February Evaluation

Time for my monthly goal check in.  This has been a roller coaster of a month.  Some days I am doing well and others I am not.  The good thing is that I am only being measured against myself and I can always do better.

1.       Scrapbooking – For the most part I am where I want to be.  Did I do a lot of scrapping this month, no.  Do I still have a lot that I could do, yes.  I am still trying to achieve that balance between being “caught up” and still having pictures to scrap. 

2.       Photography – This month I worked on black & white picture taking.  I have learned several things.  One thing that I learned was to not take black & white pictures on your digital camera.  You want to take them in color because the camera is made to see in color and then convert to black and white in the editing process.  Here is an example of color, black and white in camera and black and white conversion:

 

 

 

Another thing that I learned and am working to put into practice in to see in black and white.  Seeing in black and white takes practice, but I am enjoying to process. 

3.       Eating healthy and exercising regularly – This is the area where I struggled the most this month.  It is so easy to come with an excuse to not get up at 4 AM and go to the gym.  I need to just decide that that is what I am going to do and get up and go workout.  Which also means I should probably go to bed earlier.  Eating healthy hasn’t been too much of a struggle.  Although, I have had my moments, like today, I ate six cookies when one would have been better.

4.       Reading – I feel that this has been my best area this month.  I finished two non-fiction book this month.  Of course the second one was pretty short.  I read I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education by Malala Yousafzai.  I really enjoyed this book.  It was inspiring.  Here are a few quotes from the book that I particularly liked “If people were silent, nothing would change”, “if you want to achieve a goal, there will be hurdles in your way, but you must continue” and one last one “Malala, you have already faced death. This is your second life. Don’t be afraid-if you are afraid, you can’t move forward”.  The second book I read was Believe in What You’re Doing, Believe in Who You Are by Hilary Weeks.  This too was an inspiring book.  My only complaint is that I wish that it was longer.  Some of my favorite quotes from her book are “Don’t worry about what others think of you. Worry about what they think of themselves when they are with you” and “Scripture study is like cinnamon. It doesn’t take very much cinnamon to flavor a whole recipe and make it taste good. It takes just a little scripture study to make our whole day good”.

Even though I haven’t done my best in certain areas, I can just start from where I am and move forward.  I haven’t failed.  I don’t need to call it quits.  I am not a loser.  I start each day fresh and do the best that I can.

“Don’t count the days.  Make the days count.” – Muhammad Ali