TSS: February 22, 2015

This has been a rare week:  few appointments on the calendar and lots of free time.  I'm not gonna lie, I have LOVED every minute of it.  While I don't have much to show for it, I did begin several projects and promised myself I would learn to enjoy the process rather than focus solely on the outcome. Come to find out... that is beneficial to cultivating DELIGHT in life.

Reading:  While the reading pace has slowed a bit, I am still plugging away at my stack of library books.  I managed to finish:

• A Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs 
• The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer
• The Complete Mediterranean Diet by Dr. Michael Ozner

... and I am about half-way through

• Still Life with Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen
• Atlas Girl by Emily Wierenga
• Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh  

Quite a varied list, yes?

I have not yet written the book reviews (although I did develop a manageable review system, I hope), but I have maintained a book journal, where I keep track of pertinent notes and ideas.  I hope to start publishing a few of those later this week.

Writing:  Most of my writing these days is focused on scrapbooks.  I want to complete the family cruise album, but I also had the idea to start a series of digital books.

Many of you may remember the solo trip to Paris I took in July, 2011 (I chronicled the fourteen day event here on the blog).  While I uploaded the 3,500 photos as soon as I got home, I did very little else besides a bit of editing.  I have not done any kind of permanent documentation of the trip, and I feel now is the time.

Originally I thought I could just copy the blog entries into a Shutterfly book and select appropriate photos, but I quickly realized that I want to add the perspective that four years provides.  So I have started to revise those posts in a word document, and then I will conduct the copy-and-paste method.

Europe 2015:  Three weeks from today I leave for a two week trip to Europe with 38 of my closest students and their parents :)  This trip has been about fifteen months in the making, so it still seems more like a dream than a reality.

In preparation for the trip (and a healthier lifestyle) I started walking on the treadmill, which has a dual benefit: helps build endurance and... provides time to view KelbyOne photography videos.  I am currently watching the four videos which focus on travel photography, and then I plan to transition to videos that help me fine-tune my composition skills.