Five for Friday

Happy New Year peeps!

One of my resolutions is to blog more regularly, both here, and at my other blog The Book Bag (though I may change the name and do a bit of overhauling since it has been 2-cough, cough-years since I've posted there).  I have found that I am constantly composing posts in my head, but never putting the pen to paper, or fingers to the keyboard.  I want to improve my abilities to express myself in the written word, and I know the only way to do that is by writing as much and as often as possible.  I have also long dreamed of having a book blog that parents can come to to ask questions and get recommendations for themselves and their kids, with the knowledge that I will direct them towards good books that are age appropriate and some of the best out there.

So to ease myself into writing, here's 5 items for a cold and dreary Friday.

1.  My friend Amanda helped me get a jump start on my writing resolution by having me guest blog for her yesterday.  You can read my post here!

2.  Living Proof Ministries is doing their Siesta Scripture Memory Team again, and I am taking the challenge to learn 24 scripture verses this year.  After memorizing an entire script for the church Christmas program, I realized that I had no excuses to not memorize scripture.  My first verse, inspired by Lysa TerKeurst's book Unglued (more on that in a later post) is below:

Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that.  Don't be impressed with yourself.  Don't compare yourself with others.  Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.  Galatians 6:4-5 MSG

3.  On December 31st, I began training for The Rodeo Run.  I did this run several years ago and my goal was to run the entire 10K without stopping.  This year my goal is to run the entire thing but come in at a better time-ideally right at 1 hour.  I'm using this training plan in addition to my regular P90x workout schedule.  I also discovered the Map My Run app and y'all, it is amazing.  In addition to tracking my distance, pace, split times and calorie burn, this app also offers many of the features that regular weight loss apps offer.  If I want, I can log meals, weight, water, and other non-running workouts.  I love it because it does the thinking while I run.

4. A picture of Sinatra! During the holidays my friend Suzi and her daughter E came over to bake cookies.  Sinatra tried very hard to claim E's blanket for his own.

5.  When I was a librarian at Lee, I invited the kids to the library to "Read in a Winter Wonderland."  My aide and I decorated the library with Christmas lights and served hot chocolate and cookies.  The kids brought blankets, pillows and books and got to spend 45 minutes in the library just reading.  Early this December, I was brought to tears when my friend Emma sent me the two pictures below and the following text:

Enjoying some hot chocolate while we read in our "Winter Wonderland." A tradition started by you and kept alive by us.

 Happy Friday all!