let's resolve : : June '13 results + July '13

1. Finish memorizing 1 Corinthians 3.  I am so close, but still not quite there.  At least it's a chapter I'm really enjoying.

2. Go visit people in Glorieta.  Rachel and I are actually going later on today, so I'm going to count this as a yes since I'm only a day late.  We were going to go last Monday but Rachel actually got sick, so this week worked a lot better for us.

3. Cook some meals for my family.  Nope.  Didn't do this at all.  I think I'll still try to make some things with Chloe--maybe cookies or simple stuff--but right now it just seems like I'm working all the time, so I might focus on this in a couple weeks.

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4. Decide if I'm going to transfer or not.  As I said in my last post, I'll be moving to Las Cruces and attending NMSU this fall.  I feel like it's a really big decision to make since I'll be entirely on my own for the first time, but I'm at peace about it.  I know it'll be hard, but I'll just take it one day at a time.

5. Actually use my camera.  I took about five pics so I'd actually have one to use for my last post, but that's it.  But here's a cool pic that I took with my phone; someone set fire to one of the overpass bridges in ABQ and since it was right by my work Rachel and I went to see it after I got off.

For July:

1. Finish memorizing 1 Corinthians 3 and get started on chapter 4.  I should be done within a few days, and I'm excited to finally move on!

2. Have a sisters' day with Chloe.  The reality that I'll be moving several hours away is starting to sink in, and I want to spend as much time with my family as possible!

3. Apply for jobs in Cruces and give my two weeks' notice at my job in ABQ.  I'm thinking I'll quit the second or third week of August, and I'm also hoping to have another job already lined up in Cruces by the time I get there.  So I need to get on the ball with that.

4. Post more?  I just feel like lately I don't have anything to post about, and I don't want to post something crappy just so I'll have something up.  So if anything happens I'll post about it; maybe I'll write a bit about getting ready to move and what a nightmare the whole transfer process is.

5. Finish a really good book.  I've been reading a lot of novels lately, and I'd like to read something edifying; I might try to finish Idols of the Heart or maybe reread Don't Waste Your Life.

linking up here

let's resolve : : May '13 results + June '13

1. Memorize 1 Corinthians 3.  I'm not there yet, but I've made some pretty good progress.  Hopefully I'll have it nailed down soon.

2. Have a sisters' day with Chloe before my classes start.  While we haven't had an official day, I've been trying to spend a lot of time with Clove lately when I'm not at work or doing homework.  We've been going to Walmart and watching movies and just hanging out.

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3. Get ready for my Basic Skills exam in June.  The test's in one week...and I haven't started studying.  Apparently it's pretty easy and I shouldn't have a problem passing it, but I'm going to start working on the practice tests within the next few days.

4. Read two books.  I actually read six books this month!  I got a whole bunch of great fiction from Goodwill and since I spend my hour-long lunch at work reading, I've been finishing a lot of books lately.  I think my favorite one was "Life As We Knew It" by Susan Beth Pfeffer.

5. Write to my Compassion children.  Yes!  But then I got a new letter from one of them, so I need to write to them again. :)

For June:

1. Finish memorizing 1 Corinthians 3.  Hopefully I'll be able to nail it down this month.

2. Go visit people in Glorieta.  While I'm not working in Glorieta this summer, a lot of friends that I spent time with last summer have returned this time, and I'm really looking forward to driving up and seeing them!  Hopefully within the next two or three weeks.

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3. Cook some meals for my family.  I've decided that I want to learn to cook, so I'm going to try and make dinner for my family about once a week so I can acquire some more basic cooking skills (all of which I lack).

4. Decide if I'm going to transfer or not???  I'm just so unsure about what my plans are for this fall.  I really need to figure it all out asap.

5. Actually use my camera.  I don't have a single picture from the month of May.  It's time to put my camera to use.

linking up here

let's resolve : : April '13 results + May '13

How the heck is it already May?  The beginning of this year dragged by, but it's definitely picking up speed now!  Here's how I did in April.

1. Memorize 1 Corinthians 2.  Yes, finally.  This chapter seriously took me two months to learn.  I don't know why, because it's actually pretty short, but it took me ages!  However, I've finally conquered!

2. Develop a steady schedule for getting my homework done and register for summer classes.  As of today, I'm done with this semester--yay!  And while I did sign up for five summer classes, I'm starting to reconsider it; I think I might drop one or two of them.  Because, you know, I want to actually make it to my junior year.

3. Do great on my science presentation.  Well...sort of.  I made it through my presentation, at least, although it didn't go as great as I'd hoped.  Oh, well.  At least it's over with.

4. Finish reading two books.  No, but I did finish one--The Resolution for Women by Priscilla Shirer.  I'm hoping to get a lot more reading in over my three week break before summer classes start.

5. Write to my Compassion children.  Didn't do this one.  Hopefully sometime this month over my break.

For May:

1. Memorize 1 Corinthians 3.  With my recent track record I'm kind of doubting I'll be able to do this in just a month, but we'll see what happens.

2. Have a sisters' day with Chloe before summer classes start.  My summer is going to be crazy busy, so I want to spend time with her while I can!

3. Get ready for my Basic Skills exam in June.  This is the first of three huge tests I have to take to get my teaching certification in New Mexico.  I'll be taking it on June 8th, so I need to start getting ready!

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4. Read two books.  Who knows, maybe with three weeks off school I'll be able to do this one.

5. Write to my Compassion children.  Pretty much the same as last month, but I really do need to write to them soon!

let's resolve : : February '13 and March '13 results + April '13

So I didn't actually have a March resolutions post because (1) I thought it'd be easier to do these at the beginnings of the month and (2) I completely forgot about it at the middle of the month.  Just wanted to make that clear.

1. Memorize 1 Corinthians 2, go over chapter 1, and memorize verses with my Sunday school class.  I still haven't gotten chapter 2 down; for some reason I just cannot get it through my skull.  Hopefully this month will see better results.  Chapter 1 seems pretty cemented in my head, though.  I haven't been great about memorizing verses with my class, but not a complete flop.

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2. Just drink water.  I did alright with this challenge.  There were days, especially these past couple (I've been sick), where I drank stuff other than water, but on the whole I did alright.  I actually like drinking water now--that's enough of a result for me!

3. Pack my lunches for school.  I've been doing really well with this and feel like I'm definitely saving money.

4. Go to a monster truck rally.  Didn't do this one; maybe sometime soon.

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5. Figure out my summer plans.  Surprisingly, yes.  Contrary to what I had planned before, I'll be staying home this summer, taking five summer classes and working (I got a job as a cashier at Walmart this week!).  I had hoped to go on a mission trip or something like that, and maybe I will go to Mexico for a week or two, but for now this seems to be what the Lord has planned.  The reasons behind all this is that I'm (hopefully) going to be transferring to NMSU this fall, so I'm trying to knock a bunch more classes out of the way and save enough money to buy a car.  God is good.

For April:

1. Memorize 1 Corinthians 2.  Time to get this bad boy out of the way.

2. Develop a steady schedule for getting my homework done and register for summer classes.  With starting a new job, figuring out how to transfer, and getting ready to take five 12-week classes, I need some balance.  Nothing like a schedule to give me that!

3. Do great on my science presentation.  I have to give a presentation a week from Tuesday, and I have no idea what I'm doing.  Time to pull myself together.

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4. Finish reading two books.  I'm having a hard time finding time to read, so I want to be more intentional with my free time and get some good reading in.  Right now I'm reading The Resolution for Women by Priscilla Shirer--it's a fantastic book, go read it!

5. Write to my Compassion children.  Please continue to pray for Djamsel; I haven't heard anything about the status of the center he goes to and I'm a bit concerned.  I might try and call this week to see if I can figure anything out.

let's resolve : : January '13 results + February '13

1. Finish memorizing Psalm 51 and move on to something else.  This chapter was a pain--it took me forever to finally get it.  As of a couple days ago, I finally feel comfortable leaving it behind, and I'm moving on to 1 Corinthians 2.

  
2. Get up earlier on school days so I'll have time to do my devotions and pray before the day.  I have been terrible about this.  If anything, I'm having an even harder time than I did before I made this goal. :(

3. Be disciplined in exercising.  Haven't been terribly consistent, but I haven't quit either.  So that's something.  I'm able to go faster for longer periods of time now, too.

4. Try to complete all my homework during my extra hours at school.  I've been having such a difficult time getting into a groove this semester, but I think it's getting a little better.  This week I made myself a schedule outlining what I have to do each week, and I think it'll really help me!  As for using my extra hours at school usefully, I've been doing pretty well.  When I haven't been doing homework I've been working on some fiction, so at least I'm using the creative part of my mind.

5. Get outside and take some pictures.  I only did this twice, but at least I did it!  I had a really good time, but it's been getting a lot colder and windier so I don't know how soon I'll be going out again.

And here are my goals for this next month.

1. Memorize 1 Corinthians 2, go over chapter 1, and memorize verses with my Sunday school class.  Rachel and I are now teaching the 4th and 5th graders at our church, trading off every week.  They have a verse to memorize every week, and I figure that I should be memorizing the verses I'm telling them to memorize.

2. Just drink water.  As I wrote about in my post yesterday, I'm just drinking water for the 40 days of Lent.  Let me tell you--it sucks!!!!  I actually really hate water, so this is kind of one of the most difficult things I could have ever decided to do, but we'll see how it goes.  I'm on day 3. :(

3. Pack my lunches for school.  Since I'm going four day a week now, I'm realizing how much money I could potentially spend just on food for those days.  Gas is expensive enough, so I'm really trying to take my lunch every single day.  So far I've been doing pretty good about it!

4. Go to a monster truck rally.  Yeah, this one's kind of random, but my dad's been talking about taking us to one and I think it'd be a blast!  So I want to make it a goal to kind of make sure it gets done.

5. Figure out my summer plans???  I'm not really sure about this one--as of now I'm sort of lost about what I'm doing, but maybe things will become clearer over this next month.  Here's hoping!

let's resolve : : December '12 results + January '13

I almost didn't even remember this month's post for Let's Resolve--has it only been 15 days since new year's?  I feel like it's been ages.  Kinda nice, actually, since this year doesn't feel like it's flying by as fast as 2012 did!

1. Complete 1 Corinthians 1 and move on to chapter 2, along with reviewing 1 Timothy.  Sort of...  I finished 1 Corinthians 1, and then I moved on to Psalm 51 instead of 1 Corinthians 2.  And I didn't review 1 Timothy more than once...but once is better than nothing!

2. Write in my journal every day, focusing each day on a resolution from Jonathan Edwards.  I did pretty good with this at first, but ever since I started school again I've had a hard time keeping up with every day.  It's been nice to record a bit of almost every day, though!  And I've enjoyed going intensively through Jonathan Edwards' resolutions--he had such incredible discipline, and he was only my age!

3. Floss.  Every single day.  I think I only missed two or three days!

4. Read at least three good books.  I read "Tramp for the Lord" by Corrie ten Boom, "Kisses from Katie" by Katie Davis, and I'm more than halfway done with "Quest for Love" by Elisabeth Elliot, so I'm pretty proud of myself!  I also finished "All Quiet on the Western Front".  I really enjoyed it!  I'm not very good about reading classics, but I was glad I read this one.

5. Be in bed by midnight every night.  Overall I feel like I did pretty well on this.  There were a couple nights when I stayed up till 2, and then there were nights when I was in bed by 9.  Ever since school started I've definitely been doing great with this goal!

Here's my goals for January to February.

1. Finish memorizing Psalm 51 and move onto...something else.  I'm torn between Psalm 46 and 1 Corinthians 2.  We'll just see what happens!

2. Get up earlier on school days so I'll have time to do my devotions and pray before the day.  I often feel so rushed before we go out the door for the day, but I've found it really calms me to be able to read my Bible and lift up my day before the Lord before heading out.  I need to make this more of a priority!

3. Be disciplined in exercising.  Rachel and I signed up for Planet Fitness and we're going to try to go four days a week before classes.  It's so bitterly cold it's hard sometimes, but we need to do this!

4. Try to complete all my homework during my extra hours at school.  I have tons of extra time several days a week while I'm waiting for my classes to start, and I want to try to focus on getting my homework done then so I won't have to worry about it when I come home.  Also, I want to try to spend more quality time with my family with that extra time I'll have.

5. Get outside and take some pictures.  So far in my 365 challenge I've just stayed inside because it's so terribly cold!  This morning it was -11.  It only warmed up a little bit.  But I want to get outside and actually take some pics of nature.  There's only so many photographic inspirations indoors!

I feel like #5 is kind of a lame goal, but I couldn't really think of anything else.  Oh, well.  We'll see how I do with these!

let's resolve : : November '12 results + December '12

I had so much fun this month working through my goals and keeping them in mind a little bit every day!  So, on to how I did.

1. Get a job.  Nope.  Still unemployed.  And I'm really unsure about still looking around and applying because my school schedule for next semester is going to be busier than it's ever been--going four days a week instead of two.  But we'll see what happens.

2. Make a craft.  Sort of...  I made this scarf after seeing this tutorial, and I really love it!  But my dad said it didn't really count since it was only sewing a piece of fabric together at the ends.  To which I say, it was certainly a feat for me!  I'd never even used the sewing machine before.  But I am planning on actually making some Christmas presents for my family sometimes next week, so yes, I'll have made a craft, even if it is a few days late.

3. Cook something.  Again, sort of.  I made a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, but that's so simple, I don't really know if I'd count it.  I'm going to try and start cooking more, though; it's actually not as bad as I thought it'd be.

4. Write Christmas letters to all of my Compassion children.  Yes!

5. Finish memorizing 1 Corinthians 1.  This chapter has been giving me grief.  I have made so much progress, but I'm not quite finished with it.  The way I memorize is that I just read through the chapter once every day during my devotions.  Memorizing individual verses never really worked for me; I had a hard time sticking everything together.  Usually I take about a month for each chapter, but this one's a bit longer than the others I've memorized.  I'll be done soon though!

And now on to my goals for December and into January.  I'm going to make a separate post with my resolutions for 2013 at the beginning of January.  These are just my smaller goals for this specific month.

1. Complete 1 Corinthians 1 and move on to chapter 2, along with reviewing 1 Timothy.  When I'm in the middle of memorizing a new chapter, I often let other chapters slip, so I'm going to try to do both at once.

2. Write in my journal every day, focusing each day on a resolution from Jonathan Edwards.  This will take me more than two months--there are 70 resolutions--but over this first month I want to try and work on consistency.  I've been doing it for a few days now, and I really like it!  It's nice being able to go through these resolutions one by one.  They're so powerful!

3. Floss.  Every single day.  I am usually very consistent about this, but I skip a day or two here and there.  I want to try and stop doing that because my new insurance plan doesn't cover dental, so who knows when I'll be getting my teeth looked at again!  I want to keep them healthy, as much as is in my power to do so.

4. Read at least three good books.  I want to stay busy while I'm out of school, and I figure this is a good way to start.  I'm going to try and finish "Tramp for the Lord" and "The Cost of Discipleship", and then I'll find something else.  By "good" I mean "edifying".  I'm reading "All's Quiet on the Western Front" too, but that's not really edifying.  I'm going to try and finish it, but I also want to read something else that's better for me spiritually.

5. Be in bed by midnight every night.  My time at Glorieta murdered my previously awesome (= responsible) sleeping schedule.  I want to get back on track with it again, especially since I have an 8:30 class next semester and I don't want to fall asleep.  Or die. :)

what's cooking...pumpkin pie!

So, as I posted earlier this month in my first Let's Resolve post, one of my goals for this month was to cook something.  I decided to take myself up on that yesterday evening when I baked a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving!  Since it's baking, I'm not sure if it actually qualifies, so I'm going to try and cook something else later this month.  For now, though, I really enjoyed making this pie!  Probably because it's just about the easiest recipe in the world and went off without a hitch.  I love pumpkin pie, too, so there was an ulterior motive.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 can (15 oz.) LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 can (12 fl. oz.) NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk
1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell

Combine all your dry ingredients.

Add your eggs!  And if you have to go diving for an eggshell, don't worry about it...it's all part of the process.

Add that pumpkin!

If your can opener is absolute crap, don't worry--that's what your mother is for.

Pour in your evaporated milk.

Mix it up!

We accidentally got two shallow pie crusts, rather than one deep dish, so I just made two. :)

Throw those bad boys in the oven at 425 for 15 minutes.  Then, reduce the temperature to 350 and go for another 40 or 50 minutes.

The finished product!  As you can see, it's a bit lopsided since there were two pies on the cooking sheet and they had to kind of lean on each other, but we were going for taste over appearance!  And it was delicious. :)

I also made deviled eggs!  Kind of ironic since I don't like eggs, but my mom needed it done.

I got a bit zealous with the paprika on this one. :)

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving!  I know I did--I had such a good time with my family just remembering all the things we're thankful for.

What are you thankful for?

let's resolve : : November '12

Lately I've been thinking about the resolutions I made for 2012, and wondering if I'd actually accomplished any of them.  I'm planning on making a separate post on how I did on each of those at the end of December, but I got an idea from this blog to set five goals each month for me to accomplish.  I think it'll be good motivation for me.  I'm going to call it the "Let's Resolve" series.  Resolve may be a bit of a strong word for some of these goals, but it helps remind me of Jonathan Edwards and the seriousness he had about his goals in life.  Some of these goals may be quirky or funny, but some may also be very serious and weighty.  I want to have a driven mindset for those certain goals.  Each post will be somewhere in the middle of the month since that's when today just happens to be.  So, here are my goals for November 2012!

1. Get a job.  I have been unemployed since I finished my summer at Glorieta and, to be honest, I've loved it.  I really don't like working and have loved having so much freetime, but it's time for me to start being a responsible adult again and get back into the workforce.  The only problem is, no one seems to be hiring these days!  But I know God will provide the perfect job for me, in his timing. :)

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2. Make a craft.  I really want to make a bunch of cheap, cute presents for my friends this Christmas, and I found an awesome tutorial that was exactly what I'm looking for.  I'll make sure to post about it once I actually make something!

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3. Cook something.  A dessert, a meal for my family, anything.  Much as I loathe cooking, it's a necessary part of life that I need to get used to!

4. Write Christmas letters to all of my Compassion children.  I've sent money for their Christmas gifts already, but I want Djamsel, Majoie, and Cristian to know through my words how much I love them and wish I could personally be with them for the holidays!

5. Finish memorizing 1 Corinthians 1.  I've been working on this chapter for about a month now, but not as hard as I should have been.  I'm going to do my best to finish it within the next month, and move on to chapter 2!

I think I'm really going to enjoy setting goals for myself each month!  I already had a really great time coming up with these.

How do you like my new layout and blog name?  I love it so far. :)