Resolution of the Month: Posture

Report on FARM (February Album Recording Month): we've got four songs in progress, and we're still recording! We're hoping to have most of the songs completed by June. I'm hoping to make time to write more songs--maybe I'll have another music month in the summer or fall. In the meantime, I've been practicing piano and learning to play the pennywhistle (my chops are gone from all that flute playing in 4-6 grade).

And March is posture month.

I've been hoping to take a posture class for a few years now. I read this book (8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back by Esther Gokhale) after watching the Authors@Google talk below (it's 50 minutes, but worth the time if you're wanting to get some great posture tips). I don't have any serious back issues (yet), and I'd like to avoid them as I age. And I'd love to have my kids retain some of their good posture into adulthood. So I finally signed up for a 6-week class at the Esther Gokhale Wellness Center in Palo Alto, and I get to start mid-March. In the meantime, I should probably sit up a little straighter.

Here's Esther at Google, if you want a sense of what she does:

Resolution of the Month: Music

Since last month's resolution was a big fat fail*, we're moving on.

February is music month around our house. We** joined in on FAWM (February Album Writing Month) in its second year of existence, and though we've only completed the challenge once (14 songs in 28 days--we were proud to finish in a leap year with our 14 1/2 songs in 29 days), we attempt to make more music than usual in February.***

So. This year we're doing a modified version of FAWM called FARM (February Album Recording Month), which should really be modified again to This February We're Really Going to Start Recording that Album or EP or Whatever It Ends Up Being That We've Been Talking About For the Last Umpteen Years. But that acronym would be ridiculous.

We've scheduled recording sessions with some musical friends once a week this month. There's no way we'll finish an album or an EP or whatever, but we might get something started, and we might get some musical momentum, and we might keep making music together, and we might keep recording songs, and in doing so we might have fun, and learn some stuff, and get better at what we already do.**** And someone might want to listen to it. At least my mom will.

*and by "big fat fail" I mean that I've gone to bed consistently at 11:30pm every night for the month. Except once, and I was sick that night.

**The "we" here is in no way royal. It's my husband and me, and we've been making music together since the day we first spoke to each other. I also have to credit him with writing that last half a song on that last day in our finish year.

***let me point you in the direction of a friend I've never met in person--we inhabited the same space at different times--who manages to finish the challenge EVERY YEAR! Music is her job, but I'm still impressed.

****and here's where I credit the erudite and inspirational Ginger over at Weiner Dog Tricks for this post that has pushed me to do in music what she does in sewing (and has done in music too. It's good. You should give it a listen).

Resolution of the Month: Sleep

I'm generally one for February Resolutions rather than New Year's Resolutions. I'm always too worn out from the holidays to think about improving myself much come January. But this year, I've come down with a mild case of Ben Franklin. Instead of daily lists of improvements to check off hourly (or anything remotely moral or virtuous), I'm aiming for one priority resolution a month. (I suppose I'm also unconsciously channeling FlyLady and her monthly housecleaning habits.)

This month: sleep.

In December, between a book chapter deadline, regular family life, and the holidays, there wasn't much sleep happening here. And after 5 years of interrupted sleep (read: kids waking me up all the time), I have no illusion that I will actually catch up on sleep. I long for the "awakeness" that sleep study participants have when they get into the rhythm of sleeping two stretches with a quiet wakeful period between. (See this TEDTalk for more on sleep studies.) But for now I'm attempting the good old 8 hours a night. 10pm bedtime, 10:30pm sleeptime (one has to read before sleeping), 6:30am wake time.

And since I've been at this four days already, here's my progress report: not so great.

I have plenty of excuses: it's hard to get to sleep at an earlier time (I've been getting to sleep around midnight lately); I got caught up in my book; my son has a fever and needs attention at 11pm; I need to stay up and celebrate my husband's last day of Christmas vacation by watching a movie. Some reasonable, some not. But the month has just begun.

Here's to 27 nights of good sleep. Speaking of which, it's 9:53.