• Book Love,  Life,  Lists,  Travel

    June Wrap-Up and July Goals

    Ah, another month gone, another goals wrap-up post – and June did NOT go as smoothly in terms of goals as I hoped it would. That said, it wasn’t quite the total failure that it could have been. So how’d I do? Well, June was a strange one this year. I spent the first two and a half weeks rush rush rushing to clean, and prep classes, and run errands, and catch up on everything I always let go during the semester when I’m working 14-18 hour days all week. And then the last week and a half I did, well, nothing. Positively nothing but read, and eat, and travel.…

  • Life,  Magpie Runs

    So Magpie’s Gonna Run a 5k… Again.

    So I know I said in my June goals post that fitness was on the docket, but that I wasn’t going to follow any set plan or anything. Well, turns out I’m a liar. I’ve started a Couch to 5k program. Whoops. Well, at least it’s a good whoops. I’m using the C25K – 5K Running Trainer app from the Google Play store. I used it before about two years ago (maybe three?) to decent success, and I liked how the app functions. It’s easy to use, tracks your progress, gives you the option of sharing either with social media or with a C25K community (I don’t do either), it…

  • Life,  Lists,  Making Do

    May Wrap-up and June Goals

    Well, hot damned. It’s June. Already. I find myself saying that a lot these days. “Already!?” “It’s summer already!?” “It’s [insert month] already!?” And the busier I am from day to day, the more I seem to be saying it. And May was a VERY busy month. It always is. From wrapping up and ending the semester, grading final papers and exams, getting final grades in, and working graduations not just at my own institution, but at a couple others in the region as a musician… Then add in all the holidays and anniversaries – Mother’s Day, a major family member’s “cancer free” milestone anniversary, my birthday, trying to shop…

  • Baking and Cooking,  Life,  Magpie Writes,  Making Do

    The One Where Magpie Hates Healthy Eating

    So one of my biggest goals for this month is a total ban on take-out and fast food. Over the last couple years as I’ve added job after job, my eating habits have basically found themselves going right down the toilet. Whatever was quick, easy, and convenient was what was on the menu. I drive past Dunkin’ on this day, the Thai place is right around the corner from where I work this day, etc… etc… My location determined my meal. Which sucks for a variety of reasons. The biggest being, of course, that my wallet AND my waistline both take issue with the habit. My waistline has continued to…

  • Life,  Lists,  Making Do

    March: The Good, The Bad, And the Goals.

    As part of my plan for getting more consistent around here, I’ve decided to make it my goal to post a wrap-up of each month – this way I can sort of look at each month in review, identify what I accomplished and what needs improvement. I feel like it’s also going to be nice to have a handy list of what I’ve accomplished for myself (in addition to everything I know I’ve gotten done for work) over the last month. Hopefully it’ll be a handy guard against my anxiety creeping in and telling me I’m unproductive and lazy. Now the shape this post takes may change as the year…

  • Life,  Lists

    2016 New Years Resolution Postmortem

    Another year, another set of goals not fully met. I know that sounds really pessimistic, but that’s just how these things go – I’m not a resolution maker who actually expects to fully complete each. Instead, I make resolutions with the goal of making progress, and using those goals, however unattainable, to improve myself or particular aspects of myself. So I never really expect to fully fulfill them. If I do? AWESOME. If not? Oh well – the real question is did I TRY? So let’s see how I did this year, shall we? 1) Learn Brush Calligraphy Success Level: High. I think I did pretty well on this one.…