1,001 Days of Making a Better Me

 Today, I had the closing on Dad's house.  It was far quicker than I expected, and much easier.  It was also a bit bittersweet because all I can think of are the things I left behind.  I know that I don't want or need them, but there's that bit of regret that always seems to happen with things like this.  But at least this part has finished.  I just need to wait for another couple months to get the remainder of the money after debts are paid.  There shouldn't be a lot of them so I should still get a good amount.  That, combined with what I'm getting back from my taxes... I should have a bit of a hefty padding to keep us afloat if things go bad. I spent time this past week decluttering my closet.  I got rid of a lot of crap that was just taking up space, reorganized my clothes in the closet, and put several things in a bag for Goodwill.  I was pretty pleased with how it all came out, and I'm no longer afraid of opening my closet to get so...

 Another week, more progress made.  It's actually been a fairly good week for many of my goals.  I've been keeping up the reading train and am, so far, at 21 books read this year.  I'm still relistening to the Guild Codex  series for bedtime, but since I'm not counting those... I did, however, finish listening to Whispers Underground  and  Broken Homes.   Now I'm waiting for Foxglove Summer  to come in so I can listen to that next.  I also read and listened to Every Heart a Doorway  by Seanan McGuire.  It was also one of my Friend Recommendation reads, so I'm making my way through that goal as well.  I finished all of the trade paperbacks of Undiscovered Country  (which is through volume 5), and I've started on a series that's intrigued me for awhile, Locke & Key  by Joe Hill.  I've finished the first three books and will probably dive into the fourth tonight.  The good thing with graphic novels is ...

 Sunday Assembly  had to be rescheduled from the 12th to the 19th thanks to the snow we'd gotten that weekend.  So I had to wait another week before I could put my worries of screwing up behind me.  It was a fairly big month for me.  Not only was I doing Trying My Best, but I was singing with the band.  Most of my singing was harmony for the songs others sang lead on ("Help", "Deeper Well", "Lovely Day", "Afterlife"), but I did get to sing lead on "Shake It Off".  I practiced quite a bit Sunday morning, hoping that I'd knock it out of the park.  I also made sure to practice my TMB as well. Set up and practice for Assembly started at 2:45.  It was the first time I'd helped with set up, but it wasn't too bad to go through.  I helped with a lot of the audio set up, then got a chance to practice with the band a couple of times.  I had to keep reminding myself that I don't need perfection, but to just try to do my best.  ...

 This week has been another busy one.  I have been getting more writing done, but not as much reading.  I actually haven't finished one book in the last week, which is a very unusual thing for me.  I've done some re-listening as bedtime reading - I'm going through Annette Marie's Guild Codex  series again.  I don't usually count those because they are strictly bedtime listening and I miss large swatches of them.  If I keep being unable to read or listen during the day, I may start counting them again. The audio book of Whispers Under Ground, the third book in the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch, came in so I've been listening to that lately.  The next book in the series, Broken Home,  is sitting in my Libby waiting for this one to finish.  I did read a little more in Marathon Man  and started re-reading Undiscovered Country  by Scott Snyder.  I'm not sure why I've been unable to settle in to reading.  I thi...

2025 is turning out to be an interesting year for me so far.  Things with the sale of the house are going along nicely.  We should still be on track for having the closing on the 30th (I hope).  I'm becoming more and more ok with the thought of letting the house and everything in it go, which is what's telling me that this is the right call.  I just have to let other members of the family know that this is happening. I'm also making Sunday Assembly progress.  I'm (mostly) ready for this month's assembly.  We had to move it from last Sunday to this upcoming Sunday because of the bad weather we had.  It's given me a little more time to practice my vocal parts and do at least one read through of my "Trying My Best".  Next month, I'll be hosting and I'm making progress there too.  I've got the theme, Rich will be doing the talk, and I've picked out the reading.  I just need to find someone to do the reading and someone for "Trying My B...

Yesterday was an emotionally hellish day, so I completely forgot to do my weekly write up for my 101 in 1001.  But what's one day late, right?  At least I'm getting it written up eventually.   Thanks to audio books, I've been able to keep up on my reading.  Also, thanks to both of my graphic novel book clubs having their meetings this past week.  I was able to finish Moon Over Soho , which was a wonderful next outing for Peter Grant.  I've got the ebook out for Whispers Under Ground , but I'm waiting for the audio book to come in.  Some books I love reading the written word, some just work better as audio books.  For me, this is one of the later.  Of course, it also doesn't help that I have about 30 things happening at the same time which makes listening a lot easier. I also read Beauty  by Robin McKinley.  It's one that had been on my TBR for awhile and, thanks to my friend Gwen, actually got a read finally!  I enjoyed it...

 I have a contract on Dad's house.  We went with a company that will buy for cash immediately, as is.  I met with them yesterday at Dad's place.  They offered far less than I'd hoped for, but we were finally able to find a common ground in the offer.  The closing will be January 30.   It was strange, knowing that this would be the last time I would be at Dad's.  Part of me wanted to take everything with me, to not let anything that he owned go elsewhere.  But when I thought about it, I knew that it didn't make sense.  We took a few things from the house - some plates, small appliances, a picture of me, the heavy candy bowl.  There's more that I probably would have taken but so I couldn't let myself do that.  I'm definitely my dad's kid, in that I'm more than a bit of a pack rat.  I've already got too much taking up space here.  I don't need more.  That's what I'm telling myself anyway. Today, I'm wondering if I'd...

 It's been a week since my last update, and it's actually been a pretty good week.  I've stumbled a little but stumbles can happen.  It's more a matter of getting back up after I stumble.  And that I've done. Starting with the reading, I finished Midnight Riot  and am on to reading and listening to the next book,  Moon Over Soho .  I fully expect to be finished with this one today and I'm going to start Beauty  by Robin McKinley.  I also listened to The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway , which was a suggestion from a friend as part of my read 10 books from friends challenge to myself.  I picked up a few books from the library, including The Graphic Canon, Volumes 1-3 .  I may add that next.  These books will help me with more than a few of the challenges.  I'm planning on going into my challenges and add books as to read to lists so I have an idea of what fits where. I did add one more challenge to my list: an audio book c...

 Happy New Year! For all that I didn't start my 101 journey at the start of the new year, I did decide to start some of the challenges I'd set myself on January 1st.  It's easier to keep track of a month or a year of something when you have an easy to remember start date.  Granted, this is only day two, and I'm probably only going to update this weekly rather than daily.  (How often would you want to read "I read today, I logged it today, I wrote, I didn't eat fast food?  Seriously?)   To start, here's a list of the challenges that I'm going to be working on daily for the next month or next year. Read for at least 20 minutes a day Complete a reading challenge Log my reading for one year Write something every day for a year No fast food for one month Take a picture every day for a year The reading, so far, hasn't been too tough to do.  Between audio books, physical books and digital books, there's rarely an excuse for me to not read.  So far, ...