a week's plus a day's worth of progress...

I have to admit that I totally love the way that the 50x50 keeps chugging along without much conscious effort. I realize that eventually it will take concerted effort to get some of these goals done (heck, some I still don't have a single thing checked off for some), but for now I still seem to be able to make progress without really even trying. :)

Anyway...in the past week...

*Mission: 50x50

#3-Visit 50 parks. On Father's Day, we went and took a short hike at Mendon Ponds Park. And had a lovely time, I might add. :)

#8-Donate 50 trunkloads to charity thrift store, etc. YES! Another full trunkload of stuff out of this house!!! I tell you, I get such joy getting to check the items off of this one. :D

# 13-Drink 50 different mixed drinks and/or wines. Had a Tom Collins Sunday night for the first time in ages. And then, I may or may not have had another one every night since...

#15-Try 50 new recipes. I think this goal is bound to be the first one I actually finish. The Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake I made this week brings me up to 28 items for this baby! :)

#28-Make 50 different things for us/our home. I finished Bacon's placemat. Which was also one of my summer goals. Yay me. :P Yes, he always manages to have it bit scrunched up, but it seems to serving its purpose of not having a puddle of water dribbled onto the floor every time he takes a drink.

#31. Take 50 photos I absolutely love. As I said in the disclaimer, these pictures do not need to be of high quality or any such thing...they just need to be pictures I love. And I absolutely adore this picture I caught of Max at his soccer game Wednesday night.

#37 and #42-Read 50 books I never heard of before buying/borrowing from library *and* Read 50 memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, etc. Not sure why, but rarely read this type of book. The not sure why part comes in because I actually find that I do generally enjoy them. Anyway, I saw The Wisdom of the Radish by Lynda Hopkins on the new non-fiction shelf at the library a couple weeks ago and just couldn't resist. Thoroughly enjoyed this book--the story of 20-something woman and her boyfriend starting up a small farm and trying to make a living selling their produce at a farmers market. She writes with humor, a bit of irreverence, and a lot of heart. I spent 90% of the time envying the hell out of her and 10% of the time being utterly grateful that I was not living her life. I realize it's not a book for everyone, but I can think of a few darling friends who would probably love this one, too. (Yes, of course I'm looking at you two, Chris and Heather!)

#45-Read 50 short story collections. I finished up How Beautiful the Ordinary: Twelve Stories of Identity edited by Michael Cart. I have to admit that I found this collection to be really uneven. Some stories I really didn't like much at all. But others I absolutely loved. Loved, loved, loved, loved, loved. My favorite story of all was "Dear Lang" by Emma Donoghue. (Between her novel Room and this story, I'm sort of convinced that I need to read everything she ever wrote.) But I also loved the stories by Gregory Maguire, Julie Anne Peters, Jennifer Finney Boylan (who I'm sorry to say that I'd never even heard of before), Francesca Lia Block, and Jacqueline Woodson. Pretty awesome line-up of authors there, huh?


*Mission: De-clutter.

YES! Another "area" done! The hall closet. Which probably doesn't sound all that impressive an accomplishment, but I assure you it is. Two whole liquor boxes full of papers to be recycled. Four large bags of things to donate to the thrift store. And a decent-sized bag that really could go nowhere other than the trash can.