Mid-year check-in

I can't believe it's already July. As expected, I haven't been 100% diligent with my "resolutions."

First, my goal was to read a book a week, but between hanging out with family, vacations and keeping up the house, I could only squeeze in less than half that many:

How To Be Good by Nick Hornby
The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi
Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Japan A Traveler's Literary Companion edited by Jeffrey Angles and J. Thomas Rimer
Literary Trips edited by Victoria Brooks
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
American Wife by Curtis Shettenfeld
French Milk by Lucy Knisley
American Born Chinese by Gene Yang
What Should I Do With My Life by Po Bronson
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence

There may have been a couple more I'm not remembering (I can't remember if I read Paris to the Moon or You'll Be Okay or On the Road last year or this year), and this of course doesn't count the numerous children's books I've read to Conner, Max, Sophie, Tommy and Ashley.

I've been much better in the food department. I hadn't really "resolved" to eat better, but after reading Animal Vegetable Miracle, I completely changed my grocery shopping and eating habits. Whereas formerly only ~5% of my groceries were organic, pesticide free, free range, cage free, and I paid no attention whatsoever to whether or not it was local so I can't say how much was or was not, now 95% of my produce and meat are organic, pesticide free, free range, cage free, and I buy local products (within ~100 miles of my home) whenever possible. I also buy fresh foods from local farmers' markets, local grocers and Whole Foods, to cook at home much more now, rather than buying prepared foods or eating out, which has led to even more good habits, such as eating breakfast on weekdays, which I never used to do. Of course there's always room for improvement (i.e. making an effort to buy from small coops or family farms, remembering to bring reusable bags to the grocery store more often than we do), but all-in-all it's been a pretty dramatic change, and I'm proud of the fact that we've kept it up for a half year now. I've even planted basil in my backyard and (re)planted rosemary in my front yard. I'm going to try and keep a few herbs alive first before I get into the vegetables.

As for blogging and exercise, I've been remiss. I have nearly a dozen travel blogs started and unfinished, and CJ's Spot is getting updated only once or twice a month now. And while I was on the Wii fit for an hour 3-4 times per week for the first 3 months, it fell to the wayside once the weather got better and I started running and hiking. This sounds like a good thing, except that I was only running or hiking twice a week in April, and then after an extreme hay fever attack, it gradually slowed to nearly no exercise at all. Just last week I realized this and ran for half an hour three times last week. I felt really good about it, so hopefully I'll keep it up.

I'm still enjoying being a housewife, even the quiet during the weekdays. I'm at a point where I can get excited about a job if it came my way, but I could probably do this housewife thing at least another six months.