The Goal Board

When I worked out my resolutions for the year, I thought it would be nice to make them all pretty and stick them on a wall or something.  Like a vision board, but without the usual stuff that often goes along with them.  Before today, I just had the resolutions written out on a piece of notepaper.  I could predict it would go astray within another month.  Today at the gym, there was a snippet on the tv about having a vision board and I thought, I should totally do this.  I braved the Friday afternoon shopping centre (never good for my state of mind), and visited the stationery department of Kmart.  Magnetic board for $8.  Done. 

I haven't worked out a good place for it yet.  The spot I thought would work really well is still a maybe (adjacent to the kitchen, next to my Camerata calendar), but not a definite.  The placement of the calendar means the goal board would be either too high or too low.  So I'm still looking for a place where it will be readily visible for me but not my students, and looking for some colourful things to attach. 

In Retrospect - Second Quarter

It's that time of year.  3 months since my last retrospective, so here's how I feel I've changed since then.

Food:  Something you wouldn't know - unless you've been spying on me in a serious way - is that my school lunches have changed.  For quite some time (more than a year, that is), my school lunches were really predictable.  This term, I've started taking non-salads occasionally.  Especially welcome in colder weather to have a hot lunch!  A great food behaviour change has been the introduction of No Cook Weeks.  These are the greatest.  I have fresh organic fruit and veges delivered every fortnight, and the week following will be a Cook Week, the week after a No Cook Week.  I still have quite a stash of frozen meals in the freezer, plus it's holidays right now and I'm cooking quite a lot, so this wonderful destress habit can continue for a while.  Knowing that I don't have to do anything except thaw and heat is such a calming feeling.  Obviously, I love cooking, but I love not needing to cook as well.  An added benefit is I am more likely to cook the fresh produce before it's past its best instead of needing to ditch it.  The other food behaviour change is another not many would have noticed - I no longer buy peanut butter.  I gave it up for Lent, then went a bit crazy with it after Easter.  Peanut butter is no longer my friend.  I had decided I couldn't trust myself with it, when a quote came up on Facebook - if you can't eat it responsibly, don't keep it in your house.  Good advice.

Clothes:  The 'search keywords' that lead people to this blog are usually fairly ordinary (recipes, movies, that sort of thing).  By far the most searched item though is stockings.  This has been a bit of a surprise... and a little unnerving...  Nevertheless, I am far more adventurous with my stockings now, and they definitely initiate comments and conversations.

Organisation:  I have a slightly more organised house.  Not by much, but every little bit helps, right?

Photography:  I'm loving the Daily Photo.  Partly, it's feeling like I have an excuse to take those photos I'd normally walk past because I'm a local.  But I'm also enjoying getting up close and personal with my environment again, and seeing my world through the lens again.  And seeing the colours in the northwest of the state - so different from Brisbane! - made for an even more interesting trip to Mt Isa and Townsville.

Running:  This feels like the big one.  Running is a brain thing for me, and to train for the half marathon involved not just running but brain training as well.  Taking different routes and doing different gym workouts, as well as different running shoes and tweaking little things about my running practice - these all helped the Gold Coast Half Marathon to be a successful and positive experience for me.  Having run many, many kilometres in these shoes now, one big bonus about them is the grip.  To get anywhere, I need to run down a fairly steep hill, which is often (usually) covered in leaves.  When it's been raining, this makes for a slippery descent.  Similarly, the downhill slopes on the bike path can be a bit on the slippery side after (or during) rain.  I can feel these shoes really gripping though, and I no longer worry I'm going to slip.

Coffee and Movies:  Looking at the list of blog posts for the last 3 months, I see a lot of coffee places listed...  Now when I have a catch up with someone, we purposely find somewhere I haven't been before, so it can get to the blog.  I also see on the list many movies I wouldn't normally have watched.  I like that people will ask if I've seen something, then if I haven't they loan it to me.  This is not just broadening my movie experience, but I am flattered that people want to know what I think!

The Term 2 Goals:  Well.  The facial expressions were a bit of a disaster after the first week or so - it was so hard!  I am very pleased to report, though, that I was successful in putting away teaching materials after each day.  I think I can say now that the practice has now become a habit.  Woohoo!

Tuesday's Daily Photo:

Gin cocktails - experimental, of course!  Needs something like lemonade or tonic water.  But, the shelves looked far more interesting through the glass.

Term 2 Goals

I was hoping for a far more inventive title for this post.  Oh well.

Term 2 starts today, and I have a couple of goals.  One I was going to aim for last term...but here's to a new term. 

Goal #1: To clear away all teaching things at the end of each teaching day.  This photo is how I would like it to look - and (yay for me!) this is how it looked after I'd taught today's kids. 

Goal #2: Well, this needs a bit of background.  It has been mentioned by readers of this blog that I look taciturn in my outfit photos.  Yes, taciturn.  I have a feeling the word sought was something along the lines of 'not joyous', but it did make me think.  I mean, it takes many many photos to get one that is blog-worthy, and I have a greater understanding for models who look totally and utterly bored - after the first 3 or so my happy face has worn off and I just want to get a photo that is flattering and has my feet and head.  It's tougher than I anticipated.  The other part of this is that I know that I have pretty much 2 photo faces - smiling, and bored.  So, my Goal #2 is to have different facial expressions for my outfit photos.  And, to make it slightly more entertaining for me, I'm going to try to copy someone else's expression. 

Tomorrow's outfit photo, then...