NYR Wrap-Up for January

I honestly forgot that one of my resolutions was to give a monthly accounting of what I've read on the blog.  I figure to do that and also report on how I'm dealing with the resolutions in general in this post.

First up, the books.  Now, I have this horrible problem with attention span.  I'm reading quite a few books, but between the fact that I'm reading something like six of the damned things at once, I'm not finishing much of anything.  So I'll break this down into two categories: what I actually finished in January, and what I'm still reading because I'm reading so much other stuff (and, now, doing school work).

Finished
Demon Hunts, C. E. Murphy (Walker Papers, book 5).  Pretty good book.  Unfortunately, it suffers from what all the other Walker Papers books do--clichés, clichés everywhere.  The main character is Irish/Cherokee, FFS, and named Siobhán Walkingstick.  She's a shaman/warrior/mechanic/police officer.  The series sometimes reads like Ms. Murphy is a newly-converted neoPagan who buys into the BS that neoPaganism is truly a resuming of the Old Ways.  There is a recurring minor character who is a Mexican neoPagan.  No Catholicism involved, naturally--she worships a goddess who is conveniently Wiccan.  Yeah.  In spite of all that, it's a good book.  Enjoyable fluff.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs.  Another pretty good book.  I might be damning it with faint praise.  The gimmick here is that the book is illustrated with vintage photographs.  It's actually a great premise, but the pacing is uneven, the characters are a bit flat, and the ending set up the sequel in too-obvious fashion.  I gather it's already been optioned for a movie, which I think will work very well.

And...yeah.  I think I actually only finished two books this month.  Now, for a much longer list of

What I'm Still Reading

• A Clash of Kings, George RR Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire, book 2).  I'm actually re-reading this.  It's taking me longer this time around.  I keep losing it.
• The Five Love Languages.  I don't remember the author, and I'm too lazy to look it up.  Good concept, horrible execution.  I'm about 1/2 way through it and "accidentally" lost it.
• The Stand, Stephen King.  Good, but dated.
• 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess, Jen Hatmaker.  This is my bathroom book, so it's gonna take a while.  I am intrigued by the concept, but Mrs Hatmaker seems ditzy and self-absorbed, so I'm not sure I'll make it through.
• Mommy in the Making, Victoria Pade.  My emergency book.  Dear God, why did I think it was a good idea to see if I could read a romance novel again?  They haven't improved at all over the last decade or so since I used to read them.  I can't get past the horrible decisions the heroine is making.  If it was a real woman who was newly pregnant and broken up with the baby's father, I'd either slap her silly for getting involved with another man so fast or shut her out of my life for an idiot.
• Strange Brew.  This is a collection of short stories I have a sneaking suspicion I've already read.  And we bought it instead of checking it out from the library, which makes it worse, but at least we bought it used.

Other stuff

 I did indeed finish all my UFOs.  Except for the ones I had to frog because I couldn't remember how I intended to do them.  I still count it a win.  I have sprouted several other UFOs, but I've finished a few new projects too, so I guess I'm batting .500 this year.

I'm doing pretty good at not drinking my calories.  I've had one bottle of Shiner (Dortmunder Ale, so good), one McDonald's hot chocolate, and a few ounces of Jack Daniels honey whiskey.  Oh, and a little bit of cream in my coffee.  That does sound like quite a bit, but it's a huge cut-back from last year.

I have been an abject failure at limiting my sweets, but I'm trying.  At least I'm not eating as much candy, so that's something, right?

Limiting restaurant meals has also been an abject failure.  I hate lunch.  I do fine with breakfast, because I can consider whatever I first eat breakfast.  But when it comes time for lunch, my brain is all "What, I have to cook again?  Fuck you."

I am making fairly good progress at outlining the novel I was writing for NaNoWriMo.  I'm using an app called A Novel Idea.  The free version, which seems to do nearly everything the paid version does.

I am getting better at eating low-GI foods.  This is mainly because I'm not eating much bread. 

Organization...Not so much.  This one and the previous one I actually totally forgot about.  I made too many resolutions, apparently.  BUT, I've been keeping up with my schoolwork, and there's a lot of it.  I'm even turning stuff in ahead of time.

The parenting thing is a work-in-progress.  We went to the park twice in January, so that's something.  Still need to work on routines.

Marie has a potty and goes in it about once a day at this point, since I take her with me when I wake up.  She's not too sure what to do with it, though, and she's very young yet so it's easier just to change her.  Which, come to think of it, I probably need to do.  She's still in cloth 90% of the time.  I do use disposables often when we're out, and overnight too, but I think I finally have a night-time diaper that will work better than a disposable, especially if I change her right before she goes to sleep, because she doesn't potty in her sleep.