November Thankfulness Challenge: The 1/2 Way Mark

Happy Tuesday, readers (if you are out there)! We are little over halfway through the month of November, and there are only 10 days until we can stuff ourselves silly with turkey, rolls, and green bean casserole. This fun challenge has allowed me to take a step back each day, reflect on my life and its many blessings, and illustrate them through film. (The fact that this challenge takes mere seconds to complete doesn't hurt my success rate either). Take a look at what I have captured so far!

                

The November 2014 Monthly Challenge: 30 Days of Thankfulness

November is upon us and that means it is already time for my second monthly challenge! With Thanksgiving just a few weeks away, I thought that this month's challenge should revolve around the many wonderful blessings that I am fortunate to have in my life. So, I will be partaking in a "30 Days of Thankfulness" challenge where I will post one image per day on Instagram capturing something that I am thankful for. I'm optimistic that this will be less of a "challenge" and more of a period of reflection. Seriously, if I can't think of 30 things that I am thankful for then there is something wrong with my priorities! 

My first day of thankfulness is all about my Catholic faith. My high school, St. Agnes Academy, not only afforded me a wonderful education that prepared me for college, but it also emphasized the importance of God and faith above everything else. I joined the Catholic church in 2013, and our church, the Cathedral of Christ the King, has been such a warm and loving church home for Matt and I. Please keep me in your prayers as I expand my involvement with our church by serving as a mass lector! Monsignor McNamee, the rector of CTK, even flew to Memphis to preside over our wedding mass. It was very special having him be a part of our ceremony!

October Reading Challenge: The 1/2 Way Mark

Can you believe that October is already halfway gone? It seems like just yesterday I was writing my kick off post for my first monthly challenge (i.e. read every single day). I'm proud to say that I have only missed one reading day, which is solely to blame on our participation in Oktoberfest activities at Der Biergarten and the consumption of two of these: 

These past 15 days I have noticed two factors that have lessened my thirst for reading that was so prevalent last year: 1) The iPad is a distraction and I find myself wanting to surf Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest when I get in bed. The main reason I got a Kindle was because it did not have distracting Internet capabilities, so I think I need to switch back to reading on my Kindle instead of using the Kindle app on the iPad; and 2) My new job has given me more time after work to exercise and prepare more involved dinners, which takes up a lot more of my time, pushes back my iPad goof-off time, and subsequently makes reading an easy thing to push aside.

I started off reading The Goldfinch, but oh my heavens that book was moving so slowly and really not inspiring me to read before bed. It was at the 200 page marker (and realizing that I had 500+ pages to go) that I decided to put down The Goldfinch and switch to a new e-book that I checked out from the Atlanta Public Library, I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman. I now recognize that fast-paced, mystery/suspense books are more my speed, so hopefully this book will draw me in a bit more and push me over the finish line at the end of the month. 

 

If you have any can't-put-it-down book suggestions then please send them my way! I've heard great things about The Husband's Secret, but I am currently #139 on the wait list at the library, which means that if every person before me holds the book for the permitted 21-day check out period, then I will get my hands on this novel in 8 years...sooo yeah.

The Monthly Challenge Challenge: October 2014

                                                               

I feel like most people (myself included) view January 1st as the only point in the calendar year where they can start something new, and that if they can't achieve something in the first month and keep it up for the entire year, then they have failed. They say that it takes 21 days to form a habit, and one month is obviously longer than 21 days, so why not find something new each month and give it a try? If it sticks, great. If it doesn't and you at least gave it a shot, then you get an A for effort and can feel good about yourself for beating the one month challenge. 

I'll admit, I am definitely too Type-A/OCD to start a one-month challenge on any day other than the first of the month. So, when I realized that October 1st was quickly approaching, I did not want to miss my small window of opportunity to try out a new recurring blog post entitled "The Monthly Challenge Challenge." The purpose? Try out a new monthly challenge each month and blog about how hard it is to do something for 28/29/30/31 freaking days great I am doing. I hope to keep up with the Monthly Challenge Challenge for at least six months (or until I run out of ideas) and maybe pick up some good habits along the way. 

So.....naturally the first step is to think of a challenge or steal one from someone else and get going. A dessert-free month? Hell no. Halloween is in 30 days and the month of October is strictly reserved for eating my weight in pumpkin flavored treats like every other American. Give up alcohol for a month? Ha. It is football season and we are headed to Charleston at the end of the month, a place known for its amazing food and drink scene. Also, pumpkin beer (see previous comment). A 30-day Pure Barre cleanse that will single-handedly annihilate our only-one-spouse-is-working-right-now-income? I wish, but pass.

This may be harder than I thought...maybe I should start with something easy, something that I actually have a shot at doing for an entire month. Then, when I conquer the month's challenge, I can run up the interior stairs of our condo building with Matt a few steps ahead of me, blasting the Rocky theme song from the iPhone he is holding as I make my triumphant ascent to the top.

                            

After some reflection, I decided that my first monthly challenge would be VERY simple: read every single day. Doesn't matter when or where or for how long, just dust off my Kindle and read. Last year I read all the time and was semi-addicted to seeing how many books I could finish by the end of the year (grand total: 21). Number of books read thus far in 2014: 7. Woof. No bueno. Though I can blame the Christmas 2013 acquisition of my iPad all I want, there are still many factors that make this lackluster reading year unacceptable: 1) I have 4 already-purchased books waiting for me on my Kindle; 2) I have access to 1 free book to keep and 1 free book to rent per month for being an Amazon Prime member; 3) I have an amazing library of e-books at my fingertips that I can check out for free from the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library; and 4) The Kindle app allows me to read pretty much anywhere as long as I have my iPad or iPhone with me.

I'm going to kick this challenge off with one of the books that I purchased months ago and never got around to reading: The Goldfinch. 

This book has gotten nothing but rave reviews and was described by one of my friends as being "Gone Girl good." Wow. That is high praise seeing as Gone Girl was probably one of the most page-turningly fantastic books I have ever read. Digression - I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE MOVIE TO COME OUT! I hope it lives up to the hype or there may be a coup staged by all American women who read the book and subsequently turn up en masse and pissed off to host Gone Girl book burnings.

If you haven't read Gone Girl then don't worry, there is still time! The movie comes out in two days, and seeing as this book is highly addictive, you can definitely finish it by then if you start now. For those of you who have read it and want to watch the trailer for the 20th time, here it is:

           

My plan is to publish an update post midway through the month and then again at month-end to let you all know how I did. If you have suggestions for a monthly challenge then please leave a comment and let me know! 

P.S. If you like what you are reading, then please click the blue "join this site" button below the "Followers" section to the right to become an official follower of Generals and Gingers. Thank you for reading!

P.P.S. The calendar above was designed by a fellow W&L alumna, Inslee Haynes. Inslee's work is amazing, and you can purchase her 2015 calendar here.