Feeling better -- time for a resolution review

My nasty cold is finally leaving me -- today, 10 days after it started, I felt almost normal, although I still have a lot of phlegm to deal with, and a froggy voice. Rocket Boy got after me to do nasal cleanses twice a day during this cold and I think that does help a lot. What also helped was being valiant about not coughing. I've been sucking down Ricola lozenges like they were candy, refusing to cough except for first thing in the morning, and I think that's helped keep a really bad cough from developing. Also the Theraflu at night -- hard to cough when you're drugged.

Rocket Boy is still coughing, but not nearly as much, and his voice sounds almost normal. Kid B sounds very froggy but seems to have no other symptoms (the sore throat is gone) and says he feels fine. And Kid A has never gotten it (knock wood). So we're all getting back to normal.

I'm wondering whether my increased energy is because I'm feeling better, or whether my re-joining Weight Watchers has anything to do with it. I signed up on Saturday, and I've been attempting to track my food since Sunday morning. I've been FAR from perfect, but it's been interesting. The first morning I input what I had just eaten for breakfast and it came to 18 points. I only get 33 points for the whole day, so 18 for breakfast was a little daunting. By lunch I'd eaten all but two of my points, and thus my dinner came out of the extra points you get for the week.

Monday I decided to eat a smaller breakfast, down to 14 points (ha!). Lunch, though, was 19 points, and whoops, I had nothing left for dinner (I ate it, but I didn't track it). Today was just as bad, but I am trying. Eating fruit and veggies for snacks, not eating Wheat Thins constantly. I had a low blood sugar episode Monday evening, but today I did better at keeping myself fed.

I'm remembering that a big part of why I quit WW the last couple of times is that I seriously, desperately hate the PointsPlus system (now called SmartPoints, but it seems similar). Carbs like cereal cost so many points that you have almost nothing left to eat. And yet they refuse to say: "don't eat cereal." You have to figure that out yourself. They keep saying, "You can eat anything you like!" but it's all a lie. It's the nudge method -- you're not following a "diet," you're making your own rules. Yeah, right. So my goal this time is to try to avoid getting angry at the program, and I can see how doing it all online kind of helps with that.

Instead of getting mad about my cereal, I bought a different kind today. I'm not sure if it will help, but I'll keep trying until I find a breakfast that both WW and I like. I don't want to see 250 on my scale. And I would like to be able to enjoy camping.

Since we're near the end of summer, long past the halfway mark of the year, I thought I'd check in on my New Year's resolutions, if I can find them. OK, here they are. Let's see.

1. Find a new job. Yes, I actually did, though not the way I'd planned (I thought I'd get out of academia). I just finished a temporary research assistant job that tided us through the summer, and my new teaching job starts in a few weeks.

2. Move the twins into the larger bedroom (and move our office into their room). Nope, no progress, although I brought it up again this week. Rocket Boy REALLY doesn't want to do this, and neither does Kid B. But we can't have them sleep in toddler beds forever! Have to work on this. The other "home improvement" goals have gone nowhere as well: 3. fix up backyard and 4. put gutters on the house. Hmm.

5. Lose my Xmas weight plus 10 more pounds besides. Instead I gained another 15 pounds or so after Xmas. But now I've joined WW. We'll see. 6. Take a short walk every day -- nope, not doing any exercise regularly. 7. Work on my appearance. Nope, not really. Though I do plan to get a haircut this week.

8. Read 52 books. Now there's a success in progress. I have so far read 41 books, with four and a half months left to read the last 11. I've continued with the C.J. Cherryh "Foreigner" sci-fi series, now on book 13, but I've read other things too. I don't count most of the books I read with the boys, but occasionally I do if it's something special -- this year that's included Coraline by Neil Gaiman and Pax by Sarah Pennypacker. Right now we're finishing the last Edward Eager book, Seven-Day Magic, and that makes me sad because after he wrote that he died, and there were no more of his wonderful magic books. But there are many many more books for us to read.

9. See 52 movies. I've seen 35 so far -- it's so much harder to achieve this goal with the Video Station gone. But this summer I borrowed Before Sunrise and Before Sunset from the library -- I've always wanted to see them -- and watched them with the kids, who were fascinated. I'm waiting for Before Midnight, but I think that one has nudity and maybe I'll watch it alone. Rocket Boy and I also watched Arrival this week -- I loved it -- also from the library, and Charlie Wilson's War -- from a garage sale.

10. Read biographies of William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James Polk, and Zachary Taylor. I actually did this! Halfway, anyway. I read short but very good biographies of Harrison and Tyler, and now I've started a longer one of Polk. Probably won't get to Taylor this year, but who knows?

11. Do a political thing every week. I started out strong with this and then it fizzled. I'd like to start again, but I have a feeling that with school starting, I won't. Need to think about it.

12. A writing project for each month. Nope, total flop. I don't seem to want to write right now, and maybe I shouldn't worry about it. However, 13, Continue blogging, has gone pretty well.

14. Stay in touch with my friend Karen, who had breast cancer last year. I was doing this, but then she didn't send me a birthday card for the first time in, oh, 28 years. I immediately thought something must be wrong, but didn't write to her immediately, since it seemed like nagging. I don't care about the card, I care about her -- and it's been a month -- so it's time to write again, in a non-nagging way. Number 15, Make new friends, has gone about as badly as you might expect, and 16, Work on my depression, has also gone nowhere, although I am scheduled to see a therapist in two weeks. Maybe that's progress.

17. Get the piano tuned and play it. Nope and nope, but Z from next door plays it, and the boys join in. Should get it tuned, though. 18. Think of fun things to do with the twins. Rocket Boy has done more of this than I have. But we've had some good times.

19. Join LinkedIn. I haven't done this! 20. Join Twitter. I haven't done this either! Well, I still have four and a half months. Hmm.

Honestly, I think the resolutions are going pretty well. I think I have a good understanding of why some of them aren't, too (lack of money is a factor). Reviewing these has kind of cheered me up, given me a bit of hope for the immediate future. Well, it's 11:30, need to get to bed. Maybe I have time to start a letter to Karen.