Bloom Where You're Planted!

For someone whose blog is entitled “My Life, Army Style,” I’ve noticed my blog doesn’t contain all that much of either.  ;-) This isn’t intentional, as I think of blog posts all the time but never get around to actually composing them.  But today I’d like to talk about a military-related topic that I’m pretty passionate about: negativity towards duty stations.

I didn’t realize until I had been an Army wife for a few years and started being around military spouses how many of them hate where they have to live. And I see it more and more all the time.  It has started becoming a source of frustration to me. That’s not to say I haven’t had to learn my own lessons in this area. I believe I have mentioned here about the meltdown I had when I found out we were moving to Ft. Bliss/El Paso, TX! However, perhaps my meltdown would never have occurred had I not been hearing for years what a horrible place it was and having people pity me once they found out where we were going. Once I started doing my own research, I realized the importance of having an open mind and experiencing things for yourself before forming an opinion. I’ll also never forget what a wonderful thing it was when, in the chorus of “I’m sorrys” and “ughs” on my Facebook post announcing our move, a friend of mine who was a more senior spouse (and I intend to do another post soon on why all junior military spouses should spend time with senior spouses) sent me a message to tell me how much she and her family had enjoyed Ft. Bliss, that they still missed it, and that they were so happy for me that I was going to experience it too. Talk about a reality check. =) That was the moment when I decided that I was going to have a positive mindset about every place we were sent, no matter what negativity people were trying to pass along to me.

Having been here in El Paso for almost a year now, I can without hesitation say that I really like it here. There are a few aspects I am not a fan of (such as the wind storms and no Trader Joe’s!), but overall the good far outweighs the bad. Here are a few of them:

•  There is some crazy good food here. And it’s not all Mexican either.
• There is an awesome outlet mall, plus 2 regular malls.
• Ft. Bliss has the nicest PX/commissary/restaurant/movie theater plaza of any Army post, and amazing free gyms.
• You can drive to the mountains in 15 minutes and go hiking.
•  Desert sunsets and sunrises.
• You get a tan without even trying.

That’s just a few things. Is this my favorite place in the world and do I want to stay here forever? Well no. But can I live here happily and contentedly with my husband for the few years we are going to be here? A thousand times yes. And even though I am still known to make statements like, “Ugh, I’m going to die if we ever got sent to Ft. Bragg!” that’s just talk, because I know that if it came right down to it, I could have a good attitude about Ft. Bragg too. When you talk to military couples (the mature kind) who tell you they loved and miss places like Ft. Irwin, CA or Ft. Polk, LA, it really gives you some perspective. And if you want to understand the significance of that statement, just go on Google maps and put those places in the search bar. Go on, I dare you. ;-) But that’s when you realize that attitude makes all the difference. It isn’t always that the physical place turns out to be amazing; sometimes it’s the amazing people you meet there instead.

For someone like me who has made up her mind to be positive about places and the military in general, I can’t tell you how draining it is to be around someone who is constantly complaining. I know nobody ever wants to hear this, but happiness does NOT depend on your circumstances. You CAN choose to be positive, to let little annoyances roll off your back, to not think everybody you meet who isn’t gushingly polite to you is being a product of their locale, and not to blame everything bad that  happens on where you are being forced to live. I know we all have bad days/times and need to vent, but after awhile, if a person has done more dragging me down than me lifting them up, I give up. Being positive is hard enough on your own without being in the company of negative people. Even if you’ve tried your hardest to like a new place and you can’t, you are only making it worse for yourself (not to mention your husband!) by giving in to constant negativity.

So with all this in mind, I thought I’d jot down some of my tips for handling a not-so-welcome PCS and duty station. =)

My Little Deviants

These little cuties look so sweet and innocent, don't they?

Think again.

Take this cutie, for instance:

He takes it upon himself to decide when I'm sleeping too long. Once he has come to this decision, he jumps on top of my dresser thing by my side of the bed. Then he proceeds to slowly knock my things off, one by one, stopping to sit and stare at me in between to see if that item's destruction has worked on me or if he should go on to another. Cell phone...glasses...Kindle...lotion...all goes onto the floor with a flick of the paw until I wake up and swat him down. It was funny for awhile but now I'm starting to worry about the consequences of my Kindle hitting the floor so many times. Time to find a more secure place for my stuff!

And now for this one:

He has a serious addiction: cat treats. This addiction has led him to desperate measures. Despite the fact his parents are probably more generous with the treats than they should be, he is not above breaking bags open with his teeth and devouring all the treats therein if said bags are left out. When his parents started making sure to never leave any more bags of treats out in the open, his descent into crime went rapidly. Soon he had figured out how to jump on the counter, pull the cabinet where they are kept open with a clever paw, knock down the treats, and consume them quickly before he was caught. 

Unfortunately for the Albus cat, he has finally been thwarted. 

This cute little plastic container is impenetrable by any species lacking opposable thumbs. 

Gotcha, you little miscreant.

Strong Bands Fitness Week!

I just found some photos posted by the Ft. Bliss MWR of a fitness event I participated in last month, and decided to snag a couple containing yours truly so I could write about it! Both Army posts we've been stationed at so far have had amazing gyms, and at least once a year host an aerobathon. I have yet to miss one and they are always a blast. Whereas Ft. Lewis only had one a year, Ft. Bliss has one every quarter. For their May event, they really amped it up!

On Monday we got a Strong B.A.N.D.S. (stands for Balance, Activity, Nutrition, Determination, Strength) card with a block for every day. We had to attend at least one fitness class a day and get a signature from the instructor. This wasn't hard for me since I am somewhat addicted to fitness classes, although it was different finding one to do on Friday since Friday is usually my day off. I ended up doing my usual yoga on Monday and Wednesday, zumba on Tuesday, spinning on Thursday, and Gravity on Friday. All the classes were extra full because of all the people taking the challenge and it made for some nice energy!

[By the way, this is the machine used in a Gravity class, and it involves your body weight used against an incline:

It's more challenging than it looks and I'm always extremely sore after doing it!]

The week culminated in a 2-hour aerobathon on Saturday morning. This was the fun part! I got there early to make sure I got a spin bike because they go fast, and my two fitness buddies from the week, Nicki and Ellen, followed my example. Spinning was first for half an hour, and since the teacher is a beast, we were all worn out and dripping with sweat just after that! I couldn't find any pictures of this where I was visible though.

Next was half an hour of a class called Ripped. It was a mixture of aerobics and weights. I didn't completely care for it, mostly because I'm so uncoordinated that I get easily frustrated trying to follow the routines (and I know this is contradictory considering I love zumba, but somehow this was different!). As proof, here I am doing something completely different from most of the people around me...although I don't feel too bad since I'm clearly not the only one confused. ;-)

After that was zumba. Zumba is fun. And I get annoyed when people say they can't do zumba because they can't dance. Zumba teaches you how to dance! ;-) If this awkward white girl with no moves can get a workout from it, you can too!

The last event was of course my favorite: yoga. It wasn't exactly an ideal environment for a good practice, with such a huge crowd of beginners, but it was still a good closeout to the event. 

(Why do I always think I'm sinking lower into my front leg than I actually am?! Arghhh! Must fix.)

My two workout buddies and I were definitely on a workout high afterward! It was so much fun!

If your gym ever offers an aerobathon, I encourage you to participate! I already can't wait for the next one. =) Major kudos to Soto Gym and the Ft. Bliss MWR for putting on such a great event!

Life Update and a New Favorite Meal

I am finished with my second semester of school! It feels weird to have time on my hands again. I'm letting myself be a little lazy right now, just to enjoy it, but I'm working on a list of projects to work on over the summer so that I make good use of the time. I wanted to do summer classes but for reasons I won't bother going into, it's not going to work out this summer. I'm kind of bummed I'm taking another semester off but it's okay.

Next week I am heading off to Florida to spend about ten days with my family! I haven't been since last March so I'm really excited. The big event of the visit is my brother David's wedding to a great girl named Jeribeth. This is my first sibling to get married and I'm thrilled! Wedding festivities are so much fun. But they are also stressful, as everyone knows, which is why I'm relieved I'm able to stay for a few days afterward. The only bummer about the trip is that Andrew can't come with me, even for the wedding. It was a hard decision to choose to be away from him for this long when the Army takes him away so much as it is. But hopefully we can get in lots of quality time after I get back before it's his turn to leave again.

That's all I've got for life right now. But since not talking about food in a post would feel wrong, I'm going to leave you with my new favorite dinner dish, which I found in the latest issue of Clean Eating magazine  (I thoroughly recommend that magazine, btw)! It's called Curried Chicken with Zucchini and Cashews, but I despise nuts in dishes, even though I like them plain, so it's up to you whether to put them in or not. I love this meal though! So much I made it twice in one week, haha.

Curried Chicken with Zucchini and Cashews

1/2 cup brown rice, cooked according to package directions
olive oil
1 lb chicken breast
2 cloves garlic, minced
15 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 zucchini (or yellow squash)
1 cup low-sodium or organic chicken broth
3 Tbs mild or hot red curry paste*
salt and pepper to taste
fresh cilantro
roasted unsalted cashews, if desired

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes, until golden brown. Add chickpeas and zucchini and stir to combine. In a small bowl, whisk broth, curry paste, salt, and pepper. Add to skillet, mix well and bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and sauce reduces and thickens. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro. Serve over rice, and top with cashews.

* I could only find hot red curry paste at the grocery store, so I only used about a teaspoon since I can't handle food being too spicy. Even with mild, I'd add a little at a time so you can get the flavor you want. Since I only added such a little bit of curry paste, I added a little yellow curry for some extra flavor. 

Homemade Egg Rolls

Awhile back (yes, an embarrassingly long awhile back), I mentioned I was making egg rolls and that I would be sharing the recipe. So, here you go!

First off, it's really hard to guesstimate how much filling to make. I was hoping to fill all two packs of shells so I'd be able to freeze a batch, but I ended up only using 1.5 packs of shells and we ate them all in a week. Ha! It all depends on how full you fill your shells.

To begin you chop veggies very small. This is where my food processor made me fall in love with it even more. =) I used half a head of a big head of cabbage, 1 big onion, and a couple medium-sized carrots. You can use any combo of veggies you want though.

Get your fryer going. I have a deep-fryer (don't judge--I only use it for these egg rolls and my cake donuts once a year, haha), which has a designated level to fill with oil, but if you use a deep pan, the oil needs to be deep enough for the rolls to float and must be heated to 375 degrees.

Then you fry your meat. (Or if you're vegetarian and don't eat meat, you can just chop an extra pound of veggies. But I'm not, and never will be, a vegetarian. Sorry. ;-) I intended to use a pound of lean ground pork, but when I opened the package I realized it smelled funny. This was no doubt due to my having way more work to do on spring break than I planned and the rolls not getting made til Sunday even though I put the meat in the fridge with the intention of making them on Thursday. After indulging in some well-deserved verbal self-abuse, I threw the pork out and ground up a pound of raw shrimp instead. Anyway, fry your meat in in a smidgeon of oil until nearly done, and then add:

4 Tbs of soy sauce

1 tsp minced fresh ginger (or 1/4 tsp ground ginger)

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp sesame oil

Once that is mixed in, add your carrots and onion. Fry for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently, then add the cabbage. Let it cook until the cabbage is wilted. If there is a lot of liquid in the pan, drain it off. Too much liquid will keep the rolls from staying closed in the fryer. 

Yummy filling!

Next is the fun part: frying the rolls! The package of egg roll skins will tell you how to roll them up, so I didn't bother trying to demonstrate that part. But here's an idea of how much filling I put in and a few rolls made up and waiting for the fryer: 

My mom and I always sealed them shut with a mixture of cornstarch and water, but I noticed that a flour and water paste was also suggested on the package of skins so I tried that, and I thought it worked so much better! It's important to keep them sealed well. 

Place the rolls carefully in the oil and let them cook until golden brown (about 2-3 minutes), then take them out and drain them on a baking sheet covered with paper towels. I do not recommend having too many rolls made up before frying, by the way. If they sit too long they get soggy and fall apart. I fry about 3 at a time, and while they're frying I make up the next 3. 

The finished product! Enjoy them dipped in duck sauce (you can find it in the Asian food section of all grocery stores)! =)

Note #1: These reheat wonderfully in a 400 degree oven--just bake them til they crisp up again. Just like pizza, they do not reheat well in the microwave.
Note #2: Please no questions on how to bake egg rolls instead of frying them. ;-) I have no idea, and don't think that would taste at all delicious. I freely acknowledge that these are not health food! But everyone needs a splurge now and then, and egg rolls are one of my favorite splurges. (Along with cake. Lots of cake.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I made these cupcakes today for my friend Emily at her birthday request. =) They're "Irish Car Bomb" cupcakes (Guinness chocolate cake, Bailey's filling, and Bailey's buttercream frosting) and I found the incredible recipe at Annie's Eats. I can't wait to share them with her and the rest of our friends at her birthday lunch tomorrow!

I hope everyone had a good St. Patrick's Day! 

Spring Break!

My spring break from school sure crept up on me! My last school didn't have spring break since they had quarters instead of semesters. Anyway, this is usually what people think of when they think "spring break":

Alas, that will not be me. My spring break will be spent at home. Sigh.

I have a rather massive amount of homework to do this week, most of which is for English class. Also, my house is a mess, so some spring cleaning is definitely gon' be happ'nin' all up in here, yo. (Sorry about that, I'm watching an episode of The Wire so I can send it back to Netflix and the 'hood lingo is catching.) But I want to have some lazy time too. So I've laid out a schedule for myself which includes one school task and one cleaning task a day, and once those are done I can do whatever I want. Woohoo! Except today I'm doing things a little backwards since our mail comes early and I want to get this DVD back to Netflix. ;-) 

The other day I realized I still haven't posted about my new baby: the 12-cup KitchenAid  food processor my wonderful husband bought me for Valentine's Day! I am in love. It's been so much fun to play with! One thing I'm planning to do this weekend is make egg rolls. I have an awesome recipe for homemade ones that I rarely make because without a food processor, chopping the veggies for the filling is a huge pain. But now the only time-consuming part is actually filling and frying them. Stay tuned for the recipe later this week!

Homemade Granola Bars

I love granola bars! But I haven't found very many store-bought types I like, and I think it's cheaper to make my own anyway, especially since I'm super picky about ingredients. It took me awhile to find a homemade recipe I like, though. I like them soft but not gooey, and I like them to hold together.

This one fits the bill! I found the original on allrecipes.com, but of course I had to change it up a bit as always! Below is the version with my changes:

2 cups oats (I've used both old-fashioned and quick oats and they both work fine)

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup craisins

1/4 cup wheat germ

1/4 cup ground flaxseed

1/4 cup chia seeds

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup honey

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x13 inch baking pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper, and spray with vegetable oil spray.

In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl, thoroughly blend oil, honey, egg, and vanilla; pour into the flour mixture, and mix by hand until the liquid is evenly distributed. Press evenly into the prepared baking pan.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are golden. Cool completely in pan before turning out onto a cutting board and cutting into bars.

Note: The wheat germ, flaxseed, and chia seeds aren't necessary to the recipe; if you don't have them you can substitute equal amounts of flour. But they provide some awesome extra nutrients such as fiber, iron, protein, and vitamins!

Cleaning a Stove with Baking Soda

This afternoon I am a very happy housewife. I feel like someone came and installed a brand new stove in my kitchen!

Out of all of the rooms in my house, my kitchen gets deep-cleaned the most regularly. I spend a lot of time in it, so I keep it clean. When we moved in, I noticed how dirty the stove was. However, nothing I did seemed to get rid of the nasty black and brown stains around the burners from grease and food particles. I hated looking at that stovetop! I felt like a horrible housekeeper. Not even a magic eraser took it off, and that's when I gave up! I figured it was hopeless.

Today I decided I'd try again. I had tried using baking soda on it one other time, but I didn't do it right because it didn't seem to do anything. I figured I'd try one more time though, because I'd read all over the blogosphere about people working magic with baking soda.

I took 1/2 cup of baking soda and added 1/2 cup of water. Then I dipped a microfiber sponge in it and started scrubbing. I used a toothbrush too. To my amazement, stains were coming up! That's when I grabbed my camera, because any good cleaning project needs before, during, and after photos. ;-)

This is one side of the stove. Gross, huh?? I had already started scrubbing the other side, and it looked much worse!

The whole stove after I was done scrubbing. This wasn't a quick project, btw. It definitely took some elbow grease and my arms are tired! But like I said, it was this dirty when we moved in so I have no idea how many years' worth of gunk had piled up.

Holy cow.

This is the same side that was pictured earlier. Also note how clean the burner caps are too!

 I need to tackle the grates next--they are rather awkward to handle and I just didn't have time today. But I did work a little on the middle one and could tell that all that black stuff was going to come off too.

If you've got a stove covered with built-up stains, give baking soda a try! =)

Salad!

When I was growing up, I hated salads. Or at least I thought I did. We usually only had iceberg lettuce with a little tomato, and whoever decided iceberg lettuce should be cultivated as a human food item deserves to be slapped. I don't think I realized all a salad could be until the first time I visited a Ruby Tuesdays and tried their salad bar. Baby spinach, broccoli, carrot, bacon bits, hard-boiled egg, etc.? Yes, please!

But despite enjoying salad bars at restaurants, I still rarely made them at home and rarely had anything good to put in them when I did. I also thought Andrew didn't like them. So I was surprised when we visited the huge buffet for the first time on our cruise back in December and he came back with a giant salad. I asked him why, and he informed me he really likes salads "when there's good stuff to put in them!" Soon after it dawned on me how easy it would be to keep my own "salad bar" in the fridge. Unlike a lot of fruits, sliced/chopped veggies keep very well in the fridge.

It only takes about 20 minutes to chop veggies (we like broccoli, carrot, radishes, and mushrooms) and hard-boiled egg, grate cheese, open a can of chickpeas, and put everything in little containers. Spinach and cherry tomatoes are already in easy containers, so it takes all of two minutes to put together a fantastic salad.

I've also decided to make my own salad dressings from now on. All of the salad dressings at stores either contain unhealthy ingredients or are too expensive. I haven't found a single salad dressing that isn't easy to make yourself! Here's my current favorite:

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
pinch of salt and pepper
pinch of garlic
teaspoon of parsley

Delicious!

If you haven't already thought of having your own permanent salad bar in your fridge, I hope this inspires you. =)

Life Update

I suck as a blogger. Haha

Life is finally busy again! After a few weeks of laziness at the beginning of January, school finally started on the 18th. I'm taking four classes:

             * Another remedial math class (my last one before I can finally take college math!)

             * English (my last prerequisite English class)

             * Music Appreciation

             * Intro to Psychology

The last one is the highlight of my day, for sure. It's not an easy class, but it's fascinating. And the professor is bubbly, funny, quirky, and explains things well--I love her. You should probably expect me to talk about interesting tidbits I learn from this class over the next couple months because I love it! 

I have school Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and those are the long, busy days of the week. I drop Andrew off at work (Ft. Bliss does "reverse cycle PT," ie PT in the afternoon, so he only needs to be at work by 8am), rush to class, stay at school all day, leave around 4 and head to the gym for yoga class. After yoga, I either stay for another class or go ahead and meet up with Andrew (who walks over after he's done with PT) and we head home. Then we eat dinner, relax a bit, and head to bed. Whew! On Tuesdays and Thursdays I do homework and catch up on housework, so they are busy too. I love it though!

Other than that, not much going on. Andrew has started going into the field a lot for training, and is usually gone for a few days at a time. The post commander has pretty much outlawed trainings over the weekend, which is nice. My weekdays are usually so busy I barely have time to miss him!

That's it for now. But since every blog post must have a picture, here's one of my funny Albus-kitty:

Turkey Pesto Pizza

Last week when I went grocery shopping, I discovered turkeys were still on sale for a cheap price. I made one on New Year's Eve, and of course had leftover turkey. None of my turkey leftover go-tos were sounding appealing last night, so I was racking my brain to come up with something else. It hit me that I was in the mood for pizza! There are so many different kinds of chicken pizzas, so why not turkey?

I whipped up a batch of my favorite quick pizza dough first. This recipe isn't the most restaurant-style crust, since it doesn't call for rising, but it's great for nights like last night when I suddenly had an urge for pizza but didn't have several hours to wait around for dough to rise. I spread the crust with pesto and then topped it with lots of cheese and then shredded turkey. Andrew loves mushrooms and peppers on his pizza, so I added those to his side, and to my side I added halved cherry tomatoes.

It was delicious! I'm definitely adding turkey pesto pizza to my repertoire of meals featuring leftover turkey.

As usual, I forgot to take a picture until after I had already dug into it. ;-) So of course this picture is not the best representation of my creation, but here ya go anyway.

12 by 2012 Update

At the beginning of November I made a list of 12 things I wanted to accomplish by 2012. The result is that I accomplished about half. Some of them turned out not to be practical and a couple just didn't happen at all. But it was still nice to have some direction for the last two months of the year, when it can be so tempting to lay around and be completely unproductive.

Here's the rundown:

1. Get registered for school. Check! Only thing left to do before classes start on the 18th is pick up my books and get my student I.D.

2. Finish organizing and decorating the house, specifically the office and master bedroom. Sort of done. Some of the projects I have left require some things to be bought and I was unable to make them a priority in our budget. But I did get a good direction started.

3. Start learning Spanish. Not even started. I really want to learn Spanish while we're here but this is just not something I'm looking forward to at all. =\

4. Establish a training schedule for the El Paso ½ marathon in February. Not done either. I am still having issues with breathing and have made the decision to put serious running goals on the back burner for now. I might do a run/walk combo for the marathon but I haven't totally decided if there's even any point to doing that. 

5. Perfect the process of making lattes with my espresso machine, as well as my own flavoring syrups. I figured out that the problem I've been having with getting decent lattes in my machine is that my coffee grinder is crap. I have remedied this situation and things are a lot better. I also have made caramel and vanilla syrups and they are yummy!

6. Mercilessly pare down my book collection. Mostly done. I just haven't gotten around to actually getting them out of the house!

7. Read 25 new books. This wasn't quite a realistic goal, but that's okay. Total count ended up being 15, with 2 more started but not finished. You can go here to see what I've read in the past couple months.

8. Do more weeding of my closet and wardrobe, and also attempt to finally pinpoint what my style is so I am more purposeful when I shop. I think this is done, although I seem to be weeding things out regularly lately. I have finally come to terms with the fact that I am not a trendy dresser, a retro dresser, a punk rock dresser, a fashionista dresser, or any of the other styles I admire on other people but can't seem to pull off myself. I am a classic, jeans-and-cute-top dresser, with a few dresses and skirts and leggings thrown in. Will people see me in public and admire my unique style? Probably not, but I am okay with that. I am just going to be me. =)

9. Plan out a list of things I’d like to do for date nights. This ended up being a re-directed goal--instead of date nights (let's face it, for us date nights are always going to involve dinner out or a movie), we came up with a list of more weekend activities. We will try to pick only one a month to do, since most are day trips.

10. Get involved in our new church. Eh. This turned into "let's wait til after the holidays." And we also haven't decided if we're staying there. It's a good church but it doesn't feel like it is the best fit for us. We might visit another one I found, or we might try to get involved with the current one (such as joining a Sunday School class) and see if that helps. At any rate, this one got put off and requires more discussion.

11. Find more crockpot recipes I like in preparation for being busy again come January. Sort of done. I didn't actually try any but I do have some ideas to put on the menu. I kinda put off being serious about this one though once I realized I don't actually start classes til the 18th. 

12. Get organized for Christmas early. Done! I got all my presents and Christmas cards mailed out by the 17th. 

So, not too bad I guess!

Last year I made a goal to post in my blog at least once a week. That definitely didn't happen. But I'm back on track to try again this year. A few other goals for this year: 

* Develop better study habits. I did pretty well in school last year but I definitely could've done even better (especially considering what easy classes they were) if I'd been more disciplined and focused with studying. The harder my classes get the more I want to be sure I have good habits.

* Watch less TV during the week. I need to save the majority of my shows for the weekend, even if I have time to watch them during the week. I need to get better at being more productive in the evenings--reading, doing dinner or lunch prep for the next day, blogging, etc.--rather than vegging for hours with Facebook and the TV remote.

* Get back to daily Bible-reading. I was doing pretty well on this but slacked off over the holidays. And this year is going to be a new challenge because i was doing it in the morning but that's not going to work anymore once I start school. So I need to figure out a new time and plan.

* Do Project 365 this year. I took a break from it for a few years but I think I'm ready to start it up again!

I think that's enough to work on for now! The key to goal-setting is to start small and specific. =) What are some specific goals you have for the New Year?

It's 2012!

Happy New Year!!

I can't believe it's January 1st already! Stay tuned to hear how I did on my "12 by 2012" list of goals. =)

Social Networking: Is it really so bad?

You hear from them all the time: the Facebook haters. The people who lament that the internet destroys friendships and forces relationships to become shallow. "Nobody knows how to write a letter anymore!" "People only know how to communicate via Facebook and don't have a clue how to act face-to-face!" Etc., etc. There's some element of truth to this, of course, and if you're like me this element of truth will occasionally send you on a trip down Guilt Lane. But what most of us fail to realize is that THINGS don't make us who we are. Who we are is our own responsibility. If you are a crappy friend, it's not the internet's fault; it's yours. You'd be a crappy friend without the internet too. If someone is immature on Facebook, they're going to be immature in person too. Narcissistic people are going to be narcissists with or without the internet.

But there's still the question, "Is America's Facebook obsession a bad thing?" In some ways it is because it provides a convenient outlet for stupid people to have an audience they don't deserve. But there's a simple solution to that: don't be that person's audience. Blaming the internet that you have idiots on your friends list is like blaming your couch that you're overweight. =P But is Facebook bad for relationships? Most people think it is. I happen to disagree, but today I had a breakthrough as to why. 

As anyone who is on Facebook knows, the owners of Facebook like to change the layout a lot. And every time it makes a drastic change, you have a section of your friends list acting like it's the end of the world, and occasionally someone threatens to leave Facebook over it. One of my acquaintances threatened this today, using the usual self-absorbed excuse, "If people really want me, they know where to find me." Okay then. I hit the "unfriend" button. 

The incident caused me to think about why I'm on Facebook and why I love Facebook. I love Facebook because it's the easiest way to keep up with all my friends and family, many of which are long-distance now thanks to military life. I have a big family and a lot of friends. I don't have enough hours in my day to call, text, email, or hand-write letters to everyone I know, want to keep up with, or am trying to get to know (because I just moved to a new city and don't know a soul). It's wonderful to have Facebook as a place where I can see what everyone's doing on a daily basis and see pictures of their lives. When it comes to family and close friends, I still want to talk to them on the phone, video chat, or chat online privately when there are more personal things to discuss. So in that regard Facebook hasn't destroyed my relationships, and also, without it there are a lot of people who would've dropped out of my life completely because there is only so much time. This is why I am always going to have Facebook no matter what the layout looks like. None of their changes have made it impossible for me to talk to people, so no matter how annoying a new layout might be, it doesn't affect my big picture.

One thing people tend to forget when they dream about the days gone by when people wrote hand-written letters and spent so much quality time together is that people didn't move around so much back then. As it got easier and easier for the average person to travel and move their lives to different parts of the country, means of communication had to get easier and faster to keep up. In the "old days," most people grew up, got married, and settled down in the same town as their family and friends. Those who left either had to keep in touch through a slow postal system or drop off the planet. If I lived in the same town as all my family and friends, would I need Facebook? Probably not.

Growing up, I never had local friends. I did, however, have a lot of long-distance friends, aka pen pals. I loved to write letters. I could crank out a 10-pager with no trouble. It was fun. But let me tell you, it was no small feat keeping up with this much letter-writing. I would spend many hours a day trying to keep on top of my correspondence with my friends. This worked pretty well when I was between school and actually doing something with my life. Once I got a full-time job, letter-writing stopped. How was I to keep up with an 8-hour job, family, church, exercise, and personal time if having friends meant I had to write at least one letter a day? So that's when I started using the internet to keep up with people. And now, when we move every few years and get plopped down in a brand new state where I know nobody, Facebook has been a huge blessing. Many people who I now consider dear friends I never would have met if it wasn't for Facebook. As a result, it's very hard for me to understand the mindset that Facebook is just a website. To me, Facebook is people. Suddenly announcing you're deleting your Facebook (especially over such silly things as not liking its layout) is telling me, "You are not important and I can drop you out of my life with a click of my mouse." 

So, I think it's time people stopped lamenting society's changes and learned to make it work for them. The internet is nothing but a tool. It is your responsibility to use it wisely.