New Year's resolutions

You thought you were done reading blog posts about resolutions, right?  Wrong!  Here's one more.  I purposely didn't post it until now.  :) 

During the first week of January, it feels like the whole world is talking about resolutions, and a lot of people actually make some.  I did, too.  However, I've decided that mine is too personal to share.  Not personal as in, I don't want you to know what my resolution is because it's private.  Personal like, I want to know at the end of this year that I kept (or didn't keep) my resolution solely because of myself.  [and Heavenly Father]  I don't want reminders or encouragement from family or friends; I don't want to feel pressured to blog about my progress; I don't want to ever be asked about my resolution outside of maybe comments on this post.  I want all of you to pretend, at least while we're talking to each other in real life, like this post doesn't exist.  Because this resolution is more important to me than some, and more possible than many, and I know how happy I will be if I keep it and want to know it was because of my own desire and determination.

That said, I will tell you parts of it.  Goals should be SMART, right?  That is to say, goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.  If I learned anything from my home teachers growing up, it was how to make goals.  They had us make them one year and then checked up on us every month to see how we were doing.  For some reason it stands out as a traumatic memory in my mind, but it was an extremely effective way for me to learn about goals and I've never forgotten it.  [Shout-out to Brother and Alex D!]  

Anyway, off that tangent.  So, my overarching resolution is more of an ART goal - it's neither specific nor measurable.  To fix that, I have mini goals for each month.  When I've reached them, I will also have reached my overarching goal.  At that point I'll tell you what it was.  My hope is that doing each mini goal for a month will help make it a habit, but even if none of them turn into habits, I'll still be on track.

Well, it's the end of Month One!  My goals this month were to make the bed every day and to keep our bedroom clean (with Joel's help on both), and I'm happy to say we were successful!  We weren't 100%, but we were close enough that I feel good calling it a success.  It is marvelous to come home at the end of a long day and go into a bedroom with a made bed.  Everything looks neater when the bed is made.  It's also wonderful to wake up in a clean room.  And it feels really great to climb into bed knowing that, when there was some stuff on the floor today, you put it away, and if you have to go to the bathroom tonight, you won't step on anything pointy or important.

Here's to Month Two!

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"There's one - the Cruciatus Curse," said Neville in a small but distinct voice.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

decompressing

Usually when I talk about decompressing, I accidentally say "decomposing" instead.  For those of you who are unaware, there's a big difference.

This woman is decompressing:

This woman is decomposing:

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"'Not nice,' he said calmly.  'Not pleasant.  And there's no countercurse.  There's no blocking it.  Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me.'"

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Airborne Gummies

I got a free bottle of Airborne's new stuff in return for an honest review, so I'm sharing my review with you lucky ducks!  

First off, I was super excited to get them in the mail because it was a FULL-SIZED bottle!  Not just a sample!  And I was really curious about the fact that these new supplements are gummies.  I'm not usually a big fan of the taste of Airborne, so I thought if these were gummies, maybe they'd be designed for kids and have better flavor.  

When I got them, I actually put off eating them for several days because - I'll be honest - they look weird.  They have granulated sugar on the outside, so the inside of the bottle has sugar all over it.  For some reason that made me think they were going to be gross.  Plus, the label says they have "35 mg of Herbal Blend including Echinacea and Ginger."  Basically, I was expecting to eat a gummy that tasted like herbs with sugar on top.

WRONG!  These are seriously delicious.  When I first read that three gummies were one serving and an adult could have up to three servings per day, I was skeptical.  "Who wants to eat that many herby supplements?"  The answer: Me and Joel.  They're really good!  They legitimately taste like what they're supposed to [pink = grapefruit, red = mixed berry].  I want to eat them like candy.

Anyway, I'm not supposed to tell you that these prevented me from getting sick, protected me from germs (especially in crowded places), reduced the severity of my cold, or anything like that.  I will, however, tell you that Airborne Gummies are the tastiest "immune system support" I've ever eaten, and if you ever feel yourself in need of an "immune support supplement" or "blast of Vitamin C plus 9 Vitamins, Minerals & Herbs," you should try these.

Oh, and here's a coupon if you want one!  http://smiley360.com/2635371.cfm

Also: If you're interested in getting free products for reviewing, use my referral link!  :)  Click here.  

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“It was the right thing to do, and so 'twas the only thing.”

Anne’s House of Dreams

tapes of the cassette variety

I recently decided to reread Harry Potter.  At the same time, Joel decided the same thing!  So we've been going through them together, with me reading it aloud.   We're on the fourth book right now, and while we were home for Christmas, we decided to take advantage of the fact that my parents own the fourth book on tape.  I love Jim Dale.  

We had to leave before we finished, and Joel suggested that we look at buying the audio files to listen at home.  He also loves Jim Dale.  So I checked, and the audio files cost $40-$60!  WHAT!  Well, when they're read by Jim Dale.  Less famous readers obviously cost less.  But the Jim Dale tapes only cost $10.  

At first I thought it was sad and wondered if it would be worth it to buy the tapes instead.  They're obviously lower quality... I don't really care about that, actually, especially as far as books are concerned.  But people say it.  But then I actually thought about it.  Tapes may be outdated.  They may not be the "coolest" way to listen to stuff.  BUT.  Think about it!  For an audiobook, I think tapes are the best option.  If you're listening to an audiobook on CD and want to go to bed in the middle of the chapter, you have to stop it.  You can't leave it on pause all night!  So, you've lost your place.  If you're listening on an mp3 player, you can pause a track in the middle and leave it, but you can't listen to anything else before you finish the track or you'll lose your place again!  Tapes, on the other hand, you can pause in the middle and leave as long as you want.  You can listen to anything else afterward without losing your place.  If you want to listen to a sentence again, you can rewind it real quick without worrying about restarting the whole chapter on accident.  And there's the added benefit that the whole world doesn't know this [or doesn't care about audiobooks], so tapes are also cheaper.  

Guess who just bought Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on tape?

Well, not me yet, but I'm about to.

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“It won’t take long to stay an hour.”

Anne's House of Dreams