# 19 and # 20

19. Use the crockpot for dinner sixty times (15/60)
20. Try at least two new recipes a month (23/68)

Tonight, I finally made my own pasta sauce. Using the slow-cooker. It was something that I had been meaning to do for a while. I made Slow-Cooker Macaroni and Beef, using penne instead of gemelli and leaving out the cheese. It was a hit. I loved it, Geoff loved it, even Peter loved it (the little that he got). And this recipe made a ton, so there was plenty of sauce left over to have again soon. It was also something that we would definitely make for company. Now that the weather is getting warmer, I really don't want to heat up the kitchen, so hopefully I'll be using the slow-cooker more often.

# 84

84. Read 2 new books a month (12/68)

The one good thing about throwing out my back, if you can call anything about that good, is that yesterday I had plenty to time to read a book. In fact, I finished of The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson. I thought that it was great, just as engaging as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Now I can't wait to read the third book, but I've made myself a promise that I won't be getting it until it is out in paperback. So now I just need to find something else to read until then.

# 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!

May Status Update

Once again, I did not get as much done this month as I would have liked. There were a couple of items that I made progress on.

I am still going strong with my 365 project, with the blog updated through May. I've still been taking pictures, but a computer problem has made it so that I can't download the pictures from the camera at the moment. I'm hoping to get that fixed soon.

Geoff and I have moved out all the items from Dan and Sue's basement. I'm not counting this item as done yet since we have to finish going through it all, but right now it is in our storage space.

I also had made a big push to work on captioning the digital photos, but I had to stop when the computer crashed.

Now that we are fully in summer, I'm hoping to make a big push to get some more items done. I'd really like to have more to report in the June status update.

# 31

31. Send pictures to Grandma at least 4 times a year (6/11)

Unfortunately, I won't be getting an opportunity to complete this item the way I had originally planned. On April 19, 2011, my grandmother passed away in her sleep. At the time of her death, I was current with this item, as I had recently sent her an album filled with pictures from her 100th birthday party. I am marking this item complete.

# 25

25. Get together with friends once a month (16/34)

Earlier this month, Geoff and I headed to Christine and Tedd's wedding. On the Friday night, we had the rehearsal dinner and then the wedding on Saturday. It was a lot of fun to get two nights in a row with our friends, and I'm hoping the the summer will bring us even more time to hang out.

# 84

84. Read 2 new books a month (12/68)

A book that is really just for me, and not about toddlers or teddy bears. The other night I finished reading Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. Even though it wasn't the kind of book that I normally read, I really enjoyed it. While there is a lot of medical drama, it wasn't overwhelming to the story. It was a book that I read for my book club, but unfortunately I am unable to make it to the meeting again, which means that I have yet to go and I think that this is the last one until the fall. I guess I'll just have to pick it up again then.

# 20

20. Try at least two new recipes a month (22/68)

Tonight was another adventure, as I tried to make an Indian dish. The Vegetable Rice Byriani actually came out very well, even though I couldn't follow the recipe exactly since I wasn't able to find the lemongrass. Geoff liked it as well, but he seemed to think that there was something missing, and he is now trying to figure out how to add chicken and maybe carrots for the next time I make it. And I will be making it again, it was pretty easy for a weekday meal.

# 20

20. Try at least two new recipes a month (21/68)

Tonight, I tried a new pasta dish, Artichoke Hearts and White Beans with Pasta. It was pretty good, and I'm not the biggest fan of artichoke hearts. It was also pretty easy to make, I was holding Peter for most of it since he did not want to be put down. This is definitely something that I'll be making again.

April Status Update

I have not been very good about keeping up with this challenge, as much as I would like to be.

I've started to catch up on a few repeating items. I've started making new recipes again, and racked up five, with a few more coming up in the next week or so. I'm trying to get back into the habit of using the slow cooker as well, even though we basically missed winter. I'm also reading a book for my book club, so hopefully I'll be able to finish that soon.

I have been good about keeping up with my 365 project. I haven't been able to post every day, but I've taken pictures every day to be posted later. I am also really enjoying this project and am having fun trying to figure out which picture to post for each day.

As for finishing twelve items this year, I'm only one item behind at this point, so hopefully I'll catch up soon.

There is just over one year left in this challenge, and I have to admit that I thought I would have finished a lot more items than I have. There are a few items that I can probably push to get done this summer, I will work on doing that.