Update on 23 for 23

It’s been a long time since I had updated you on my birthday year goals.  Since the beginning of the year is when you talk about goals, this seemed a perfect time to see how many more I have to go.

I have 1.5 months to reach these goals, there are some I am not sure that I am going to make, some I already know I have failed at, and some that I feel pretty good about.

Daily Goals
I have had three daily goals that I have been working toward.  One, being content with where I am in life.  Two, being a good wife.  Three, cleaning the house.  Four, being healthier.
I have good days and bad days with being content.  It helps me to remember that this is just a season.  I am pleased with my progress with this goal.  I feel like I have been a good wife, but I guess Adam will have to be the final judge on that, but I feel good about it.  Goal number three, I really struggle with cleaning, so this one hasn’t been so great.  Goal four, totally bombed so far.  I got hurt and couldn’t exercise and I’ve been sick, but I am making it a goal to be better at this.

Weekly Goals
I only had one weekly goal, to call my mother, and I think I have done a pretty good job with this one.  We do talk more than we used to, so I think we can call this goal accomplished.

Monthly Goals
Write a thank you note to someone I am grateful for–I have done really bad at this.  If I write 12 thank you notes this month does it still count?
Have intentional date nights with Adam–I think we have done good at this so far.
Find a craft or something creative to do–this usually happens without me having to think about it.
Have someone over for dinner–I would so far call this one half met and half not, but hopefully I will cover more ground these next 1.5 months.
Do something with my sister–we have done stuff, but not usually every month, since we’re not counting hanging out while she is doing laundry.

One Time Goals
I started with 13 of these and I have marked 8 off my list.  Not too shabby.

I am hoping to cover some more ground in the next 1.5 months with these goals, but so far I feel pretty good about them.

 

Coming soon:  my next post will be about my New Years Resolutions.  I don’t usually make any, but this year I have.  Read about them tomorrow.

Goal Update

I updated my goals list.  Check it out here.

I did pretty good in May and checked a lot of stuff off.  Only a few more “one time” goals to check off and it’s only June!

Movie Lists

It is fun to have goals and to be able to check things off a list.  I know that I do not need a list to watch and enjoy the movies that I watch.  But it just makes it more fun to keep track and check them off.  So in my last post I asked for suggestions on the next list that I should work on.  I got a few suggestions.

One suggestion was all the Disney movies.  This one sounded really fun.  I love Disney movies.  And then I looked up the list of them.  Did you know that there are 483 Disney movies?  I never realized there were that many.  I’ve always known that they put out a lot of movies, but I never realized just how many.  I counted up the ones that I have already seen and I have seen 176 of them.  Not bad, but that still leaves me 307 to watch.

Another suggestion was to watch all the nominees for best picture.  This is a list of 503 movies, including this most recent Oscar awards show, and I have watched 176 of them.  That leaves me with 327 to watch.

The last suggestion and the one I’m leaning toward is the American Film Institutes’ top 100 list.  I counted up the ones I had already seen, and came up with 58.  So that only leaves me with 42 to watch, and they must be good.

Is there a list of movies that you would most enjoy reading about?  Vote here on which list you think I should start checking off.

84 Movies in 19 Months

It all started around October of 2011.  I decided that I wanted to watch all 82, now 84, Oscar Best Picture winners.  Well, after a little over a year and a half, I have done it.  I am really proud of my accomplishment.  The only thing is that now I do not know what to watch now.

In this post I have compiled my absolute favorites from the list, the movies that most surprised me, and the movies that I really struggled to watch.

The following seven movies are the ones that I was thinking were going to really be a struggle to watch.  Either I had heard something bad about them, or the description on the back really did not sound that interesting.  But in the end, I found myself really enjoying them.  Some of them even almost made the cut for the favorites list.  The following are in order from the least surprising to the most surprising.

1-Chicago (2002)
My mother is a big musical fan and she does not really like Chicago, and I was not allowed to watch it when I was little, so I think I had a bad idea of it going into it, but I really ended up enjoying the story and the music.
2-Unforgiven (1992)
I knew nothing about this movie when I popped it into the DVD player.  All I knew was that it was a Clint Eastwood western.  I figured it would be a lot of gun fighting.  What I found was that it was actually a very deep story that I did not expect.
3-On the Waterfront (1954)
This movie was one of the first older ones that I watched, and I just thought it sounded boring.  This is an old Marlon Brando film and it actually ended up being a really good movie.  I enjoyed the story and it actually got pretty exciting in the end.
4-Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)
This is a really great story about a man who pretends to be a Jew in order to write an article about how they are treated and I found this movie to be very powerful when I foolishly thought it would be boring.
5-The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
When a movie is over two hours long, it can be hard to start in the first place.  When I finally put this DVD in, I was expecting to really hate it, I did not think a story about the circus could be all that exciting, but I was wrong.  The story involved several characters and even had a twist at the end.  I really enjoyed this movie, the full 2-ish hours of it.
6-Tom Jones (1963)
This movie was really funny.  There have not been very many funny best picture winners.  They hardly ever get nominated, let alone win, so I was surprised to find this movie as funny as it was.  It was the story of a ladies man and what happened when he actually fell in love.
7-The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
This movie was awesome and the most surprising for me.  I sat down to watch this movie one night while I worked on the budget.  After only a few minutes into the movie I had to put my work away because I was so intrigued.  I highly recommend this movie.

Moral of the story—do not judge a movie based on the description on the back—when in doubt, give it a try.  It may surprise you, like it did me.

Now, this next list is of the movies I really struggled to watch.  There are only 6 of them, which is pretty good from a pot of 84.  I got lucky that I enjoyed 93% of the movies and only suffered through 7%.  These movies either just plain bored me, put me to sleep, or I just thought the story was not very good.  So here are the 6 movies that I did not like, in order from “okay” to “meh” to “I will never watch again.”

1-How Green Was My Valley (1941)
2-The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
3-Gigi (1958)
4-Dances With Wolves (1990)
5-A Man for All Seasons (1966)
6-The Deer Hunter (1978)

And finally, the list of my top twelve (I just could not stop at 10) movies that were my favorites from the 84 I watched.  These are the ones that I would watch again, several times, and that I would not hesitate to recommend to you.  The following are in order of favorite to most favorite.

1-Grand Hotel (1931/32)
2-Out of Africa (1985)
3-It Happened One Night (1934)
4-Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
5- Wings (1927/28)
6- No Country for Old Men (2007)
7- The Godfather (1972)
8- The Apartment (1960)
9- Argo (2012)
10-Shakespeare in Love (1998)
11-The Bridge over the River Kwai (1957)
12-In the Heat of the night (1967)

So there you have it.  I am so glad that I watched these movies.  On average I watched 4 best picture movies a month, on top of all the other movies that I watched.  And I will make sure I keep seeing the best picture movies in the years to come.  Now I just need to find a new list…

Any suggestions?

Sick Thursday

Yesterday I woke up with a crazy migraine.  I have been getting them pretty frequently, which is pretty obnoxious, but yesterday’s was worse than usual.  I went in to work, hoping that all the medicine I took would kick in, but the combination of the noise, light, and staring at the computer was too much for me and I only made it 30 minutes before getting sick and going home.  At home I slept until 1 and then I had a recheck appointment on my shoulder.  Luckily I am feeling a lot better today.  Since I was sick yesterday I did not get a chance to give you my Thursday-Morning Tell-About Update, or my April Goals Update, so I’m going to give them to you now.

 

What I Would Have told you on the Thursday-Morning Tell-About

My Movie Queue: The Guardian, Shattered Glass, Thelma and Louise, Double Indemnity
Pages left to read in my current book:   Lots in Les Mis and over 300 in Oprah
I have made: a cute card for a bridal shower
I have worked on: cleaning the house and keeping it clean and balancing our bank account
Food made: hamburgers, breakfast casserole, meatloaf
Goals checked off: none
Games played: Sudoku
Favorite Pinterest pin:

Total Blog views since last Thursday: 172
Number of snow days: 0
Movies Watched: 4: Life of Pi, Playing for Keeps, Silver Linings Playbook, Lincoln
Books read: 6: Contagious, The Tiny Books of Tiny Stories Vol 1 and 2, Radical, A Little Bit Wicked, Ice Princess
This week I love: that tomorrow I’m going to see Relient K in concert!
This week I hate: migraines

 

And now my April Goals Update

Daily
1. Be content
I have been doing a lot better at this one.  I really have been content.
2. Be a good, supportive, encouraging, loving wife to Adam
I feel like I have been doing well at this.  Adam, what do you think?
3. Do one thing to clean the house
Usually I only do one very small thing a day, I really want to do more
4. Keep a food and fitness diary to help me remember to be more healthy
Now that I can do more with my shoulder I am hoping to get better at this one.  And I have been trying to be healthier.

Weekly
5. Call my mother
I have still been doing well at this

Monthly
6. Write a thank you note to someone who I am grateful for
Somehow this one got away from me this month, so I’ll try to do double for May
7. Have intentional date nights with Adam.  Start with at least once a month.
We saw the movie 42 and had Main Street Pizza
8. Find a craft or something creative to do
My card for Becky’s shower
9. Have someone over for dinner
My sister came over one night for dinner.
10.  Do something with my sister
We went to Into the Fire for her birthday

Once
11. Finish Financial Peace
Finished in March
12.  Take a vacation—or have a weekend getaway
No plans yet, but talks are in the works
13.  Finish my Best Picture movie list
I only have two left!
14.  Finish Reading Anna Karenina
Finished in March
15.  Plant flowers in the flower beds outside my apartment
I better get on this one
16.  Read through the whole Bible again
Working on it
17.  Play Eclipse with Adam
Finished in March
18.  Finish watching Prison Break
Hopefully this will happen
19.  Learn how to knit
Learned in March
20.  Go to a sporting event or a concert where you have to buy tickets
Tomorrow night I’ll be able to check this one off!
21.  Take a cooking class
I am no closer to marking this one off my list, sadly
22. Go one weekend “unplugged”
Now that it’s getting nice I am hoping this will happen soon
23.  Read a biography of someone that I don’t like to learn more about them
Currently working on this one.  I’m reading Oprah’s biography.  I’ve never liked her, I’ve never know why though.

So there is one giant update for you.

Enjoy your weekend!  I know I will!

 

Thursday-Morning Tell-About

I cannot believe that it is Thursday already!  This week has gone by so fast.

My Movie Queue: Around the World in 80 Days, Cold Mountain, There will be blood
Pages left to read in my current book:   I’m reading several books and I’m not very far in any of them.
I have made: nothing.  I have been too busy
I have worked on: stretching and exercising my shoulder
Food made: Sloppy Joes.  Tonight I’m making chicken kabobs on the grill–yum!
Goals checked off: none this week.
Games played: Sudoku?
Favorite Pinterest pin:

Total Blog views since last Thursday:  101–I must have been boring this week
Number of snow days: 0
Movies Watched: 1-Melinda and Melinda (this is the fewest movies I’ve watched in a week in a long time)
Books read: The Host, For Parents Only, All for Jesus, For Parents Only, For Women Only: in the workplace, the cure, sandwich with a side of romance, the hound of rowan
This week I love: warm weather
This week I hate: being a staff member on Terrific Tuesday

Thursday-Morning Tell-About (a few hours late)

My Movie Queue: Around the World in 80 Days, Cold Mountain, There will be blood, Melinda and Melinda
Pages left to read in my current book:   I’m reading several things at the moment and I do not know how many pages I have left.  All my books are in my room and I’m in the hotel lobby, taking advantage of their free wifi
I have made: notta
I have worked on: checking email, attending conventions, and looking nice every day
Food made: nothing. I’ve been out of town.
Goals checked off: none this week
Games played: Hand and Foot
Favorite Pinterest pin:
This is so true! Especially on my road trip this week!

Total Blog views since last Thursday:  161
Number of snow days: 0
Movies Watched: 7: The Watch, Total Recall, Les Miserables
Books read: none finished
This week I love: learning new things
This week I hate: only having free wifi in hotel lobbies

23 for 23 Update

March is done, and I did pretty well on my goals.  Check it out!

Daily Goals
1. Be content with where I am in life, don’t wish my life away, flourish where I am
I feel like I am doing pretty good with this one.  Sometimes it is hard, but when I remind myself of how good I have it, then it becomes a lot easier.

2. Be a good, supportive, encouraging, loving wife to Adam
I feel like I am doing well at this one.  I am trying to be really mindful about how I treat Adam.  But I guess you’ll have to ask him to see how I’m doing at this one.

3.  Do one thing to clean the house
My shoulder has been feeling a little better, so I am doing better at this one again.

4.  Keep a food and fitness diary to help me remember to be more healthy.
The fitness thing isn’t going too well.  I’m hoping to start walking everyday because that shouldn’t hurt my shoulder.  And I am doing better at making better, healthier, well-rounded meals.

Weekly Goals

5.  Call my mother
Still rocking this one, and it has been really good for my relationship with me and my mom.

Monthly Goals

6.  Write a thank you note to someone who I am grateful for Check.
I wrote a note to Adam.

7.  Have intentional date nights with Adam.
We went to LongHorn steakhouse (with a gift card) and saw Les Miserables at the Real to Reel.

8.  Find a craft or something creative to do
Super check!  Crocheted hats, art for the bedroom, and crocheted a scarf.

9.  Have someone over for dinner.
Amanda and Jarod came over for pizza, and then another night we had the Nicols and the Albrechts over for dinner.  It was super fun!  Oh! and I forgot, the Tomlinsons were here visiting for Easter and I made dinner for the family as well.  So I think that counts.

10.  Do something with my sister
We watched The Paperboy and The Lion King.

One time goals

11.  Finish Financial Peace University with Adam and save some money.
Check this one off my list.  We finished Financial Peace in March.  During the class we saved $800 and paid off $400 of debt.

12.  Take a vacation No progress made

13.  Finish my Best picture list I made quite a bit of progress on this one.  I watched 6 best picture movies in February, one was added to the list, and I only have 8 left to watch!

14.  Finish reading Anna Karenina
Check! Done and sooo happy about it!

15.  Plant flowers in the flower beds outside my apartment
The weather is getting warmer, so hopefully I’ll get to do this soon.  I’m pretty excited about it.

16.  Read through the whole Bible again
Working my way through.

17.  Play Eclipse with Adam
Done.  Pretty happy about it too.  It was actually pretty fun.

18.  Finish watching Prison Break
I have sadly not watched any Prison Break.  Maybe someday soon.  Maybe during my free time at the convention this week I can work on it.

19. Learn how to knit
I know how to slip knot, get started, knit, and pearl.  And my first knitted scarf is progressing nicely.

20.  Go to a sporting event or concert
Progress made!  Bought tickets to a Relient K concert in May!! So excited!!

21.  Take a cooking class
No progress made, mostly because I can’t find one near us.

22. Go one weekend unplugged
Not warm enough yet

23.  Read a biography of someone I don’t like to learn more about them
I have too much other stuff that I am currently reading.

I feel like I rocked March!  Checked four one time goals off, that’s pretty good!

Thursday-Morning Tell-About

My Movie Queue:Around the World in 80 Days, Cold Mountain, There will be blood, Melinda and Melinda
Pages left to read in my current book:   I just started Les Mis and I am going to find a couple more things to read
I have made: a scarf
I have worked on: cleaning the house, balancing the checkbook, organizing paperwork, basically getting caught up on life
Food made: nothing exciting.
Goals checked off: finished Anna Karenina
Games played: Carccassonne and X Wing miniature game
Favorite Pinterest pin:

Total Blog views since last Thursday:  135
Number of snow days: 0
Movies Watched: 7: Argo, Pitch Perfect, The Paperboy, The Lion King, Remember the Titans, Bridge over the River Kwai, Top Gun
Books read: I’m More than a Pastor’s Wife, Anna Karenina
This week I love: The Voice!
This week I hate: snow that doesn’t result in a delay or a snow day

So glad to finally be done

I finally finished reading Anna Karenina.  It had been one of my goals for this year.  I had seen the preview for the new movie and decided (stupidly) that I would read the book, not knowing how long it was.  And boy was it a mistake.  This book is so long and honestly I was bored out of my mind!  Phew, I am so glad I am finally done.  If I had not made it a goal to read it, I would have quit a loonnnggg time ago.