Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Check-In

Yay-I managed to get a review up yesterday! (I need to praise myself for every little thing nowadays...) I still have two more reviews to get up, for books received through Amazon Vine. However while I've been doing a bit more reading these days, I'm not reading YA nor do I feel very motivated to review these adult books. I read a Rhys Bowen and Mercedes Lackey, two authors I have long adored but have trouble reviewing. They were comfort reads and they helped to briefly perk me up. Right now I am reading Kate Atkinson's Life After Life which is weird and I don't anticipate reviewing it nor would I necessarily recommend it to anyone.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm still struggling to get back into reviewing/commenting mode but at least I am reading and I do have things to write about.

Like how I took last Friday off to hang out with my sister on her last day of spring break. We saw Captain America 2 (she is a huge Marvel fan) and just relaxed. More interestingly  I reorganized my nightstand, bathroom, and closet (all sorely in need of some attention) and it helped me spend a bit of time thinking about how I want this quarter to look.

I've read about how it takes about thirty days to instill or break a new habit so in year, you could make or break 12 good or bad habits by focusing on one each month. I have chosen an overall theme for the quarter and smaller goals for each month.

Quarter Goal: JOY-as I've shared, I have not felt great, which has spilled over into blogging but has also seriously impacted my relationships and life in general. I have spent a lot of time just staring at walls lately and it's pretty sad. So I wanted to focus on some basics to change the direction of my life so that hopefully I will be more joyful when the second half of the year comes around.

April: Fitness-I am attempting to run at least 1 mile every day in April (3 miles on weekends) with an eventual goal of running 3 miles in 30 minutes. Right now a 15 minute mile is a bit of a challenge for me...I mostly just want to get in the habit of running this month. Maybe it will take me all year to reach the 30 minutes but I've never been a big runner and I think the running every day is more important than the distance covered.

May: Future-there are two things I'm thinking about in regards to this; one is financial and private while the other is returning to my novel. Yes, I am a cliche blogger who wants to write a novel. However my main goal is to see if I can write a long form piece of fiction and stick with it until it is complete instead of abandoning it when I get bored. It is not for publication nor really for anyone to ever read. I just want to do it for myself (I don't know why the novel gets lumped into future but it made sense to me on Friday.)

June: Philanthropy-I am very aware of how blessed I am and I believe that we are blessed so that we can bless. I volunteer with a children's program throughout the school year and donate financially to charities but I wanted to explore other opportunities in this month and find other ways to be of service.

Does anyone else make up goals for themselves using this month by month structure? Has anyone read Life After Life? I'm about halfway through and I'm following the plot but I think I'm missing a lot of the richness that has earned it such raves.

9 comments:

  1. My husband loves Kate Atkinson's books and I am still looking for one that I can connect with.....

    Love the goals. I think it's great to do that - otherwise it's easy to get wrapped up in the daily grind and not make time to take smaller steps toward things that are important to you.

    I have done pretty well on my 2013-14 fitness goals -- though I'd also like to lose 5 pounds, but that requires eating less and not sure I'm on board with that. I'm always working on writing projects, so feel free to email me about that anytime! I'm kind of stalled on one and I need to decide whether to push on or start working on something else. And I'm a big believer that organizing and rearranging your space can give you a huge psychological boost. I have this scary closet that I'm planning to tackle this summer -- I'm going to clean it out, paint the inside some fun color, and then every time I open it I'll be happy instead of afraid.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I should make myself more goals.

    (And I loved Cap 2!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't really make monthly goals, but sometimes I think of goals based on the season/time of the year. I think spacing things out is a good idea!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I bought Life After Life because of all the great reviews and buzz, but I haven't had a chance to try to read it yet. I hope you're feeling better soon. Running is a wonderful goal!

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  5. I will have to check out Life After Life, I haven't seen it before. My goal for this year is to eat healthier, I have heart problems, so no fried food, no salt, which is torture for them. I feel like I am making them suffer right along with me. lol.. Good luck with your goals.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love making goals! Goals for this month is save lots and lots of money. I'm trying the 52 money week challenge. It's fun! And another goal is to finish the books that I have on my kindle before buying more books. :)

    Nina from J'adore Happy Endings

    ReplyDelete
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    onomatopoeia Vernacular,
    from the high-flying, barnstorming,
    toxic firewurKS from yeee-haw KS
    taking you in a completely new direction
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    You’re creative, yes?
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    Whether you obtain morality4mortality to wiseabove
    or just glean tantalizing specimens for thy next best seller,
    you shall find in our blogs a lotta (subliminal) moxie
    which has taken this sinfull mortal yeeeeers to compile:
    I lay it ALL out for you, dear, with All-Star-Oxygems:

    Wouldn’t ya love an endless eternity
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    An IQ much higher than K2?
    An extraordinarily, anti-establishment-victory
    With both sardonic, satirical wit Who’s savvy
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    Here’s what the exquisite, prolific GODy sed
    (with a most-excellent-detector of bull§ht):

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    PS “It is impossible that anyone should NOT receive all that they have believed and hoped to obtain; it gives Me great pleasure when they hope great things from Me and I will always give them more than they expect”
    -our Lord Jesus to Saint Gertrude

    ReplyDelete
  8. I’d looove for you to peruse our 25 blogs;
    however, lemme first explain sumtin:
    My solemn duty, dear, is to serve and honor you…

    I looove to giveth unto thee ideas,
    thots you never thot of:
    the picturesque protagonist, par excellence,
    the non-perishables, the luxurious ditzy-glitz:
    the generous, undiluted expansion of d’bizarre;
    the epic endoorphins – an open door to an
    onomatopoeia Vernacular,
    from the high-flying, barnstorming,
    toxic firewurKS from yeee-haw KS
    taking you in a completely new direction
    than where you originally planned!!
    O! the mind doth boggle, girly-whirly!!

    Why else does a moth fly FROM the night
    than to a bold, attractive candle Light??
    Don’t let His extravagant Brilliance be extinguished.
    You’re creative, yes?
    Then, fly-away with U.S. to the antidote…

    Whether you obtain morality4mortality to wiseabove
    or just glean tantalizing specimens for thy next best seller,
    you shall find in our blogs a lotta (subliminal) moxie
    which has taken this sinfull mortal yeeeeers to compile:
    I lay it ALL out for you, dear, with All-Star-Oxygems:

    Wouldn’t ya love an endless eternity
    of aplomBombs falling on thy indelible cranium?
    An XtraXcitinXpose with no zooillogical-expiration-date?
    An IQ much higher than K2?
    An extraordinarily, anti-establishment-victory
    With both sardonic, satirical wit Who’s savvy
    and avant-guarde-humility??
    Here’s what the exquisite, prolific GODy sed
    (with a most-excellent-detector of bull§ht):

    “Faith, hope, and love,
    the greatest of these is love –
    jump into faith…
    and you’ll VitSee with love”
    Doesn’t matter if you don’t believe (what I write);
    God believes in you.

    Meet me Upstairs, girl, where the Son never goes down
    from a super-passionate, lucrative iconoclasm where you’ll find
    nonillionsXnonillionsXnonillionsXnonillionsXnonillionsX…
    of deluxe-HTTP [<- pi] opportunities for excitement BTW.

    Do it. Do the deed, dude. Sign into the Big-Zaftig-House.

    PS “It is impossible that anyone should NOT receive all that they have believed and hoped to obtain; it gives Me great pleasure when they hope great things from Me and I will always give them more than they expect”
    -our Lord Jesus to Saint Gertrude

    ReplyDelete

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