So, from what I hear, this winter has been legendary.  (And I bet you’re all sick of hearing me complain about it.)  The whole country, it seems, has suffered from the Polar Vortex.  And here in Buffalo, we’re told that we’re already approaching record snowfall for the year, and it’s only early February.  So we’re all tired of it, and we’re all ready for spring.  At least, we’re all ready for spring… in a few weeks.  Because right now, it’s THAT TIME, the miraculous time that only comes every four years, when winter is fun again.

Yes, I am talking about the Olympics.

My first memory of being really aware of the Olympics was the 1992 Albertville games.  I’m sure I was conscious of the Games before that, but Albertville was the first time I remember getting really into the spirit of the thing.  It certainly helped that I was watching the Games while on a ski vacation to Lake Placid, site of the 1932 and 1980 Olympics.  Olympic fever was everywhere.  You couldn’t walk out the door without seeing the Olympic rings.  For the week of our vacation, I fell headlong down the Olympics rabbit hole.  During the day, I was either skiing Whiteface with my family or ice skating on the Olympic Oval (or on Mirror Lake).  And in the evenings, after dinner, we all trooped back to the hotel room to watch the Olympic programming from France.

I was especially enchanted with the figure skating – naturally, being a ten-year-old girl.  Team USA had some strong players that year, and I loved Nancy Kerrigan, but for me there was only one figure skater, and that was Kristi Yamaguchi.  I waited with bated breath for Kristi to skate her programs, and I still remember the sparkly blue costume she wore during her gold medal skate.  And I also remember arguing vehemently against my dad’s contention that figure skating was “an art, not a sport,” and didn’t belong in the Olympics.  I like to think I gave a rousing defense of the sport of figure skating.

These days, I’m much more interested in the skiing and snowboarding, and in the men’s ice hockey, than I am in the figure skating events – although I’ll watch any Olympic programming eagerly and enthusiastically (and I was glued to Meryl and Charlie’s ice dancing performance, just like the rest of the country).  I love to cheer for Team USA, to critique their Opening Ceremony garb (were we all going to an Ugly Sweater party after the ceremony?) and to follow their stories from childhood to podium.  And while I have some great memories of the Summer Games – watching Michael Phelps’ marvelous performance in Beijing, for example, or Misty and Kerri’s three consecutive gold medals in beach volleyball, and of course the little viewing party that hubby and I had with Katie and Jeremiah during the 2012 London Games (we made scones!) – it’s the Winter Games that hold my heart.  Someday, someday, hubby and Peanut and I will get to the Games in person.  (Hubby and I tried for Vancouver tickets, but were shut out of every event we applied for.)  And in the meantime, I’ll spend these few weeks not whining about the snow.  Instead, I’ll spend them pulling Peanut around on her little sled while commentating as if she’s a tiny bobsledder, celebrating big events like the Opening Ceremonies with caviar and blinis (hey, it’s Russia!), watching Twitter like a hawk in case Jon Stewart puts out fake spoilers again (my favorite from 2012: “Sailing teams lodge official protest over Greece releasing Kraken. #fakespoiler”) and jumping off the couch and pumping my fists whenever Team USA notches another medal.

I love the Olympics.  I love the gathering of nations in the spirit of friendly competition.  (It brings back Jessup memories.  Holla back, fellow moot court nerds!)  I love the five rings, the Olympic flame, the kitschy yet cool opening ceremonies, the athletes’ visibly pumping adrenaline, the flags rising over the medalists as the gold medalist’s national anthem pumps loud and proud… and for a little while, anyway, I love winter.  Because without winter, there’d be no Winter Games.

Now… let’s go USA!

As part of my efforts to live bold this year, I thought I’d do a monthly post about how I’ve been embracing that One Little Word.  Sometimes I might write one longer post about one particular thing I’ve done, and other times I might do a list, like this month.  So here’s how I’ve been living bold in January:

• Signed up to run the Buffalo Marathon Relay with a group of moms from my local Stroller Strides community.  This is my biggest, boldest action of the month!  I usually shy away from group runs of any sort.  I’m always worried that I’m not fast enough and that I’ll somehow let the group down.  But I have to remember that I do have some running experience, and that these supportive, encouraging ladies would have welcomed me to the team even if I didn’t.  (But you’d better believe I’ll be folding some speedwork into my training.)  I’m excited!  I was kicking around the idea of volunteering at the race, but looks like I’ll be lining up with the other runners instead.  Yippee!
• Ran 7, then 8, then 9 miles.  I have a virtual race coming up in February (more on this to come) and although I don’t have to do it all in one shot, I’m aiming for that bold goal.  That means busting out some long runs again – something I haven’t done since 2011.  I feel pretty hardcore, watching those miles stack up on my Garmin.
• Signed up for the TD Five Boro Bike Tour.  Forty miles through all five boroughs of New York City!  This is another event that will definitely challenge me in new ways, and I’ll be riding with my dad, brother, and brother’s girlfriend, so I’m a little nervous about being fast enough to keep up with the group.  (I do have a nice, zippy road bike, so that should help.)  And then there’s the added nerves that come from sharing the road with tens of thousands of other cyclists… I really hope I don’t end the ride in a pileup.  But part of what I am trying to do this year is to step out of my comfort zone and accept challenges even when they involve other people, so that’s what will drive me to train hard for the event.
• Knitted my mom an infinity scarf.  This sounds like it wouldn’t be such a bold thing to do, but I’m actually a little insecure about knitting for others.  I always think I’m incapable of knitting something that the recipient will actually like and use.  But I had some soft, nubby red yarn that I knew my mom would enjoy wearing, and a stitch that has completely captivated me, so I went ahead and made her one.  The verdict: she LOVED it and encouraged me to make more infinity scarves for family friends (something I was kind of planning to do, but it’s nice to get confirmation that the scarf I made is nice enough to gift to someone outside of immediate family).

January was a pretty bold month for me!  I worked on making the choices that were best for ME, and I said yes to a few events that really intimidate me.  (We’ll see how bold I feel at the starting lines…)  Can’t wait to see where my one little word takes me in February.

Well, as I mentioned in my Intention for 2014 post, in addition to setting an intention for the year (“a better life”), I’ve decided to sign up for Ali Edwards’ One Little Word workshop for the year.  Some of my favorite bookish bloggers do this workshop, and I’ve always thought it sounded interesting.

What’s the Big Idea?

The workshop directs participants to choose a word for the year.  It can be a noun, verb, adjective, anything – just as long as it is meaningful to you.  All year, we will be seeking out ways to welcome our chosen words into our lives, to make them our own, and to think about them in new ways through Ali’s creative prompts.  The first task is to choose the word that will be at the center of things for the year.

Choosing My Word

In the first handout of the workshop, Ali explains that the process of choosing a word usually happens in one of two ways: either you spend lots of time reflecting, debating choices, mulling over options and generally thinking, thinking, thinking, or… the word finds you.  In my case, I didn’t really choose a word.  My word found and chose me.

I always thought that if I did participate in “One Little Word,” I’d be battling my indecisive Libran tendencies and would take six months to even come up with a short list.  But that wasn’t the case at all.  As soon as I got the idea to sign up this year, a word popped into my head, and I knew I didn’t need to think about it anymore.  I’d found the perfect word for 2014… or, rather, the perfect word had found me.  My One Little Word for 2014 is:

BOLD.

“Bold” sums up what I want to be, and how I want to approach life, this year.  I want to take on challenges and own them.  I want to achieve things.  I want to kick down walls.  I want to do more, be more, accomplish more, than anyone outside my four walls thinks I can or will.  I want to scale mountains, run miles, write pages, and be freer than ever before.  I want to walk up to the fences that I’ve set up for myself, or that others have set up for me, and then boldly dismantle them.

Being bold, according to Wiktionary, means being “courageous, daring” and also “presumptuous.”  Synonyms include “audacious,” which is a word I’ve tried – not always successfully – to embrace in the past.  It’s just not something I’m always good at.  I’m not particularly loud, nor do I love being the center of attention.  I’m usually content to sit on the sidelines and cheer for others.  In recent years I’ve come to feel that anytime I am open about what I want to do or who I want to be, I get burned for it.  As a result, that’s not my adult persona.  But I’m not looking to change my entire personality here.  I’m just looking to live better.

For me, being bold doesn’t simply mean being courageous.  Being bold means being courageous with a heaping helping of presumption.  Presuming to do what others think is impossible.  Boldness means courage with a bit of audacious in-your-face thrown in.  Boldness means saying “yes” to yourself and going after what you want, without apologizing.  Boldness means choosing to make each day better than the day before.  Boldness means ignoring others’ negativity and tuning out energy vampires, and just striving to be the best version of myself without worrying about pleasing others.  That’s how I’d like to live this year.

Living Bold on the Blog

The workshop provides plenty of content and creative prompts, which I’ll be following in my personal journal and the class binder, and I plan to reserve this space for checking in regularly about how I’ve been living bold this year.  I’m going to do a monthly post about what things I’ve done to live my word – maybe roundup style, or maybe highlighting just one effort; I haven’t totally refined my vision there.  I might do more than that, but right now I don’t have any ideas about that.

I’ve also created a Pinterest board to collect inspiration for living bold.  You can find my pinboard here (and you can find my other pinboards here).  There are a few symbols that have popped into my head as representative of my word, and they tend to be big natural elements – mountains, waterfalls – and sometimes, people conquering those elements.  So expect to see lots of those types of images on Pinterest and also in my monthly posts.  (Like the picture of Great Falls, above.)

I’m looking forward to taking 2014 BOLDly by the horns!

Welcome, 2014, and BRING. IT. ON.  I am so ready to dominate this year.

In 2012 and 2013, I set goals in five different categories: blog, home, fitness, reading, and life/family.  In 2012, I had one goal in each category; in 2013, I was extra ambitious and set three goals in each category (and did pretty well!).  But when I sat down and tried to do that this year, it didn’t feel quite right.

Often, in yoga, the instructor opens a class by instructing the yoginis to set an intention for their practice.  The intention is private, is set silently, and can be anything you choose.  I try to be mindful of what I need from a practice when setting my intention, and I usually choose one word to represent what I am seeking that day.  Sometimes it’s peace, sometimes strength, sometimes joy, sometimes redemption.  Other days, I choose to dedicate my practice to another person – usually, to Peanut, because she is the person who inspires me most to live a good life.

So when mulling over how I wanted to approach 2014, it occurred to me that I don’t really want to make resolutions this year.  Instead, I’d rather set an intention for the year, and let that intention inform everything I do and all the choices I make.  My intention for 2014 is: A Better Life.

Last year, we moved to Buffalo in search of a better life.  We wanted shorter commutes, lower cost of living, no humidity, walkable neighborhoods – and we found those things.  But as much as I know that we took a huge step toward improving our quality of life when we moved here, I also know that it could get even better.  So this year I’m dedicating myself to living well, and spending all year finding out what that means for me, and for hubby and Peanut.  I’m looking forward to making those discoveries, but I think they’ll look something like these ideas, which are knocking around in my head right now:

• A better life means getting organized.  We moved from a 3,100 square foot house to a 1,900 square foot house.  We have a lot of stuff in storage right now.  But I know I can cut down on clutter even more, to make our days run more efficiently and (hopefully) make my life easier when we (hopefully) move out of this rental and into a (hopefully) bigger place of our own.
• A better life means a life lived outside.  I love to be outside in nature, breathing the fresh air and enjoying the gifts that each season has to give.  We’ve spent a lot of the past year-and-a-half in hibernation mode, because when you have a preemie, you have to be extra cautious about exposing her to germs.  But I can’t find long-term happiness inside, on the couch.  Peanut is big enough and strong enough now that she’s up for more, and it’s time to start integrating her into the things that hubby and I enjoyed doing – hiking, kayaking, exploring – before she came along.  I’ve always dreamed of introducing my kids to the joys of the great outdoors and I can’t wait to fold Peanut into all of our family adventures.
• A better life means unplugging.  I am guilty of spending too much time tapping away at my iPhone, and that needs to stop.  Now.  I would rather let a few emails pile up and respond to them when I can than grab the phone every time I hear that tell-tale ding.  I need to spend more time being in the present, just enjoying watching Peanut play or feeling the breeze on my face or listening to birds call from the trees.  (This past weekend, we went out to spend an afternoon with my in-laws, and I realized ten minutes into the drive that I’d forgotten my iPhone, necessitating an afternoon without my technology.  And you know what?  It was glorious.)
• A better life means running a race that scares me.  I got back into running last year, after a hiatus brought on by injury, then a high-risk pregnancy, then postpartum recovery and adjusting to the new reality of life with a preemie.  After a strong finish to the year, I would love to take my running to the next step and take on a race that challenges me in new ways.  I have one in mind, but I’m not going to spill the beans just yet.  Registration doesn’t open until the spring, and I don’t even know if I’ll get into the race, so I might end up looking around for something else.  But I do want to take on – and conquer! – a scary new challenge this year.
• A better life means cooking more.  I kind of got away from cooking, and I have just started to enjoy being in the kitchen again, after a long time of feeling frustrated.  This year, I’d love to finally bake a really good loaf of bread and to come back to a real love of cooking healthy, nourishing food again.
• A better life means exploring my new environment.  Here’s a cool thing about moving: it’s a whole new world to explore.  When I left DC, I knew the city pretty well.  (Live anywhere for ten years and it’ll be in you.)  Buffalo, though, is new to me.  Oh, I’d been here many times before we moved.  But the occasional visit is different from living somewhere.  Already, just after a few months, I’ve seen so many new places and things.  This is a really cool region, and the people who live here have good reason to be proud of their city and its surrounding areas.  I can’t wait to sniff out all of the gems – hidden and not hidden – in Western New York.  And of course I’ll share!
• A better life means improving someone else’s life.  As you all know, I signed up to be a volunteer tutor for Literacy New York and I’ve been matched with a student!  I can’t wait to spend this year helping her reach her goals and improve her reading abilities.

Those are just a few ideas I have, a few thoughts about how I might make my life tangibly better this year.  Not resolutions, not even necessarily plans, just ideas percolating.  I’ll check in periodically and update you all about my intention and what I’ve done to advance it – just like I’d check in with my intention during a yoga class.  And there’s something else I decided to do this year:

One Little Word

I keep hearing about Ali Edwards’ “One Little Word” workshop, and I keep seeing bloggers I admire signing up (like my pal Katie, who has done the workshop several times, and Kim from Sophisticated Dorkiness, a blog I love reading).  Every time I see someone else sign up for the workshop, I think to myself: I need to do this.  I have a word in mind, which is connected to my 2014 intention of chasing a better life, and I can’t wait to share it with you all and talk about what this word means to me, and how I plan to weave it into the fabric of my life and family this year.  I really plan to live my one little word this year, and I think that if I follow through with it, I’ll see out 2014 with the knowledge that I really did live my best life this year.  More to come on that very soon, I promise.

How about you – did you make resolutions for 2014, pick a word, set an intention?  Or do you think that’s all hogwash?

Happy 2014, everyone!  I love to start the new year with a fresh batch of goals and look ahead to the achievements I want to accomplish – but before I do, it’s time to look back over my previous year’s goals.  Here they are, along with my “grades” and thoughts:

BLOG

1. Keep up a M, W, F posting schedule consistently all year – no blog breaks.
2. Stay informed about current events in the literary world, and post about them.
3. Shoot a new header that reflects the spirit of the blog.

Grade: A-.  Once again, I let an entire year go by without shooting a new header.  One of these days, one of these days.  But the other two goals, I am really pleased about.  I posted many times about current events in the book world (see my six-month goal roundup for just a few examples), and I only missed a couple of days of posting, mainly because I was swamped and didn’t realize that I’d forgotten to schedule posts to go up.  I was consistent in my posting and I’m proud of the things I’ve written this year.

HOME

1. Get the rest of the house painted (even if I have to hire professionals to do it).
2. Hang curtains!
3. Plant an herb garden, and don’t kill it this time.

Grade: Incomplete.  I had good intentions to really personalize our living space this year, but we ended up making the surprising decision to move to Buffalo, which brought those efforts to a halt.  Hopefully, by this time next year, we’ll be homeowners again, and I’ll have some house-related goals then.

FITNESS

1. Get back into road racing.
2. Get into a regular yoga practice.
3. Join Stroller Strides and attend regularly.

Grade: A-.  I rediscovered my love for running this year, after looking for it for awhile.  I ran three road races: the Healthy Strides Community 5K in April, the Buffalo-Niagara YMCA Turkey Trot in November, and the Freezer 5K in December, and made major strides (see what I did there?) with each race.  I have some big running goals for 2014, so stay tuned.  I didn’t make time for a regular yoga practice, which is something I always wish I could commit to, but I did attend Stroller Strides regularly this fall and loved every minute.  The other moms were so friendly and welcoming, and the workouts were TOUGH!  We’re on hiatus right now, until the instructor returns from maternity leave, but I can’t wait to get back to class next year.

READING

1. Really, really read more books I already own.  I mean it this time.
2. Read at least one classic every month.
3. Explore more non-fiction.

Grade: A.  I definitely read many more books off my own shelves this year (helped, in part, by moving and being sans library card for a little while).  I read at least one classic every month (usually more than one) and I dove into some great non-fiction.  All in all, a great reading year.

LIFE/FAMILY

1. Seek out ways to be a better wife and mother, and practice them.
2. Practice gratitude even when life gets challenging.
3. Love my little Peanut wildly.

I’m not going to assign a grade for this one, because being a good wife and mother is something I strive for daily and not something that I think is “grade-able.”  I did work hard at this one this year, though.  (Except for goal #3 – to love Peanut wildly – I did that every day, of course, but loving her never feels like work.)  Moving our family 300 miles away, and leaving behind a successful career, beautiful home, and dozens of friends, was a hard thing to do, but it was something I did because my family needed it.  During this adjustment period (which is still going on) I have found things for which to be grateful: sunny runs through the park in the middle of the day; the opportunity to see my in-laws regularly and to visit my parents for a few days in the middle of the week; time to read and relax; a better job for hubby; and most of all, bonus time to bond and snuggle and watch Peanut grow into the precious little person she is becoming every day.  What a gift!

Next up: my goals for 2014!

Happy New Year!  Hope all my friends are enjoying a day off with their families.  I’m off to do just that, but I wanted to look in here and wish you all health and happiness in 2014.

And while I’m here, I also wanted to do one of my favorite things: reflect on the year just ending before I look ahead to the clean slate before me.  So here’s a little retrospective of 2013 highlights here on Covered In Flour:

In January, I set goals for the year, shared what’s in my essential healthy kitchen (fridge, freezer, pantry and utensil drawers), and chatted about Scholastic’s 2012 Kids and Family Reading Report.

In February, Peanut turned six months old, and D.C. was awarded the honor of being the most literate city in the U.S. for the third year in a row!

In March, I pondered genre-bending and rode out the winter.

In April, we celebrated Peanut’s first Easter and made a family visit to the cherry blossoms.

In May, I celebrated my first Mother’s Day and started Beth’s Villette readalong.

In June, the #Villettealong wrapped up, we celebrated Audiobook Week, and I worked my way through a ridiculous stack of library books.

In July, my books begged the internet to rescue them from Peanut’s tiny but very sharp teeth, and I finished reading the Fairacre series.

In August, two HUGE things happened: Peanut turned one, and we moved to Buffalo!

In September, I finished my second readalong (Kerry’s Septemb-Eyre) and shared my answers to a Bookish A-Z Survey.

In October, I had a birthday and we celebrated with a trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario!

In November, I turkey trotted with Emma and Grace, and then we had a fabulous family Thanksgiving weekend.

In December, I shared ornaments that remind me of my beloved Virginia, and we took a stroll through Chestnut Ridge Park with Zan and Paul.

Hope you enjoyed that little look back at some of my 2013 highlights!  Before we move on to 2014, I have to ask: what were your highlights from the past year?

~ I can’t seem to get organized and get blog posts up lately.  Not sure why that is…  I need to sit down and make myself draft them.

~ Related: I’m still kind of in a reading rut.  I have three books on the go right now, which is unusual for me, and for the past few weeks I’ve had a hard time really getting into anything.  I did start Joanna Trollope’s modern retelling of Sense and Sensibility (for The Austen Project) yesterday and I’m really enjoying it, so here’s hoping that’s the end of my rut.

~ Peanut and I just got back from a four day trip to visit my parents.  It was nice to get some different scenery and Peanut had fun playing with Nana and making some new little friends, but we really missed Daddy.

~ I’m getting SO excited about Thanksgiving – especially about running the Turkey Trot with my sisters-in-law.  My goal is to beat my time from the last time I did this race (2010) and I think I might be able to do it!  I’ve been running four days a week and I feel like I’ve gotten faster in just a few weeks.  We’ll see on race day, though.

~ Today is the last day of my second Whole30.  Sis-in-law Emma and I did the program “together” via text messages, emails and Instagram.  It went well and I feel awesome (just like the last time I did a Whole30), but I’m ready to be done.  I want to have a slice or two of pizza, and I want to be able to grocery shop without obsessing over microscopic amounts of additives.  But I’ve been thinking about what tomorrow will look like and I think I’m going to try to stick to Paleo about 80% of the time, because it seems to be a good eating style for me.  I just want the freedom to have a treat now and then, and to buy turkey jerky without scouring every label.

Happy weekend, friends!

Here.  Walking along the South West Coast Path near St. Ives, England, on a perfectly misty and cool, but not cold, Cornwall day.  (With hubby and Peanut, of course.)

Where would you like to be today?