email is ridiculous when I deleted close to 3/4 of them. I should be feeding myself useful information that I actually care about. This includes Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc.

Nagging Task
- I've had a bag of clothes that needs to be fixed or hemmed sitting in the closet for months. It's time I find a seamstress and get things taken in, hemmed and fixed up. I do have more clothes than I think, it's just not wearable at the moment.

Since February is a short month, I think this will be a good start. Hopefully the first two will become habits, and the third one will be ongoing. Spring Cleaning/Organizing is great, but it can be daunting and exhausted. A monthly purge of a shelf or a room does wonders. The last one is a "just do it already" thing.

Happiness Project - Personal Commandments

It took me a while to come up with these. These are things I believe in, phrases I love or words of wisdom (or not) that have gotten me through unhappy and happy times alike.

These are my top 10, but I had to include the others because they popped into my head and they must have for a reason.

My Personal Commandments

Embrace who I am

You'll get there when you get there

Be honest

God doesn't give you anything you can't handle. 

Live, Laugh, Love

Smile often

Stay in touch

Accept the things I cannot change

Laughter is the best medicine

My body is the only one I've got

The Others

You have to hit bottom before you go back up.

Fake it til you make it

It's not worth worrying about

It's OK to be late

3/30: Shadows (Dark Touch #1) by Amy Meredith

Shadows by Amy Meredith
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Format: Paperback
Read from January 16 to 20, 2013

From Goodreads: Fifteen-year-old Eve Evergold is cute, sassy and enjoying a busy social life. What she doesn't know yet is that someone close to her is an evil demon that only she has the supernatural power to defeat. She needs to work out who it is - and fast! Because although there's something very attractive about the dark side...dating a demon? Pure hell!

I won this book on Twitter about a year ago and never got around to reading it until this year. I won it and ordered the second one at the same time because I thought it would be a great series. I'm a little underwhelmed. thankful that the font was fairly big and the read was quick. I may read the second one just for a quick in-between books read. A follow up to a heavy read later this year perhaps.

It was ok. Nothing I haven't read before, and not as well done as others. The characters were shallow, but that is expected given the setting of the Hamptons and reference to brand names and celebrities. They were meant to be that way. Gucci, MK, and Jimmy Choo really didn't need to be name-dropped as often as they were, but it did get the point across that these girls had money to burn and not much else going on.

There was little depth to the story, and was great for a YA age story, very innocent. I did find that the characters were very accepting of the supernatural and didn't question it. This strikes me as odd that there was no freaking out or disbelief. You find out there are soul-sucking demons taking over the town and just accept it? I guess.

View all my reviews

Happiness Project - Getting started

Where do I even start? I have the "big topics" as laid out in the book that I like and plan to keep. They are general and apply to most of my life. I'll have to change a couple (no kids here, so no parenting, unless you count my fur-babies, which I might. Training right?)

There is a number of questions in the book that I thought would be a good start to answer.

What makes you feel good?
- spending time with family
- cooking/baking with my husband
- dancing
- reading
- making other people happy
- running
- watching movies
- lunching with friends
- organizing
- doing things I like

What makes you feel bad?
- being late
- disappointing people
- doing things I don't like
- not having direction
- failing to reach my goals
- forgetting to do something
- being talked down to
- feeling like I did something wrong
- leaving the house at night

Is there any way in which you don't feel right about your life?
- I feel like I'm meant to be doing something else as my job
- disappointed that I can't figure out what I want to be when I grow up, nearing 30.
- pulled in too many directions away from what I want more of in my life

Do you have sources of an atmosphere of growth?
- my day job (if I applied myself)
- teaching piano - learning how to be better
- Epicure Selections - being more outgoing
- playing piano - increasing my skill