Progress: I am making it. And Battle of the Bands winner for 4.21.15

Good morning and good Tuesday to ya. It is sunny and bright (though cool), and I am hoping for the kind of productive day I've needed for months now. I am getting closer to figuring out what all to list on Etsy, and today is the first good light I've had on a day off since....I don't know when! I also hope we get the yard started, at least, and that maybe - just maybe - I can get outside and get caught up on some spray painting projects!

Sometimes all it takes is one

One solitary act or goal, that is.

In my last post, I briefly touched on some intentions for this year and promised to come back and expand upon them later. Well, today's Coffee Chat topic is "One thing I would like to accomplish in 2015 is ___________." Oh boy. Only one thing? But I have so many things I want to accomplish this year!

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions

Yes, the road to hell may indeed be paved with good intentions - yet here I am with mine for both myself and the blog this year.

This is the post I meant to write for publication last Thursday, but that was when all the electrical outlets in my living room stopped working, causing me to vacillate between bouts of the following: uncontrollable sobbing. Wanting to take the extension cord I'd been using to power a heater in my bedroom (because during the summer, all but one wall of outlets stopped working in there) and severely beat floors, walls and windows with it - but I couldn't because I knew repairing and replacing them would be too expensive! And lastly, once tired and spent from all the distress, having zero fucks left to give it, only to re-energize myself enough during those calm periods to get worked up all over again. But back to my good intentions for the year...

This week it's all about the buttons

Not clothing buttons (nope, not a craft post), but remote control buttons. Since I last stopped by here, I feel like life has been on fast forward. Season and mid-season premieres, and the finale of the latest season of Project Runway All Stars. Last week blurred into a super productive Saturday in which another huge batch of homemade all natural laundry detergent was made. I'll be making another post soon with the recipe I used and a review, since this is the second batch and I've made some tweaks and made quite a few observations. Saturday melted into Sunday which meant work. Then the Golden Globes (Yay! Jared Leto won!). Then a massive headache which took a few hours and nine ibuprofen to kill. Then sleep, because today was a double at work. The first of three in a row, whew! Can we hit pause yet? For just a few moments?

So now it's Tuesday, and I'm getting my Music Monday post in an entire day late. The theme for Monday's Music Moves Me over at Dolly's is "songs in the key of life." Since I've never been one to assign certain songs to certain events, all I have from prom, wedding, first dance, first kiss....all the life moments....are my favorites from those times, and those wouldn't necessarily sum up my thoughts on my life moments. Nor are they necessarily songs that were popular during those times. So I'll just chime in with what I've been listening to a lot here lately, and that's A Perfect Circle's latest, their "greatest hits" compilation Three Sixty. I think Maynard James Keenan is nothing short of a musical genius, and APC's music is the perfect combination of progressive, aggressive, and dreamy. Here's "Rose," originally found on Mer de Noms.

Today's coffee chat topic over at Time Out For Mom is "What is the one thing you will do differently in 2014?"

Gee, just one thing? But there are SO MANY things I want to and will do differently this year. I guess if I had to pick just one, it would be to let backslides be backslides, instead of becoming a huge lapse back into bad habits/bad judgment. Case in point? By now, I wanted to re-introduce workouts into my daily routine. I haven't yet. And I may not for another two weeks, as I have LOTS of work, then a trip to my home state to belatedly celebrate the holidays with family and my youngest son's birthday with him, THEN a trip to Atlanta to visit Spank for the New Politics show. And I AM SO EXCITED - for ALL of it! But especially family. It's been about four months since I've seen them.

But I digress. Since I've gotten off the eating healthy wagon and failed to bring an integral part of my get fit plan into the mix, I have backslid. I accept this, and I have already promised myself I will do the best I can despite all the crazy-ness of the coming two weeks. I'm in need of a reset.

What are you listening to this week? What are the songs in the key of your life? What is the one thing you will do differently in 2014?

Hello, 2014!

You and me? We are off to an amazing start! So far I have lost three pounds, purged a ton of stuff from the house, folded lots and lots of laundry and tackled the massive piles of papers and junk on my desk. I even have my work clothes ready for tomorrow. I will be well on my way to accomplishing everything I hope to if this momentum holds!

With this new year, I am following fellow Music Mama Mari's lead (sort of) and chose a word to define what I want to do in 2014. Or, for me, a word to define what I need in order to accomplish my goals for the year. My word is persistence. After the divorce of last year and the fallout which ensued in its wake, I have a LOT of cleanup left to do. I feel know it is in my best interest to get back to good in some key areas, and the ONLY way I can do that is through persistence:

• Health
• Fitness
• Financial well-being
• Frugality (*not* the same thing as financial well-being as I see it)
• Happiness
• Creativity
• Knowledge
• Patience
• Serenity

Those are just the building blocks, and not by any means a complete list of goals. And it should go without saying that I plan to spend as much time as I can with family and friends.

Also new for the new year? Well, the blog got a makeover. (Link provided for those of you reading in a reader. Yes, you can subscribe now!) It was about time, too. Gone are the magazine-style front page and Facebook comments. I lost them when I tried to re-position them, but hopefully someday they'll be back. What do you think?

I am excited about so much for the coming year, but especially music! The Girls at the Rock Show have their first concert of the year planned for later this month, a band I've been wanting to see since I saw them for the first time in September, and also a band which made my favorite albums cut over at The Music Mamas: New Politics!!

Today's Music Monday selection is New Politics' "Tonight You're Perfect":

Summer, summer, summer........

If you've been reading my blog for a while, then you already know how ready I was to stop complaining about the cold weather and start complaining about hot weather instead. Well, that time has finally come, folks! It seems like we went straight from winter into summer here in the good ol' south. Actually, this is just our spring, since we still have low temps in the 60s and highs in the mid to upper 80s. Down here, our summers REALLY scorch.

This brings me to this week's Coffee Chat: the 'chat is taking the summer off, so this will be our last one before September. This week, we're dishing on what we'll be doing over the course of the summer. Whatever shall I post about on Tuesdays from here on out?

As for me, I have plenty to do. And I shall give it to you in bullet form.

• Finish laying new floor covering in my home. I have had floor covering for the living area, at least, for a few years now. I have also been walking around on subfloor for a few years now. As it turns out, it's been quite difficult to finish with a schedule that generally only allows for one day off here and there, and the room itself is one that sees more traffic than any other place in the house, even the kitchen.
• Finishing furniture projects. And other projects. Hopefully at least one, anyway. I still have the utility cart from a few years ago. I still have the fabulous vintage dresser I'm turning into an entertainment stand. And the chair from last year, which I can not seem to locate online. Hm. And also tons of cleaned milk jugs which need to be cut for my version of this faux capiz chandelier.
• Find more thrifty treasures. I've already started a wish list of both needs (well, as much as you can need something from a thrift store, anyway) and wants. It's fun!
• Keeping up with goals. With some of my Earth Day goals, I'm already off to a decent start. I have been saving newspapers, clean cardboard, and aluminum cans for recycling. I've been using far less electricity (having no central AC helps!). And I'm mostly all-natural, chemical-free with house cleaners. My fitness goals leave much to be desired, but I'm trying. And out walking again in the evenings.
• Filling my ears with the sounds of great music. And there is so much of it this year, from older favorites like Rob Zombie, Alice In Chains, Slash, Soundgarden and Filter to Stone Sour, Deftones, Black Veil Brides, Imagine Dragons and Thirty Seconds to Mars. So, so much to get excited about!

So what are YOUR plans for this summer? Vacationing? Tell me about it. Home improvement plans? I want to hear about them. Traveling? I'm jealous, but I'd love to hear about it all the same.

And to the Coffee Chat regulars - it's been nice getting to know you, and see you again in a few months! In the meantime, feel free to come on back anytime you like!

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Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

...or so says a line from the lyrics of Semisonic's late-90s alt-college-rock tribute to closing time at bars, but hey....it fits here, too. A new year for me means a renewed sense of hope, purpose, adventure, change, and possibilities. After a year of change and the beginning of a significant end....that line definitely rings true.  One of the writing prompts for Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop - the first of the new year - was "...what are your New Year's Resolutions for 2012 and/or how did 2011's resolutions turn out?"

Well...resolution is a pretty strong word, and one that seems to doom me to almost immediate failure should I throw it out into the universe, so I think goals would be more appropriate for this post. And over the past year, I set several goals in motion and managed to make good on most of them. It was a good base to start with for this year, as well, because I think that this year, I can do better.

• I would like to continue losing weight and getting fit.
• I would like to continue discovering new music, re-discovering old favorites, and to be able to see as much live music as possible.
• I would like to read more, write more, blog more, and network more.
• I would like to travel more.
• I would like to spend more time with friends.
• I would like to maybe, just maybe, finish some of the rehab/repurpose projects I've had set aside for a while now.
• I would still like to find full time employment to go with the part time employment I already have.
• I would like to develop patience.
• I would like to hone my ability to weather changes.
• I would like to spend more time with family, as the first part of this year is the last my oldest son will spend living here at home. He's off to college in the fall!

What are your goals and resolutions for the coming year? Be sure to leave a comment and/or play along over at Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop!