Update on my "resolutions"

I did a lot of reading this weekend, and it got me to thinking about the "resolutions" I set out to work on during this year. If you will recall this post, you'll remember that I tried to keep things simple. Four categories: reading more, sorting my mail, getting into shape, and taking care of myself.

So after about 10 months of trying, I figure I should see how I've been doing.

Read more
To date, I've read about 1000 times more this year than I did last year. If you knew how much I read last year, however, this would not impress you very much. But in the spirit of optimism, I will say that I am proud of myself. Here are some books I've read so far this year:

• Don't waste your life: so, I kind of gave up on this one. I've tried starting it twice and have failed both times. Third time is a charm?
• One night at the call center: I read it on the tail end of our trip to India. Quick read, but it made me a little sad.
• Life of Pi: I really liked this one. I'm not always a huge fan of stories about boats, but this one kept me going page after page.
• Ella Minnow Pea: I really liked this book, too. Very creative take on things...I love language anyways, so this was really interesting to see the various twists and turns the autor took as the story progressed.
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Wow. I've had this on my "to read" list for over a year. We read "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" back in third grade, but I had never read the whole series. I'm loving it. I think it deserves a re-read if it's been awhile since you've read it. I'm about 2/3 through it, and hope to finish "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" either today or tomorrow. Our pastor mentioned "The Silver Chair" in his sermon yesterday, and I'll likely start that later this week. Seriously - check it out. More info here: Wikipedia

Sorting my mail:
Note - getting married and moving do not alleviate this problem in any way. The problem has multiplied, and is only made worse by the idea of attempting to change my name. So, that being said, we're better off today than we were last week at this time. At least we have piles that actually mean something. Before, they were just random stacks. Now, it's a sign that the idea of "being organized" is actually taking root. We have seedlings of organization throughout the house. Yes, that's what they are. Not stacks. Not piles. Not scary boxes we're afraid to open. Seedlings.

Getting into shape:
I will say this - my legs were so sore this week from "leg day at the gym" that it was difficult to walk. At times, after "arm day" it is challenging to brush my teeth. However, I am in better shape today than I was in January. And I'm all the better for it. I have a tricep, people. In fact, I have two!! Yeah, it's pretty awesome. Oh, and we're eating much better now than we used to be. At least, we're making the effort to do so...

Taking care of myself:
I'd say overall, things are going well on this front. This is tightly coupled with the idea of getting into shape. But in accordance with a previous post, I measured how my compulsive nail biting is going. I would say I'm still at about a 90% success rate. Even though work was stressful as of late, my fingers did not take a beating. Yippee!

P.S. Blogger spell check isn't working for me now, so I apologize in advance for any blunders...