Research, Learning and Development Plan Update

My plan is going along great so far. Everything new is in blue.

Physical—

Activity program—treadmill plus weights (I’ve already started with the weights along with the ankle exercises assigned from the doctor) I haven’t missed a day since I started and have a few sore muscles to prove it!

Bone health—-bone density test; OsteoStrong program 

Establishing a walking club—this will include walking prior to our Movie Mondays and Stitching Tuesdays.

Walking with the family—each at their own pace.

Biking (but that’s a long way off as I gain balance and confidence. I still hadn’t made it off the driveway without falling in to the landscaping). 

Get in the habit of wearing my fitbit again

Cleaning out this house. I’m putting this under physical because it will be a physical task to do it. Every closet and drawer is stuffed to the brim. I/we don’t need all this stuff. I should also probably list this under spiritual as it will make me feel really good to get a handle on what we have, need, want. 

Nutritional—

Healthier eating. With our first delivery of "Hello Fresh" this week, we're on the way. 

Focus on protein and calcium rich foods; fresh fruits and vegetables. I’ve been eating a lot of fresh fruit while it’s still good! Would like more vegetables, but some of those are not in Butch’s wheelhouse.

Continuing to share meals out with family/friends.

Limiting meals out—and choosing some healthier options than just the 1/2 order approach.

Continue with Lean Cuisines a couple times a week. I like them, so it’s not that hard. I just need to add a salad or veggie to make them seem more like a real meal. 

Go back to drinking water—just about exclusively. 

I know I should be doing something about eliminating processed foods, but I’m not ready to go there. I’m giving myself time to get a handle on other areas of nutrition. 

Eliminate artificial sweeteners. I only use Equal for my tea. I’m down to about 2 packs a day already, so this should not be so hard. I’ll go back to sugar if necessary. I've eliminated Equal in my tea now. Still, I’m drinking some flavored waters with artificial sweeteners. 

Spiritual—

I’ve been interested in getting in to a Bible study for a long time, but haven’t taken any steps along those lines. Mostly, I’ve never liked the times those things meet. I don’t want to do things at night—I’m a morning person. Instead, I’m turing to the internet. I just want something simple to remind me to think about my spirituality and count my blessings every day. Maybe even just dusting off my daily devotional will be enough. Just something to keep me mindful of the fact that there is more to me than just me and to be grateful for that. I’ve found a program that I plan to start as soon as I can be up and around. The program involves the treadmill. I like the idea of killing two birds with one stone.

I want to spend more time in my garden. I have plenty of nice places to just sit and reflect. But, it’s the mosquitoes and use of bug spray that deters me. I need to change that. 

Learning—

Everything computer related falls under here. I want to watch a lot of tutorials.I think I’m giving up the foreign language thing as I don’t want to study too much. I have already watched endless videos on different scrapbooking techniques and ideas for organization. I've watched several "Ted Talks" that were interesting too.

I love to learn, but don’t really know what else I’d like to learn. I’m sure I’ll make some fun discoveries. I’ve signed up for a great books program through Hillsdale College. I love to read and I love book clubs, so this was a no-brainer. This free course studies the classics.The first book I've chosen is Pride and Prejudice: the role of reason in the pursuit of happiness. Okay, yeah, this might be a little too deep for me. I always say, I'm not really a deep thinker.

Along the lines of learning and nutrition, I’ll try to focus on simple, yet tasty, low calorie meals. Is there really such a thing? Well, I’ve already signed up with Cooking Light to give it a try. I’ll be sure to share the recipes. Since I can’t cook yet, I’ve been adding the recommended recipes that I know I’d like to try to my favorites. There are many that will be too time consuming, but some seem pretty quick and easy.

Giving Back—

I’ve been a full time volunteer most of my married life. I officially retired from all of the fund raising in 2000—with just a couple projects since then. I’ve always felt like I’ve “done my part” by the time I retired. And I feel like what I do spend time on regarding organizing my friends and their memory keeping is worthwhile. I try to keep the focus on telling the stories of our lives. But maybe I need to do more.

I’ve already volunteered to head up a committee that would make sure the scholarship recipients at St. Cecilia would be able to more fully participate in options closed to them due to financial need. That’s not off the ground yet, but I have quite a few ideas. And plenty of people to call on to help—there’s winter formal, prom, winterim programs, senior pictures, yearbooks—I want those girls to have the full SCA experience. 

Just Plain Fun/Social—

Stitching

Reading

Netflix

Blogging

Scraobooking—Album planning—develop AYM workshop for 2017 (already done. I’m pretty excited because this new concept is not ANYTHING I’ve seen done yet! My girls will be happy!)

Update Making the Most of My Memories Workshop and get ready to teach it again. I’ve updated this workshop. I’ll get that off the ground some time this fall.

Visits from friends

Fishing—I can’t believe it’s been nearly a year since I fished for the first time in over 30 years. I really liked it, got a new rod and reel for Christmas—and have yet to try it out. 

I’m going to re-design my garden around the pool. I have some ideas, just need to do a little research before I set the plan. I've done all the research and have picked out the flowers and design I want. Hopefully I can get some of the plants this fall so they'll have a good length of time to adjust before next year's heat sets in.

Iron Chef Challenge—Malinda, Connie’s daughter, emailed me about this. It sounds like so much fun. I am definitely doing this during the fall. More details once I get it organized.

Halloween brunch/luncheon as a way to thank all of my friends that have brought food and been so attentive to me during this time.

Organizing—-EVERYTHING—yes, this is fun to me (So far, I put nearly 400 photos in to an album for Mindy’s wedding. I’ve already cleaned up and re-organized digital photos on my computer. Add to that—I re-organized ALL of my fonts. I added at least a hundred new ones. I love fonts.) I’ve made lots of lists—I’m a list person. One list I’m really excited about is “New Restaurants to Try in Nashville.”  I had a pretty extensive one that I lost when I got my new computer last year.

Outings—

I had already planned an outing for September to the White’s Creek Flower Farm. I’ve had to postpone that. Spring might be better anyway.

I need to get the beach trip with my cousins back on the books—since I’ve had to cancel. (Already done. We’re going in March. It might not be the best beach time, but just being together will be fun no matter what we do.)

I completely forgot to add a new outing that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. Once a month, my friends and I will go to a new local restaurant for lunch. I’ve already got the list started! I’ll have to come up with a clever name. 

Of course, we’ll continue with Movie Monday and Stitching Tuesday.

Reschedule my trip to Charlotte for January or February. (This will be easy to do once Sandy gets the school schedule.)

Plan my winter trip to St. Louis. I like to go twice a year—January and August. I’m most likely going to go sometime through the Christmas holidays this year since Butch will be in Belize with Mitchell. Maybe I’ll go for New Years!

Our girls trip to New York is next spring. I had only done some preliminary planning for that. (I’ve gotten this back on the books and have done some planning). We’ve gotten the shows we want to see figured out, so I can go ahead with getting the tickets. I'm also starting to work on the itinerary. We're going for 4 days this time, so that will give us more time. 

Our book club has a trip to England on the calendar for next September to visit our friend/member, Diane. That’s definitely something to look forward to. (This is in the very preliminary stages, but I’ve put together a list of things to do when we’re there. For many it will be their first trip to England. I’m determined to get to Hampton Court this time—no mater what!).

And there you have it. People keep asking me if I'm bored after sitting around for 6 weeks now. As you can see, I might be sitting, but I've been busy. I NEVER get bored! I'm the type that says, "Ooooh, what do I want to do now with all this free time?" Sometimes, it's hard to decide!