Last Monday, I wrote about my goals for 2012. I intend to do a summary post each month, tracking my progress. I thought it would be fun to do an "after the first week" update, too ... mainly because I'm doing so well right now, and it may be a different story in three weeks!
- Read through the Bible. So far, so good. I've kept up with the readings so far. This is helped by the fact that I was assigned a study hall this semester. I just pull up YouVersion on the computer in the classroom and go for it!
- Exercise four times per week. Again, I'm doing well on this one! I have a calendar that I've designated as my exercise calendar, and I track what I did and how long I did it. I've been playing a lot of Wii Sports this week, and I've used my elliptical on four different days. I downloaded an audiobook to listen to while I exercise—I've learned that I don't enjoy reading while ellipticaling, and sometimes it's even hard for me to watch TV. For some reason, an audiobook makes the time fly by! I'm listening to James Patterson's Judge & Jury. It's my first Patterson, borrowed from NebraskaOverdrive, which I can access using my library card. Actor Joe Mantenga reads it, and he does a fabulous job.
I've also joined a walking challenge—The J-La-Sta 10,000 Steps Walking Challenge. I bought a pedometer and everything! If you'd like to join, click on the link above for details—we'd love to have you! - Lose 30 pounds. I think I lost about a pound this week. Why am I not sure? Well, I have one of those scales that can save your weight and tell you how much you've gained or lost. When I stepped on for my weekly weigh-in (I've learned not to weigh every day—that can just make a person crazy!), my scale kindly informed me that I'd gained 54 pounds. Seems someone (who shall remain nameless) weighed herself and saved it. And I can't remember exactly what the scale said last Sunday, but I know it was closer to the 200-pound mark then than it was today.
- Travel somewhere new. No progress on this one.
- Complete one crafting project a month. I think I've picked my project out. No idea when I'll do it yet. See it here.
- Learn to say "no." Well, I passed on one book review opportunity this week. And I tried to turn down the study hall assignment, but that didn't go so well for me. So I decided to look at it positively—if the school wants to pay me to read for 55 minutes a day, who am I to complain?
and Amy Grant's 
) on the list, but there is an album that made my inner giddy teenager come out, and I bought it as soon as I got home from work. Which album, you ask? *N Sync's 
! I have wanted this album since I was 17. It has always hovered around $10, and I have a hard time justifying spending that much on music I only listen to 30 days out of the year. But $5? Totally worth it!
of $5 Christmas albums. There's so much Christmas goodness here I hardly know where to begin! I recommend the following albums because I have (and love) them: 
(Vince Guaraldi Trio), 
(Casting Crowns), 
(Harry Connick, Jr.), 
(Relient K), and 
(Straight No Chaser). But there's a ton of other good music out there, too—albums by Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Avalon, Mandisa, and many more.
, are some of my new favorites, and 
is actually Amazon's mp3 Deal of the Day today. I know by the time most of you read this, it'll be tomorrow (or later), but sometimes Amazon's mp3 daily deals last a bit longer than a day. Merry Christmas is definitely worth your $3.99! (And yes, I know that Merry Christmas came out in 1994, so it's not exactly "new." I'd never listened to the whole thing until last year, so it's new to me!)
. But at $11.99, I'll just content myself with streaming it through 
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