Of course, now that I blogged like an hour (or was it longer?) ago I think of something legit to blog about. Something that if I don't put out there in the public, I may not end up accomplishing.
My goal for 2012 (aside from making more great progress on my 101 in 1001 list) is to read the entire Standard Works.
Book of Mormon. Doctrine and Covenants. Pearl of Great Price. New Testament. Old Testament. All 2468 pages or 1581 chapters/sections of it. All of it. By the end of 2012.
I know that this is insane. I decided I'm going to start in the Old testament, simply because it is the first book in my Quad. I'll read them in the order that they are in the Quad.
In July of this year my Stake Relief Society President issued a challenge to start July 3rd, read 9 chapters a week, and we would finish The Book of Mormon on either Christmas Day or New Years Eve (I honestly don't remember which it is right now). I started, got behind, caught up, kept right on track, got behind, caught back up... it's been insane. Right now I think I'm about 3 weeks ahead. I'm in Ether right now, Ether 11 to be exact. That means I'm super close to finishing, probably sometime in the next week or week and a half.
I think that once I finish, I'm going to start the whole Standard Works challenge. I'm giving myself an extra 20-30 days (depending on when I do end up starting) because I know it's going to be a challenge. I used this scripture calculator that breaks down each of the books into pages and chapters and does the calculating for you. If I go by pages, I need to read 7 (well, 6.76) pages a day to finish in 365 days. If I go by chapters I need to read 5 (well, 4.33) chapters a day to finish in 365 days. I think I'm going to go the chapter route. I think I would get frustrated to get to the end of my 7th page and be in the middle of a chapter.
I have the podcasts of the complete standard works downloaded on iTunes and I like to listen to the chapters. I am forced to focus more when I am listening, that's just the way that works for me.
I think I am completely nuts for attempting to do this, but it will be a great opportunity to read through everything.
Broken down, it should take:
186 days to read the Old Testament
52 days to read the New Testament
48 days to read The Book of Mormon
28 days to read The Doctrine and Covenants
3 days to read The Pearl of Great Price
That ends up only being 317 days. That would be pretty rad. Highly unlikely that I will finish the entire thing on November 12th (that is the 317th day of next year) or October 23rd (if I start 20 days early that would be the 317 day mark). But how cool would that be? Later this week I'll make my reading calendar so that I know where I need to be each week. And I'll have to commit to posting about my progress. That will probably be the thing that keeps me going, knowing that I have someone to report to. Even if nobody reads my blog I like to pretend that someone does. Well, I know that Sarah, Megan, Sandy, and Joanne read my blog, so I suppose that is who I am holding myself accountable to.
I think I'm crazy.
To recap. By December 31st, 2012, I will finish the ENTIRE Standard Works. It's on.
11.29.2011
a peek into my brain right now
I was really in the mood to blog, but when I sat down to blog I could not come up with anything to blog about. Doesn't seem like a whole lot has happened recently that is blog worthy. So instead of getting a post about something in particular, you get one of my posts that is just full of random Marci thoughts.
1. Thanksgiving is over. That means it is now fine for me to listen to Christmas music. Or at least to admit that I've been listening to it since Halloween. Yes. On Halloween I was listening to The Forgotten Carols. I love The Forgotten Carols. I waited til after Thanksgiving to whip the piano book out and start playing it myself. Chris didn't know The Forgotten Carols before. He certainly is going to be getting to know them. It hurt to just listen to it last year, it feels so much better to be able to sit at my piano, and play and sing. I love it. If you don't know The Forgotten Carols you need to get to know it.
2. Today I watched an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition as I was working on a Christmas gift. The family receiving the home makeover had kids that were deaf, kids that were blind, a dad that was blind, and their grandma who was blind. Their home makeover included a device that would make it possible for the blind dad, and deaf son to be able to communicate. I had never thought of it before. That would be a really hard circumstance to be in, to not be able to communicate with your dad because he can't see you sign and you can't hear him speak. What a blessing to this family. I may or may not have cried during this episode. Also, I regret not taking more ASL classes at BYU.
3. My parents and brother are coming to visit on Saturday. We're excited to see them and to show them around town! We've got some plans to go to The Riverwalk, The Alamo, take them for some classic Texas BBQ at Rudy's. We'll also watch The First Presidency Christmas Devotional at home, and probably watch the BYU vs. Hawaii football game. I went to clean the bathtub in the guest bathroom (which has never been used) and the water wouldn't turn on. We called our landlord and he knew exactly what the problem was, so he's coming over tomorrow to fix it.
4. It is colder here at night. Like, it actually goes into the 30s. May not sound bad to y'all, but down here in Texas that is mighty cold! We bought flannel sheets a few weeks ago and that helps. It also presents a problem. With regular sheets, I can wear my sweatpants and be able to move/adjust myself just fine. With flannel sheets I could hardly roll over to my side from my back. I keep thinking that someone has to have designed pajamas that are warm, but allow you to move on flannel sheets. If you know of a place I can find those, without making my own pajamas with cotton/fleece inside and silk on the outside, let me know.
5. I love Amazon. A lot. Over the next week I will get to interact with the UPS and USPS man several, several times. I think Chris and I did almost all of our Christmas shopping in the last week, and just about all from Amazon. Some of the items we bought we could have gotten for the same price at a local store, but at the store we would've had to pay tax and we would've spent time going there, finding it, waiting in line, and it would've used gas. With Amazon we could sit on our couch, we don't have to pay tax, and we got free shipping. The other thing I love about Amazon is the ease of Amazon Wishlists. We've always had Wishlists, and links to each others wishlists which makes shopping so simple. Whenever I see anything online that I want (on Amazon or elsewhere) I just click a button at the top of my web browser and it adds the item to my wishlist. I can then go to my wishlist, add a comment, rank things by priority (highest, high, medium, low) so that Chris knows that while I would like a particular movie, I would absolutely LOVE a certain cookbook, or other movie, or wii game, or kitchen utensil. It is a beautiful thing.
6. Related to Amazon, I love www.camelcamelcamel.com . I can go there, paste the url from a specific amazon item, and I can see how the current price compares to past prices. I can see if something is the lowest it has ever been. I can also set it up so that they send me an email if it gets below a price that I can set. This helped me find some good deals. For example: I decided there was a movie I wanted to get Chris, but I didn't want to pay over $12 for it. I set up for camelcamelcamel to send me an email when/if the item went below $11.99. I got an email one day when the price went down to $8.49, bought the movie, and then by the next day it was back up to $14.99. This has allowed me to take my chunk of Christmas spending money and make it go further.
7. A few months ago (I don't remember the occasion, was there even a specific reason?) two of my friends and I went to The Gourmet Cupcake Shop and bought cupcakes. Now that I think about it, I think it was someones wedding anniversary and they wanted cupcakes for dessert. I bought a Red Velvet one. Ever since I have been obsessed with Red Velvet. I have the stuff to make these Red Velvet Cake Balls but have been putting it off a little. I think I'm making them Thursday or Friday so that maybe my parents will eat some. I've been thinking about these cake balls for a while now.
8. My favorite tv show right now is The Next Iron Chef: Super Stars. Some of my favorite chefs from The Food Network and The Cooking Channel are competing against each other. So far my two favorite chefs are still in, and I love it. Chris and I watch it each week. It is on at like 8:00 on Sundays. We record it and watch it later so we don't have to watch commercials. It is the perfect ending for Sundays. I'm routing for Chef Geoffrey Zakarian and Chef Alex Guarnaschelli. They both are judges on my other favorite tv show, Chopped. It's really fun to watch these chefs cook incredible things with really strange ingredients.
I think 8 is a good amount of my random thoughts. There you go. Random thoughts from Marci.
well, just one more now. When I order something from Amazon I have them send me a text message the day that it is being delivered so that I know to watch for the FedEx/UPS/USPS man. I had a package delivered yesterday morning. Just 2 minutes ago I got a text message saying that my package was delivered the day before. That totally defeats the whole point of them texting me. I don't think USPS is really equipped to track packages that well. It normally works a whole lot better with the FedEx man, since they scan the package when they hand it to me.
1. Thanksgiving is over. That means it is now fine for me to listen to Christmas music. Or at least to admit that I've been listening to it since Halloween. Yes. On Halloween I was listening to The Forgotten Carols. I love The Forgotten Carols. I waited til after Thanksgiving to whip the piano book out and start playing it myself. Chris didn't know The Forgotten Carols before. He certainly is going to be getting to know them. It hurt to just listen to it last year, it feels so much better to be able to sit at my piano, and play and sing. I love it. If you don't know The Forgotten Carols you need to get to know it.
2. Today I watched an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition as I was working on a Christmas gift. The family receiving the home makeover had kids that were deaf, kids that were blind, a dad that was blind, and their grandma who was blind. Their home makeover included a device that would make it possible for the blind dad, and deaf son to be able to communicate. I had never thought of it before. That would be a really hard circumstance to be in, to not be able to communicate with your dad because he can't see you sign and you can't hear him speak. What a blessing to this family. I may or may not have cried during this episode. Also, I regret not taking more ASL classes at BYU.
3. My parents and brother are coming to visit on Saturday. We're excited to see them and to show them around town! We've got some plans to go to The Riverwalk, The Alamo, take them for some classic Texas BBQ at Rudy's. We'll also watch The First Presidency Christmas Devotional at home, and probably watch the BYU vs. Hawaii football game. I went to clean the bathtub in the guest bathroom (which has never been used) and the water wouldn't turn on. We called our landlord and he knew exactly what the problem was, so he's coming over tomorrow to fix it.
4. It is colder here at night. Like, it actually goes into the 30s. May not sound bad to y'all, but down here in Texas that is mighty cold! We bought flannel sheets a few weeks ago and that helps. It also presents a problem. With regular sheets, I can wear my sweatpants and be able to move/adjust myself just fine. With flannel sheets I could hardly roll over to my side from my back. I keep thinking that someone has to have designed pajamas that are warm, but allow you to move on flannel sheets. If you know of a place I can find those, without making my own pajamas with cotton/fleece inside and silk on the outside, let me know.
5. I love Amazon. A lot. Over the next week I will get to interact with the UPS and USPS man several, several times. I think Chris and I did almost all of our Christmas shopping in the last week, and just about all from Amazon. Some of the items we bought we could have gotten for the same price at a local store, but at the store we would've had to pay tax and we would've spent time going there, finding it, waiting in line, and it would've used gas. With Amazon we could sit on our couch, we don't have to pay tax, and we got free shipping. The other thing I love about Amazon is the ease of Amazon Wishlists. We've always had Wishlists, and links to each others wishlists which makes shopping so simple. Whenever I see anything online that I want (on Amazon or elsewhere) I just click a button at the top of my web browser and it adds the item to my wishlist. I can then go to my wishlist, add a comment, rank things by priority (highest, high, medium, low) so that Chris knows that while I would like a particular movie, I would absolutely LOVE a certain cookbook, or other movie, or wii game, or kitchen utensil. It is a beautiful thing.
6. Related to Amazon, I love www.camelcamelcamel.com . I can go there, paste the url from a specific amazon item, and I can see how the current price compares to past prices. I can see if something is the lowest it has ever been. I can also set it up so that they send me an email if it gets below a price that I can set. This helped me find some good deals. For example: I decided there was a movie I wanted to get Chris, but I didn't want to pay over $12 for it. I set up for camelcamelcamel to send me an email when/if the item went below $11.99. I got an email one day when the price went down to $8.49, bought the movie, and then by the next day it was back up to $14.99. This has allowed me to take my chunk of Christmas spending money and make it go further.
7. A few months ago (I don't remember the occasion, was there even a specific reason?) two of my friends and I went to The Gourmet Cupcake Shop and bought cupcakes. Now that I think about it, I think it was someones wedding anniversary and they wanted cupcakes for dessert. I bought a Red Velvet one. Ever since I have been obsessed with Red Velvet. I have the stuff to make these Red Velvet Cake Balls but have been putting it off a little. I think I'm making them Thursday or Friday so that maybe my parents will eat some. I've been thinking about these cake balls for a while now.
8. My favorite tv show right now is The Next Iron Chef: Super Stars. Some of my favorite chefs from The Food Network and The Cooking Channel are competing against each other. So far my two favorite chefs are still in, and I love it. Chris and I watch it each week. It is on at like 8:00 on Sundays. We record it and watch it later so we don't have to watch commercials. It is the perfect ending for Sundays. I'm routing for Chef Geoffrey Zakarian and Chef Alex Guarnaschelli. They both are judges on my other favorite tv show, Chopped. It's really fun to watch these chefs cook incredible things with really strange ingredients.
I think 8 is a good amount of my random thoughts. There you go. Random thoughts from Marci.
well, just one more now. When I order something from Amazon I have them send me a text message the day that it is being delivered so that I know to watch for the FedEx/UPS/USPS man. I had a package delivered yesterday morning. Just 2 minutes ago I got a text message saying that my package was delivered the day before. That totally defeats the whole point of them texting me. I don't think USPS is really equipped to track packages that well. It normally works a whole lot better with the FedEx man, since they scan the package when they hand it to me.
11.24.2011
Things
I've tried writing a few different posts for Thanksgiving. I have deleted them all. I just don't know what to say. There is so much that I am grateful for.
I have a fantastic husband. who has a great job. and he works really hard.
I have the greatest friends, who always make me laugh.
My family, although so spread out and far away, is freakin rad. Last month I got to see one of my sisters, and next week I get to see my parents and one brother. Next month I also get to go visit my husbands family-his parents, brother and sister.
I've got a pretty decent immune system (even though I was suffering from an almost ear infection and almost sinus infection a few days ago... a shot to the bum and I got better way fast).
I have the San Antonio Public Library System with 24 libraries that have pretty much any book I could ever want to read, well except they don't have a very good collection of biographies of LDS Prophets/Apostles. This year I have read almost 70 books.
I have a great collection of food blogs that I stalk that make dinner time so much more exciting.
I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and belong to a wonderful ward, with an awesome calling that allows me to work with the girls that are 8-11 years old.
I have an air conditioner that works.
I have overcome my fear of yeast this year and now make pizza, rolls, and breadsticks on a regular basis.
This year has been pretty great. I think I could go on for hours with all of the things I am grateful for, but I need to go make rolls now to go along with the rest of our Thanksgiving Feast. Then we'll watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation (It's a tradition in Chris's family to watch that movie on Thanksgiving day). And I've got to get some Black Friday shopping done. Love that the sales have been happening all week!
Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!
I have a fantastic husband. who has a great job. and he works really hard.
I have the greatest friends, who always make me laugh.
My family, although so spread out and far away, is freakin rad. Last month I got to see one of my sisters, and next week I get to see my parents and one brother. Next month I also get to go visit my husbands family-his parents, brother and sister.
I've got a pretty decent immune system (even though I was suffering from an almost ear infection and almost sinus infection a few days ago... a shot to the bum and I got better way fast).
I have the San Antonio Public Library System with 24 libraries that have pretty much any book I could ever want to read, well except they don't have a very good collection of biographies of LDS Prophets/Apostles. This year I have read almost 70 books.
I have a great collection of food blogs that I stalk that make dinner time so much more exciting.
I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and belong to a wonderful ward, with an awesome calling that allows me to work with the girls that are 8-11 years old.
I have an air conditioner that works.
I have overcome my fear of yeast this year and now make pizza, rolls, and breadsticks on a regular basis.
This year has been pretty great. I think I could go on for hours with all of the things I am grateful for, but I need to go make rolls now to go along with the rest of our Thanksgiving Feast. Then we'll watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation (It's a tradition in Chris's family to watch that movie on Thanksgiving day). And I've got to get some Black Friday shopping done. Love that the sales have been happening all week!
Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!
11.15.2011
101 in 1001 Project Update
On November 9th last year I made a goal list called a Day Zero Project. I set 101 goals that I want to accomplish in 1001 days. As of today, with 629 days left, I am 66% of the way done! I've finished 67/101 goals. By the end of December I will likely have 5 more of my goals done-- I'll have finished ISYS 100, ISYS 101, My Stake RS Book of Mormon Challenge, have written in my gratitude journal daily for a month, and have watched a movie that starts with each letter of the alphabet--I only have 2 movies left, and I know exactly what I'm going to watch for both X and Z!
Some of my other goals are in good progress as well-- I've read 59 of 101 books and have started creating my next list.
A few of my goals involve doing something once a month for the duration of the project. My hope is that by next November 9th I will have every goal done except those once a month, and then I'll start my next project early!
It's been great to have this list to work off. I'm grateful for Sarah for introducing me to the concept!
In case your curious, the link to my project is here.
Some of my other goals are in good progress as well-- I've read 59 of 101 books and have started creating my next list.
A few of my goals involve doing something once a month for the duration of the project. My hope is that by next November 9th I will have every goal done except those once a month, and then I'll start my next project early!
It's been great to have this list to work off. I'm grateful for Sarah for introducing me to the concept!
In case your curious, the link to my project is here.
11.14.2011
doctors and shots
today i am grateful for doctors. shots. and new nasal sprays.
since wednesday i haven't been feeling too great. bad pressure in my sinuses. pressure in my ears. a slight fever. a sore throat. sick enough to the point that i have watched all of season one of boy meets world, and read three richard paul evans books. i've slept countless hours, and gone through a package of dayquil. i missed our super saturday activity, and church. today i finally went to the doctor.
it wasn't a sinus infection, although my sinuses were pretty bad and the doctor was surprised that i had been able to breath through my nose.
my ears aren't infected, although they definitely have some fluid in them.
she did a strep test. i don't have strep.
so... instead of going home with antibiotics, i got to get a shot of something in my bum, and a sample of some new nasal spray.
in three days if i don't feel better, or if i feel worse before then, i go back and get some other prescription. hooray for dr thomas, even if she did make me get a shot in my bum!
as a side note, i forgot how much i love minkus from boy meets world. some of his sweater vests were pretty freaking rad!
since wednesday i haven't been feeling too great. bad pressure in my sinuses. pressure in my ears. a slight fever. a sore throat. sick enough to the point that i have watched all of season one of boy meets world, and read three richard paul evans books. i've slept countless hours, and gone through a package of dayquil. i missed our super saturday activity, and church. today i finally went to the doctor.
it wasn't a sinus infection, although my sinuses were pretty bad and the doctor was surprised that i had been able to breath through my nose.
my ears aren't infected, although they definitely have some fluid in them.
she did a strep test. i don't have strep.
so... instead of going home with antibiotics, i got to get a shot of something in my bum, and a sample of some new nasal spray.
in three days if i don't feel better, or if i feel worse before then, i go back and get some other prescription. hooray for dr thomas, even if she did make me get a shot in my bum!
as a side note, i forgot how much i love minkus from boy meets world. some of his sweater vests were pretty freaking rad!
11.09.2011
Grateful.
I go through phases when I read. Today I went to the library and checked out 8 books by one author. Richard Paul Evans. Once I finish these 8 books I'll have read 10 of his books within just a few weeks. Possibly even within 2 weeks, if I neglect all the other things in my life.
Today I am grateful for libraries. Right now I have 10 things checked out, and 5 more on hold. There is a library practically across the street from my house, but I go to a bigger one that is about 3 miles away. I love that library. I think I'm going to actually go get a library card at the one across the street from me. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not until I've returned the 10 items I have from the other library. I don't really need more than 9 books and one dvd at a time from the library. Oh yeah... I also have Seasons One of Boy Meets World. I love getting DVDs from the library!
Today I am grateful for libraries. Right now I have 10 things checked out, and 5 more on hold. There is a library practically across the street from my house, but I go to a bigger one that is about 3 miles away. I love that library. I think I'm going to actually go get a library card at the one across the street from me. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not until I've returned the 10 items I have from the other library. I don't really need more than 9 books and one dvd at a time from the library. Oh yeah... I also have Seasons One of Boy Meets World. I love getting DVDs from the library!
11.06.2011
Gratitude
I need to write a post about our trip to Dallas for the BYU v. TCU game that we went to last weekend, but all the pictures I want to use are on Chris's phone not mine, so it will have to wait til later when I can get all of those pictures from him. Instead... I'll blog a few of my thoughts on something else.
Gratitude.
It seems like every year in November I think a lot about gratitude. I think it was one November when I started a gratitude blog, that lasted exactly 10 posts.
Last week for Activity Days we read excerpts from this talk by President Monson about gratitude. As we read it we talked about reasons why we should be grateful for the six specific things/people that President Monson says we should be sure to show gratitude for. It was AWESOME to hear some of the girls talk about why they were grateful for their moms/dads/friends/teachers/our Savior. I was even more excited when they said "could we write thank you letters to people sometime". Little did they know, that is already our plan for our next activity. I LOVE when they suggest ideas that I've already scheduled, makes me feel good knowing I'm planning stuff they want.
Then we made gratitude journals. Which really just means that they raided my stack of 12x12 scrapbook paper (i wish they had taken more, I need to get rid of some of this stuff, and it is perfect designs for them...) and we folded it over the front cover of a composition journal that I bought after back to school sales for 40 cents a piece (love it!). After helping them spell gratitude about 20 times, they all had finished projects. I didn't get pictures of any of their journals, but here is mine:
On the first page we glued in part of Alma 34:38, the part that says we should live in Thanksgiving daily. I challenged them to write at least one thing every day that they were grateful for, or the equivalent of 7 things each week if they forgot a day. They each started writing things that they were grateful for as well. It was a pretty good activity. These really are sweet girls, and I am so grateful that I have the chance to spend time with them each month!
Gratitude.
It seems like every year in November I think a lot about gratitude. I think it was one November when I started a gratitude blog, that lasted exactly 10 posts.
Last week for Activity Days we read excerpts from this talk by President Monson about gratitude. As we read it we talked about reasons why we should be grateful for the six specific things/people that President Monson says we should be sure to show gratitude for. It was AWESOME to hear some of the girls talk about why they were grateful for their moms/dads/friends/teachers/our Savior. I was even more excited when they said "could we write thank you letters to people sometime". Little did they know, that is already our plan for our next activity. I LOVE when they suggest ideas that I've already scheduled, makes me feel good knowing I'm planning stuff they want.
Then we made gratitude journals. Which really just means that they raided my stack of 12x12 scrapbook paper (i wish they had taken more, I need to get rid of some of this stuff, and it is perfect designs for them...) and we folded it over the front cover of a composition journal that I bought after back to school sales for 40 cents a piece (love it!). After helping them spell gratitude about 20 times, they all had finished projects. I didn't get pictures of any of their journals, but here is mine:
On the first page we glued in part of Alma 34:38, the part that says we should live in Thanksgiving daily. I challenged them to write at least one thing every day that they were grateful for, or the equivalent of 7 things each week if they forgot a day. They each started writing things that they were grateful for as well. It was a pretty good activity. These really are sweet girls, and I am so grateful that I have the chance to spend time with them each month!
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