at the moment no. 10

at the moment, I'm...

freezing and numb. Actually clutching the warm sides of a candle in a metal tin.  The heat is never on on the porch where our office is.  There's an electric baseboard heater, but I'm usually the only one out here, and the electricity prices just went way up.  So I bundle up, wear wool socks, and wrap my hands around cups of coffee and lit candles.  It's still my favorite place to be. This morning I spent too much time reading about the upcoming book releases in my favorite guilty pleasure series (SHADOWHUNTERS FTW) and didn't do as much writing as I wanted, but it was still time in the dark and quiet and it was just for me.  I'm so greedy about it.

losing weight.  But only technically.  I spent a good deal of money to be part of a 21-day-fix diet plan and I got a month's worth of Shakeology with it.  I like the idea behind all of this.  I use the protein shakes to keep from eating everything in sight when I'm starving after school and I still have to pack our lunches and make dinner. The 21-day fix gives you workouts (that hurt, and that's good) and portion controlled containers that train you to eat healthy.  I like that, too.  But this week I've felt restless and weird (winter blues?) and I'm only stayed on plan about half the time.  It was Elliott's birthday and I had cake. I went out with friends and had a beer and some wings.  I laughed enough that I think I might have negated the extra calories I ate.  I don't know.  I like myself so much that losing weight is not something I want desperately.  Maybe that's just an excuse.  I joined a weight loss challenge at work, too, and the pot is $560, so maybe my self-confidence can take a backseat for awhile.

stepping it up, ya hear? I've had my fitbit for awhile, but tons of my friends and family have also gotten one recently, and this adds a whole new layer to the way this tool helps me move.  There are challenges that you can participate in with your friends- most steps in a week, most steps in weekend, most steps in a day.  It is so damn motivating.  I love that my sister in Florida has one and we daily check in, chat on the challenge board, inspire each other.  I love that she works until 7 and then comes home and slaughters her step goal before bed.  I find it incredibly inspiring, and it also lets you creep on people's lives (omg, they just got 3,493 steps, where ARE they?  oh, the gym, that's annoyingly healthy and wonderful), and the competition pushes me.  I love my weird little fitbit tool, and now I'm lusting after the newest model with a heart rate monitor built in.  Plus, cute wristbands at Target.

maintaining my bookworm status. Last year I kept track of all the books I read in a list on the sidebar of the blog.  I read 29 books (one of which was actually a long ass serial fanfiction piece that I'm counting because I think it's much longer than any published novel and it's more well-written than half the published stuff I read) and some of them I never finished.  About a third of my reading was done in the last two months of the year, when I let go of any "intellectual" aspirations and let myself read young adult fiction like I was a 16-year-old with a crush.  I read a ton of Mary Higgins Clark when I was a preteen, so maybe I've overdue, you know?  

This year I've already read four books, many in one sitting by staying up way too late.  I want to branch out and read some stuff for adults (Anita Shreve, who wrote my favorite book I read in high school, The Red Tent, has a new book called Boston Girl) and reread some of my soul-crushing favorites (The Little House series, followed by the autobiographical Pioneer Girl, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Anne of Green Gables)  I might be ready to reread a few books about death that I love and terrify me (The Lovely Bones and A Widow For One Year), and I have some good nonfiction queued up (#girlboss and somehow I've resisted reading Amy Poehler's Yes, Please.  I'm saving it like a good bottle of wine).  There is still plenty of YA I'm waiting for, particularly Hollow City.  I'm terrible at keeping up with my goodreads page, but here the link: BOOKS YO.  Recommend something to me!

I'm getting lost in all this book talk and there is breakfast and swimming lessons to think of.  Be my friend on fitbit.  Tell me the books you love.

(image credit)