January Evaluation

                At the end of each month I am going to check in with an update on my goals.  I am going to evaluate my progress or lack thereof for each goal.

1. Scrapbooking - I feel really good about my scrapping progress this month.  I host two scrapbooking challenges and participate in those as well as two others.  These challenges help me to meet my scrapbooking goal.  One of the challenges sometimes allows me to create more than one layout.  There are still 2 days left in the month and I have plans to complete at least 10 more layouts.
2. Photography - For the month of January I focused on taking pictures of food and sharing those pictures.  I feel as if I have accomplished my goal for the month.  I have acquired tips to help me take better pictures of food with my different lenses and on different visual levels.  I plan to continue to work on my food picture taking skills as the year progresses.
3. Eat healthy and exercise regularly - This is the goal that I will struggle with the most.  I have had my good days and my bad days.  I have not done a very good job of tracking my food intake, so I have not done as well there as would have liked.  As for exercise, I have made it to the YMCA 4-5 times a week and have done the planned workout.  Except this week, I made it only once.  I need to go even if I am the only one going.  All I can do is get up each day and strive to do better than the day before.
4. Reading - I finished two books this month.  The first one was The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom.  The book was about Eddie, who was moments away from his death when the story begins.  We go through his final moments, his funeral and life for his friends after he has gone.  There are flashbacks to his birthdays at various times in his life.  We follow Eddie through heaven as he encounters five pivitol people from his life.  Each person's life and death has played a part in Eddie's own life.  Each has a story to tell, a secret to reveal and a lesson to share.  Eddie begins to understand his life and brings closure to those he meets in heaven.  I really enjoyed this book.  With each experience and each lesson learned I questioned my own life.  It made me think about what I need to do to make more of my life.  For book number two I read The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.  This was an interesting book, which I did enjoy except for all the bad language.  The book would have been just as good without all of that.  I love a good mystery/thriller/suspense book.  This story was about Rachel, a divorced alcoholic, who observes Megan through the window on the train during her commute to London.  Megan lives just doors down from where Rachel once lived.  Now Rachel's ex-husband, his new wife and their daughter continue to live there.  Megan disappears and Rachel thinks she saw something that might help figure out what happened.  However, not everything is as it seems.

                  January was a good month, a good start to a new year.  Each month will continue to build upon the last and 2016 will continue to be a good year.

                  Nothing is impossible, the word itself says "I'm possible"! - Audrey Hepburn