Jenerally Speaking

Mid- December…I can’t believe how fast time is flying.  I have been sooooo busy, but a “good” kind of busy – not a “bad, oh my gosh, when will it all stop!” kind of busy.  Last weekend was the holiday craft fair at the local school.  Meghan and her friend made chocolate lollipops and some jewelry and little dog scarves and treats.  They made about $50 each, which is perfect for the Christmas shopping they have left to do.  I went with my personalized name prints again and did really well this year.  I had a lady arrive about an hour before the craft fair ended and she bought about 20 different name prints.  Because I don’t charge for shipping, they are only $3 to $5 each, which makes it an inexpensive Christmas gift.  I do pretty well there each year, but this one was the best.  She even offered to have me come to her house to do a home party.  I have never done that before, but I am more than willing to give it a try.  It will give me a chance to meet some new people, at the very least.

My Christmas shopping is almost done.  I gave myself a budget and I’m sticking to it.
Sort of.
My main problem is all those little extras I pick up while I’m Christmas shopping.  Cafe Latte from McDonalds, a pack of gum at the checkout counter, Purell from the health aisle, wrapping paper and cute little Christmas gift bags (although I already have a closet full of them at home)…I know, it doesn’t sound like much, but it does all add up.  In any case, I’m going to attack all the wrapping this week so I can just sit back and enjoy the remainder of the holiday.

Snow Day

So, we finally had a snow day.  It came exactly when I wanted it to…during this two week period before Christmas.  We have 2 full weeks of school back-to-back and I was hoping to have at least one snow day to break them up and that’s exactly what happened.  That was a very nice surprise.

As always, the ice and sleet arrived immediately after the snow did.  Our driveway will most likely stay covered in ice until spring.  That is usually how it goes every winter.  It never quite warms up enough between ice storms for it to completely melt.  Each one of our cars has a tiny dent from sliding into each other as we drive into the driveway.  LOL

Well, other than that there isn’t much else going on here.  I have a temporary job lined up for January, but I am itching to get back to school.  Hopefully soon!  *fingers crossed*

For the second year in a row we had snow in October.  This year wasn’t as bad as last year, but it was still a bit of a surprise.  I had been out helping my nieces’ mom (Rachel) do some housecleaning for a little extra cash when she got the phone call about the weather.  It snowed pretty much all day and didn’t end up sticking until evening.  I’d guess we got about an inch by the time it was all done.  I love the snow, but I definitely want a little more time enjoying the autumn leaves, you know?  The forecast for next week is supposed to be around 60 degrees again, so I guess the winter gloves get to go back in the closet for a little while longer.

My anxiety disorder has acting up…I’m not sure why, but it might have been triggered by the lack of sleep I have been experiencing.  A three-day headache will do that to you!  Luckily, it’s nothing I can’t handle.  I’m just taking it easy, catching up on my sleep when I can and hopefully this weekend will be what I need to get back to feeling like my old self.

My daughter and I went to a meeting at school this past Wednesday to get some more information about the possibility of her traveling to Poland next year as a foreign exchange student.  Truthfully, I’m excited about the idea, but I’m not sure she will be accepted into the program.  She has been struggling this year to keep her grades up.  She’s a really smart girl, but she has been racking up the absences and it’s affecting her grades.  We have an appointment this Thursday with the “tummy doc” and hopefully we’ll get some answers as to what is causing all her abdominal pain.  I just want her feeling better again.  She went from being one of the healthiest kids I know to the kind of kid that catches a cold or virus every other week.  I won’t even go into my fears about the H1N1 flu…if she were to catch that now, I am quite certain it would be one heck of a battle. 

Hmmm…so, what else?

Did you hear about the Balloon Boy?   Basically, this family’s 6-year-old boy – Falcon Heene -  was thought to have been flying over Colorado in a hot air balloon yesterday.  Instead he was actually hiding in the family’s attic the entire time.  To make things even more interesting, there is a possibility that the family knew he was in the attic, but pretended otherwise in order to get a little extra publicity for their family.  Oh goodness.  I would find this incredibly funny except for the fact that they may have actually made this little boy lie about what happened.  Can you imagine how much stress he must be feeling in order to keep that secret?  I do hope that isn’t what really happened.  Meghan and I have a secret addiction to Wife Swap, so we are quite familiar with this particular family – they really are a little odd.  The father (Richard Heene) reminded us a little of the Crocodile Hunter – he had a mix of ADHD behavior with a childlike enthusiasm, but there was something about him that was a turnoff.  He didn’t seem very concerned with teaching his children about respect and manners.  That always bothers me when I see parents like that.

Well, I have a bunch of little tasks to do for the night.  I am trying to organize all my To-Do lists and set up some goals and tasks for the next few weeks.  I have a few job possibilities and I want to get a couple of my web sites up and running again.  I should be nice a busy for the rest of the month.  I like that.

On a very unrelated note…I hate tagging my blog posts.  I really do.  Mostly because I think I stink at it.  I never even look at or use tags when I visit other sites.  If I want to browse through a blog, I will click on the categories…I never really pay attention to tags.  I think I’m missing the point of them.
So, I fail at tagging.
I’ll also never admit to how long it takes me to decide which categories I should use for a blog post….I think I fail at categories, too.  LOL

I could swear it was the beginning of September just a few days ago.
Did you ever see one of those spiral wishing wells in the mall where you put in a coin and watch it swirl around and around until it falls through the hole in the middle? At the top, the coin’s path is big and slow. As it nears the bottom, it gets shorter and shorter. This is what I think is happening to time, in general. It seriously feels like everything is going by so quickly! Does anyone else feel that way? Is it just because I am an adult? Do kids not feel this, too? Or is it because the world is just set up to deliberate and fast-paced now? The slow pace of the 1980s are no more. Or maybe this is something that can be explained by physics. Is time actually speeding up? Is that possible?

Okay, too many questions. It’s 1AM and my brain doesn’t really feel up to questioning Life, The Universe and Everything at 1AM. So, let’s focus on the mundane before I head to bed.

Mundane musing #1: I am loving the weather these days. Cool and crisp and it smells so clean outside. The leaves are turning red and orange and yellow and I am enjoying every day of autumn so far.  Fall and spring are my favorite seasons.

Mundane musing #2: Okay, so…I watch General Hospital. The soap opera. I seriously didn’t plan on getting attached to this show, but my grandma temporarily came to live with us a few years ago and I joined her when she watched. After she left, I kept watching because those darned storylines just suck you in…and they NEVER END.

GH's Lucky Spencer

Anyway, my favorite character on the show…the one who kept me watching all these years – Lucky Spencer – is being replaced. The current actor (Greg Vaughan – see pic on the left) is being replaced by the one (Jonathan Jackson) who originated the role years ago. This makes me sad. The old Lucky was the teen Lucky. The current Lucky is our grown-up Lucky. It’s embarrassing how this bothers me. I mean seriously. I thought my soap opera/fan girl days ended when I was in college. I guess a little bit of frivolous distraction never really hurt anyone, but…I’m irritated by this casting change and think maybe it’s time to wean myself off of GH.

Mundane musing #3: I am attempting to switch from glasses to contacts. My first trial pair of contacts were scratchy and blurry. My second pair are comfy…and blurry. I am starting to worry that my astigmatism is going to prevent me from actually making the switch to contact lenses. I’ll be really bummed if that happens. As it stands, I usually don’t have to wear my glasses unless I am watching TV, but I have found that everything looks a little sharper and darker when I wear them all the time, so I thought it would be nice to switch to contacts. I go back to the eye doctor on Monday to try another pair. Third time’s a charm…I hope!

Okay, I seriously need to get some sleep. I’m not tired, but I will be hurting tomorrow morning if I don’t head to bed now. G’night all!

Well, I cancelled my doctor’s appointment for Thursday – my mysterious weight loss has stopped for now and I honestly just need to take a break from doctors for a while.  I have an eye appointment tomorrow (to check on how my new contacts are doing…they stink, by the way) and that’s about it.  My doc also wants to check my cholesterol, but I haven’t gotten around to exercising yet, which is what I think will be the magical ingredient to bring down the cholesterol again.  I have no good reason for not exercising – I just don’t want to spend my time doing it.

I am in sort of a blogging quandary, by the way.  (Off-topic: It would appear that quandary has a second “a” in it.  I totally missed that. I love spell check…that little red squiggle line is my best friend.  I’m usually a really careful speller, but it does catch me every now and again. )

Okay, so back to the matter on hand.  I have this site, which is really my personal, “all about me” blog.  I put everything here.  Well, I plan to do that, at least.  I’ve been MIA for a while, but my writing skills have suffered, so I really want to make this a daily thing.  My problem is that I also have a personal health blog – http://jenergize.blogspot.com/.  I kind of wanted to use that blog to track my nutrition, dietary, and food & exercise info.  Do I just merge that with this one?  Do I post about my cholesterol woes in both places?  Do I just post about diet and exercise there and not here?  Bah.  Such a silly thing to wonder about, but I want to have some clear-cut boundaries for what should be included in each site.

Hmmm.

Maybe I can just link to that site when I add a detailed post about my dieting/nutritional journey.  I’ll try that and see how it goes. Problem solved.  For now.

Okay, onto other business.  I crafted my Task List for the week and I only had to transfer 2 uncompleted tasks from last week.  Not too bad.  I currently have 8 tasks for the upcoming week.  The big ones are to complete my first assignment for my “Christian Ethics in Modern Society” college course and the next one is to either apply for a credit card or a student loan to pay for my final 2 college classes.  I know student loans have a lower interest rate, but once you have one, you can never ever get rid of it.  I swear.  They’ll hunt you down even after you die – I think they automatically get your forwarding address in heaven.  So. I’ll try for a credit card first.  I only need $1800 to finish the last 2 courses to graduate.  I am soooo close.  It’s really exciting!

So, I am a little bit broke.  I’m not quite sure how it happened or when it happened, but I am suddenly scrounging for extra cash these days.  I have been toying with the idea of going back to work for ChaCha.com again, but I seriously don’t think I can handle the stress of being under the scrutiny of their fickle QC department.  I also know that they changed the entire pay system right after I stopped working for them earlier this year.  According to a friend of mine who still works for them, her income was cut by about 40% since the pay changes.  The only reason I stopped working for ChaCha in the first place was because I had mono.  (I could hardly sit in my computer chair for more than 5 minutes before falling asleep.)  Now that I am better, I just don’t think I am willing to spend 8 hours a day for a measly 2 to 3 dollars an hour.  I am sure I can make more money doing something else.

The job market where I live is horrid.  I would only be looking for a part-time job because I plan on taking on 3 college classes by the end of October.  I do not wish to work at McDonald’s or the local supermarket.  Been there, done that.  I stopped considering those types of jobs after the age of 25…and I’m not nearly that desperate.  Yet.

So, my next choice is to try to find another way to make some extra money online.  I plan to rejoin the ranks of WAHMs.  I’ve done it before (via ChaCha, eHow, and my web site.)  I’m sure I can get things rolling to do it again.

First things first.  I need to get my products back up for sale on my Namely-Yours.com web site.  I made some decent cash that way and it hardly required any work on my part.  The second thing I need to do is to build up my traffic again.  I closed down the site a few years ago when my anxiety disorder reared its ugly head and my traffic (understandably) took a hit.  Closing a site will do that, you know.

The next thing I plan on doing is working on writing some more eHow articles.  I’ve received 2 checks from them so far and that’s with only 4 articles.  I am sure I can spit out a few more.  After that, I want to start building and possibly flipping some blog sites.  I love working with WordPress and I’m becoming much more familiar with it.  I have a ton of articles I can use and a bunch of interests I can write about.  I think I can make that work.  Niche blogging can be profitable if you do it right.

I just really need to get focused and work out a solid checklist for the upcoming week.  I find myself getting easily distracted these days.  I have been trying so hard to make up for the months I lost this year when I was sick and I think I am making things worse by trying to get everything done at once.  It’s just so awesome to feel so good again.  I want to just stay awake all day and all night and just…be productive again!
That darned human need to get daily sleep keeps mucking up my plans.

I have been finding myself with a ton of energy lately, which is awesome.  The mono infection from the spring is gone and all those symptoms from my anxiety disorder have completely disappeared (again.)  I honestly can’t remember the last time I felt this good.  Since I suddenly feeling so motivated, I seriously want to put that feeling to good use and actually get some things done.  My life was put on hold when I was sick and I am ready get moving again.

In order to fully embrace this newfound desire to be productive I decided it was time to start a daily to-do list.  “My Daily aJENda” if you will.  Even though I am quite the gadget nerd, I do love paper and notebooks and pens anything having to do with stationary, so my lists began on paper.  Sadly, I found myself not really using them that much.  I had lists for each day and then I wanted to make lists for each week and each of my web sites, etc.  I had all these little papers floating around and it just wasn’t very organized.  so what does a person do when they are lost and in need of a little bit of guidance?  They turn to Google, of course.

And yes…Google had the answer.  It has a handy little application called Google Tasks, which has become a daily part of my day.  I have a daily list of all the little things I need to do every single day: write a blog post, check Facebook, track calories at The Daily Plate, etc.  Here’s a quick little screenshot of what one of my task lists looks like:

I have 4 or 5 different little task lists like that one.  That particular one is used every day.  I mark each task off as I complete them and the next day, I just unmark them and start over again.  I have a list for each of my web sites and my long-term goals for them and I also have one that I make each Sunday for the upcoming week.  Here is a picture of all the To-Do Lists I currently have set up for myself.

I’ll put appointments on the “Week of…” and the neat thing is that they are automatically added to my Google Calendar, which is also set up to send me an SMS message to remind me when an appointment is coming up.

Right now I haven’t quite decided if Google Tasks is actually simplifying my life, but if I am actually still doing this in a few months, I will have to assume that this is what works for me.  The only problem I really have is that it requires me to go on my computer at least once a day.  There is an option to print out the lists, so if I sense that I’ll be taking a break from the computer one week *gasp!* I suppose I can just print out the list that week and use it the old fashioned way.  In any case, this is the first time in my life I am actually making checklists and sticking to them.  Kind of neat.  Go Google!  Go me!