Well I am NOT going to get behind on my blogging…

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…just because the new year is underway and I’m back to work. No siree! (Incidentally, how do spell sir-eee? Sirrree? Sireee. Siiirrreee! Eh.)

So I’ve taken up running. Sigh. I’ve always enjoyed running and would often (OK, occasionally) go out for a mile’s jog after a hard day at work. But I’ve had this mental block at one mile and haven’t really tried to go further. This has been going on for, oh, 10 years.

Several women in my church are getting ready for a 10k in March. Now, mind you, I am not signing up for that. I just want to be able to finish two or three miles without walking (or barfing). However, I have to admit, their excitement—or perhaps it’s my competitive nature—got me pushing toward that next mile.

I mostly just want to feel strong and to be able to eat cheeseburgers when I want to.

So far, so good. Two miles actually came pretty easily for me. (Don’t hate.) But I’m really not sure how to kick it up to Mile Three. I probably need to do one of those Couch to 5k routines, but they make you stop running in the middle, which just feels like defeat!

For now I’m a happy two-miler. If you have any suggestions for getting to the next level, please share. I probably won’t follow them but someone reading may. However, I heartily welcome any clean, upbeat music suggestions.

Lessons from 2011

Posted on by tish
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Well, here it is. The end of 2011. Another year come and gone and we’re left wondering what happened to it.

Before we say goodbye, why not take a moment to reflect? What stands out about this year? Did you learn an important lesson? Make a new friend? Finish a big project? Do something ridiculously fun?

Take a sec and share a moment from 2011 with the world here. It can be serious or silly or somber. It doesn’t have to be something that defined you, it just has to be something that made an impression. Here’s mine:  Continue reading →

Testing MacJournal

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Hmm…let’s see how this works. What I’m looking for is an EASY way to post a blog from my Mac (and ideally, iPad and email, too) directly to my WordPress.org website. It would be doubly-nice if I could easily insert photos as well. So…can we do it, MacJournal?

wpid-DSC01708-2011-12-30-01-534.jpg

Hey, I just dragged-and-dropped this photo (Grandma–isn’t she beautiful?)…that’s a good sign.

I don’t see anywhere to add tags…of course, I don’t think this is the latest version of the app. Perhaps I should upgrade first.

OK, just upgraded to the latest version (6.1, I think?). Excellent. Loving the options. Now, for the real test: let’s export this puppy.

Continue reading →

If only in my dreams…

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My Mally Bear in her Christmas Sweater...just because I like this pic.

Today I’m packing up Christmas decorations. I always like getting to this point. Not that I don’t love the way the house looks all red and green and festive, but I really enjoy getting things back in order—clean, neat, in place. Not picking up rogue Christmas balls every other day that have been knocked off the garland. I guess I like only having to deal with the “normal” clutter. (Which reminds me, I need to do laundry.)

Last night I had a strange dream. I was in middle school, and my mother was amazingly off work for one day in her life. It so happened that I had a band concert coming up that afternoon, which is also funny because I don’t play anything, although I did have two separate-but-equally-fruitless semesters of band in middle school. (I wanted to play drums but they generally didn’t give girls drums, so I got stuck with trombone, and then clarinet. I was somewhat successful at the clarinet, being that I was in the eighth grade and they put me in the sixth grade band.) ((The memory is embarrassing enough; let’s not tell the whole story.))

Anyway, I was excited because Mom was going to get to come to my concert. However, a couple of dream seconds later, I was offering instead to stay home with her and help her do some things around the house, which she was really excited about. I just remember waking up with this feeling of satisfaction that I was going to be able to help her and that she was happy.

I love that feeling of anticipation, before anything actually gets done, when the air is full of possibility. It’s the same with the Christmas decorations. I’m ready for something to change.

Five-minute reflection

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Right now I’m thinking about what I want to “be about.” I had lunch with my friend Martha today—I enjoy her blog and admire the fact that she seems to find time to write meaningful entries on a more regular basis than I do. She gave me a couple of clues to her success…first, Five-Minute Fridays, which encourage you to write for five minutes about one word, and second, to do said writing without too much thinking or editing, whereby you can “find your voice.” That sounds nice.

You’re probably like me in that there always seem to be things you don’t get to. Things that are truly important to you, or interest you, but that you don’t invest time pursuing. Hey, I sat down to write more than an hour ago. I started to log in to my website to begin a post…then I wondered if there were an app in the Mac Store that would “speed” along that process (there isn’t)…which led to looking at other apps, which led me to an old email with a link to a new WordPress plugin I wanted to try…which led to some other emails, and, I’ll admit, somehow Facebook wound up in the mix. Geez.

All I really wanted to do was write!

Is there any hope for us in 2012? Amidst apps and tweets and breaking-news-at-the-speed-of-light and all of the other things that captivate and entertain our senses? I sometimes feel like I’m at war within myself—I love technology (i.e. the Internet, Twitter, apps, my iPad, the entrepreneurial spirit of those creating these things) soooo much, and yet it can be such a hindrance to my own progress, both spiritually and practically.

I just keep feeling like I’m wasting time. Sometimes I care; sometimes I don’t.