July 2012 Update

So much for getting my July posts up "in a few days". I am obviously way behind, and I will be playing catch-up for the next week or so. For the most part, I will only have the summary posts with maybe a few regular posts for important items. My goal is to be ready to start fresh for the new year, and that's coming up a lot quicker than I would like. Anyway, without further ado, I bring you July.

20. Try at least two new recipes a month (12/66)

July was a big month for new recipes, most of them coming from The Six O'Clock Scramble.

Divine Eggplant and Chickpeas with Mint from SOS
Warm Garden Wraps with Corn and Sweet Potoatoes from SOS

Summer Bean Salad with Turkey Sausage from SOS

Chicken Parmesan with Garden Herbs from SOS

Chili Mac
Sloppy Joes

Rotini with Italian Vegetables from SOS

Vegetarian Enchiladas from SOS

84. Read 2 new books a month (6/66)

July was also a big reading month, although I've really slowed down since then. At the time, we were still keeping the pregnancy a secret, so I wouldn't even have been able to post about Expecting 411 in July anyway. (Yeah, that's why I'm five months late in posting everything, that's it.)

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson

1-2-3 Magic by Thomas Phelan

Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire

Expecting 411 by Ari Brown, M.D. and Michele Hakakha, M.D.

89. Create vacation photobooks (3/5)

I finally got started on this item, and powered through some of our old vacations. Using MyPublisher, I made books of our honeymoon, our trip to England for Grandma's 100th birthday as well as our trip for her funeral. I also made a book of Grandma's party, but I'm not including that into this item. I loved the way that the books came out, and I will definitely be using this service again in the future.

# 89

89. Back up digital photos

I probably should have marked this item as complete sooner, but I've set up a new system of backing up my photos which makes me feel a little better about this task. All my digital photos are now backed up on an external hard drive, which is the one thing that I had been waiting to finish to mark this as done. I am also going to back up any new pictures to the drive every Sunday, which hopefully will mean that I won't have the pain of salvaging everything if something happens to my computer again. I also have online back-ups, which I have been doing for months now.

One more item done!

One Year Down

(and a little bit...)

I've been writing this entry for about a week, but time just seems to be getting away from me.

So far, I've completed 15 items. I'm not sure how much I thought that I would have done by now, but 15 isn't that bad. I also have 19 items that are repeated until the end of the 1001 days, with as few as 3 repetitions and as many as 68. Some of these items I am caught up on, others not so much.

Here is a breakdown of some of the open items left.

9. Go through and organize items in Dan and Sue's basement
10. Frame more pictures around the apartment
Geoff and I started # 9 when we moved in February, but didn't go through everything. Now I wish we had finished it before Peter was born. What will probably happen is that we'll go do it some winter weekend when we don't mind being inside. As for # 10, I have a new picture subject, so hopefully it will happen soon.

21. Visit Grandma for her 100th birthday
This is in progress in the sense that we have already booked the hotel, and will be booking the flights soon. Part of me wants to wait until I have my and Peter's passports in hand (we don't have them back yet), but I do have a personal deadline where I will just book anyway.

26. Organize a regular game night
27. Have brunch with the girls every two months (0/17)
28. Host a dinner party for friends
I'm going to start working on these. I'm so far behind on brunch, that I may just have to cut the number of times down, but we'll see. I also have the issue now where I'm so limited with what I can eat that I might have to come up with alternatives. Maybe brunches at home? I really do want to set up a regular game night, something really simple. As for dinner, well, I just need to get my act together. Although I will probably wait for cooler weather when it is easier to cook.

34. Scan old family photos
35. Do more research on Mom's side of the family tree
36. Do more research on Geoff's side of the family tree
I want to do these things, but I feel a little stuck with Peter at the moment, so they are being put off for now. Again, this is something that I wish I had completed (or at least got further along) before he was born.

37. Participate in one charity walk per year (0/3)
38. Participate in the midnight run at church once a year (0/3)
I will probably just double up one year on these to catch up.

81. Do not go out to eat for one month
One week in, so fingers crossed...

88. Print and organize photos
89. Back up digital photos
90. Caption all the people in our digital photographs
I've been backing up my photos to Picasa, but some time soon, I want to back them up to DVD. I'm hoping that Geoff will watch Peter while I do it. I'm constantly tagging people in my photos, I'm afraid that I'll never finish (but I will try). I also want to print pictures for albums, especially now that we have Peter. I just need to have a place to put them first.

97. Get back to the size I was when I started J. Mendel
Almost there. Thanks to my lack of dairy and soy.