The living room makeover

I want to repaint and put some paintings on the walls. Then we need a few nice flowers. We do actually have a nice carpet but we don´t use it for some reason. I just have to have it cleaned.
For the moment the room is divided into a playarea and a tvarea, the two areas don´t look connected at all. The bookshelfs are full with stuff and books so I have to go through them all and see what will end up in the cellar.

Children´s room - makeover

The children´s room also needs a lot done. My daugher needs a new bed. I want to paint the wardrobe doors pink. Also we need a rack to put on the wall close to the ceiling for the children´s bags and put up paintings since the walls look kind of empty.

Hallway makeover

The hallway needs a lot done. I have to contact the landlord since we need the walls repapered. I don´t think me or my partner have the knowledge to do them ourselves.
We need a nice carpet and a rack to put on the wall for the kids jackets. We need to move the shoecabinet and fasten it to the wall so it doesn´t fall down on the kids. And perhaps a nice mirror aswell. And a chair of somekind to sit on.

Kitchen makeover - what needs to be done

I have decided that we need some pictures in the kitchen, a nice tablecloth, a carpet (which I´m crocheting right now) and flowers. One wall needs repainting.
I have been looking for pictures of fruit, vegetables or food but haven´t found any. Instead I might try to develop some of my photographs.

Week six - refurbishment planning

This weeks challenge is refurbishment planning. We have been living for 3 1/2 years in the same apartement, and it looks like we just recently moved in. It really needs some pictures on the walls, painting here and there, carpets and so on. This week I´m going to figure out what to do.

Enhanced reading skills

I have practised speed reading techniques, from a book and with the help of a software, for a week now. I haven´t superincreased my ability to read, but from the earlier online test were I scored 142 ewpm I score today 270 ewpm (measured with the software). The test with the software is similar, a short text to read and 10 questins to measure the comprehension.
While using the software I have read text at the speed of 600 wpm with ease, but I don´t know how well I comprehend the text since that was just for practising. Probably I read a lot slower knowing I will be tested later.
I will continue practising speed reading until I come up to a speed I´m happy with. Increasing the reading speed benefit a lot of areas in your life. I merely wish I could find a software in Swedish!

Why do you read slowly?

The reason people read slowly is because while reading they try to pronounciate every word. Even if you don´t read out loud the vocal cords are moving as if you were speaking. This comes from when we learned to read as children by slowly pronounciating every syllable out loud, mainly so the teacher could hear that it was correctly read. The vocal cords are controlled by muscles and muscles can only move so fast, so this has to stop if you want to read faster.
Also the eye movement has to change. There are certain eye movement techniques that increase the ability to see text differently than most people do today while reading, scanning actually instead of reading.
So if you want to read faster, get on with it! We have learned the wrong way to read,  it´s time to correct it.

Get better eyesight while learning to speed read

While practising speed reading I read a text about the software I´m using. It says that speed reading excersises the software use are well based upon experience and scientific research since long. Also that speed reading techniques are commonly used in Japan since decades, specially in private schools and companys. People reading 300-600 wpm read after a month up to 20 000 wpm.
Not only does the software teach you to read faster, the eye movement exercises also strengthen the eyesight. I have very poor eyesight and after a session I see much clearer. My grandmother used to do eye exercises to strenghten her eyesight. She got that from a book and also I bought the book after a while. The problem was that to really gain good vision you had to loose the glasses for long periods which I wasn´t able to do since I couldn´t manage without the glasses at work. I didn´t continue with the exercises, instead I did an eye surgery in 1996. Unfortunately didn´t the operation succeed to a 100 %. I still had to wear lenses afterwards and since then the eyesight has slowly gotten worse. Hopefully while learning  to speed read I will strenghten the eyesight aswell.

Fasting in Ramadan

The fasting makes me really fatigue and somewhat confused. On Thursday, the second day of fasting, I was convinced that I was working this weekend and when I checked our working schedule I couldn´t find the hours I was supposed to work. I called my boss and after 10 minutes of checking schedules here and there we finally agreed upon that I wasn´t working, it was my weekend off. (I also previously misplaced my calendar which I´m dependent upon.) Yesterday I was equally certain of that I had written a post, which I obviously haven´t done. I don´t know if I should have a penalty for not writing a post a day as I earlier said I would do. Perhaps at least 5 posts the next day?
Today I went to the city to check out "the longest booksale in the world". On the most busy business street people put up tables and sell their books, this event happens once a year. I were there for 3 hours and managed to walk only halfway, the bag was already packed to the limit and heavy to carry. I found so many fantastic books for a bargain that I will be in a excellent mood the whole next week. The speed reading should really come in handy since I have a lot of books that I still haven´t had the time to read.
A funny thing was that I found books from the 50´s about obtaining good memory with memory techniques. I still wonder why they don´t teach this in school since it is obvious that many students need this, at least when they go to the university.

More speed reading

I´ve downloaded a speed reading program that I will work with this week. The program is in English aswell, I really wanted one in Swedish but haven´t found one and I don´t even know if they exist. I´m still puzzled over that it´s possible to enhance the speed in reading that much, and yet it´s not known to the public. If so everyone would exercise speed reading. I will most definitely teach my kids speed reading if I succeed in learning it.

Speed reading

I found some speed reading tests online and did this one. I chose it since it had a normal text to read and it also measured the comprehension afterwards. According to the test I read real slow, 157 wpm, but the reading comprehension was good, 91 %. 157 x 0.91 gives an ewpm of 142 which is average.
It is really amazing if it´s true what the text said, that an average reader is compared to a pianist playing every day of the week for 20 years and only able to play music like a beginner, or a racing driver never exceeding 30 mph. Since we do most of our learning by reading we should learn first and foremost speed reading in school. This should be a subject as well as studying techniques.

The fifth weekly challenge

This week´s challenge is going to be to learn to read faster. I have a book about speed reading which I started to read and study today. Now I have to measure how fast I read and then compare it to the result at the end of the week and see if I managed to speed it up a bit.
Mentally it has been a slow day, the fasting does that everything takes longer time do. Now I have just eaten and besides the headache I feel I am back to normal again.

Ramadan

Ramadan starts tomorrow. I have fasted a few years but this time it´s going to be tough. No eating or drinking from 03.13 am to 08.59 pm tomorrow, I have never fasted that long hours before. Everyday the fasting gets shorter with a couple of minutes though due to that the sun rises later and sets earlier each day.
This is not going to be a challenge, that would be a blasphemy I´m sure. :) I were earlier thinking of doing the Mensa test on the 25th but that is not a good idea with a brain drained of fuel. I will do it on the next occasion instead.

Pillow cover

Today I´ve created a pillow cover as the work of art of the day.
This weeks challenge have been real fun. It´s been challening to find different material to use when not being that "artsy", but I felt really good when creating stuff and my children had fun also.
I haven´t completed all what I have started since I chose to create things that take longer than a day to complete. My  goal was to start something everyday and finish them sooner than later. I´m crocheting every evening in front of the TV and now the carpet measures 1 m x  30 cm.

Beads

Today, Monday, I did a work of art out of beads.
It´s difficult to come up with different things to do everyday. It´s not only having to be creative doing the work of art but being creative about what material to use. Luckily I have children, which means we have a lot of stuff lying around in the house that I can use. :)

Sunday - puzzle day

Today´s work of art is going to be a blank puzzle on which I´m going to paint a picture. My daughter got one to paint herself yesterday so this one I´m going to do to my son. Probably with lot of cars, machines and men working, he´s really crazy about that kind of stuff right now. :)

Creative recykling

I am at work and I´m completely absorbed in today´s work of art, so I totally forgot about making a post. (this is becoming a bad habit...) On Saturday I started on a carpet made of plastic bags as the work of art of the day.
I want, for some reason, a carpet in the kitchen made of plastic. I couldn´t find any one to buy so I decided to make one. My grandmother used to do these carpets for the toilet. She used to crochet them round and quite small, this one is going to be 1 x 3m so it´s going to take a while. :) I have already crocheted for a couple of hours and the cutting of the plastic bags takes a while aswell. The result measures so far 1m x 3 cm...
The guards that came by were staring at me and the plasticbags around my feet. They were polite though not mentioning the mess. :)

Drawing

And today I did a drawing with charcoal as the work of art of the day.
I didn´t have any charcoal at home so me and my children went to the city for a look around. My daughter is very keen in creating and painting, she draws at home all the time, so the two stores we went to was like heaven for her. In the first one we found what I was looking for, the charcoal, and and in the second what she was looking for - everything. As it happened it was SALE, so we came back home with two bags full of paperboxes, stuff to do decoupage, seashells for her boxes, cute butterflies, tinboxes, you name it. We were there for more than two hours, no complaing from my four-year-old daughter and my son slept through the whole event in his carriage.

Creative with a karott mat

Today I started on a karott mat made of mosaic on wood. It will take some days to finish since it needs drying up in between.
This was a project I started some 5 years ago. I bought all the tools necessary, the mosaic and other stuff needed. At the time I did a sketch of a fish and prepared the wood for the mosaic but didn´t continue alas. It will be fun to see it done finally. :)

The fourth weekly challenge - creatíve week

For the fourth week I have chosen the challenge of creating a work of art in different material every day. Today me and my children created a curtain out of decorated shapes made of paper.

Third weekly challenge completed

I have listened to classical music every day this week = task completed!
I learned a little of what I prefer to listen to and what not to, also I learned about some of the great composer´s life. It´s quite the drama when reading the cd covers, insanity and deafness among things. Reading the cd covers is good for understanding the composer and the music better.

During this week I have listened to:

Albinoni - Adagio in G minor for Strings and Organ, Oboe Concerti. The music is very beautiful and relaxing. My favourite composer.
Bach - "Air". Very beautiful and relaxing.
Bartók - Violin concertos 1 & 2. All parts starts so beautifully with the violin, but only a few seconds later they become unbearable.Very painful for my ears.
Beethoven - "Für Elise", "Moonlight Sonata", Quartet in A minor, Op. 132, Quartet in F major, H. 34. I love the "Für Elise" and "Song of Thanksgiving" (second part in Op. 132)and the "Sonata" are very beautiful.
Berwald - Symphony No. 1 "Sinfonie sérieusé, Symphony No. 4. No like, bit boring.
Brahms - Violin Concerto in D major, Op.77. Reading the cover one would assume to prefer Brahms to Schumann (both concertos on the same cd) but I had difficulties in listening to him. "The extensive use of the wind instruments to colour the first movement"..."from which the music seldom descends" and "Its first few notes apart, the violin never has the tune in its basic form." I think explains why I don´t like this music.
Gluck - "Dance of the Blessed Spirits". Very beautiful and relaxing.
Mozart - "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik", Serenata notturna in D Major (K. 239), Concerto for Flute and Orchestra in G Major (K.313), Concerto for Flute and Orchestra in D Major (K. 314), Adante for Flute and Orchestra in C Major (K.315). I like Mozart´s music very much, puts me always in a good mood. Some parts in the concertos for the flute are very beautiful, but I find the flute to evasive.
Pachelbel - Canon and Gigue in D major for 3 Violins and Basso Continuo. Very beautiful. Listened to this a lot.
Sibelius - "Finlandia", "Valse triste", "The Swan of Touvela", "Tapiola". I liked the "Finlandia".
Schumann - Violin Concerto in D minor. This I like.

Summation: I really like listening to classical music and I don´t find it strange anymore. Even listening through the cd with Bartók didn´t make me feeling sick. I soon got the habit of picking fingers in the air, as playing the violin, and it reminded me of an old lady I once saw. Made me feel old , but even so, I will try to continue listen and even go to concerts (not picking fingers there).

Doing the Mensa test

Earlier this evening I put "Improve the Mensa test result" on the monthly challenge list. It would be interesting to see if I can do better than the last time by eating brainfood, excercising logically and physically, anything that is beneficial for the brain. I went to the Swedish Mensa site to see what dates the have the tests, and ended up doing the smaller test they have online. It´s not the real test but it says it can give an indication of  the IQ. I scored 126, or more.
According to the Mensa it is possible get a better result by excercising the ability to do the IQ tests, but only by a margin. Some people who do the test more than once can score better, but it has more to do with they get used to the situation, are less stressed and pay better attention to the task, than improved IQ.
The next Mensa test here in Stockholm is already the 25th of August! Should I? Not even a whole month left to excercise the brain!

Monthly challenges

I came up with couple of ideas that don´t fit the one week schedule, instead a monthly one.

Lose 5 kg. Me and my sister have already tried twice this summer to lose 5 kg in one month. Both of us really want to lose the weight but we don´t seem to find the final piece of motivation.
Start an internet shop. I have been interested in this for a long time and it should be fun to try. I was thinking about a shop that doesn´t require a lot of financial investment. I have been following the Magento seminars this summer, which I find helpful. The internet shop would be a kind of a tryout-shop, not necessary a serious attempt of starting a business.
Cooking different dishes every day. I have started to get really stressed when thinking "what should I cook today?". I lack imagination and cooking skills :) but I think I can follow a recipe to the letter. I want to see if we can find more favourite dishes than the 5-10 we now alternate between. My daughter has started to be picky about food so it would be also a challenge to teach her to eat versatile.
Improve the Mensa test result. I did the Mensa test some years back and scored 119. Would be interesting to see if brainfood and excercising logically will do any difference.

Added more to the weekly challenge list

Today I have added more to the weekly challenge list. Do you have any ideas of what to do?

Minor slip up

It bugs me that I didn´t publish the previous post before midnight! It means that I´ve actually failed the challenge of making a post a day, I failed by 18 minutes.
I don´t know if I should take this as a big failure or a minor one? A failure is a failure.
Ok, I ´ve decided to call it a slip up. One year from now I´m not going to write "I did it! I did it!", but instead  "challenge completed with minor slip ups".

Improve your understanding of the music

Today I listened to Albinoni´s "Oboe concerti" while driving to work. The music really fills the car! So far has my time to listen to music been limited and I have done most of it at work. Today I´m working aswell, and all the sounds from the machines and people interrupting makes in more difficult to really hear the music. When the music is new to ones ears it´s easy to discard it as ok but not more, as I did with this cd, since I couldn´t hear all the subtleties the first time. After listening at it in the car I find the whole cd so relaxing and beautiful, despite the oboe.
I read the cover of the cd aswell just a while ago, and that is something that also can improve the understanding of the music. It describes how Albinoni approached the oboe as compared to Vivaldi, who also made concertis for the oboe at the time, and about Albinoni´s favourite rhytmic device of hemiola.
My brother sent me an email saying that it was not Albinoni who composed "Adagio in G minor for Strings and Organ", but a 20th century composer Remo Giazotto! It´s a very beautiful piece regardless who composed it. :)
At wikipedia you can read about consonance and disonnance, really interesting. Apparently  has dissonance been understood and heard differently in different musical traditions, cultures, styles, and time periods.

Rather be dead than listen to classical music

Today I did most of the listening on the Youtube. Below you can see the version of "Für Elise" I listened to. Really nice piece. The version on the keyboard is only a minute long so some parts were, not to say the least, very unexptected. Other pieces I listened to were "Moonlight Sonata" and also "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" with Mozart.
Classical music is not what I expected at all. Since I started to listen to it, it has started to grow on me. The one I thought would be very difficult listening to was Mozart, and I kind of like his music now.
A fun thing happened at work last weekend. My collegue was early and I told him he could take a break before he took over the shift. He went to the kitchen next door and at the time I listened to Pachelbel. I wanted to hear better so I raised the volume, a little bit not to loud. After the piece had ended I lowered the volume again and looked back to see if the collegue was ready and I saw that he had closed the door to the kitchen! It has never happened before. Well, he is young and I laughed since it reminded of me at that age. Rather be dead than listen to classical music. :)
I feel like I have matured enough to listen to classical music, but I don´t know if it´s because I started to listen to it, or is it just my age?

Beethoven

Today I watched a program about Beethoven, In Beethovens footsteps. It was interesting to learn about his life and compositions. I had no idea that it was he who had composed "Für Elise" (one favourite on my keyboard) and I got surprised when I recognized parts of the 5th, 6th och 9th symphonys. The conductor Kurt Masur talks about the dissonance in the ninth symphony. Thank you!! Now I know it isn´t me just being ignorant and tonedeaf, the false tones are an actual fact. Masur called this dissonance "genious" and very modern, and that it was "hard to digest" for the listeners at the time and probably scared them away.

Third weekly challenge - listen to classical music

This week I´m going to listen to different classical composers and pieces. The reason for having this as a challenge is not only because I heard that classical music is good for the brain, you study better and the synapses build more connections, but I was also curious why people enjoy classical music and wanted to understand this, see what I have missed.
Today I will start with two cds I borrowed from the library. One is with the Berliner Philharmoniker playing Albinoni, Bach, Pachelbel, Vivaldi, Mozart and Gluck, the second cd is Oboe Concert Vol 2 by Albinoni recorded at Rosslyn Chapel, London.
I already started listening to the first cd at work last weekend. I listened to it for more than 5 hours. I found then that I loved the Pachelbel´s piece aswell as Albinoni´s immeditially. Listening through it today I enjoy the whole cd! Vivaldis Concerto for Flute, Strings and Harpischord in G minor, op. 10 no.2 "La notte" and Bachs Air are very pieceful to listen to. Gluck´s Dance of the Blessed Spirits is very beautiful. In my mind I was in a lusthouse with jewel curtains, surrounding trees and the sky were just mere colours. And when finally listening to Mozart´s Serenata notturna in D major, K. 259 I saw a huge canvas full of living music, maybe I got too relaxed. :) Normally I don´t like music that has very pompous parts mixed with slower parts and then the POM-POM-POM again, but I really like how it got my imagination started.
To summarize the first day: I think it´s the violins I love in the music, but I also enjoy the flute. I listened to Albinoni the first time when I was pregnant. I don´t know if the hormons made it easier to get connected to the music, but I have loved the one piece since. But if I tried listening to other classical music I could only hear dissonance and would pretty soon be feeling sick. Today, and specially after last Sunday, I don´t feel like I "overeate" classical music. I feel relaxed and I´m thankful that I learned to listen to this kind of music. I mean, so far so good.

Failed the second weekly challenge

Today I haven´t been in a good mood, probably because I failed the second challenge. I didn´t succeed in reading and listening to the whole Arabic course within a week. It doesn´t feel good failing already, well it doesn´t feel good failing at all. I thought the second challenge was doable and I understand now that I had forgotten to much of what I had learned earlier.
I did start reading the course and finished a decent amount of chapters. I find it fascinating that I understand more than I did when I started just a mere week ago, so I have gotten really motivated. Which was the intention: getting started with Arabic again.
But these are challenges! I have to step up, get my grips together, whatever it´s called. I have to understand if I´m up to a challenge, if it´s a possible task. If not - do it anyway!

Listen

I found this nice composition on youtube. Listen and enjoy! :)

Music for the brain

A few times I have tried to start listening to classical music. I think the reason is that I read somewhere that this kind of music makes you smarter. :) Once I actually did something about it and surfed to the e-library. I thought I would listen through the whole collection of classical music and started with the first one available, which happened to be Albinoni´s Adagio in G minor for Strings and Organ. I downloaded it and listened to this piece so many times and everytime I started to cry (and still do), it´s so beautiful. I tried a few other pieces aswell but didn´t find any more that I liked. 
I´m  thinking that I should have classical music as a challenge (will put it on the list). By that I mean, listening to different composers and pieces, finding more beautiful music and trying to teach myself in liking the pieces that are "difficult". In doing so I think I will benefit in ways that I yet don´t know of.
I have borrowed a cd, which I am now listening to, and actually found one more piece that is really beautiful, Johann Pachelbel´s Canon and Gigue in D major for 3 Violins and Basso Continuo.

At work

Yesterday´s post "please write comments" feels almost like a cheat  :) What can I say? I was at work, doing nightshift this weekend, and saw the clock closing in on midnight. None the less, I would be happy if someone would write a comment. Btw in any language I understand is ok. :)
I tried to study Arabic at work yesterday instead of watching "Saving Grace". I managed it for an hour and a half, then I got to sleepy. The only thing I can do at that point is either work or watch TV-series and movies.
Today I´ve slept 8 hours and feel like my "jetlag" is gone, so I hope I can study the whole night through. Hm working and studying at the same time? Yes it is true, I´m even working right now. :)

In Swedish is OK

I would be happy if you want to write a comment. In Swedish is OK aswell. :)

Weekly challenges

I have been thinking about what challenges I´m going to do in the weeks to follow and came up with a few ideas:

Walking 10 000 steps a day. Today I´m walking, on an active day, maximum 5 000 steps. When I have been working nights hardly 500 steps...
Early riser. Could sleep less hours a day. From 00.00 - 06.00 would be a challenge.
Reading The digital photography book: Scott Kelby volumes 1, 2 and 3. By many recommended as the best books in how to learn photography.
Listen to classical music. I´m widening my musical horizon and I`ve read that classical music is good for the brain.
Detox. I could do with one. I probably have tons of toxic inside me.
Raw food. Would be interesting to try not to eat processed food. Good for the body.
Event week. Could be fun for the children if we went out a little more and did stuff.
Project week. I have a lot of projects I want to do. They have been piling up for many years.
Create an artwork in different material every day. That should be a fun and creative challenge.
Speed-reading. Learn how to read faster. That would be very useful! I love to read and I could finish even more books.
Spa week. I could do my nails, have massage, do the hair... How wonderful that kind of week would be, and much needed.
Organic week. Buy and eat only ecological products. Good to avoid toxins for a week at least.
Bake bread. A new recipe every day.
Step outside personal boundaries. It sounds scary, but if one never tries to step outside them one never knows what one is capable of.
Only water to drink. Now I have learned to drink water. To only drink water and avoid coffee and tea would be good, also to avoid lemonade with sugarsubstitute. I don´t drink alkohol or soda so that is no problem.
Do a sport for an hour a day. That sounds like fun and it could activate my kids aswell.

Arabic - the second weekly challenge

Salam aleikum!
Well, today I started to read the Arabic course. I read through the 2 first chapters, just 13 more to go this week. Takes some time to read and listen to the chapters. I wonder why I didn´t think of having "learning to speed-read" or "early riser" as a challenge before anything that has to do with reading..? :)
Strangely I felt really thirsty and ended up drinking 7 glasses of water today. I think I will keep up the good work as long as I obey the thirst, and drink the whole glass at a time. Kind of remember that I supressed the thought of drinking many times prior to the challenge and only sipping when I was drinking.

First challenge completed

I did it! I did it! :)
To summarize the first weekly challenge: not as difficult as I suspected. The water did finally run down my throat and it seems like I´m always been drinking water (?!) I believe I even drank more than 8 glasses a day since I sometimes forgot to make a mark. Better safe than a cheat...
My stomach does feel a lot better when I drink water, I´m not more energetic though which I anticipated. I have to find something else that makes that happen.
I´m going to continue to drink water, but not as many as 8 glasses a day. I´m going to make it a habit of drinking a glass of water before meals, which makes it 3-5 glasses a day.

Next weekly challenge

The next challenge is for me to finally read the Arabic coursebook I have been borrowing from the library many times but never read past page 1... It´s 265 pages incl glossary and 3 cds. I have some previous knowledge in Arabic, mostly from the beginners course I took at university some years ago, but also from daily listening to my partner telling the kids "kul wa uskut" ("eat and shut up";) ), not to mention the TV which is constantly on either of two arabic childrens channels, so I can hopefully manage it by making a serious effort. Actually just by reading it through is going to set some standard. ;)
The coursematerial is from Living Language, beginners course in modern standard Arabic.

I am like a butterfly in the wind, changing course of interest by the gentlest of breezes.

I will write down my major interests and see where I go astray, instead of following some big plan, which I feel I´m not ready to do yet. Writing down my interests maybe makes it clearer about what goals I really want to accomplish in life.

Living healthy. Today I drink to much coffee and don´t eat enough of the healthy stuff. Also I want to teach healthy living to my kids.
Lose weight. Now I´m 71,5 kg (two pregnancies), ideally I should weigh 58 kg.
Become fit. I have never been fit in my whole life. I just wish I had the condition to run after the bus without my legs going numb halfway (as they usually do).
Taking care of my appearance. I wish I were doing my nails, make-up, spa treatments etc on a regular basis instead of having an inspirational day a year.

That was the easy part, now to the other part, where I am like a butterfly in the wind, changing course of interest by the gentlest of breezes.

IT-forensics. I recently discovered the name for this subject but I´ve always felt a fascination for it. Can see myself working as an it-forensic as a profession.
Mathematics. I have enlisted in the pre-university course during this summer. I´m now behind schedule unfortunately but that´s not a big surprise to me. Don´t know why I´m studying mathematics except for the love of it.
Webbdesign. I´m also enlisted in the webbdesignprogram at the Linnéuniversity since last year. I did finish 30 p out of 60, falling behind here as well, don´t know if I can catch up to continue the second year.
Arabic. I have been enlisted in the beginners course at the university some years ago, finished 3 p out of 30. I love the language. My kids speak it, my partner speaks it, I still don´t understand more than some words.
English. I want to be an English-Swedish translator. I can see myself doing the subs for the TV-series... :)
French.  I read some French in school, learned petite and have always wanted to learn it fluently. Have no urge to go to France though, well not unless my partner finds job overthere (he´s almost fluent in French).
Iphone-apps. I picked up a book saying that you can earn some money by doing apps. Of course I have to learn Objective-C first, install Mac OS X Snow Leopard on my PC (don´t even know if it´s possible with the hardware I´m having) and then learn to use Iphone SDK and Xcode tools...
Play the keyboard. I own a nice keyboard. So far I´ve learned to play "Annies song". I have had the keyboard for 7 years. I really like to learn to play for real. ;)
(by no means is the list complete)

Listed above are major fields in where I want to improve myself, so the challenges I pick has to relate to any of these fields.

8 glasses of water, 7 glasses of water...

and finally the last glass of water! I had to drink the 3 last glasses of water almost straight ahead since I forgot to drink them earlier in the evening. Painful! :)

Self-improvement trap

I googled on challenge yourself and stumbled upon Finer Minds. There you can find lots of interesting articles about self-improvement.

I read an article about falling into the self-improvement trap, which is when you learn something but don´t apply it. The things you´ve learned don´t stick for some reason. It can be that you learned things that you really don´t have any use for or interest to continue practising in real life, or that the learningprocess wasn´t that vital. I have a history of learning random things from books and the internet, things that I either didn´t learn well enough, or didn´t put in a bigger picture, or silly things like... making balloon-animals. :) They take a lot of time and effort from real knowledge which accumulated will lead to wisdom.

Lesson learned: I have to see that I use the gained knowledge from the challenge for it to be worthwhile. To find worthwhile goals I have to set up the big plan.

Completed yet another day in the weekly challenge

Drank my 8 glasses of water, 2.4 liter, without problems today.
Every night I have to accompany my daughter to the toilet, she´s only four and really giddy at night. But since I started drinking a lot of water I have to wake up twice since even I nowadays feel the urge. That is really a downside with drinking water... :(
On the other side, my stomach feels a lot better. Before I were constipated and well... now I´m not. :)

Yet another day in the weekly challenge...

It has been very hot today again and I have been at the pool with the kids the whole day. We went to my brothers where a new poolarea has been built nearby, very nice there. :) The wind blew fairly hard so we didn´t get that warm, instead did we grown-ups changed skincolor from scandinavic pale to scarlet pink. Yeah my brother doesn´t take care of himself either :)
I did drink my 8 glasses of water today aswell, and I must admit I could drink a glass at a time straight up, feeling really thirsty. :)

Managed the challenge of today

I finished the last glass of water for today at 23.18. Phui... :) Now I feel the urge from a full bladder and the sensation of my head almost exploding (slight headache) from the waterpressure..? :)

The first weekly challenge - drinking water

It has been tropical weather here in Stockholm for the past few days, well almost for whole last month. The other day it was 35 degrees C and it is very nice after the long cold winter. I have seen to that my kids drink excessive amounts of fluids, wear sunhats and whatever, but I´m not that protective of myself. I´m almost fainting after a long day playing out with the kids and have little, or no, energy in the evenings.
I decided to start to drink 8 glasses of water a day. Maybe you are laughing "that this is no challenge" :), but I´ve tried it before and it didn´t work. I just don´t feel that thirsty. I drink several cups of coffee and maybe one or two glasses of juice at dinner, that´s it.
Water is the foundation of life: drinking water makes you more energetic, makes your bodily functions work better. I even read that not drinking enough water is the main reason for many diseases.
So far I´ve been drinking 4 glasses today despite the hot weather, two and a half hours to go for the next 4. It´s going to be tough. ;)

Intro

Hi!

I´m a woman from Sweden and I´ve just recently started thinking about what I have accomplished in life. For some reason, not all that obvious to me, I didn´t accomplish that much.
I´m not wealthy. I´m not well educated. I´m not fit.
I´m in a relationship and have two children. I have a parttime job.

So, why this blog? I´m going with this blog challenge myself in learning or do things I really want to but earlier been to lazy, occupied or had 2 billion other reasons not to do. Why in English? Well, this is my first challenge, writing a blog in a language I wish to get better at. I´m going to give it a year, even if no-one except family and friends is reading it:) , and by that it´s going to be the challenge.

With the help of this blog I will also try to be a closer. Slowly by practising to finish things I´m going to feel more and more like a closer instead of a quitter. Which I am today I´m sad to admit.
Maybe I also can be of some inspiration with this blog to anyone who wishes to make better in life? Well humblest of my wishes anyway. :)

How I am going to go about it? I have one challenge, at least a post a day on this blog, for the duration of one year. Also I´m going to study English during this time, not only so this blog gets readible but also so I can understand american tv-series better :). I´m also going to challenge myself at least once a week. By the end of this year I will at least have accomplished 51 worthwhile challenges.