purekatherine

The other day I got into a conversation with a friend about how frustrating it can be to try to make changes to your life. There’s all this stuff to be done and you want to do it all, so it seems totally overwhelming. What does that lead to? For me, it means sitting back and doing nothing.

So instead, I suggested something that we could do next year. We’re going to decide on 12 changes we want to make and incorporate them into our lives one by one. We’ll give each new change a month to take hold and become habit before going for the next one. That way we’ll have a drastic difference in our lives by the end of the year, but we won’t have made any dramatic changes.

Sounds kind of cool, huh?

I put the call out to twitter only a few minutes after deciding that we were going to do it, thinking that it would be really cool to have 12 people make 12 changes in the 12 months of 2012.

And then the responses came. We had 24 people interested in about an hour. In the 48 hours or so since then, we’ve grown to over 36!

This is looking like it could be something really awesome.

The conversation that Stephany and I had was about being healthier and making better food choices, but with almost 40 of us there will obviously be some varied goals. I know that Erini started a list and came up with way more than 12, while Grace doubted that she would think of 12 without seeing some other people’s lists. This is why this will make a fantastic group project!

We have just under 4 weeks until January 1. In that time, I’d love for everyone to come up with a list of at least 9 items. If we share those on blogs and through email, those who are having trouble coming up with 12 will be able to catch some inspiration and those who have more may be able to decide which ones they will have the best support on! Hopefully we’ll have a group blog to start sharing on soon, so we won’t have to rely on my shoddy ability to get email out to everyone!

I actually have the feeling that I’m going to have more than 12 things, and some of those I might decide to implement together. In that case, I might actually have 18 things on my list. Shocking and scandalous I know, but that’s the kind of thing that I mean, this is everyone’s project and we can all do it in our own way.

How about you? Want to join us? Make sure I have your email address and I’ll make sure that you’re on for future communications!

Let’s make some big changes in 2012!

If you need some inspiration, here’s my rough draft of things to change.

1. Drink more water every day.
2. Keep my place picked up every day.
3. Eat breakfast daily.
4. Bring lunch to work, cooking on the weekends.
5. Run at least once a week.
6. Wash my face every night.
7. Fold my laundry as soon as it’s done and PUT IT AWAY!
8. Blog twice a week.
9. Give or throw away a bag/box each week.
10. Read for 15 minutes each day.
11. Write a note to a friend every week.
12. File paperwork as it comes in.

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I’ve been slacking a bit this month. Lots of working and a little bit of socializing at just the right time has provided a situation in which I have neglected the the bag a day in October.

But Thursday night, even though I started work only 9 hours later, I started to get to work on the bathroom.

There is very little that I am donating from the bathroom. I am however throwing away or recycling a full bathroom garbage can of things!

I did not really get to the drawers in the bathroom, which aren’t on the list anyway and are already pretty well organized because they tend to be pretty dedicated to specific things. You know, one is all mani/pedi supplies That really means like 3 nail files and more nail polish than a casual user should have.

I picked up a bunch more hours at work and on Thursday I was reminded that I am house sitting for our neighbors this weekend starting, well, Thursday. I don’t know if I’ll be fitting in a lot of time for the bag a day, but I do have Monday off, so cross your fingers for me that I can get a decent chunk done then!

What have you gotten rid of lately?

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There you have it folks, the list of places I’m going to go through in my house/car this month and organize. Hopefully I will be throwing a lot of stuff out (which will include donating things) and just living with more space. It’d be nice to have more room to dance.

I kind of ran out of places, so I decided to add some projects like remaking some of the furniture that I have around and then sell it or donate it or something. Either way, it’s a step toward getting something out of my house. I also will be going through things like my old laptop. Since I finally got an external hard drive, if I can get that thing up again I can transfer my stuff over and share all sorts of old stuff with you guys!

I’m going to admit right now that I’m writing this at 10:47PM on Tuesday night and I have not yet done something for today. Tomorrow is a busy day, so I’m thinking that I might tackle the two bathroom cabinets tonight and see if I can’t do that in less than 10 minutes.

If I make that happen, I’ll update with another pic of those crossed out. Are they crossed out? Or will I have to do them after a full day of work and then a movie tomorrow (today)?

When I went to Goodwill on Monday, I ended up donating 10 boxes/bags of stuff. I plan on getting a receipt every time I go this month, and seeing just how many boxes I end up getting rid of. I’m hoping for more than 20 donated and 30 out of the house total. Wish me luck!

Are you getting rid of anything today?

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Remember when I posted about continuing these month long challenges into October, and that I was going to do something similar to this 40-day challenge?

I’d planned to write about this on the first of the month, but I was way more committed to this than I had realized!

I had a garage sale this weekend!

I made a little over $150, even after getting dinner on Saturday that provided me with leftovers for food all day Sunday.

My two biggest pieces didn’t sell, but a few of the other big pieces went, so I now have a bunch more room in storage. I’m headed today to get rid of one of my storage spaces, and if I can sell the stuff I posted on craigslist today, I’ll be able to take it down to a smaller space for about half the price of one that I’m using now.

I currently have my entire back seat filled with boxes to give to Goodwill today. This is way more than I would have come up with in three days on that list, so I’m going to give myself a pass today.

Instead of going through any specific spot today, I’m going to make a list of all the places I’m going to go through the rest of the month.

I’m not going to assign these spots specific days, as I know I’ve got some busy days coming up and I’d like to have easier days then, but I will have 28 more days to go!

Are you going to get rid of anything this month?

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If you are familiar with Ashley, especially if you follow her on twitter, you are also familiar with the word totes.

Ashley and I just “met” in January or February, and while I’d heard the word before, never had I experienced it being used by someone who had such a wide vocabulary at her disposal. The way that she would say, “totes” though would leave room for no other word. It seemed a little bit magic, it just fit so perfectly sometimes.

So I started saying it too.

I wasn’t entirely against it like some people are in the beginning, but I did not expect it to become what it has.

First it was just a twitter and gchat thing. You know just the internet, where people not only are accepting, and already know about these things, but also where they can google it to understand without having to bother asking about it.

And then I went to Vegas. You all know what Vegas was, it was an in-person meeting of the internet. What that means is that totes became a regularly uttered expression coming from my lips instead of my fingers.

I noticed about a week ago that it didn’t really stop after Vegas. I get some weird looks, and even though people don’t think I know, I get some eye rolls as well.

So now I’m going to pull back again. Part of the fun of totes was the internet quality of it and people not thinking I’m weird for saying it. I don’t plan on stopping that part at all, but I do think I’ll be slowing it down around the people I interact with face to face.

Unfortunately, they just don’t get it.

Do you do anything online that people don’t get in person? (Please don’t say shopping while nude.)

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I was not aware that it was possible to run half a foot, but indeed I did just that when I was standing in front of the open pantry downstairs and saw the Mint Milano cookies I bought the other day.

It was awesome.

I also wrote a list of 30 things to do before I turn 30! As of this August I will have 2 years to complete these tasks, and much of that time will be spent in a pretty intense teaching credential program. This does not give me much confidence in some of the tasks since they require not only time, but also money. Both of those things I will be sure to be short of until I am out of school, and the money part will probably continue for a while after that.

Because I want to feel special with more views, I’m gonna make you click to see the list. Because I know that some, perhaps many, of you are reading through a reader, I will be nice and give you a link to do just that.

Anything you think I’m missing? Anything you think is too much of a gimme?

Do/did you have your own list? How are you doing on it?

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I was supposed to write this post yesterday, but then my 5 month old niece was at my house and then I went wine tasting, so I got a little distracted. For those of you following along with this plan, sorry for the delay.

Just last week I posted about a new fun writing prompt I found and the semi-group project of using these silly prompts for blogs.

I thought about whether we should all pick our own of the prompts, or whether we should write about the same one and I’m thinking that picking our own is the best. Some of these things I really have nothing to write for, so why would I expect everyone to have experience with one I picked?

I’m going to do this for Thursday this week, and hope to keep it up for Thursday each week after that.

So this week will be a topic from “Grade 1″ on the Write Source. The options are as follows:

A special birthday
I’d like to see . . .
The biggest thing I ever saw
Noisy times and quiet times
I like to make . . .
What if toys could talk?
My shopping list
Don’t litter!
Big pets and small pets
Insects, insects everywhere
I’m happy when . . .
How plants grow
My adventure
Friendly places
My favorite foods
I know a lot about . . .
Picnic fun
Who’s at the zoo?
What will I share?
I rode on a . . .
The parade
I wonder why . . .
What’s under my bed?
What if I was 10 years old?
What makes me laugh?

I think that I’m going to go with, “What’s under my bed?” Though I won’t be writing it for a day or two, so that may change.

Let me know if you’re going to write and I’ll include a link to your blog! What topic do you think you’ll go with?

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If you blog, you understand the frustration of not knowing what to write about. There are probably things that you thought of only hours, maybe even minutes ago, that totally escape you now that you’re in front of a computer and able to get them into a more visceral form. If you’re on twitter, you’ve probably posted about it, much like Lauren did the other day. It started a fun conversation between she, Kaci and I, which ultimately ended up with me Googling “what should I write about?”

Well, just like it always does, Google came through for me!

Write Source was one of the first things to come up, and it’s kind of cute. It’s got really short prompts designed for journaling, and maybe for use in the classroom? It’s set up as though it could be for the classroom, so I went into teacher mode!

I suggested that Lauren, Kaci and I take on a grade a week for inspiration. Even though I was pretty sure that it was just the future English teacher in me who would be excited about this, and I promptly prepared myself for them to ignore the suggestion. They both went for it! Just another reason that I love the internet!

The “Grade 1″ suggestions are as follows…

A special birthday
I’d like to see . . .
The biggest thing I ever saw
Noisy times and quiet times
I like to make . . .
What if toys could talk?
My shopping list
Don’t litter!
Big pets and small pets
Insects, insects everywhere
I’m happy when . . .
How plants grow
My adventure
Friendly places
My favorite foods
I know a lot about . . .
Picnic fun
Who’s at the zoo?
What will I share?
I rode on a . . .
The parade
I wonder why . . .
What’s under my bed?
What if I was 10 years old?
What makes me laugh?

I can’t wait to pick one and get started. I might even go for two! I’m way behind on reading blogs, so these ladies may have already gotten started, but I’m going to start my more formal structure of this next week. I’m not sure exactly how it will go yet, but I’ll explain it all then. Everyone is welcome to join, how fun would it be to jump back to elementary school writing prompts, but now write about them from an adult older perspective!

Who else is joining us? Any suggestions on which I should write about?

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Well, technically the idea of a list goes back much further than I’m sure Amanda K does, but reading one of her recent posts is what is inspiring this one, you get the idea.

Amanda has a great list of goals for the month of February that are all somewhat love related. I’m kind of not liking this whole love focus thing, but I’m trying to branch out, so I’ll continue the love inspiration too!

In the month of February I would like to…

1. Perfect my glitter shoes technique, because I love the feeling that is only achieved when creating something.
2. Attend every class period for all my classes, because I love getting good grades.
3. Go through my closet for a clothing swap or donating, because I like to have room in my closet and then I’ll need to go shopping!
4. Add weights to my workout routine that seems to be mostly my dance class, because I love my body and would like to show it some care.
5. Make meals to bring to school/work because I love the money that is staying in my account when I don’t buy food.
6. Comment on more blogs that I read, because I love sharing love with the awesome people whose blogs I seem to be lurking lately!
7. Get back into music because I’ve always loved it, but it’s been dangerous for me lately. I want the love back!
8. Get to bed at a decent hour most nights because I love it when I don’t have to use concealer under my eyes.
9. Plan a shopping get together for bay area folk going to Bloggers in Sin City, because I’d love to have my outfits planned early for the trip.
10. Blog more regularly (3 times a week), because I love the feeling of getting things out of my own head.
11. Figure out what I need to do with school since my Sign Language 2 class fell through, because I’d love to no longer be in school!

Some of these ended up being pretty similar to Amanda’s, but that’s because she has an awesome list! I can’t wait to tell you all that I have done all of these things!

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I’ve made a few changes in the last few weeks that I should have made a few months ago. Unfortunately for the biggest of those things, while it’s good that I’m doing the “right” thing now, the outcome of the mistake I made will probably not be changed by getting back on track now.

That’s not what this post is about though. This is about one of the things that WILL be changed by getting back on track now!

I’ve written before about the couch to 5K program and how I was doing with that, but then school started. With the change in schedule I let some things get away from me and school and work took over most of my running time.

There was some cardio time at the new LEED certified gym at school to watch the San Francisco Giants win the World Series, but that was really just time on the bike or the elliptical while watching the game, I did not get further with the C25K program.

The elliptical has never transferred into being able to actually run, though it did help with that little thing I posted about on Sunday. So rather than starting where I left off, I’ve decided to start over! My first run I accidentally started in the third week again, and the first minute and a half run was not so fun, though I did get through it. Once I realized my mistake I very quickly cancelled that run and went back to the first run.

I was feeling a bit beat up after couple cycles of running, so I decided to skip one, I mean, it’s good that I’m doing it at all right? Well, I actually ended up rethinking it and after the eighth run I went back and did one more round to truly have 8 under my belt for the first day.

I’m glad I did.

An option I’m considering for my off days is taking the jump into the weight room at the gym and figuring out how to use some of the machines that totally intimidate me. Just one more thing that I should have started before!

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