Mid-Month Progress Report

Got a nasty shock when I realized I was already PAST halfway through this month. Umm, we are getting a trifling too close to August for my liking. And my resolutions aren't tripping along so well either. :( How are they going... well here's the scoop.

Read or Re-Read/Listen to at least 10 books

So.... hehe, I still haven't finished the Return of the King... got a couple more chapters in but besides that... nada. I have been listening to The Innocence of Father Brown, but really haven't gotten too far into it. And that's it. I fail miserably at life. :(

Exercise in some form at fifteen minutes six days a week

Amazing work for me so far! At least I have one resolution that is alright.

Stick to my diet

I'm doing fine. I actually haven't had a cheat day in over a week, which is doing pretty well for me. :) So I guess I have another goal that hasn't failed... yet.

Cut down on electronics time

Somewhat... but not much. 

Write at least five more blog posts this month

Ummm... no! I only have written one so far. Need to really get on this.

Read through and study 1 and 2 Corinthians

Okay maybe I am doing better than I though because this makes a third I am acing so far. I'm almost done with 1 Corinthians and then I'll start 2 Corinthians... Completely on schedule! :)

Memorize that Scripture

Well... no! I was going to memorize the scripture the children had to learn for VBS but I didn't. I'm kind of getting it jammed in my head now that I am in the middle of VBS week but that is through no effort on my part.

Try at least three new recipes

I tried way more than three new recipes! I had family in town over the 4th of July and my cousin and I made the desserts for our meals. I am going to post a blog post some time in the hopefully near future including all of the very delicious recipes we made. I also have recently tried out a peanut butter coffee cake that was scrumptious and some peanut butter chocolate scones that were heavenly! :) Notice peanut butter in both titles and do not be surprised. :)

Start Praying

I have done pretty well on this. I have prayed most evening after I read my bible.

Be patient with what the future brings

Well, I am trying to be patient. For further explanation.... I and my older sister have been living and caring for my grandparents (one of whom has Parkinsons and the other had a major stroke this last January) since the end of April but with my starting up nursing school this fall and my sister going back to school to get her bachelors, we have decided that we cannot do that any longer. At this point though, it was getting too difficult to do anyways. We do not know yet what my grandparents are going to do... we do know they cannot live on their own. Hopefully they can get into a very nice assisted living home but there is also a possibility that they will be staying with my family for a time. Whichever happens I appreciate all prayers. And I need to be patient... really patient.

So that's how my goals are going for this month.

As I mentioned above, I am in the middle of VBS at my church and it has been a blast! The first day was rough the second day far less so and I am thinking by the end of the week I might just have the hang of it. :) 

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

VBS Next Week!!!

As I mentioned in my monthly resolution post, July is ridiculously busy... it always has been ever since my family started 4-H and had the County Fair to prepare for. THIS year, I am also throwing in VBS! I know, I'm such a genius for adding to the business. However, I am really excited about helping out as my church hasn't done a VBS in several years. Thankfully my position is a guide, which doesn't really require any planning. All I will really do is get my group of kids (3rd and 4th grade) to each activity and do their workbooks with them. There is also this confusing point system thing that I am pretty positive I am going to delegate to my assistant guide. That's the nice thing about being the guide versus the assistant guide... delegation!
I also get to decorate my classroom, which has been really fun! We are doing a backpacking/camping theme.  Unfortunately I severely lack artistic skill so I keep stealing ideas from my brother's classroom. :) So far I have a big tent set up in my room and some cloth draped over some furniture to look like a waterfall. I also want to make a "fire" with some logs and red and orange tissue paper. Some animal prints cut out on construction paper would also be a cute addition I think. I started on it yesterday and I'll finish up Saturday. Then next week VBS begins! I'll have to post some picture on here when its over of how my decorations turned out.
On Tuesday we had our last meeting before it began and I got my list of children I was teaching. In addition to my own little hyper brother I am pretty sure I got every other hyper little boy in the congregation. It's going to be A LOT of fun.
Is anyone else doing VBS this year or have you already done it? How did it go?

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Monthly Resolutions- July 2013

Yeah for July! A very hot and tiring month. I have just come to the realization that after July is August and August means school starts up again... something is wrong here.

Read or Re-read/Listen to at least 10 books

Making allowance for audiobooks this month. So much more I want to get read or listen to. Looking forward to a good month of reading/listening! :)

Exercise in some for at least fifteen minutes six days a week

I have decided to be a little more lax about that goal this month. Technically anyways I should take a break from exercise every once and a while.

Stick to my diet

I'm not giving myself a limit with cheat days this month. I just know that there's going to be a lot going on. I'll try my best to keep it to three cheat days but I'm not making that part of the goal. I do know that I am looking forward to a very delicious 4th of July where I'm not going to really care about what I eat too much. 

Cut down on electronics time

Because I still need to work on that.

Write at least five more blog posts this month

I'm not sure I can do five with all the hecticness of this month but I'll try my best... you can ask no more!

Read through and study 1 and 2 Corinthians

I really enjoyed reading through Romans and when I was done I saw that 1 Corinthians was next. I counted up the chapters in the two books and it's 29 so I'm going for it! 

Memorize that scripture!!!

And I'd better get that done quickly before VBS starts in a couple weeks.

Try at least three new recipes

What a delicious sounding goal... don't you agree? :)

Start Praying

I'm very bad about telling people I'll pray for them... and then forgetting to. So I want to start keeping a little prayer journal. I even found an app for my iPhone. Since I always have my iPhone on hand I can just whip it out when people tell me about something and enter in there so I CAN'T forget... at least that's the plan.

Be Patient with what the future brings

There are probably going to be some changes made in these next couple months that are going to influence me a lot. It hasn't worked out as well as we had hoped with my sister and I living at our grandparents and caring for them. It's a long story but the long and short of it is that despite our best efforts (and I mean best) we can only do so much. So we aren't quite sure yet what is going to happen but something is. So please pray for my family with this transition and that I will have patience. 

In case you are wondering what all busyness I will have going on this month here it is. I have VBS in a couple weeks which I am helping with, the county fair where I will be exhibiting stuff (for the last time... I'll be too old next year) for 4-H, and that is all on top of my normal duties at work and taking care of my grandparents. Then I have a lot of things I need to get done for the nursing program too before I start that up in the fall. Yes I am very busy. Anyone else have a super busy month for July?

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Monthly Report Card- June 2013

June has been plenty busy, hectic, stressful, but yet enjoyable. Some of my goals I aced, some I unfortunately didn't. So here's how it went.

Read or Re-Read at least 10 books- A

This was achieved. I got halfway through the month and wasn't so sure I could do it but I did. However, let me be honest, about half of them are audiobooks. This was not something I planned for but I think it is only fair to count them. I ended up having more times where I could listen to an audiobook and not always time to actually read. So I read/listened to The Watsons, Sandition, Ultimate Proof of Creation, The Black Arrow (Half audiobook half read), The Taming of the Shrew (audiobook), and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I re-read/listened to The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, Much Ado about Nothing (audiobook), and Pride and Prejudice. I also started re-reading and am about half way through The Return of the King, and I started listening to The Innocence of Father Brown. 

Exercise in some form at least fifteen minutes a day-A

I faithfully did it every day except one but to be fair, I spent pretty much the whole day being active helping out at a day camp so I think we can let that one pass.

Stick to my diet- A

It was hard, but I only had three cheat days. 

Cut down on my electronics time- C

I tried to make a conscious effort to do it and it helped some but I still need to work on it. 

Write at least five more blog posts this month- A

Exactly five. I just wasn't in the blogging swing this month I guess. I really had to work at it to get my five posts in. I had one post full of greek yogurt recipes, another post that included a movie review of Wreck it Ralph, a recipe post for creamy avocado pasta, a post about my new audiobook love, and finally a post all about Jane Austen's books and the various film adaptations. Check them all out!

Read through and study the book of Romans- B

I read through it, but I am not sure I was so good about the studying part. I did read slowly and concentrate on it though. I really enjoyed it. There was so much theology in it that my head was swimming. I strongly encourage everyone to read it. 

Work on my writing- B

I didn't manage to really make any progress. All I really managed to do was write a little on one story, come up with and work on a new story idea, and avoid my actual novel all together. However, I did work on my writing in those lame lazy forms so that counts for something I suppose.

Memorize some scripture- F

No. I do know what I want to memorize, the scripture for the VBS that my church will be doing. However, I didn't actually memorize it. 

Try at least three new recipes- A!!!

I tried a ton of new recipes actually this month. Far too many to list off. Tons of delicious fun! :)

So a month of ups and downs. I'm not really sure of my average... eyeballing it I'd say a B- or C+. 

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.