Faith, Hope, and Love

Every so often, people ask me, "How many books to do you read?" It's a question I never knew the answer to because I had never thought about keeping track. Reading wasn't a competition, nor was I attempting to attain a medal for it. I never set reading goals. I just read . However, the question got asked more and more often, and so last summer, I decided to keep track. I wrote down how many books I'd read the summer of 2016 and kept at it once school began in the fall. And between June 2016 and December 2016, I had read 88 books. Close to 100 books, and that was missing 5 months! So for 2017, I decided to keep track for the whole year. Each month, I would jot down the title of each book as I finished it. On average, I read about 10 books a month. Some months I read more, some less. Length and genre varied, although I did try to push myself to read one non-fiction book a month  (and didn't always succeed). And... I ended 2017 with 152 books under m...

Happy New Year, guys! It's crazy to think that 2014 is over and 2015 is here... and yes, I am quite aware that it's been here for almost a full month and I'm just  now acknowledging it (well, on the blog at least). Let's do a little bit of catch-up like we did last year , shall we... 1.  I still live in the same place (no new moves, yay!)... although there might be a new move in June. It's the cutest place I've lived in since moving to Houston, but the landlord is a bit crazy. My neighbors are amazing though... we all hold false hope that we'll find another triplex we can all move into at the same time (we can dream, right?). 2. I still teach and I'm still a course leader. And I still love both... but I'm also beginning to think about what might be next. 3. I can no longer call myself a runner, but I did buy a bike! 4. My family got A LOT bigger... my niece was born last April and my sister got married in December! The niece is the cut...

My last post was a bit all over the place. So let's start this new year right. Will I be blogging more? I can't say for sure. I know it's not like I have this amazing group of followers who are relying on me. I started this blog for myself as a way to commit to writing on a regular basis and sort of working out big changes in my life. I had just lost my job and felt lost as a person. Over the years, the blog has evolved, but one thing has been consistent: I tend to mostly write about things as they are changing for me. The job, the living arrangement, the hair... So what's changed since the last time I blogged in 2013? I have moved once again. It seems I can't stay in one place for more than a year. In my life, I have moved a total of 18 times (no including the back and forth each summer of college). I have lived in two different countries and four different U.S. states. I'm kind of at a point where I really want to stay in one place and call it home...

I started 2011 thinking that if it were anything like 2010, I should just cut to the credits . I'm beginning 2012 thinking if it's anything like 2011... I ... CAN'T... WAIT! 2011 began with me student teaching, then going to Nigeria, landing a job with Teach for America, which ultimately led to a wonderful job teaching in Houston. It was the complete opposite of 2010. Which was... ugh. Let's not even go there. So now, I just have some serious high hopes for 2012! Anway, as usual, I made absolutely no resolutions. Although I did look back at the ones I made through the New Year's Resolution Generator . Of the 13 resolutions I decided to "take," I kept quite a few. I learned to cope, I laughed a lot, I skipped, I reused, I did bake cookies from scratch, I travelled, and... well, I think overall I did a good job! As far as my actual life goals ... I did begin (and finish) student teaching, I did not begin my MFA (but went into teaching instead), I st...

Today is 1.1.11! It reminds me that I should take things one second, one minute, one day at a time and not worry about what will happen tomorrow, or a month from now, or 11 months from now. All I need to worry about is today. Although... I am looking forward to 11.11.11. At either 11:11 a.m. or 11:11 p.m. I will be making one heck of a wish :)