Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Word of the Year Quarterly Check-In

Remember the Word of the Year Project? Many of you claimed a word for 2011 to be your guiding theme of the year. My word is Learn. If you need a reminder, here's our list of words:

Me: Learn

George: Relax

Mom: Practice

Starla: Leap

Sue B.: Celebrate

Francie: Appreciate

Sue: Satisfied

Susan K.: Bigger

Lisa: Free

Linda R.: Enjoy

Claire L.: Delegate

Mickey: Acceptance

Cheryl L.: Create

Karen L.: Reflection

Marilyn: Believe

Amy: Positive

iriseyes: Act, Kind

Mari: Expand

Susan: White Space

Angela L.: Nature

Courtney L.: Write

Ginny: Focus

Nicole: Unrepentant

Janet: Trim

Kathy: Redefine


So now that the first quarter of 2011 is over, I thought we should have a little check-in to see how we're doing.

For me, this year's word is a no-brainer. Learning is like breathing...I want to do it all the time; in fact, I couldn't stop myself if I tried. Here are some of the things I've learned in the last three month:

1. Jeans grow as you wear them. Just because you put on jeans the second day in a row and they are baggy doesn't mean you have magically lost weight overnight. Sad, isn't it?

2. Tricare supplemental insurance isn't worth the cost for our family at this time.

3. I'm a daydreamer and write novels in my head. Well, since the onset of Mommy ADD eleven years ago, I write short stories in my head. When I was in college, I learned that up to half (and perhaps more) of all students sitting in a college class are not listening at all...they are daydreaming about sex. Still, I've always suspected that most adults in the real world were more sensible and didn't daydream much about sex or anything else, but it turns out I was completely wrong. According to an article in Scientific American Mind magazine, "daydreaming can help solve problems, trigger creativity, and inspire great works of art and science.... Most people spend about 30 percent of their waking hours spacing out, drifting off, lost in thought, woolgathering--or as one scientist put it, 'watching your own mental videos.'"

What a relief to learn I'm normal after all. Now, if only I could get those short stories and novels out of my head and onto paper....

4. I've learned a lot about dogs. For instance, if a dog eats a smallish rock, you should feed it whole wheat bread and wait for the rock to pass. If a dog eats a dish towel, you should take it to the vet, who will make it throw up. Then, the vet, who owns two golden retrievers of his own, will confess to you that he refers to the breed as golden retardeds. And you will agree with him.

5. Also, I learned a dog can dislocate its knee cap, which is as painful as it sounds. Puppies who have never experienced pain before will dramatically cry the first time they get hurt. Then, as they get hurt more (as in repeatedly dislocating their knee cap), they will stop crying and man up. Or dog up, as it were.

6. A small boy who hates getting shots, however, will not man up with repeated experiences at the immunization clinic. In fact, each time you take him back to the torture chamber clinic, it will take one more adult to hold him down than the previous time. We're up to four grown-ups to hold down a 65-lb boy.

7. Reconnecting with old friends on Facebook is fun and rewarding most of the time, but occasionally, it's best to let the past lie quietly behind you.

8. My minimalist closet works as planned. Now, if I could only learn how to apply the concept to my craft room....

NEVER!

9. I learned I can roast a chicken that's as good as George's roasted chicken. I'm not sure this is a good thing to have learned, however, as it makes me more likely to have to cook in the future. 

10. After 2.5 years of seriously studying the Bible, I finally learned how to find the book of Isaiah in less than ten seconds. Go, me! Now, if only I could figure out where Tobit is....

Now, it is your turn. What have you done with your word so far? Please share in the comments!

9 comments:

  1. Fabulous post. So glad your word of the year is progressing. I’m a daydreamer, I admit to spending much more than 30% of my time daydreaming, sorry ‘watching my own mental videos’, beats reality hands down, not sure this makes me any closer to normal though. I’m sure if you could get those stories down on paper they would be well worth reading. If small boys were like puppies life would be simpler, but just think of the material you’re collecting for those future books. I agree with so much of what you say in this post, I particularly liked the bit where you said that sometimes it’s best to let the past lie quietly behind you. I didn’t actually pick a word, I intended to, I thought long and hard about it, so many words, so little time, then I got distracted, as usual, and never ‘plumped’ for one. My birthday is in June, my personal New Year, I shall definitely come up with a word for then, must focus, must focus, must focus. Thanks for the post, very interesting, food for thought there, me thinks.

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  2. Sorry for the second comment but just had to say that I’ve got my word, ACTION. I think, I dream, I make lists, I intend, I have thoughts and ideas galore flitting through my butterfly mind, but they rarely alight long enough for me to follow through on them, another thought always comes along and pushes it out of the way. I didn’t intend to think about a word, I started to write an email to my son and it just popped into my head. So had to write and say thank you for helping me focus. You must think I’m mad, and to be honest you wouldn’t be far wrong. Gosh, action, how scary.

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  3. OOOOH dear! A little reminder of "the word". Hmmmm. Not much trimming being done (unless I can count the 8kgs my husband lost??, hopeful?)
    Let's get back on track . . . I'm certainly a day dreamer . . . in fact I've dreamed of the page I'm to scrap about myself titled "dreamer"!. Perhaps I need to add Sue's ACTION!

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  4. Love your comments! As for me and my word, create, I have made good progress in my efforts to make more cards. I just wish I had more time or more desire or more drive or more passion about creating. I'm working on it...

    CHERYL L.

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  5. Hmmm. I didn't remember my word until I read your post! Even so, I have been making progress, so my subconscious must have remembered the word. I need to appreciate getting older and not get frustrated about memory slippage. LOL.

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  6. No. 10? Now THAT'S an accomplishment!!! :)

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  7. My word was unrepentant. I have stopped defending myself for being myself. Mostly this happens in my own head (since I am a recluse who doesn't see people much anymore), but it was happening a lot, and I was sick of it.

    So I'm trying to be more like Popeye: who I yam.

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  8. My word was "leap". I have to say I've done some "leaping" as far as pushing myself out of the little box of creativity I was living in. BUT! I will also admit that the leaping still tends to be with a net or a parachute....old insecurities die hard!

    As I read the blogs of those creative minds I so admire, I realize that they leap without thinking of falling. That is the element I seem to lack. The "no fear". Still working on that aspect. But I also tell myself that "baby leaps" are better than NO leaps! haha

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  9. My word was "free". I'm a bullet point person so here goes.
    1) Hubby and I both agree out loud to end our marriage once our $$$ issues are settled. To me this is freeing me from a relationship that died years ago.
    2) Cleaning up the huge real estate mess hubby got us in to. Two years away from being debt free.
    3) On the road to freedom, I found a job that will challenge me and make me move forward

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Thanks so much for taking time to comment!