Embracing 40: Year 2

Another year has come and gone. It is time to take stock, to ascertain the inventory, so to speak. How far have I come in achieving my decade goals?

1. Learn to play the piano. I am in Primer B, along with my daughter. :) We purchased a good quality used piano about a year ago. It cost more to move it than buy it!!!! Both mother and daughter are enjoying the learning experience of reading black notes on staff and translating them to music with fingers. Thankfully, my daughter's teacher allows me to sit in on her lessons. Two-for-one deal?

2. Learn to read and write either Hindi or Urdu. Okay, okay, this is pathetic. I've moved from knowing 13 Hindi letters to 22 Hindi letters. I still have 14 more to go. I am lacking motivation, I must admit. Maybe I will know them all by next year???

3. Travel the world with you two kids and your Daddy. This is still a "one day" goal. Sorry kids, there will be no trip to Disneyland in this family. Or some Mexican all-inclusive. (Neither of which is our style anyway.) Why? We gotta save for our once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe and Asia. God willing.

4. Explore the arts through painting, photography and writing. Well, this last year was a bit of a miss in this department. I haven't painted anything, save for re-finishing my daughter's desk from blah off-white to glam purple. I've taken decent family pictures of our own family (The family picture included with this post was composed by myself, taken by my camera on a tripod, and edited for color and focus.) And I've written Chapter One of my parent's story, experimenting with J. D. Salinger's writing style in Catcher in the Rye (believe me, I'm not brilliant at all -- it's just fun to play with words). I started Chapter Two and I'm stuck. I'll finish my "novel" by the time I'm 60. Ha, ha!!!

5. Accomplish a challenging physical feat. Another miss. Oh well. I don't feel guilty. Or shamed-filled. Right now I am focusing more on the emotional/logistical feat of joining with others in my community to bring over a refugee family from Syria. Some days, it does feel like a physical feat. A tremendously positive physical feat.

6. Read the whole Bible, one more time. It's gonna be a two-year plan instead of my original one-year plan. I was reading quite well. Until I hit Jeremiah. Now I'm battling through some genealogies in 1 Chronicles. My reading plan isn't in order of books. But rather, it cycles through the different genres. I. Must. Persevere. 

7. Re-establish my teaching career. I am a substitute teacher. This is the best way for me to balance staying home with my son on his off-KG days and practicing my teaching skills. Thus far, I have been teaching or supervising in Gr. 1 - 12. I've even volunteered in KG! Though most of my time is spend in middle years or high school. I am utterly excited when I get to teach mathematics -- and I mean actually teach as opposed to monitoring seat work! My calls have been slowly increasing over the last two months from 2 - 4, which seems minute, but I am grateful nonetheless. This has encouraged my spirit. Plus it has added a bit of cushion to our home budget. 

I guess I have much to do. But, I am not going to get all stressed out about it. I have some goals. And they are slowing being accomplished while I focus on the more important roles of parent, wife, sister, daughter, friend, and child of God.

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