That Weird Blog No One Ever Talks About

Every family has one.

I once had another blog. Oh, a fun, clever blog, that I enjoyed writing until:

I got too tired of trying to be clever.

Thus, Eco-ing Myself was born, where cleverness happens by accident (...maybe?...) every once in awhile, but it isn't expected.

I hope.

Anyhow, that blog still exists and although I don't post on it anymore, I DO still find some of the posts entertaining, so during this "Post Everyday Bootcamp Why Am I Doing This? Experiment" of this the first month of 2012- I will be reposting some of my favorites from my old blog. As not to overwhelm myself with posting EVERY. DAY. when I have not posted everyday...er...ever.
To start off, I will repost those posts having to do with the only other time I tried to post everyday, which was NABLOPOMO of 2007. (Remember NABLOPOMO? It still exists in conjunction with BlogHer.)

Well, let me tell you, NABLOPOMO 2007 was a failure for this particular blogger.

But the related posts were amusing.

Enjoy!

(Tomorrow).

FYI

I am going to try to post everyday this January.

I know, I know.

(Stop laughing.)

Beginnings...

I was going to title this post "Beginnings...and Endings", but as I am trying to be positive, I want to frame my language in as positive a way as possible. Endings aren't always negative, but in the way the title would be intended, it would be negative, so...we shall go with just..."Beginnings".

2012: The Year of the Question Mark

I thought last year was the year of the question mark, but 2011 turned out to be Year of Practicing for the Year of the Question Mark. The Pre-Question Mark Question Mark, if you will.

I am so sporatic at posting that I don't know if I mentioned last year that my husband was applying for jobs that would most likely take us out of my beloved state. Last year however, he knew he had another year at his current job if things didn't pan out, so he only applied for the jobs he liked the most, leaving those that weren't that exciting to him. He got two (very impressive if I do say so myself) interviews, and was in the top two choices for both but ended up not being the first pick for either. That was ok. His job where we are is temporary, but he had another year to try again.

So this fall, the job hunt began anew, but this time more seriously.  Because I am a total dork, I made a spreadsheet- and my spreadsheet tells me that he applied for 49 positions, in 29 cities, 17 states, and 3 countries (other than the US). He has gotten 12 interviews so far- which is awesome- and a few more might trickle in this month. These interviews are all over the place- pacific northwest, south, northeast, midwest, west, and the UK. So much for narrowing down my possibilities to a general area.

Since there are no jobs where we currently reside, we will be moving to an unknown location in the summer/fall of 2012- and because I have lived here, have my friends here, and family here, it is easy for me to think that some things are "ending". However, I refuse to succumb to negative word choices. Nothing is ending, old things may be changing, new things are beginning. And that is an exciting thought.

ADVENTURE.

Side Note-

Dear Readers That Live In The Interview Cities: Be warned- I may pretend that we are friends if I am forced to move somewhere I know no one. :)

Wishing you a wonderful new year full of prosperous new beginnings and peaceful continuings. 

Reading Through the Centuries Project: Black Beauty

So y'alls, guess what? A year late...I met my goal of reading Black Beauty! Hoo boy, that's right, it only takes me a year to finish reading a book normally assigned to school children.

Goals: I meet them.

Now I can watch the movie that I got "for the family" last Christmas- I told myself I wouldn't watch it until I finished the book. Clearly it wasn't enough motivation to get the thing finished quickly. I will give a report on how the movie is. Hopefully it won't take me a year to watch.

My verdict on the book- worth reading. It's a really interesting historical lesson in the living conditions of people and horses in different social circumstances in the middle of the nineteenth century. I think it definitely served Anna Sewell's purpose of informing her contemporaries about things they might not have realized were cruel or inhumane- and might have made people think about the way they treated the animals they used on a daily basis. For example, the popular custom of making carriage horses wear 'bearing reins'.

These reins, which by themselves are not necessarily cruel, but when over-tightened- which was the fashion during this era- forced horses to carry their heads unnaturally high- cutting off the horses' breath and placing serious strain on their neck muscles. Sewell devoted a lot of the book to mentioning these reins and describing their effects on the horses- they went out of style in her lifetime, I wonder how much affect Black Beauty had on that- the book was very successful at the time it was published.

It's a really quick read- not that you'd know it from my pace, but the chapters are short and easy to read. If you're looking for something to read, try it- it's free on most e-readers too! Score!

Anna Sewell- ca. 1878

A Week in the Life of a Budget Yogi- Tuesday

Today was a super blah day at work. Kind of soul sucking. So today's yoga needed to be mellow. In some ways I wanted to do some real calorie burnin' yoga, because I ate too much today :) but my body said no no, you need some Mellow Out And Heal From Your Day Yoga. So I listened. Sometimes I'm a good listener. not always, but sometimes.

I can pretty much do Rodney Yee's AM Yoga by heart now, so to get out of my messy and decidedly non-mellow house, I took my yoga to a very special place:

My balcony.

I recently fixed this thing all up- I regret that I didn't use it adequately sooner, but it is what it is and now I am. I got some fun colored chairs, painted a rock with the word NAMASTE and brought my plants out. And can I tell you...I LOVE IT. Its my tiny little oasis. I read out here, the little one and I eat lunch out here, and tonight, I did my yoga out here.

Namaste, indeed! :)

A Week in the Practice of a Budget Yogi- Monday*

This post is the first of a short series of posts that documents a week in the life of my Year of Yoga. I call myself a Budget Yogi because I mostly do DVD's at home. DVD's are fine for the most part; I really enjoy the collection I have. Would I like to practice more in a real live studio? Sure, but but it really depends on my bank account on any given day, as well as child care, so mostly it ends up being just me, my cluttered living room, a two year old, a dog or two, a cat, and an onscreen Rodney Yee. Rock on!

Today I came home at lunch to do my yoga for the day. I only work 5 minutes or so away from my house, so sometimes this is a nice option- especially if I know the evening is going to be busy. It's also a nice break from everything to come home to an empty house and to light a candle and mellow out for a half hour in the middle of the day.

The DVD selection for today's practice was Yoga for Stamina- a nice 20 minute flow that includes my favorite Tree Pose. :) My mood for today's practice was half way between 'Totally Distracted Lets Just Do This So I Can Check It Off the List' and 'Totally Blissed Out'. My mind wasn't completely on task, but I wasn't completely unfocused either.

What I have found during this year is that I'm not going to be Totally Blissed Out everyday. Some days it will just be a check off the list- but that's ok. I'm there, I made the effort to pull the mat out and practice, and my body will get the benefit. When I'm conscious of a mindset like that, I try to focus more and be present, but sometimes it just doesn't stick. On days like those, I concentrate on the fact that I made good choices in getting on the mat, even if I wasn't totally present. What matters on those days is that I showed up.

I think life is often like that, no?


*This post is also cross posted on my other blog Yoga for Kaylee