My View of 2014

January 1st. A day for looking both forward and back. I spent some time yesterday looking over the photos I took in 2014, trying to mentally select some for one of those year-end reviews I usually do, but the format for how to do it just wasn’t coming to me. I think my photography lost some focus, figuratively and literally, last year as my focus was in other places. 2014 was a year of changes and struggles, but of triumphs as well. My photography became more about story-telling and memory-keeping than of creating technically good photographs. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing. I do, however, miss having a lot of those moments when I sat back and reviewed my shots on any given day and thought to myself, wow, I really like that one.

These days I really am about moving forward and continually trying to discover and create a better me. However, 2014 had some moments I will chronicle here that were big and small parts of becoming who I am today, and who I will be as I continue to find my place in my changing world.

This book was the inspiration for my approach to 2014. I honestly did try to find as much joy as possible in the events of my life. There were definitely several days throughout the year where this proved impossible: the closing of our home away from home, our dance studio, finding out that I would not be a candidate for the teaching job at my school for which I had been hoping dearly for 9 years and, worst of all, learning that my best friend in the world since I was 6 years old had breast cancer.

I do believe that things happen for a reason, although I’m sure there will never be one for my friend going through this horrible experience. She is an amazing woman, currently undergoing chemotherapy. She is unbelievably strong, even keeping her wicked sense of humor that I love so much about her intact. We are counting down the days with her until chemo is done – January 27th is her last treatment. Celebrations will surely be planned.

2014 was a full year of taking better care of me physically. I began what I consider to be a new way of life, a new way of thinking about and experiencing health and fitness. I eat as “clean” as possible, meaning as many whole, one-ingredient foods or minimally processed foods as I can. I workout 4 to 5 days a week. As I result I’ve lost about 20 pounds and I’m feeling more physically fit than I remember for most of my life. Hopefully this work will result in a me who is ready to live fully and experience many new things as the future comes our way.

It was a year of keeping connections with an amazing group of friends. I’ve mentioned before how much these people mean to me, and I do believe that what we have is unique for adults in our age group. The fact that this connection that began in the 1980’s when we were teenagers (earlier for some of the guys here) and continues to the new generation of our children, who are now becoming adults, is surely not something that happens every day.

It was a year about discovering, defining and accepting my place and who I am to these two wonderful young women. My changing role as a mother has not been an easy one for me to come to terms with. The loving, caring about, trying my best for, doing whatever I can for them will never ever change, but I know now that I am no longer the director of their life experiences. It is now my job to support their decisions, offer guidance when asked for and be here for them whenever they need me.

It was the year I got to experience teaching in my own classroom, albeit temporarily, for the first time. My time as 6th grade math teacher is now winding down. I will have only two weeks left of this excellent opportunity when we return to school from this holiday break. I have no idea if this experience will lead me somewhere in the future, but I have loved every moment of it – the teaching, the planning, the kids, even the correcting.

The more that I scroll through my Flickr feed as I’ve composed this post, more I realize that I did have at least a few of those “aha” moments with my photography. As I said earlier, not necessarily in the creation of a technically good photo, but photos that bring me joy from the memory or the simple beauty of the moment. Here are a few of them.

Here’s to a happy and healthy 2015 full of promise and hope.

My Changing Ways

It has been a year since I made a new committment to changing my body, my health, myself. I announced it in this blog post. I did a few updates about how things are going throughout the year. You can see those posts, if you are interested, here, here and here.

By the numbers, I am about 25 pounds lighter than the heaviest weight I’ve ever been in my life that was not due to pregnancy, and I am wearing clothing sizes that are 2-3 sizes smaller than the size I figured I’d be wearing for the rest of my life. But this is about so much more than numbers. I feel so much better about myself in many ways. I have more energy when I get up in the morning. I truly don’t remember the last time I felt sick. My frequent headaches of the past are for the most part distant memories. I feel confident when I walk into a room. I enjoy going shopping for clothes and trying them on.

I’ve moved through new levels of exercise over the course of the year. I started out last year with trying to make exercise a habit rather than a second thought. I worked through Rockin’ Body by Shaun T and several Jillian Michaels videos. I discovered I liked the way Shaun T’s Focus 25 fit into my life and gave me results I could see. I recently started the 3rd level of T25 known as “Gamma”, which includes lots of weight lifting.

My tastes have changed too over the course of this year. I’ve lost many cravings for the not-so-good-for-me foods and learned to enjoy foods that I would not have bothered with in the past. I never want “fast food” anymore and I can’t tolerate the sicky-sweet way I used to drink coffee. Eggs are a regular part of my diet, as are homemade protein shakes, for examples. And I don’t feel deprived either. One day a week I have a “treat day” and eat whatever I feel like; it is good both psychologically and physically. I am eating well and I don’t count calories.

Here’s a look photographically at my progress.

The only pictures of me from approximately 1 year ago are all bundled up, understandable since it is November, so I went back to Meghan’s graduation in June of 2013 to find a full-length shot of how I was looking when all this began.

A little closer to a year ago, Halloween Murder Mystery party 2013:

April of this year:

June:

July:

Last month:

My journey continues.

ETA: When I first posted this yesterday, I included two small photos of myself, post-workout. I am dressed in a sports top and shorts, posing to try to accentuate the muscles I’m starting to build. I hemmed and hawed a bit about it. Then I came back again last night and deleted them, feeling like maybe posting something like that could be construed as somehow inappropriate. If you choose to comment, could you tell me your opinion of posting such pictures?

ETA (2) Okay, the pictures are back. We will see for how long 😉

More “-ings” of Life These Days

Back in the summer time (*sigh* it seems so very far away right now), I wrote a post called “The -ings of getting ready for vacation”. I’ve got more “ings” to share with you, of the things that are occupying my days 3 months later.

Data entering
This is the reality of education today. Government requires the collection of data to make sure that we teachers are doing our job and making sure the students are getting the common core standards. This is a screenshot showing a sample of the 1100 pieces of data I needed to enter into a program that analyzes such data.

Paper correcting
I’m teaching operations with fractions these days – adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.

Preparing
I really do love my current teaching position. It will be difficult when January 20th arrives and I have to hand it over to the permanant teacher. I’m planning to take the middle school math MTEL to add a math grades 5-9 certification to my other licenses and hopefully make myself more marketable as a teacher in the future.

Discovering
A pear for the teacher? Yup. I’m continuing on my path of better eating and fitness. I find myself scouring fresh and whole food style markets looking for different foods to enjoy. Last week I found these really delicious Asian pears that have a creamy vanilla flavor to them.

Lifting
I’ve added heavier and more frequent weight lifting to my fitness regime. That is a 15 pound kettle bell in the background, and 8 pound dumbbells in the front. The one year anniversary of my new commitment to fitness is approaching in a few days, and I am hoping to share a 1 year retrospective with you on that date.

The end of the year is rapidly approaching. Many other “ings” will soon be occupying my time and probably yours too: raking, shopping, cooking, eating, celebrating. Any “ings” that you are especially looking forward to?

Sharing Answers to Interesting Questions

I found today while reading Carol’s post at Wanderings of an Elusive Mind that Cee has some intriguing questions this week. Sharing my world with Cee is always a great place to jump start a blogging block.

1. What is your most vivid memory of the kitchen in your childhood? I have this really strong memory of my parents doing some remodeling in the kitchen. I think they were taking down the paneling you see in this shot to left of me (that’s my sister in the foreground) and the big yellow refridgerator:

I can’t remember what they put up in its place, but I remember that my sister and I were allowed to doodle on the wall before whatever the replacement was went up. When my parents sold that house, we always wondered if the new owners would have a laugh when they some day discovered what was on the wall!

2. As a child, who was your favorite relative? I’m assuming this question means a relative outside of your immediate, nuclear family that you grew up with, at least that is how I am interpeting it. I’d have to say my Uncle Sonny. He’s pictured here between my mom and her husband:

Uncle Sonny (real name Maurice, but my grandmother called him “sonny” therefore he became Uncle Sonny to me) is 21 years older than my mother – he is the eldest of 9 children in the family where my mother is the youngest. He is much more like a grandfather to me than my actual grandfathers were, neither of whom I knew very well when they were alive.

3. What did you like or not like about the first apartment you ever rented? I never rented an apartment. It’s one of things I feel I missed out on in life – living in a place that was just mine. I went from living with my family to living with my husband in the house we still live in today.

4. What kind of TV commercial would you like to make? Describe it. I’d make a public service announcement for taking responsibility in life and passing that responsibility on to your children when you decide responsibly to become a parent. I feel there are so many bad cycles in life that could be broken if everyone was responsible for their own actions and didn’t expect other people or the government or lawyers to step in and fix things. Take credit where credit is due and accept the blame if it is yours.

Because I don’t feel I could leave a blog post on a sour note like this and because my daughter just sent me a video clip of ballroom contestants marching into the room to the famous John Phillips Souza march that opens every episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus…

and now for something completely different…

A totally relaxed kitty from our last visit to Pickity Place who cares nothing about what I choose to babble on about in this space!

Flowing with the Go

Things have been changing around here, life has been different. I told you in this post about moving Meghan into college. She’s been there just over two weeks now; I still have sad moments and feel the void but I think I’m starting to adjust. I’m back to work/school and having that routine helps. I’ve also started some projects around the house that I’ve wanted done for a long time. They are only in the beginning stages, but I am looking forward to the results.

The first order of business was my dining room rug. I’ve shown you the spot where I sit and write these blog posts in more than one post, but I remember taking you on a little tour of my house in this post. If you are someone who likes to picture things as you’re reading, you might like to take a peek there. Anyway, I’ve ripped out that rug. It has been here more than 20 years and it was showing its age with stain and smell. So here’s the room without the rug:

It has a nice hardwood floor underneath and I am hoping to hire someone very soon to come and refinish it, then get an area rug for under the table. Since we had to empty the room to pull up the rug, poor Meghan’s room got to be the storage space for a lot of the dining room’s contents:

Home improvement is a little like that children’s book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie…

Do you know that story? A kid gives a mouse a cookie, and then he wants a glass of milk, then he wants a napkin or to wash his hands or something like that, and the story keeps going and going and getting bigger and bigger. I pulled up the rug, knowing the floor would need to be refinished, but then realized the walls badly needed re-painting. When we started prepping for the paint, I noticed just how dusty my drapes are… you know what I mean?

Another project is finally in the works, one that I’ve yearned for for many years, and that I told you about in this post earlier this year. Yes, my friends, we have put a deposit down on a hot tub!

I’m waiting for our electrician to get back to me so we can figure out an installation date, but I am so excited about this I can barely stand it! It is going to go outside on my beloved deck.

Looking at it from this view, the hot tub will go in the area to the right of the stairs. Once it is here, my Saturday morning blog-writing may become just a little less frequent, lol (not that I have a schedule anyway, I do call this spot When I Feel Like It afterall!)

Next in line after the dining room floor and the hot tub, are the kitchen floor and the living room rug. The kitchen floor has looked worn and tired for a long time, and our living room rug has shown the ravages of being pet-owners. Once I get that new living room rug, I’m pretty sure I’d like to get new furniture…. damn, I am the mouse who got that cookie!

How about a tomato instead?

(One of my first 2-pound supersteaks from the garden this year)