Nagging Aspirations

 

 I have been so busy trying to stay out of trouble!

 

Good news! It's been two, count 'em, two months since I decided to discontinue a couple of not-so-good, selfish habits. I didn't think I could do it. It's still not easy, but I've been successful so far. Yay for me.

 

Here are a few things I've been doing to keep my discretionary time more productive.

 

I'm making it an official goal to start a new journal. It's been a few years since I finished up the only measly one I have. That one covered 10 years.

I thought my blog could be a good substitute for an actual hand-written account of my little existence, but it just isn't. I have too dang many things rolling around in my brain that don't exactly belong on here, and I needn't keep them cooped up any longer. I could start a separate blog that only I can see, but I'd be too afraid of accidentally publishing one of my long, awkward discourses. ;)  So I will keep my history the old fashioned way. Then maybe I won't feel the need to share vague personal accomplishments here anymore. What will that be like?!?!?

 

Let's see... what's next?

 

I signed up to volunteer at Jane's school every Monday afternoon while Oliver is at preschool.  

 

I now have my first gym membership. I figured it was time to try something different. The sporadic at-home "workouts" haven't been too beneficial, if you consider idly riding the stationary bike while watching shows on Netflix a workout.

My across-the-street neighbor is always going to the gym, and she mentioned more than once that if I ever felt like signing up I could go with her. I thought about it for a while, then signed up for the free 7-day trial. By the second day, they had me make it official. Jerks. They didn't even let me have my free week! ;) Oh well, I guess I went into it with the intention of joining. But I like free samples!

I've attended four times with her (Chelsi) so far. She asked me last Monday if I wanted to do a class called BODYPUMP (yes, all caps) and I told her I'd go. I have a habit of agreeing to things without getting important details first, like how difficult something will be. This class kicked my trash. It was nearly an hour of weightlifting. Feats of skill I'd never tried before, a merciless shredding of muscles I didn't even know were there. For days afterward, my arms were practically dead to me. I thought maybe I'd ruined them forever, but I'm glad to report they've become functional again.

I think I'll like this change, especially if I get over feeling intimidated by all the super fit folks who live for the thrill of exercising. I'm hoping to enhance my chicken legs a bit, maybe firm up the ol' belly. Ya know, stuff like that.

I noticed yesterday that Chelsi went ahead and added me to a Facebook group called My Fit Friends, where people basically brag about how many Body Attack classes they took that day. I'm not sure I belong in such a group. Maybe I'll test the waters by posting something like this:

"Whew! I can hardly move after all my aerobic activities today. First I rode the stationary bike while simultaneously viewing an episode of Family Guy. All the chuckling instantly defined my budding six-pack! After that I skipped around my neighborhood twice (once forward, once backward). My goal is to never consume sugar again! Wish me luck, guys, I'll totes need your support to succeed. Later tonight I'm going to do the entire Sweatin' to the Oldies collection. I haven't even had time to change out of my purply unitard today. Workout or croak! That's my motto!"

 

Now put on your spiritual hat for my next nagging aspiration...

 

A few weeks ago, the ward family history consultant called me and asked if I was still interested in getting started with some research. I'd been challenged by the bishopric a while back to delve into the world of genealogy. I signed up on familysearch.org, and that was about it. The ball was collectively dropped until that phone call last month. Since then I've met with her a handful of times. Much needs to be done! We did find a marriage license application of my paternal grandparents on the site. That was pretty cool. The only info I have is a 4-generation pedigree chart, so it only goes back to my great-grandparents.

A few years before my dad's death, he had been anxiously gathering stories and names of ancestors. He was no longer involved in the church, but he was fascinated with family history. A couple of weeks ago I went through and read a bunch of his emails to me regarding the familial tidbits he'd discovered. He said he'd traced his family line back to the 1700s. Unfortunately, we didn't ever get that information from him. It's supposedly stored in his attic. In Arizona. His wife still lives there, but she won't speak to any of us kids (long story). That means we don't have any way of obtaining it. The family history lady who is helping me advised me to make it a matter of prayer. So I will do my best. If prayer and I can't get through to her, maybe my uncle (who lives in AZ near her) will have better luck.

I hope we can fill in the gaps in my family tree. As I read the words my dad sent to me a decade ago, I just had to cry. He wrote, "I feel like someone or something is pulling me into these investigations, and I have a strong sense that I don't have much time to do this, so I'm keeping after it."

I wish I would have shown more interest then and made sure all the info got sent to us. I'm sure it will all work out eventually, but just knowing how easy it would have been to get it then makes me want to kick myself now.





My last aspiration for this post...

I have a whole box of unpersonalized cards and letter-writing materials just waiting to be purposefully scribbled upon and sent to people. My goal for the next while is to pick a person a week to send a piece of snail mail to, anonymously or not. These cards aren't doing any good sitting in the cupboard! Unless there's an Indian in there who fancies collecting stationery. =)

I have a gob of other things I'd love to accomplish, too.
But I don't want to bite off more than I can chew.
I'll give an update on my progresses soon.