Today is Pi Day. It if has been a few years since you were in school, let me give a quick refresher. Pi is a constant math symbol that shows the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. It comes out to be 3.14159. Today is 3/14. Get it. It is Pi Day.
The Accountant and I celebrated Pi day by eating Shepherd’s Pie.
When I was eleven years old, I saw a PBS special on small pox and became fascinated with diseases. I wanted to learn how everything in the human body worked so I could avoid diseases like small pox. The library had anticipated my interest, because the next time I went they had put up a huge display in the lobby. The sign said you could protect yourself from diseases. I picked ten random books from the display and went up to the library counter to check out. The lady at the front desk started asking me questions about my books.
“Honey, does your mother know you are reading books about sexually transmitted diseases? These are kind of big books for a little girl”.
I was insulted. How dare she tell a grown 11-year-old like me that I was a little girl? I told her that my mother let me read whatever I wanted. Driving home with Mom and the brothers from the library, I wondered if I would really be allowed to read anything I wanted. Just to be on the safe side, I hid all the books in my laundry basket and only read them when I thought Mom wasn’t watching me. I think about it now and laugh. Yes, I was a very mature 11-year-old.
Update on my challenge
Tonight we had chicken stuffed with green chilies and cheese on top of a bed of asparagus and potatoes. I felt like I was real chef when I put it on the table. There is something fulfilling about making things yourself.
“It’s never too late to be who you might have been.” —George Elliot
Ice cream is now a vegetable. Did I get your attention? I didn’t eat a fruit and vegetable at every meal yesterday. I did great for breakfast and lunch, but then I had a bowl of ice cream for dinner. It felt silly to add a carrot with my bowel of ice cream so I skipped it. In case you are wondering, I enjoyed every spoonful of that ice cream. The nice thing about 13 day challenges is that if you don’t do it perfectly one day you still have a bunch more days to try again.
Life can be busy. Very busy. At the end of the day, frozen pizza can look really good if you don’t have a plan about what is for dinner. My 6th challenge is to plan my meals so that every meal has a serving of fruit and a serving of vegetable.
The Practical Reason
I read an article in US News and Report that said the typical US family spends $4,000 each year on eating meals outside the home. I don’t know if the Accountant and I are the typical family spending 4,000 a year, but who doesn’t want to save a little money.
The Philosophy Reason
The Accountant and I like to spend time together. We are doing this challenge together. We’ve made a little menu together. Eating together, planning together and cooking together can be a chance to talk. It gives you a chance to connect and talk about your day.
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
When I was 15, I decided to write a story about the next twenty years of my life. It was a fascinating story with a month by month description of what I would do and who I would be. I am twenty years in the future. I pulled out my teenaged version of the future and laughed and then cried. Here are 4/105 predictions in my teenaged version of my life story.
I had a bit of an obsession with Russia when I was a teen. The plan was to serve a church mission there and then later go back and work at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
Verdict: Nope. I don’t speak Russian. I didn’t serve a mission for my church and I’ve never worked for an Embassy.
2. Fix the light switch in the living room
The light switch in my parent’s living room was wired the wrong way. When you switched the knob up, the light turned off. When you switched the knob down, the light turned on. It bothered me enough that I put it as one of those things that I must do in my life.
Verdict: My parents did get that light fixed. Twenty years later, I am still annoyed by little things when they don’t work the way they are designed to work.
3. Army nurse
I had it all planned out. I was going to spend four years in the Army as a nurse. There were pages and pages in my life history about my heroic deeds and charitable acts. I was going to be the next Florence Nightingale. Along the way, I would meet a kind, rich and dashing young man from Great Britain. We would have five children together and live on a lovely estate while he managed the family’s chocolate business.
Verdict: My kind and dashing husband is not British. He did have more money in his bank account than me when we got married. So, in a sense I married a rich man. I’m happy with my choice. Did I ever become a nurse? No, but I still think Florence Nightingale was a cool person.
4. Win two Academy awards
One award wasn’t good enough so I gave myself two awards. I was going to earn the Best Screenplay and Best Actress. I wrote very a nice speech to accept the award.
Verdict: I haven’t written a screenplay or won any Academy awards. I was an extra in a really dumb independent movie about a man that discovers an ancient device during archeology dig. He brings the device back to his college campus which makes everybody go crazy. I told you it was a silly movie. You can see me for about five seconds. I’m the archeologist digging in the dirt next to the man who finds the device. The film went straight to DVD.
Come back tomorrow. I’m going to introduce my next challenge to the world.
When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I
wrote down “happy”. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment. I told
them they didn’t understand life.” – John Lennon
We had friends over this week. They brought their Dance Revolution Game. Have you played it before? It was a lot of fun. Let me tell you about it. You plug this large game mat into your computer and then start dancing to a pattern on the computer screen. When the up arrow appears, you step up a square. When the down arrow appears you step back. The entire time music is playing along with the dancing arrows. I was having a great time on the novice level. It was fun. I could get those little arrows to blink and go away with my steps. The song ended. I got points. Yeah for me! I walked away to get a drink of water. I learned you should never leave the room in this game. When I came back the settings had magically changed to hard. The Hamster Dance started off easy, but then it went crazy. The arrows were going everywhere. Up. Down. Left. Right. Together. Together. Down. They weren’t coming one at a time either. There were doubles and triples and at one point the computer screen started shaking in attack mode and the game made a sinister laugh. My feet were getting all tangled up. Well, I didn’t want to get a bad score so I changed the rules. Forget feet. Hands are much easier. I jumped off that little game mat and started pounding with my hands. I could keep up much better with all those arrows.
Lesson Learned
I still got points using my hands. Keep going on your goals even if you take an unconventional path.
An Introduction to my Fifth Challenge
Once upon a time there was a girl with curly hair. The PE teacher brought out a bunch of jump ropes. “Yeah”, the other kids in the class said. The girl kept jumping at the wrong time and hitting her shoes. She felt silly. Have you guessed my next 13 day challenge? I’m going to jump rope every day. At first, I had the idea that I would jump rope 13 minutes every day. I changed my mind after I started jumping. I’ve decided to begin with 1 minute for day one of the challenge. My goal is to add time as I get better at it.
The Practical Reason
According to webmd.com , which is a great website if you want to find a disease to stress about, jumping rope burns about 700 calories an hour. I don’t know any one who can jump rope for an hour. I was tired after one minute. Jumping rope is also good for your heart and good at building coordination.
The Philosophy Reason
If you haven’t already guessed, the girl who was afraid in PE class was me. To be honest with you, I still hit my shoes a bit when I was jumping. In fact, the picture below proves I hit my shoes. I have read in the self-help books that you have to do hard things. It will make you stronger. Cheers to getting stronger!
And now it is off to bed. My challenge is over, but I am still working on getting to sleep by 10:30 p.m.
What I’ve Learned from Sleeping (My Fourth Challenge)
I’m coming to the end of challenge number four. I wish I could tell you that I am now getting a nice eight hours of sleep every night. I’m not, but I did learn a few things along the way.
1. It is important to look at the big picture and the small picture.
When I started this challenge, I was getting about 6 hours a sleep on average each night. After 13 days of concentrated effort to work on my sleep, I’m now getting 6.25 hours of sleep every night. That is right. After working like crazy to make myself go to bed by 10:30 p.m, I’ve only increased my sleeping time by an extra 15 minutes a night. I thought it was a tiny amount until I realized that it adds up fast.
.25 hours of extra sleep X 365 days = 91.25 hours of extra sleep
By working on getting to bed by 10:30 p.m , I am giving my body a 91 hour present.
2. Encouragement to do your challenge can from funny places
One night about 10:20 pm, I was on the computer. Suddenly, the computer screen gave me a message. “I am your computer”, it read. “It is time to go to bed. The internet will be turning off at 10:30 p.m”.
Well, I was quite impressed that my computer knew I was doing this challenge, but I didn’t believe that it would actually happen. At 10:30, the computer did what it said it would do. It turned the internet off. I had a good laugh and the next day the Accountant showed me how to use the settings on our computer network to turn the internet on and off.
There is still time to vote for my next challenge.
A) Track everything I eat and plan menus for the next 13 days
B) Jump rope for 13 minutes every day for the next 13 days
C) Write 13 positive affirmations about myself every day
D) Clean my house (I read a study that said people with clean houses are healthier.)
Vote now by leaving a comment.
Hi America,
How would you like to help me pick my next challenge? It won’t cost you anything either. I know that most of the music shows and dance contests charge people. I will let you vote for free. Please help me pick my next challenge.
What should I do next?
A) Track everything I eat and plan menus for the next 13 days
B) Jump rope for 13 minutes every day for the next 13 days
C) Write 13 positive affirmations about myself every day
D) Clean my house (I read a study that said people with clean houses are healthier.)
Vote now.
Have you heard the Aesop’s tale about the Turtle and the Hare (rabbit).
The Hare and Turtle are in a race. The Hare sprints off and the Turtle goes slow, because that is what Turtles do. After running for a bit, the Hare realizes that the Turtle will take all day. The Hare, who always has her list with her, starts getting things done. First, she stops at the store to do some grocery shopping. Then, it is off to visit the orphans and tutor children at her local elementary school. The Hare’s boss down at the Animal Factory calls her. The fish are swimming in circles again and need to be organized. The Hare manages to cram 12 hours of fish organizational work into an 8 hour shift. The Turtle is still no where in sight. The Hare decides it is time for some TLC. She takes a nap. The Hare only gets 15 minutes of shut eye, before she is woken up by a pesky news reporter who asks how she feels now that the Turtle is about to cross the finish line. The Hare sprints to catch up, but the Turtle’s little foot crosses the finish line before her. “Slow and steady wins the race”, the other animals cheer. The Turtle is the hero for the day and gets the big promotion at the Animal Factory. The Hare goes home and eats chocolate. The fish go back to swimming in circles. The End.
I’m eight days into my go to bed by 10:30 p.m. challenge. I’m still working on it and I am making some progress. Challenges would be a lot easier if that is all I did.
my 13 day challenge 