Tag: Random Thoughts

Biting the bullet…

Posted on by Jo Anne

Over the holiday break, my college student was home, getting herself ready for the upcoming (now in progress) spring semester.  She

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invested in an Apple Pencil, and used it with her iPad and the app Good Notes.  She had mentioned that she wanted to start bullet journaling, but needed the pencil for school, and so, she took the time to create a digital bullet journal.

The results were beautiful.  I wish I could share some of her pages, but the bottom line was…she inspired me – as my kids most often do.  However I had recently invested in some notebooks, and planner inserts of my own, and couldn’t justify the cost of the Apple Pencil (although it is on my wishlist should I ever find myself in a higher paying job).

So, instead of dropping $99 on the pencil, I dropped about $15 on a few Micron Pigma Pens and a small stencil.  From all the blog posts and tutorials I’ve read, I was becoming overwhelmed.  So many options, and so much to choose from.  But one underlying message held true from all the bloggers.  Use a practice journal, expect mistakes, keep it simple and add embellishment later.

And so I have.  I found that a notebook I purchased last year for actual note-taking, was the perfect option to be a practice journal.  I started by making a list of the different types of pages (Index, Future Log, Monthly, Weekly, Daily, Collection) and determining what I needed to do first.  As any good bullet journaling blogger will tell you, take it slow.

So I started with an Index page.  This is my first page, and will allow me to update regularly.  My second page is titled the Key.  I expect to use this for note-taking symbols (To do, Complete, Migrating, Cancelled), but at the moment, all it has is a title. Next is a Future Log.  This has all the upcoming important dates for the next 6 months.  I don’t know if the journal will last six months, or nine, or twelve, but we’ll start with six.  Lastly, I started outlining a 90-day goals spread.  This includes a personal goal and a business goal, and Pampered Chef is the business on which I am focusing.

I haven’t fully fleshed out this 90-goals spread, but I hope to update this blog, weekly, with how my bullet journal is progressing.

Anyway, I have kept it to pencil.  There has been no ink, no color added.  I used one stencil for the Future Log.  But beyond that, it’s pretty simple.

New Year, New Post, Fluff and Accountability

Posted on by Jo Anne
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Happy New Year!

As is common this time of year, blog posts abound where wannabe bloggers such as myself write a post that indicates that said blogger will be more prolific in the new year, write more, do more, whatever goals they may have.  Every year, I try not to write a post like this because they seem so, well, cliche.

Then I was listening to an interview.  The topic was brought up, and the interviewee (I can’t remember who it was) mentioned that it was done more for accountability.  This struck me as quite eye-opening.  People use blogs as journals, or diaries of sorts.

So, for accountability’s sake, let me tell you what the new year brings for me.

My Pampered Chef business.  I am on the verge of reaching a sales milestone – and hopefully I will reach it this month.  So, as much for accountability as for sales, if you’d like to be a part of this, let me know if there is anything you are interested in learning more about, or if you’d like to host a party, or, better yet, if you’d like to join my team.  One of the goals I have for this business is to build a strong team this year.

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Bullet journaling.  Have you heard of this?  I had heard of it randomly, and then over Christmas, my daughter mentioned it.  She picked up an Apple Pencil to use with her iPad, and created her own digital bullet journal.  I’d love to do that as well, but since I had all these tools on hand to have a hard copy journal, I felt that saving a little money would be to my benefit.  If I am lucky, I will be documenting my experience with bullet journaling here on my blog.

Getting healthy.  Last year, I joined a gym.  I was inconsistent in my attendance, at best.  I do hope to be more consistent this year.  The coaches at my gym are awesome!

As part of my “get healthy” plan, I am taking on a 30 day nutrition challenge with my middle daughter.  We will be eating healthier, and cleansing ourselves of all sorts of bad things.  This is more of a plan to learn to eat healthier (very similar to the Whole30 I did a few years ago) and less of a weight loss regimen.  Assuming I maintain consistency at the gym, and learn healthier eating habits, a little bit of weight loss should come with the territory.  I won’t complain about that.

Where did it all come from?

Posted on by Jo Anne
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It’s really interesting to me to see where things go and from where they came.

I have another sleepy blog called Food Loves Company and I accidentally stumbled on it the other day.  It was a joint collaboration and I reached out to my friend Angela who thought it might be a good idea, or at least kind of fun, if we revived it.

But in all of that, I discovered a number of other blogs, including a self-hosted blog that seems to be a little troublesome at the moment.  These include The Beatnik Neatnik, where I had hoped to rediscover myself as a truly organized being.  (That’s comedy gold right there!).  It also included Coffee Is My Kryptonite – my latest blogging venture which has been hibernating since April – when I was almost done with my first ever Whole30.  And of course, the self-hosted Thinkin’ Guruvee – which simply had some thoughts and musings from various times when I felt inspired to write.  It also included this lovely spot – noms ‘n’ knits.

Now you may be wondering why I didn’t create links to all of these – and I’ll tell you.  It’s because I actually combined them all to this one blog.  You’ll notice that there are a ton of posts now.  Including three pages that could serve as “about me” pages.  (If you’re a writer, or feeling generous with your time, let me know if you’re interested in helping me condense all those thoughts into one “about” page – with a clever title.  I like clever.)

Anyway, I am hoping to actually DO something with this blog.  I have big plans for my crafting…and my cooking.  And the bulk of my crafting will come from knitting.

That is all.

For now.

All the things I want to do

Posted on by Jo Anne

Seasons Greetings From BostonWhat do I want to do this year?

  • I want to read at least 14 new books (this would include books I’ve started in the past, but was never able to finish).
  • I want to eat a little healthier
  • I want to get out of debt (I won’t count the mortgage and the car payments as part of this because they are a cost of living, but if I can get out of credit card debt?  woohoo!)
  • I want to see friends more, worry about chores less
  • I want to stop saying, “I think I can…” and start saying, “I know I can!”
  • I want to finish at least 3 knitting/sewing projects (two are already under way)

I share this information, not so much for accountability, but for a record that at one point this year, I was feeling quite optimistic.

Just before the Christmas Holiday, I was able to go into the city to meet with some Sisters I haven’t seen in a while.  (Yeah!  I’m talkin’ about you LG!!) When I say “a while” I’m talking like, 20 or more years.  (ok, ok, so we saw each other at the 20th anniversary of our chapter’s founding…and sure, I saw Heather just a few months ago!) Anyway, it was so much fun to catch up, and share what we’ve been doing with our lives.  Upon learning about my culinary experiences, LG asked what I was serving over the holidays – because, well, food is fun.  Fish are friends, not food.

This was the food plan.

Christmas Eve

  • Lasagna – for all
  • Lobster Tails – for 4
  • Steak – for 3
  • Green beans with shallots and bacon
  • Caesar Salad with fresh baked croutons

Christmas Day

  • Brown-sugar Ham (I went with brown sugar over honey because the flavor, I think, is so much richer.
  • Maple-glazed carrots
  • Scalloped potatoes
  • Broccoli with Parmesan
  • Cranberry Salad with Mixed Greens, Walnuts and Goat Cheese – with a Balsamic Vinaigrette

I had additionally planned over the course of the two days to serve the following

  • Baked brie en croute with apricot preserves
  • Spinach and artichoke dip
  • Cheese and Crackers
  • Shrimp Cocktail

There would be a total of 7 of us for Christmas Eve, and those same 7 plus 1 would be dining on Christmas Day.

Lauren, I apologize that I don’t have pictures to share of meals.  The only things I didn’t serve are all of my appetizers.  I did make some Asian Meatballs, however, and I used Glutino gluten-free bread crumbs (because my niece eats gluten free!).  I never would have guessed that they were made with gluten-free bread crumbs.  They were delish.  However, my niece still couldn’t eat them, because they were made with soy sauce, which apparently has wheat in it.  Does anyone know if there is a decent gluten-free soy sauce out there?

I Propose a Toast

Posted on by Jo Anne

On the heels of some very belated and very sad news about our dear sister LP, another dear sister, Grover, has posted a wonderful article on Facebook about distance between friends and loved cheersones.  From this opening, maybe you can see that there are two very different but related topics that I will be writing about.

The first is that life is short.  Upon reading the obit for Lisa, four months late – and thank you, NU Magazine for keeping us posted on these things – I was brought back about five years, when I found my former roommate, Melissa, had also passed – three years prior.  It also brings me back to 2001, when I learned Katie McGarry from SHA was in the towers.  All three of these women, women I genuinely cherished as friends, as family, were women I allowed myself to lose touch with.  They were women who “should know” I was thinking of them, even if I didn’t write letters, send emails, make phone calls.  Big mistake.  My heart breaks for each and every one.  And truly, I hope they know that they really do come to mind, more often than they don’t.

The second related topic is about the article posted.  The article discussed a request to friends far away, to share their daily lives.  I see a lot of complaints on the book from people who don’t care to know what others had for lunch, or when their kid took their first step.  I see people who detest the mundane.  It made me think about them: the people who complain about it.  Maybe they don’t have friends spread far and wide.  Maybe they only have a small little world that exists for them – which is why they don’t care, and do complain. I feel for them.

And how is this all related? Well, as I said, life is short.  We should make efforts to reach out more, talk more, catch up more.  Even those mundane micro-posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, they cast glimpses into the every day that many of us formerly thrived on.  We lived together in small communities of women, several apartments each housing one or two or six of us.  And we all shared each others lives, every day.  We laughed, loved, cried, prayed, and survived together.

Here is my call to action:  The next time  you feel the urge to complain about the mundane post you see, think about the people that poster is connected to.  Maybe they are far away and just want to let people know about their every day, people who used to share their every day and now do not.

And to my Sigma Sisters, I propose a toast.  Let’s pick a day or ten; the same date every year.  Wherever we are, whoever we’re with, raise a glass, or a mug, filled with the beverage of your choice, and toast each other; the Sisterhood.  For fun, those of us who blog, tweet, Facebook, Instagram…we can post a little anecdote of where we were, who we were with, what memory of Sigma came to mind as we toasted.  Or not.  If we can’t be together, we can toast together, have a moment in time when we know we are thinking of each other; committed to the memories of our founding and of years past.

Who’s with me?

My First Miracle Still Brings Me To Tears

Posted on by Jo Anne

Just about a year ago, my thirteen year old daughter came home from school to tell us that her Spanish teacher was hoping to put together an immersion Monteverdetrip to Costa Rica for the next year for 8th and 9th graders.  I thought to myself, what a great experience.  If we can afford it.  If she really wants to go.  If she’s selected as part of the group.  There were a lot of “Ifs,” but I wasn’t really worried about it.  Not in the spring.

Fast forward to October.  The “informational meeting” was scheduled, so we attended.  There were probably about 40 students there, with one or both parents.  The goal of this meeting was to provide preliminary information about the trip; enough information for families to determine if they wanted to participate in this trip, and to determine if they would be able to afford it.  The questions that cropped up at this meeting were very specific and somewhat tedious.  At the time, ebola was on the rise here in the States, and I wasn’t too worried about a lot of the things people were asking.  In hindsight, I should have been.  Not because any of the issues have come to fruition, but because maybe if I worried a little more then, I would be a little less worried now.  I don’t really think I would call it worry.

The months passed, and the trip got closer and closer.  My kid is usually about as laid back as her dad, and it is certainly something I love about both of them.  It helps keep me grounded about things I could otherwise be bent out of shape about.  About two weeks before take off, I started thinking about how I didn’t want her to go.  I had no rational reason for it.  The trip was paid for, in full.  I knew there was nothing that would compel me to keep her home.  I just didn’t want her to go.

After outfitting her with new hiking sneakers, moisture-wicking t-shirts and tanks, and various other sundries for traveling, we were ready to take her to the airport.  I knew I would miss her, and not just because I knew that she wouldn’t be here to play with her sister. But as I watched her go through security, I felt a lump rise in my throat.  I felt tears start to fill my eyes, but forced them back.  I knew my husband would think I was off my rocker.  I had been hearing lots of “she’ll be fine” and “what are you worried about?”

I spent the next forty-eight hours thinking about the “why.”  Why was I worried about her?  But I realized it wasn’t…isn’t worry.  My daughter is a good person.  For the last several years, I had made a conscious decision to be like the best role model I know – my father.  But while I struggle to be like him, she IS like him.  She never thinks badly of anyone, she is always willing to help, she is empathetic, and although sometimes grudgingly, she will play on the Xbox with her sister, read her a book, or play some other game with her.  No.  What I was feeling was just “missing her.”

It is only 9 days.  I knew she is in good hands.  She is with her best friend.  A best friend who had a phone set up for international use, and was willing to let her use it.  But I think what became most evident, is that she would come back a different person.  I wasn’t just missing her.  At airport security, I had said goodbye to my little girl.  Let’s be honest. When she comes back, she will be a little older and a little wiser.  But not too much.  No matter how much or how little she changes, that little girl who used to hold my hand crossing streets, the one who used to “lawyer up” on everything her father and I ever shared with her, the one who didn’t really know much outside the microcosm of our familial geography, she would not be coming back.  That made me a little sad.

Her teachers have been posting updates on a closed Facebook group.  These updates include pictures, some narrative, and some commentary.  I wonder how many other parents like myself are watching the group constantly for any update or picture.  What I find truly amazing, is that my daughter is out there, in a foreign country, doing things I couldn’t imagine.  She has hiked and zip lined through the cloud forest, she has been immersed in a Spanish-speaking home, she has been managing her own money.  She has been doing all of this without needing me.  We are on day six and she has only called twice.  It makes me happy that she is so independent.  It feels bittersweet that she doesn’t need me anymore.

This trip really is the first step to her getting out, and getting away, and growing up.

The passing of 25 years…

Posted on by Jo Anne

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Yesterday was my 25th high school reunion. I haven’t been to a single reunion since leaving for college, but, for the 25th, I thought, This is a big one. I should go.

It all started about 6 or 7 months ago, when we all started chatting on Facebook that we were out of school 25 years. This subsequently brought up the reunion, which we were sure was bound to be planned by the alumnae association. The “missing person’s list” went out. Girls (now women) who I have befriended on the book were randomly chatting about who would go, when it would be, etc.

And then, just under two months ago, the invitations went out. They were beautiful. Inviting us to a Mass and a tour of our beloved Sacred Heart Academy, followed by dinner at Novita Wine Bar in Garden City. On the reverse side of the invitation, was a list of “missing persons.” As my invitation is currently at home, and I am sitting cozily in my best-friend-from-kindergarten’s house, I can’t say how many of the missing persons showed up. But there, plain as day on the list was Katie McGarry. I quickly emailed the alumnae address to let them know she was not missing. And anyone who is in our class knows where she is. But, not to put a damper on the celebration, I suspect that many of these missing people were found.

I made arrangements to stay at my best-friend-from-kindergarten’s house. She and her family were so gracious to let me into their home for the weekend. But that’s another lovely story. No really, it is a lovely story. Anyway, on Friday, I chose to take the day off from work, and headed down to Long Island excited to see my friends. I ended up on the ferry in Bridgeport. The voyage was pretty quick. It’s only an hour and fifteen minutes, dock to dock.

The short part of this narrative is that I did a little shopping, got to know my best-friend-from-kindergarten’s daughter better, and took off for the reunion.

The long of it is that in so many ways, some things never change. My own thought process immediately brought me back 25 years, and I thought of all the attendees as girls not women. The same girls who would go out of their way to try to make others feel uncomfortable, were still trying to do so, and still failing miserably. The same girls who would go out of their way to make other feel comfortable, were still doing that, and as always, succeeding. We, myself included, fell back into the same social classes that seemed to exist before. Clusters of women, catching up with each other, hugs all around. And then, there were moments where I felt everything had changed; that there were those of us who were able to transcend the lines. (I like to think that I have always done that. I like to think that I was never one of those people who was looked down on for decisions I made in school. I like to think I was never a target for being made fun of. Realistically, I don’t know what was ever said when I wasn’t around, or whispered as I moved from class to class. And I never really cared. And that, I think, is what has made me feel I could transcend the lines. I was the math tutor, the musician, the ear-to-listen. I was the cheerleader and the geek, all rolled into one.) As I looked around the room, I was able to note how as much as we’d all grown a little older and a little wiser, we’d all stayed the same as well. For every reminder of high school I found, I was able to identify a marked change in that same classmate. For every change I was able to pinpoint, I was able to see what I loved or hated about someone as well.

The short of it:

  • Everyone, no matter how much she protests, enjoys coming home
  • People who are self-centered in high school, and I mean, genuinely self-centered, really don’t change much
  • Most people have, at some point in their life, been a target. They don’t like it. It’s how they deal with it that makes them strong or weak
  • True friends, really are true friends for life
  • We may be 25 years older, but we are also 25 years wiser, 25 years sexier, and 25 years happier

In true geek fashion, I challenged myself to remember people. I said hello to girls, by name, and only had to look at a name tag once or twice. Every other time, I recognized the woman for the girl she once was. I can’t tell you how many times I was able to note that others had to read my name tag before being comfortable saying hello. It was more times than I could count on two hands. In many ways, I felt really good about that. My memory has not failed me yet. In other ways, it made me feel a little sad. I hadn’t made that much of an impression. Or. Something occurred along the way to cause these women not to care about their memories, good or bad. 25 years ago, this would have bothered me. 25 years ago, I might have tried to analyze why I wasn’t remembered, or why I needed a name tag to remind people who I was. I was ME, dammit! This weekend, I was able to smile, greet, and hug with the best of them. I was able to let the glance to my name tag roll off my back, and rejoice in the realization that my memory was pretty kick ass.

Goals and Opportunities

Posted on by Jo Anne

Blogging?After suffering some unneeded stress earlier this week – totally not even worth going into – I began wondering if there truly is a low-stress option.   Let me rephrase that.  I began wondering if there truly is a VIABLE low-stress work option; one that won’t leave me destitute, and telling my kids they can no longer dance, take gymnastics, or play soccer.  There really isn’t.  Not without taking a year or two break from all that fun.

So I find myself doing what I always do.  Trolling Facebook and reading about all the things my friends are accomplishing in their every day lives, journeys (real or figurative) that they are embarking on and as always happens once or twice a week…I see a post from Typographical Era.  This is the home of a very good, long-time friend of mine.  He likes to read.  He likes good movies and television.  He likes to write.  He writes all the time.  But every now and then I find a typo – and I point it out.

Here is the conversation we had today.

——————————————————————–

PixelJo: “What does it take to truly stand out in today’s over crowed, fast paced world?”

PixelJo: 😛

PixelJo: Should that be ‘crowded’ or should i be asking you to define ‘over crowed?’

Aaron: you are my favorite editor!  when are we going to start working on our novels?

Aaron: seriously

——————————————————————–

Good question.  We’ve both had rumblings of ideas; plot bunnies that just sit and simmer.  Admittedly, some of mine haven’t gotten much past the “I want to write a different kind of love story” but some have a little more substance.  I started writing.  Once.  I stopped after three pages.

——————————————————————–

PixelJo:  I want to.  I REALLLY want to.  Need to get out of the rat race and do for ME.

Aaron: take me with you! 🙂

PixelJo: I wish we could find a way

Aaron: me too

Aaron: well at least i know one person reads my blog posts 🙂

——————————————————————–

If you haven’t done so yet, click that link to Typographical Era.  Look, there it is again.  You won’t be disappointed.  Aaron and Karli have done a wonderful job combining the works of two blog writers and making a single, well-branded website.  Do it so I’m not the only one reading their blog posts.  (I’m really not.  But go say hi.  They’ll love you for it!)

——————————————————————–

PixelJo: Did you start writing your novel?  What’s it going to be about?

Aaron: not even close, no

Aaron: so many ideas

PixelJo: So lets set a deadline to narrow down ideas and if we need to, we can set a deadline BEFORE that to come up with valid criteria for narrowing down

PixelJo: aka, I can see the following 3 subplots or whatever, leading off the main arc-ing plot or something like that.

Aaron: nice, taking action! i like it

PixelJo: Ok.  Criteria for narrowing down: 2 ideas by July 15. narrowing down novel ideas to 3 using our “approved” criteria by August 31.

Aaron: it’s on!  i agree to those deadline

——————————————————————–

So there it is.  Accountability.  To each other.  An opportunity to do something new and different.  Goals to achieve.  Wish me luck.

Step 1: Blog about it.  Make it known.  It is now known.

Time is always moving…

Posted on by Jo Anne

Nine days after Boston Marathon TragedyThis past week, time stood still for the City of Boston, and surrounding towns. Suburbia watched, glued to televisions, as police, SWAT, FBI, and heaven knows what other law enforcement teams, executed a manhunt not seen, ever. The sheer cost involved is a mind bender. While this went on, the populace of Eastern Mass was still. We went about our day, but if there was a radio playing, or a television on, we were, for the most part, just going through the motions. Our interest lay with the sound waves, and the video broadcasts. We learned about the hunted; their interests, their hobbies; who they went to school with, their citizenship status, where they were from. For most of us, this has been at the forefront of our minds. Catch the criminals.

For others, life moved forward. For one such family, life moved forward way too fast. Admittedly, I do not know the family personally, and perhaps that takes away my right to speak of them, but I will do so, without naming names, to protect their privacy and maintain their anonymity.

Imagine, if you will, a young boy, full of life. And imagine how, at the age of 6, he could be diagnosed with a horrible form of cancer. Now, a year later, he is home on hospice care, with his family and closest friends surrounding him. Sure, I’ve just summed up the mother’s worst nightmare in two sentences. But, I cannot even imagine what the family must be going through. I cannot even begin to describe the pain and emotion the family has felt during this experience. The decision to spend his final days in the comfort of his own home were made during the manhunt taking place in Boston.

So the real question is…for whom did time stand still? Was it for this family, who, while I’m sure will someday look back and think that they vaguely remember being around for the manhunt? Or was it speeding forward for them, far more quickly than they could want? Or was it still for the rest of us, who focused on whether it was martial law to shut down the city and surrounding towns (in an unprecedented move) to flush out the young man in question?

I don’t really have an answer to this question. But I think, I will pray for the family mentioned above, with all my heart. I will pray for peace to settle in the little boy’s soul, and for the parents and sibling(s) to find peace with the idea that God has decided to call this little boy home – a sentiment that can never, ever ease the pain of loss they are about to experience. And then, I will thank God the other young man has been caught – and pray he can be redeemed; that he can feel remorse.

If a seven year old boy doesn’t really get to choose when he goes, why should someone else get to choose when others go?

To school or not to school…

Posted on by Jo Anne

Pomp and CircumstanceThe other day, I went to lunch at a little market with the best salad bar.  I’m not usually a healthy eater, but I’m trying to eat healthier.  So when I’m in the mood to be healthy, this is one of the places I have a tendency to go.

As I was leaving, I was approached by a guy holding a video camera and a microphone from Fox 25.  I was asked to comment on the value of a college degree in today’s economy.  I was told I might be on the news that night between 6 and 7.  I was not.  (How thankful are all of you?  I looked like my normal every day run-down self, and in my attempts to be witty, I really was not!)

But the entire experience got me thinking.  I received a very-expensive-for-its-time degree in music.  I don’t do anything with it – although I’d love to be able to say I do.  If you asked me what my dream job would be, I wouldn’t have an answer for you.  I don’t claim to be so old that “I know better from life,” but I do think I’ve lived just long enough to know that my dream job wouldn’t be a job at all, but a means to an end.  That end would be spending time with my family; making memories for my children that they in turn will want to do for their children.

The point is, I’m of a mixed mind about the value of a college degree.  My husband does not have a college degree.  He is successful, and knowledgeable.  What he does required no degree, but a strong technical aptitude.  Certainly, what I do does not require a degree, but a strong grasp of soft skills, and speaking with people.  And  yet, I think a college degree leaves a great experience to pull from.  There is, of course, the value of life skills.  If you go away to college, you learn to balance a budget (although, I’m still working on honing this skill almost 20 years post-grad), do your own laundry (if your parents never had you do that at home), eating right by your own choices, how to use a credit card responsibly – and the consequences that come with irresponsibility.  Some of these skills you could learn by not going away to school.  And ideally, you *should* be learning them even if you don’t go to college at all.

But let’s face it.  Young people today are just not learning these skills without a bail-out.  Yes, I said bail-out.  They have parents who help them out of credit card messes, mom’s who are still willing to do their laundry and cook their dinner.  And even if the parents are trying to teach them the value of money by charging rent, it’s usually unrealistically low, and doesn’t include the cost of food – which the parents are also providing.  So I think the question is not today’s economy that might make the difference in the value of that education, but today’s society in general.

Do I want my kids to go to college?  Of course I do.  And, knowing what I do of their aspirations and ambitions, there is an education to be earned.  Culinary, veterinary, trade or otherwise.  I don’t think it matters.