OLW 2013: Challenge

(All of the pictures below are from December 24th)

For the last few years we've gotten the boys Christmas T-shirts to wear in the days leading up to Christmas.

This year's just made me silently smile to myself. Tin's couldn't be further from the truth! :) It'll be perfect for a hand-me-down for Nico, however. ;)

The beard hats have been a hit even with the adults!

Checho gave the boys these light up clown noses on Christmas Eve. Today, Agustín got home from school and put his on immediately. He seriously spent the whole day with the clown nose on his nose and/or forehead. After about four or five hours of that, I was cracking up. What a character!

You can see that there were a lot of silly faces on Christmas Eve. Not sure what that was all about.

Of course I didn't get even one picture today. Andrés had the iPhone all day and by the time he got home the light was bad and I didn't bother. But these pics from Christmas Eve are fun, too.

Yesterday I wrote a bit about my resolutions. But I've decided to do One Little Word this year, too. I've always thought about doing it, but coming off the holidays this year was hard (I felt a little melancholic), so I thought a little project in the works would clear up any depression. (That, and a good ol' fashioned walk!)

So, the word I am choosing this year is challenge. I always like a good challenge. It motivates me, keeps me on track and accountable, and just makes me happy when I challenge myself to some task. It might be my Reading Challenge, or just something silly like how many loads of laundry I can get done in one morning. And lists - I love lists, so marking off my lists as I complete a challenge makes me happy, too.

To begin a celebration of my word, I have decided to challenge myself each month to a task. None of the tasks are life-changing, just something I either a) have always wanted to do, or b) think might be fun to do. It wasn't hard to come up with a list of 12 things.

January: Write 4 poems, read more poetry and get inspired by it
February: listen to one hour of music (radio, possibly new music or a new station), every day. Listen to more MPR
March: learn more about classical music, composers, go to Casa de la Música and enjoy my newfound knowledge
April: learn the names of flowers and plants, and be able to recognize many by sight. I'll probably focus on a region, like the paramo
May: Make 2 ethnic dishes a week. Countries I will be researching: Malaysia, South Africa, Singapore, Afghanistan, Nepal, Liberia, Malaysia, North Africa (Morocco perhaps?), Syria, Czech Republic, Tahiti, Burma, Greece, Romania
June: create a new craft from somewhere online, like Martha Stewart's crafts web site
July: Buy and make something with a Whimseybox (or 2)
August: Run a 5K (July and August might switch depending on the dates of the 5K I join)
September: complete a crochet blanket (afghan) for the family
October: read a book in Spanish
November: make a Joseph Cornell box, immerse myself in the images of his boxes
December: Open my Etsy shop - a dream I have that in all reality will probably stay a dream. But I like dreaming it! :-)

Right now the idea is that after each challenge is completed I will post it here on my blog, and also make a full-page layout about it. So, by the end of the year, if all goes well, I should have a nice little album of my challenges. And it isn't about succeeding or failing, but I will say that I am choosing challenges that I am pretty sure I can do.

I am also going to carry on a simultaneous challenge of creating one crochet item for my fictitious Etsy shop each month. If I am going to open in December, I'll need merchandise! :)