Lent Week 2

I am the worst at keeping track of time. Ask anyone who knows me. The worst. I attribute my perpetual lateness to my being Latina, and my disregard for time and space? Well, I don't know. Personality and spontaneity. 

 

Hence, we're in the second week of lent and I totally blew the first week of fasting which was supposed to be food. The point of the fasts is to not just give something up and then not think about it but it's to do something in place of that given up thing, pray, meditate, journal, whatever. I have a bad tendency to skip meals because I get so wrapped up in the chaos of the day, feeding everyone else around me, that I have to actually work to NOT skip a meal because if I do that then I'll end up being super gluttonous at the next meal. So, I didn't want to fast a meal so much because, well, that part is easy. It's the remembering to do the other stuff instead that gets tricky.

 

I've done a lot of thinking about eating habits that I want to change, though, and I have landed on three: emotional, thoughtless, and over eating. Again with the Mexican heritage...sad? eat. tired? eat. happy? EAT! These three things I think are all wrapped up together for me. If I don't take the time to think about what I'm going to eat I'll eat whatever is nearby (I might have polished off some sausage last week when the hubs wasn't here even though I was supposed to be doing a raw vegan cleanse...) in a fit of hunger and poor planning. I don't know how to quantify that exactly, but it has been on my mind. Oh and the thoughtless eating part. I guess that's the part that I want to carry through these weeks of Lent. There are so many people in the world that have no idea where there next meal is going to come from that it embarrasses me to not put more thought into how and why I eat. 

I've wanted to be primarily vegan/vegetarian (pescatarian I think, to be exact), for so many years and though I've made great strides toward that goal, I have a tendency to make excuses. Especially if nobody is watching. So that's what I'm going to do 'til Easter - not make excuses, stick to vegetarianism. 

And then I'll eat some lamb for Easter.

Just kidding.

Maybe.

This is the start of the second week, where I'll be fasting TV and movies. This one honestly isn't too hard for me. We have a DVR and I know I can wait on the Bachelor, How I Met Your Mother, and whatever else might be coming on. I'm not really that into TV in the first place...or movies for that matter...but it's kind of like keeping cookies and crackers or ice cream in my house. If it's here, I'll indulge. If not, then it's not a big deal. I watch TV or a movie with my hubs to spend time with him because that's what he likes to do to unwind when he gets home, but I would rather be doing anything else. This'll be a good excuse to get my 30 minutes of guitar in ;)

The Music in Me

I've got so much music up in my bones it seems like a waste to not use it on a regular basis. I've come to a place where I'm finally getting into the groove of staying home and balancing what I want to do with music therapy. I always talk about wanting to be a better musician...even though I went through 8 years of music school...because without regular practice and review, that stuff gets dusty for me. Plus my undergraduate music education wasn't a time I spent doing a whole lot of practicing. Or studying, for that matter.

So, in accordance with my 12 for 2012 I wish to replace some idle time with...let's start with...30 minutes of music playing a night. It may not sound like a lot, but for someone who is going from 0 minutes a week to 210 minutes (3.5 hours) a week, I mean come on. Pretty good start. I have in my possession a ukulele, some guitars, a legit djembe, a piano, and a mandolin, along with instruction books for all of them. I am going to start out just learning chords so I can get my way around them, and then I'll start working on scales because I have always wanted to be able to improvise, and it'll also help me review my music theory.

I'll have to come up with some kind of schedule for this. Do I spend an entire week on just guitar or change it up every day? Maybe I can have a song number goal by the end of each week. Hm. Like, 5 new songs on the guitar by the end of this week, and then I can start over and learn those same songs on the ukulele, and so on. Plus, I'll bump my time up 5 minutes every week until I get to an hour. And every week I'll add a song. Yeah. I like that. If it sounds like overkill, I have to be method about it or else I'll never get to it.

Lucky for me I've been keeping a list of songs I want to learn, totally memorized, performance worthy, by the end of the week:

1. Blackbird - The Beatles
2. Your Hands - JJ Heller
3. Three Little Birds - Bob Marley
4. Someone Like You - Adele
5. La Flor De La Canela - Chabuca Granda

and in waiting so far we have:
6. Let It Be Me - Ray LaMontagne
7. Canta de Alma - Del Castillo (if anyone can find me a reliable source for chords and lyrics, that would be great. Haven't found one yet.)
8. Tears in Heaven - Eric Clapton

This is the video I'm going to use to tackle Blackbird. I started learning it last year but it didn't stick with me, probably because I quit playing for awhile. It is for sure a mind and finger workout.

Resolution Roundup

Well so February is nearly over and I believe it's time to do a checkup on my Resolutions. Accountability, y'all.

1. Post once a week on my music therapy blog and on this blog.

Working on it.

2. Sew through the One Yard Wonders book I just got for Christmas

2. Be a better musician

This one deserves a blog post all its own, folks. It'll probably happen on a Monday.

3. Run a successful (read: profitable) Etsy shop

Good news: I opened my shop this month! Bad news: Nobody's bought anything yet. But I do have a custom order coming in that I just finished, so that'll get posted soon.

4. Cook my way through the Lee Brother's Simple Fresh Southern

Haven't. Even. Started. But if you don't have this book, you should get it.

5. Use raw veganism to get myself to my goal weight

 I just discovered Jenn on Twitter and am loving her and her raw vegan resources.

6. Run a half-marathon

Working on it. A little every day.

7. Publish my thesis in a music therapy journal

No progress.

8. Beef up my thesis and publish it as a book

No progress.

9. Go to yoga at least once a week

So good for me and yet for whatever reason SO HARD TO DO. Even with the yoga DVD's. (see #10)

10. Only watch 1 hour of television a day. Weekends included.

I have zero self-control. Hopefully my new revised #2 will factor into this.

11. Find a church and attend regularly

Sigh. No. I am, however, spending more time in spiritual pursuits (prayer, reading, etc.) and talking about Jesus with friends. That Ash Wednesday service really lit me up with inspiration.

12. Buy no clothes new for myself or my family (notice that I didn't say "no new clothes.")

Blog post about this comin' atcha. You didn't think I would go to San Fran and not return with any goodies?

what.

learned how to play "blackbird" on the guitar tonight after putting Adeline to bed.

ka-chow!