A Cupcake Says Thanks

Gratitude is the memory of the heart.
~Jean Baptiste Massieu

Writing letters of thanks to people who have impacted my life was one of the most enjoyable of the items on my list. Most of us live our lives in fast-forward motion...so putting it in reverse to consider those who have helped to shape the person I am today required a little mental exercise. But once you start thinking about your past, there are always people who leap out of your memories and make you smile.

I have been so blessed to have so many of these sorts of people in my life over the years...I certainly would not be the woman I see in the mirror without their support, their advice, their love. And I am so grateful to each one:

To Mark K....for helping me find a place to belong
To Phillip L...for showing me what church should be all about
To Linda I...for being there when I found Jesus~& for Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
For Beth H...for her timely words of encouragement
For Bob W...for stepping in to help me on to the finish line
For Brian K...for giving me a chance---and a great job
For Lily R...for teaching me to play rummy & how to laugh
For George L...for helping with my education
For Monica E...for pushing me towards true love
For Tanya S...for answering all my dumb questions & making me laugh
For Jeanne B...for being my extra brain--and for all her encouragement
For Andrea I...for helping to make me beautiful (and for listening)
For Linda C...for helping me to heal
For Connie F...for wrapping me into her family
For Mark S...for my first chance in the real world
For Pam G...for being the best sister-friend--and loving me beyond
For Linda B...for showing me what independence looks like
For Cheryl S...for being there through the passages to womanhood
For Jack Jr...for being the brother that I didn't have (at least once a year!)
For Tracie C...for letting me teach
For Robert B...for all his support (and making me laugh)
For Em B...for showing me what a lady looks like
For Sherry S...for being a friend & a guide in a new place
For Lisa H...for supporting me, in spite of everything
For Mary C...for kicking my butt :)
For Mina G...for growing up with me, in more ways than one!
For Laura J...for her kindness at the beginning of the end
For Don A...for helping me to see myself more clearly
For Ginna C...for showing me how to live a full life
For Jennifer I...for being the little sister
For Michelle E...for always showing up when I needed her
For Travis G...for letting me live in the moment
For Becky W...for Toby and all they both taught me
For Charlee & Barbara...for being the extra aunties
For Mark & Susan...for the example of what true love looks like
For Andi S...for well, everything
For Rachael K...for everything else
For Mom...for always knowing just what I needed--for all these years
For Dad...for being the kind-of man who never compromises
For Major O' Mine...for looking at me and always seeing more

17. Plant a tree with my step-kids

A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.
D. Elton Trueblood

The idea for this was not totally random (unlike the one about making 1000 origami cranes). When I was 11 years old, my dad gave me a beautiful oak sapling about as tall as I was and we planted it in our front yard. (Well, actually we planted it in the neighbor's front yard by accident, but now it is so big it is about half on each side.)

This tree is about the height of Claire and JP put together. And even though we won't be living here long enough for them to enjoy it when it is fully grown, I love the idea of knowing that one day, we can drive by this house, and see this huge beautiful tree...

...and know it is ours.

A Cupcake Turns 40!

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate. ~Oprah Winfrey

Had a wonderful day: Birthday Breakfast at home with presents to open with the parents, then off to shop for new running shoes, lunch with the kiddos and Moms & Dad, then a delicious birthday nap and a off to Party-Like-A-Rockstar in the evening!

My Happy Birthday Celebration was held at my darling cousin Gail's house...first party with friends and presents and cake and singing in a L-O-N-G time!

My parents came to visit for a week and attend the party...And I have so many lovely cousins who came!

And my...

wonderful...

friends!

Only missing one person here to celebrate with me--Major O' Mine will not be home again until next Friday. But that just means my Birthday is extended until he returns! (As is my Cupcake Deadline! LOL)

I am so terrifically blessed to have such a wonderful family with such a great sense of fun...we laugh and laugh when we are together. And the friends I have made since we moved here to North Carolina are SPECtacular! Spending my big day with them all was the best birthday celebration I could have dreamed up for myself.

A Cupcake Learns CPR

"On every battlefield, a flag of mercy flies. Its white field bears a Red Cross-the universal symbol of human compassion. Under that flag, there are no enemies, no racial or religious animosities. There are only brothers."
--President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1968

I have now officially become certified as a First Aid/CPR/AED Adult. I have a card to prove it.

Cupcakes that Change Lives

Kiva is a lending organization that partners with microfinance institutions around the world to provide loans to entrepreneurs in poverty-stricken areas. (The longer explanation is here.) You can go to their website and browse hundreds of individuals and groups from around the globe who need just a handful of dollars to help greatly change their way of life. It costs you a whopping $25 bucks.

This is Otara. She lives in Samoa. (I had to look it up...its down near New Zealand!) I had the privilege of funding a piece of her loan.



She is 39 years of age and married with six children. She owns and operates a business planting and harvesting fruits and vegetables for sale. Otara has 2 years of experience in this business. She needs a loan to purchase harvesting equipment such as wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes, baskets, and knives. She plans to use the profit from her business to improve/expand the business. (info from Kiva.org)

Frankly, I am so very grateful that I do not have to farm for a living. Or have six children! I am so impressed for these people, especially the women, who have taken the initiative to try and better their lives and the lives of their families. We have so much...and when we think we are broke-it means no new shoes this month, not no food to put on the table.

The neatest part of using my 'shoe money' to invest in this woman's life is that when she repays the loan, the credit goes back into my Kiva account...to either be liquidated or to be re-invested to help someone else. What a wonderful cycle of giving.

A Cupcake Goes Running

THE LIONESS

Be they giants or be they runts,
Males go out and do their stunts.
They think they're kings.
They do their things,
But it's the lioness that hunts.

John Jerome Runner's Logbook, 2003:
"It's the lioness that hunts."
Slogan of a British women's running club


Last year when we first moved to the wilds of North Carolina, I hauled myself up to the base and joined a lovely group of running mommies called the Stroller Warriors. These young women were pushing strollers, chasing bikes and scooters and armed with snacks, juice boxes and toys; the embodiement of my favorite running slogan in a world where it is the wife who remains behind and holds the home together.

There were only two problems with this situation: 1)it took me an hour to meet up with them; 2)I had no stroller, or kids to put in one...; and 3)I'm slow, like at the back of the pack. (Okay, that was three problems.)

SO...despite the fact that these ladies were lovely, I quit going north to meet them. Hence no post on this running business last year.

SKIP AHEAD TO MARCH 2011~


Over the next months I started a new and interesting relationship with my treadmill instead...and with a chiropractor....and with a massage therapist...and that brings us up to the present. Body all tuned up and a run/walk plan in place to get back to a 5k.

Then in August of this year, after months and months of building a monogamous relationship with my treadmill, the last piece fell into place to get my running back to where I want it to be. The lovely and animated Jamie Bentfield signed on as my running buddy. And now, three times a week, we meet and work on increasing our distance. And suddenly, running is fun again!(or as fun as it can be.)

Jamie has no running agenda, other than just wanting to finish a 5k without any walking breaks...and she really doesn't care about the time-frame, she just wants to enjoy the process in a way that doesn't make it feel like an obligation. This whole mind-set was foreign to me (Hello! a blog about goal-setting!).

But as I considered this idea a bit I had an epiphany:

Goals are important...but sometimes it is just as important (if not more important) to simply relax and enjoy the journey.

And then I don't have to give myself such hell when I skip a day---or when I take a day to rest my uncooperative legs & feet. Because I know I'll be back on the road tomorrow. And because even though I DO want to complete a 10k, and a running club would be fun to join...really it is about running becoming and remaining a part of my life on a regular basis.

Sometimes the REAL goal is just perserverance.

Cupcake Hero #2: Julia Child

"I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate."
– Julia Child

Julia Child made the short list for heroes not because I ever want to conquer Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which I assuredly do not. It was her ceaseless determination to learn something new in mid-life, while in a completely new environment, and to do so with such zest and enthusiasm that American cooking was changed forever by her accomplishment.

I have no interest in cooking at the level that she did, or cooking anything French, for that matter. You aren't going to get me near an aspic. But Child spent a decade dedicated to translating the art of French cuisine, the second love of her life, into a format that an American publisher would accept. This tenacity, and the enthusiasm with which she went about this project, brought her a new career and a place as an American icon. THAT is Amazing. Impressive. Inconceivable. (I can hardly keep a project going for a few months, much less 10 years.)

And what a zest for living! You only have to look at this postcard of her and her dear husband, Paul, to see that she loved life and was not shy about embracing it.

Reading My Life in France, which is her own biography which she co-authored, sealed the deal for me. (Lovely and interesting book, by the way. I highly recommend.) This woman wasn't out to impress anyone, she was just following her passion wherever it led. What a great example, especially as 40 is the next big thing for me!

There are loads of interesting websites that provide more information about Julia's life and cooking career (coolest one is the Smithsonian's), but really you can just watch this YouTube video of her teaching how to cook an omelet to see, not only How To Cook an Omelet (!), but what an interesting personality she was. Bon Appetit!

Cupcake Hero #1: Helen Keller

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart. "
~Helen Keller

Helen Keller was born in 1880 in Alabama. Before she was two years old she had lost her sight and her hearing to scarlett fever. With this barrier to all communication and learning, Keller became a wild little creature who terrorized her home until 1887, when Anne Sullivan, a teacher from the Perkins School for the Blind, arrived on the scene and changed Keller's life.

Most of us hear the story in elementary school of how Anne Sullivan finally broke through to Helen by writing on her hand while holding it under running well water. It is ironic to me is that those first years that Helen was so wild, she was just a child with an incredible capacity for learning who was frustrated by her limitations! Once she learned to communicate, she learned not only words and sentences, but to read and to write braille, even to write with a ruler and pencil.

What I find the most amazing about this woman was not only her incredible curiosity about life and her thirst for knowledge, but her constant desire and determination to take it to the next level. She learned to speak, went to college (Radcliffe, of all places-the women's version of Harvard), rode horseback, could communicate in French, German & Latin, and played chess. (I can't do most of these...LOL) And although braille books were not terribly prevelant at the time, she didn't let that stop her, Anne Sullivan just "spoke" them into Helen's hand.

She also knew Alexander Graham Bell and Mark Twain, met Henry Ford and the Rockefellers. She was a Suffragist in the early 1900s. Among many other writings, Helen wrote her very own autobiography at the age of 21, The Story of My Life, which was the first book I read on my Cupcake Reading List.

Helen was certainly blessed to have been born into a family that could afford to provide her with all of these opportunites to improve her life -- but even with those privileges, how many of us would consider our lives 'a daring adventure' if we could not see or hear?

This is a pretty impressive list for someone who has no disabilities...it is an inspiration knowing that the woman who accomplished all these things was deaf and blind, living in a world of darkness that I cannot even imagine. In those moments when I think my life is too hard or my dreams are too difficult to attempt I will try to remember this beautiful soul who never lost her enthusiasm for living and for learning:

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. " ~Helen Keller

[Biographical information obtained from the American Foundation for the Blind]

4. Watch all of Audrey Hepburn's films

"My career is a complete mystery to me. It's been a total surprise since the first day. I never thought I was going to be an actress, I thought I was going to be in movies, I never thought it would all happen the way it did." ~Audrey Hepburn

Here's the thing...

The internet connection at our house has been slow & unsteady for the last few months. And doing anything...and I do mean ANYthing (checking email, doing a Google search, looking up movie times, etc.) takes about 5x as long as it should. And that is IF you can keep the signal long enough to make things go thru.

We finally found out that our internet speed was only working at 6 mega-whatzits, instead of the 12-18 we have been paying for (yay!) and supposedly this is being fixed by the internet/cable people....you probably know about how fast that happens. In the meantime, it takes me so very long to blog any post that I am about out of patience for the entire week (if not more) by the time it is done. IF i can get it put together. (Big IF.) Therefore, not too many blog posts will be forthcoming until this is repaired...boo!

How to Steal a Million Cupcakes

Of all the Hepburn films I have watched so far, this is definitely one of my favorites! How to Steal a Million came along 13 years after her big success in Roman Holiday-and she has evolved into a stylish, accomplished actress. Audrey & Peter O'Toole are great together and the plot couldn't be funnier. Audrey herself is hysterical as the daughter of an accomplished art forger trying to keep her father out of prison: she shoots an intruder with an ancient pistol, drives her cute convertible like a NASCAR professional, and recruits O'Toole's help in a 'big time caper' in the best looking black lace dress & mask I've ever seen a thief wear. (Givenchy designed her wardrobe for this movie, and for all her movies from the time of their first meeting in 1953 on the set of Sabrina" onward. He & Hepburn were great friends.)

The film did not win any awards for director William Wyler, who also directed Hepburn in several other of her projects, but it wins big with me! I loved it!

Memoirs of a Cupcake

I love it when they turn bestselling novels into movies, especially classics...and those destined to become classics. I know there are plenty of purists that hate it when the story is 'hollywooded-up', but in my mind, the movie-making brings beautiful narratives to the masses who might not otherwise have ever been tempted towards the book. Perhaps, in my ideal world, watching the film may even cause many to WANT to read the book! Anyway, this was a gorgeous story of a life lived under circumstances we Westerners have no concept of whatsoever. If you haven't read the book, it is beautiful. Amazing. And if you aren't tempted by the novel, watch the film. :)

Leave the gun Take the cupcakes

Finished reading The Godfather by Mario Puzo. Read it in one day-couldn't put it down. Violent, yes...but AMAZING storytelling. My only disappointment: Nowhere in the book does he write this favorite quote:

What a Cupcake!- Audrey Part 2

So sweet! Hepburn plays Arienne, a young Parisian iguene whose father is a private investigator. She secretly reads his files and romantically fantasizes about his cases~specifically his most recent: following an American gigilo! This is a very simple, very sweet story: an innocent girl's version of Pretty Woman. Loved it!

What a Cupcake! Audrey: Part 1

Just a few words....Hepburn won an Academy Award in 1953 for

Best Actress-which she earned, she was amazing!- and Gregory

Peck is my new hot crush.

WATCH IT!! 'Nuff said.

A Cupcake Does Yoga

Today was Day 3 of Yoga Camp...I mean, Yoga Teacher Training! Parts of my body are singing the Halleujah Chorus, but it is so gratifying to be stretching those muscles.

In case it is hard to keep up, I switched from visiting Discovery Yoga in St. Augustine, Florida for my training to Porter's Neck Yoga & Spa a little closer to home (check me out in the orange! Ha!) The Major liked the idea of keeping me closer for the duration-and this is where I have been taking classes, so it seemed like a good fit!

There is a lot about yogic philosophy that I find curious~not all of it do I find agrees with my own views. But all of it I find interesting! My lovely and vivacious instructor, Kas, is making every moment full of newness and energy. Tomorrow we participate in a class called Yogalicious....can it get any more fun than that?!

33. Make 1000 Origami Cranes

I will write peace on your wings and you will fly all over the world. ~Sadako Sasaki

The most common response people give me when they find out making 1000 origami cranes is on my Cupcake List is "WHY?" Intrestingly enough, I'm not entirely sure. When I first included it, I knew that I wanted to learn some origami, and that folding 1000 cranes had some special significance...and it would be a specific goal, as opposed to something like 'Learn origami'.

But to try to answer the WHY question a little more thoroughly for myself, I started digging around on the internet (in between folding cranes) to find out more about the subject. I found some interesting things.

First, there is limited explanation about the significance. A few websites provide some history about origami in general(ThinkQuest) and a few more give some words on the significance of the crane (Wikipedia, Lisa Shea) which stands for for honor and loyalty. As for the magic number of 1000, folklore says that the person who makes 1000 paper cranes will be granted one wish.

The most popular story along this line is a true one entitled Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr (which needs to go on my next reading list), in which the heroine, a young girl, contracted leukemia after the bombing of Hiroshima. On her deathbed she determined to make 1000 paper cranes with a wish to live. Sadly, she did not complete the cranes prior to her death-her family & friends finished them for her. Her story became a symbol of world peace. These days, 1000 paper cranes are made and placed in temples & shrines as a prayer for peace all around the world, as well as made and given to those who are sick as a symbol of home or as a wedding gift of luck and long life for the newly married.

So does this enlighten me as to why I wanted to make 1000 origami cranes? Not really~I probably have to stick with my original explanation, lame though it may be. However, the cranes as a symbol of peace really does speak to me. Who couldn't use a little more peace in their life? The one website that I discovered that affirmed this small notion was Sandy and the 1000 Paper Cranes. Her mission is to make 1000 paper cranes, add an encouraging word to each and 'release' them into the world (ie: leave them as many places as she can for others to find and be uplifted). Then she blogs about it. How great is that!? Not to mention a great way to use some of my cranes (much to the Major's relief).

In case you are curious, or possibly inspired, here is how I learned to make a crane: (I had to stop the video a few times to get it right...)

So my real question now is what am I going to do with all of my cranes? (72 as of this writing) A little help?! Suggestions? Anyone? Anyone?

16. Watch Gone With the Wind (start to finish!)

I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow.

~Scarlett O'Hara

Finally...All four hours of it. Watched. You would have thought I was scheduling a root canal the way I kept putting it off!

I had seen parts of it before-the entire first half, I believe-one time in college. But never the entire film. The version that I rented was in color...definitely an improvement over the B&W. Really, when you consider that the film was made in 1939, the effects are impressive and the scenery, well- I'm a southern girl, so we'll just say it was lovely (at least until Sherman burned it all to a crisp).

What can I say...it was wonderful. Time-consuming, but worth it! Very like the novel, which meant that Scarlett alternately infuriated and impressed me. She is so spoiled and manipulative, but she is so strong and self-sufficient. And now I am going to be forced into reading the authorized sequel written by Alexandra Ripley in 1991, Scarlett, which my dear friend says is a great story (not quite up to the first, but what could you expect?!).

The Major even watched the entire film with me, for you doubters...and said it was worth his time (at least the once)! After all, it did win multiple Academy Awards in 1939: Vivian Leigh for Best Actress, Hattie McDaniel (Mammy) for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Screenplay AND Best Picture. And in 1989 it was voted Favorite All-Time Motion Picture at the People's Choice Awards (people's choice, hello?!). So apparently the "People" think it is a great movie. And so did I.

Should you need any further persuasion to add it to your Netflix queue, here is a preview:

Now go on...the next rainy day that comes around, grab a blankie and curl up to an amazing story of the Old South....

I promise it will be worth it!

38. Buy a cow (or goat, or sheep) for Christmas

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:6-7

A few years ago I received my first Heifer International catalog in the mail at Christmastime. The 65-year old organization solicits donations for the purchase of providing livestock and crops to people in areas of need, along with the appropriate training and education necessary for the recipients to use their gift successfully. The recipient is also charged with Passing on the Gift (one of the 12 Cornerstones of Heifer's philosophy) by donating in turn an offspring of their gift to another needy person.

I think what really touched me about this type of charity is that one of the primary goals is enabling needy people to become more self-sufficient. Giving is one of life's greatest joys-but giving with the knowledge that your gift will not only meet a need of the moment, but provide an individual with the opportunity to help themselves and their family for the future-that is an even GREATER gift. The old idea of 'Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.'

Now I know that there are a lot of folks around that would argue that these types of organizations are not really helping the people that are in need....animals are not a truly sustainable way of providing for the future and will eventually just be killed for food, etc., etc., etc. Or that the organization is not being run efficiently enough: too many dollars going to the cost of administration and solicitation and not enough to the actual charity. (I read stuff online, too, you know.)

To these arguments I say this: Valid points, all....And, 1. There is always a down side to every good idea (good ideas rarely being perfect), and 2. How many of us would give to an organization without those handy brochures and catalogs they send out? Now there are some that would. And Bravo to them! (No, really.) But most of us, myself at the top of the list, are just not that aware unless a colorful flyer crosses our path (preferably right under our nose) and gets us thinking about it. Painful truth, but true nonetheless.

So despite all the valid questions about this or that, I decided to just GIVE. I like the idea of helping people to help themselves (see above). And my goat, sheep and flock of baby chicks might just change someone's life somewhere. There is the literal, factual account of where all the pennies go, and then there is the prayer that goes with them of a better life for someone else in the world that has far less than I. Without ignoring the pennies, I put a lot of stock in the prayer portion of that equation: isn't that what giving this way is really about?

There are a thousand perfectly reasonable excuses NOT to give part of all that we have...the real challenge is to find our one reason to go ahead and give anyway.

Catch up on my reading: Year 2

My first year of "reading Up" had a slow start. Unfortunately, this means that I did not complete the list of 4o books that I had made for myself, despite my Speed-Reader-Extrodinare status. (sigh) Ah, well. I did manage to finish 26 books on that list, which was no small feat (see post about Atlas Shrugged).

Onward to this year's reading quest! I am going to try to finish the fourteen books from the previous list along with the following 40. (Yes, I know that total is 54~more books than there are weeks in the year....It's a goal, okay?) This year I stuck with all male authors...and boy, are there a lot of them to choose from! When you start poking around famous novel lists (which are everywhere, btw), you see the disparity in the number of male vs. female authors. Anyway, it was even harder to narrow down this list than it was the last one...but I already have the beginnings of a list for AFTER I turn 40! (But that is another blog idea entirely.)

So without further ado, here it is, in no particular order whatsoever:

1. A Land Remembered by Patrick D. Smith


2. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis


3. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol


4. Watership Down by Richard Adams


5. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden


6. Night by Elie Wiesel


7. Walden by Henry David Thoreau


8. 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marques


9. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett


10. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame


11. A High Wind in Jamacia by Richard Hughes


12. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas


13. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens


14. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemmingway


15. Dracula by Bram Stoker


16. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien


17. The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne


18. The Godfather by Mario Puzo


19. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson


20. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum


21. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy


22. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck


23. The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale


24. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson


25. In Defense of Food by Mihale Pollan


26. Winning Thru Intimidation by Robert Ringer


27. On the Road by Jack Kerouac


28. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert


29. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger


30. Crime and Punnishment by Fydor Dostoevsky


31. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey


32. A Study in Scarlett by Arthur Conan Doyle


33. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming


34. All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren


35. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe


36. The Call of the Wild by Jack London


37. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving


38. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty


39. 1984 by George Orwell


40. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

I learned a valuable lesson from my first list...make sure you counter heavy reading (ie: Anna Karenina, Crime and Punnishment) with light reading (ie: Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz), else your head might explode.

Happy New Year 2011!

Happy New Year! Once again, the happy bustle of the holidays has kept me away from the computer, but I suppose that is just the way it is going to be! (I should post a disclaimer in October.)

Now that we are near the Major's kids, the holidays were all about them, which was a fun change for me. We all made New Year's Resolutions~I'm looking forward to keeping mine! (So far, so good!)

In spite of my lack of blogging, I have been working here and there on my Cupcake Resolutions this holiday season! In no order whatsoever, since you heard from me last I have:

• Been reading a bit off the list (#2)
• Started doing yoga again (#9) in anticipation of yoga camp (as we are calling it) in February (#32)
• Been to the shooting range with the Major (#10)
• Made my first SOLO (well, almost solo) Black Bottom Pies for Christmas Eve dessert (#13)
• Lost over 10 (that would be T-E-N!!!) pounds with Weight Watchers (#29)
• Made a donation to Heifer International which bought a sheep, a goat & a flock of chicks! (#38)

My largest (and most important) New Year's Resolution is to finsih my Cupcake List! Best of luck on your resolutions!