Wow

I seem to have missed an entire year on my blog. I must have been busy but I can't remember what occupied my attention. Of course, at my age, one doesn't expect to remember much... My son came home from Korea and now he's off again for a year. It was wonderful to have him here during some of the holiday season.

I am an Ambassador for Barefoot Books, which means I sell them. I'm not sure why I get involved in these kinds of things, I'm a wretched salesman. I love these books though. They're very colorful and diverse and there are books for infants to young teens. Maybe I'm grasping after homeschooling - I do miss it. If you ever want to buy some charming books for someone check out my website                                           

I made a list of New Year's goals. So far I'm not doing so well but, I figure, a goal is something you work toward, right? I still have 11 months to accomplish something. This is what I decided to work on this year:
1. Read the entire Bible (three chapters a day). This one I'm doing pretty well with.
2. Do The Happiness Project. Not completely sure what I mean by do. This is a book by Gretchen Rubin and my daughter and I are reading it but haven't really done a lot as far as implementing the ideas. I guess we'll figure this out as we read the book.
3. Read a book about writing every two months.
4. Check my blood sugar level three to four times a day and write it down. The writing down is very difficult for me which makes it hard to see patterns so my insulin can be adjusted. Intellectually I know I need to do this. I don't know why it's so difficult but it's only been 43 years since I was diagnosed and some things take a while to sink in....
5. Exercise five or more days a week.
6. Read 50 books this year. This seems a little pathetic since I love books but for the past few years I've completely lost my reading mojo. I'm not sure why; I have much worse eyesight now, age is messing me up, who knows, but last year I seemed to come out of my funk a little so I'd like to get back to reading more consistently.
7. Write five days a week. Writing is a long-held dream.
8. Get to bed earlier and wake up earlier. Hard when it's cold!
9. Restart blog - Yay, here I am.
10. Work on a new craft quarterly. I started with knitting and I'm aggravated by how hard this skill is for me. I am trudging on though and hopefully I'll get it.
11. Keep in touch. I am very bad at keeping in touch with people. I think up clever letters in my head all the time but I never seem to get them written. It's reached a point where a beloved family member has told me everyone thinks I don't care. Ouch, so not true.

Anyway, there they are. Obviously I'm mostly telling myself I need to get off my butt and DO something this year. I move slowly but hopefully I will make progress now that I've embarrassed myself with putting this out there. How are you doing in 2014?  

Dino Lingo

Dino Lingo was received as a complimentary part of the Mom VoxBox from Influenster for review. Dino Lingo is a language program designed for young children to learn common words and phrases in a foreign language. They currently have over 20 languages to choose from. I sampled a Korean lesson on their website at www.dinolingo.com. It started with very upbeat music and fun cartoon animals and dinosaurs. It then gave me words in print as well as spoken for different animals which were shown in videos. It was very colorful and lively and definitely designed to keep a child's attention. The program is made up of five DVDs, 100 flash cards, posters, and a parent's guide. The program is intended for children ages 2-7 and will teach basic phrases and the names of everyday objects. It provides a perfect start to learning a second language. 

Impress Press On Manicure

I received a complimentary set of Impress Press On Manicure nails from Influenster's Mom VoxBox. With Broadway nails Impress Press On Manicure you can do your own manicure in seconds. They say you can "simply peel off, press on, and you're done" and it really is that easy. You don't have to wait for your nails to dry and they do look quite professional on your nails. They claim to last up to a week and they did last well for me. There are 36 colors and patterns to choose from. Their animal prints are adorable. Their website is www.impressmanicure.com and they have an app on the site that lets you try out the different colors and patterns. Check it out!

Quaker Soft Baked Oatmeal Cookies

I received a "Mom VoxBox" from Influenster with several items to test and review. One of the items I received was a Quaker Soft Baked Oatmeal Cookie. This cookie is made with whole grain Quaker oats and is a good source of fiber. The cookie had a very pleasant texture, just soft enough without being cakey. The flavor was excellent. The size was great for a snack and sells for $2.69 in a box of six.

I think for convenience this is a great item for snacking on occasionally. At 6 grams of fat, it's a little high in fat to eat on a regular basis for me, but it was definitely a yummy 'once in a while" treat.

Ouch

Ouch! I haven't been here in a long time. Consistency is my downfall. I keep thinking I'll conquer it, but it keeps creeping back, or soaring back as the case may be.

A few exciting things have happened in the interval. I am now a Stella and Dot Stylist, which is going to be a lot of fun. I love baubles and bangles and, hopefully, this will help me get out and socialize more. I tend to be a homebody and time just passes by and I don't realize I haven't been out in ages. I also am an independent consultant for a great "smelly-good" company called Perfectly Posh and am trying to get that up and going as well. Regardless of what happens, I should look good and smell marvelous.

My son is coming home for a visit before he heads to Korea for a year. So much better than the last time he headed off for a while (Afghanistan), but still, a year is a long time. I'll miss him. We're actually straightening the house up a bit for his visit - though, I don't know why. He did grow up here. Straightening in this house is quite a challenge. We have more books than there are blades of grass in our yard, I think that's really not an understatement. Every time I go to put something away or find a space for something, the intended space is full of books. Some are homeschool books which we probably could get rid of but so many of them hold wonderful memories and there are the future grandchildren, right?

Anyway, sorry I've been inconsistent. I'm moving forward with a plan to be more diligent in getting it all done, if the books don't side-track me.

Nina

Ch...ch..changes

I am about to jump off a very high cliff into uncharted waters for the first time in my life. I'm thinking 53 years is probably long enough to play it safe. It's the risk-takers who go places after all. Some of this new venture has been thrust upon me due to issues of health, but some of it is a desire to not miss chasing the dreams that I haven't caught yet. There are several out there and they're clamoring for my attention pretty loudly. So, Friday will be my last day of work in a conventional job. It's a little scary, actually very scary, especially considering the fact that there are health-related issues and I very likely will no longer have health insurance. I've been a type 1 diabetic for 42 years. I've never been without health insurance. Not really sure how that is going to work, but, for now, it's what I have to do. I've developed a few complications from the overly sweet blood coursing through my veins for all these years, mainly a neuropathic foot, which means when I face north my toes on my left foot face slightly west. It sounds like such a small problem but medical authorities are telling me it is a big deal and I need to stay off of it for a long time.

My plan is to work on getting my body ready to last another half century. That will take some time. I want to start putting some of these characters running around in my head on paper. I'm going to de-stress, and cook all kinds of things, from the comfort of a chair, of course, and I'll play on Twitter, because I really like it, and it makes me feel like less of a recluse. I would like to take some classes online. I'm going to snog the dogs and listen to my daughter talk about her new writing projects, and school, and guys, and all that fun stuff Moms get to do.

So, the adventure begins. There may be some tossing on stormy seas for some of the way but the horizon is out there and I know the colors will be gorgeous.

Nina

Raising Dollars

I found a reputable, supposedly, Work-from-Home site and I checked it out. There were numerous suggestions for taking surveys and getting paid, and trying offers for pay. I looked into a couple of them and spent most of my day off yesterday filling out forms and opting to try things for free or a tiny amount of money. After the entire day, I think I made eight dollars. It seems there is no easy way to make money. Unfortunately, in the economy of today, there is no harder way either. I continue to look for jobs and I don't intend to give up until I find something that pays better than my current job, which pays barely more than my survey-taking fiasco yesterday. I think part of the secret to success is to just keep moving forward even when things seem pretty hopeless. It takes more persistence than talent, right. That's my theory and for now I'm sticking with it.