One Word for 2014

Although reassessing and working to improve oneself can take place any time during the year, January seems to be the time most take stock and strive to make improvements. Several authors have posted about focusing on one word rather than a laundry list of resolutions and goals. At Mass on January 1st, our priest mentioned something similar, suggesting we each pick a virtue to work on the next 12 months. As he was going down the list of virtues, the one that resonated with me the most was diligence.

Diligence is a capital or contrary virtue, sometimes called heavenly virtues because they defeat the seven vices or sins. In the case of diligence, the opposite is sloth. I found this definition of Diligence on CatholicBible101.com.

Diligence is the virtue that tells us to fulfill our duties in life, even if they get to be tiresome. These duties include our work, our home, our country, our church, and our families.

As soon as I read that, I knew this was the virtue—my word—for 2014.  With my focus on diligence, I searched out some tools that might help me this year, in addition to prayer. Here's what I found and wanted to share with you.

• 52 Week Money Challenge - I love the idea of this. Not sure this truly counts as diligence, but it would help me with my financial stewardship come December time when it's time to shop for Christmas! How does the money challenge work? You save a set amount each of the 52 weeks of the year, starting with $1 the first week and increasing by $1 each week. By the end of the year, you've saved $1378. There are several forms out there. The one I'm using has check boxes. What can I say? I like check-boxes. Find a chart that works for you.

Pretty cool, right? I've got my jar, my chart printed out and my first dollar saved! The only thing I don't like about this challenge is there's no way I'll have enough extra money to set aside in December. The amounts for those four weeks are $49, $50, $51, $52. So I'm going to mix up my weeks a bit to spread the larger amounts through the earlier months of the year, rather than saving them for the end. That's where those handy dandy check boxes come in. I'll just check off the week I do. Who cares if they are in order? Happy savings!

• Couch to 5K - When I'm not healthy nothing gets done. Things pretty much fall apart so for me to be diligent I need to take better care of myself.  Sleeping, eating and exercise are all necessary for better health so I need to make some changes to make sure I'm doing all I need to be doing for myself. I used an app like this to get ready for the Joggin' For Frogmen 5K in July. As soon as I ran the race and didn't have anything to follow, I stopped running. So I'm starting again to train for a 5K in March. I started Wednesday, January 1st. It's three times a week, doable for even my busy schedule. If you're not into apps, they have the entire program listed on the site I linked to. Happy running!

• Writing Progress Spreadsheet - I've tried and failed keeping track of my overall word counts so many times it's sad. But 2014 is the year I'm going to make this work. I'm getting to the point in my career, writing for two publishers and wanting to do more, that I need to know where I am with projects and if I'm productive enough to get all the stories I have planned written without impacting my family in a negative way.

Enter the spreadsheet I found at author Jamie Raintree's blog. I'd forgotten about it until going through my excel spreadsheets last night after I'd achieved my word count goal yesterday. I used google to figure out where it had come from and requested the 2014 updated spreadsheet. It arrived last night, and I love it! Finding what works for you is key to making tools work for you. This spreadsheet suits me perfectly, but you might have better luck with another. Remember google is your friend! Happy writing!

Do you have a word or anything you're focusing on in 2014?

2014

Happy New Year! I'm looking forward to 2014 and will be starting my new year off with some cooking using the book The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays. I purchased the book for myself on Cyber Monday from Amazon, but hadn't opened it until a couple days ago. Boy, did I get excited. I plan on trying recipes each holiday.

We celebrated New Year's Eve at our friends' house. When we arrived home at 1 am, I made a French toast casserole that we'll have for breakfast after we wake up. Later in the day, I'll be making her New Year's Day Menu, including Hoppin' John, Collard Greens and cornbread.

Cooking more is one of my New Year's resolutions. I'll post the rest shortly. I did post another on the Sweet Romance Reads' New Year's post. Along with a few other sweet romance authors!

Hope your first day of 2014 is wonderful! I'll be watching the Rose Bowl and cheering for Standford. Go Cardinal!

Resolutions

I'm home from the Rose Bowl! Had a blast, but am exhausted. I will post the winner of my December contest tomorrow along with a recap of my trip. Until then, enjoy this New Year's Resolution video featuring cats.



Are any of those on your list? A couple are on mine!!!!!

Fraidy Cat

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I can so relate to the LOLcat pic above. But I did manage to do a few of the other ones I made so all isn't lost!

Today is the final day of vacation for the family. Well, them, not me. I only took a couple of days off writing completely. I still didn't manage to get caught up either. Talk about a bummer! All those revisions put me behind, then the holidays. But I'm going to keep at it!

I read this article yesterday and wanted to share it given I have characters who are firefighters in my Hood Hamlet books, especially Firefighter Under the Mistletoe. It's an amazing story about a cat who was trapped in a fire. There's both a text article and news clip from the CBC.

There's still one more missing in the rubble. I hope and pray Fraidy is found soon! I've heard people are looking for her and someone is going to try to get flyers posted in case someone finds her. But given the name, I'm guessing she's not a people-cat. Poor baby must be so scared!

Hope the New Year is treating you well so far!

No Resolutions in 2011

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I know exactly how this LOLcat feels. I remember when one of my then preschool aged kidlets told me I looked like Gus-Gus (the fat mouse from Disney's Cinderella.) I knew I had 20 pounds of baby weight from the youngest still to lose then, but I was so devastated.

I ended up losing the weight (nearly 30 pounds) due to a diet I had to go on to keep nursing Rose. She had food intolerences which meant I ate a very limited diet. The weight seemed to melt off. I dropped down to a size four. What I wore in college.

I need to lose weight again. I know that limited diet would do it again. But diets (of any kind) are so hard for me. Doing it for my daughter years ago was easy because she still needed to nurse. Doing it for myself, then or now, not so much.

Pathetic, huh?

Which is one of the reasons I didn't post New Year resolutions for 2011. After two difficult years, I want to focus on successes, not failures. 2011 is going to be the year I take care of me. I want to keep things as simple as possible. Not adding on worries or stresses over trying to stick to a resolution that's supposed to "help" me. I want to feel energized, not dragged down by "need tos" or "shoulds."

I could afford to lose some weight, but instead of focusing on dieting I'm going to concentrate on eating healthier. My good friend Alison Thrasher (Irish Dress designer) told me about this book Eat This, Not That! 2011: Thousands of easy food swaps that can save you 10, 20, 30 pounds--or more!. There are a few different versions, but it's to help you make smarter food choices. That's something I can do and not feel like a failure if I don't lose that magic number of pounds by a certain date.

I've been looking at writing goals in a similar vein. Selling a certain number of books, making a bestseller list, winning an award this year would be nice, but those things are out of my control. All I can do is write the best book I'm capable of writing at the time, which is what I've been doing since I joined RWA over twenty years ago. Well, I suppose if I won the MegaMillions lottery tonight I could buy enough of my own books to put it on a bestseller list. But then again, I'd rather spend the money on something else (a vacation!) than to see my name on a list for a couple of weeks. It's not that important to me or I'd have become a promotion machine over the years. Instead, I suck at promotion and avoid it like the plague. If not for my friends at LASR, I wouldn't be doing any!

This year, I want to focus on what is in my control...the writing. I simply want to write in 2011. I'll still need to shoot for a daily word count due to deadlines, but that's all I want to be aiming for.

How about you? Did you make goals and/or resolutions for 2011?

First Monday

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I did a 30 minute workout this morning! First step, right? The No S Diet really starts today since you can eat what you want on days that start with S! I'm doing much better with the writing resolution. A deadline will do that for you!

Yoda has a new favorite napping place. My keyboard. I will take pics for you. It's cute, yet, but annoying, too. If I can position him right, it's okay. But if he stretches or moves I get typos or text deleted. Not fun! I tried moving him, but he comes right back. Sigh... What we put up with for our animals!

Hope this first Monday of 2010 goes great for you! I'm looking forward to it.

Welcome to 2010!

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Hope everyone is having a Happy New Year! I was so happy 2009 was over I forgot all about blogging yesterday! We went to Mass (holy day of obligation), watched the Rose Parade, football games and I revised 94 pages of my manuscript. The easy part of the revisions. They will get much harder from now on.

I have come up with a few resolutions. During Mass, our priest told us that in spite of what many detractors say making resolutions or setting goals for the new year is necessary and a very good thing. Last year everything was pretty general. That didn't work so well. This year I'm getting much more specific:

1) Lose weight. 10 pounds is absolutely required. 15 pounds would be perfect. I'm still trying to decide if the No S Diet will be enough.

2) Workout. 3 days a week of doing something physical is absolutely required. 5 days is really what I really need.

3) Write. 5 days a week no matter what. This can be new writing or revising. I just have to do something to stay in the writing groove.

I also have some personal/family ones that I won't bore you with. They are less specific (i.e. no way to quantify.)

Do you have an goals or resolutions for the new year?

A Good Start

I got a late start on my JaNoWriMo effort, but the words flowed and I ended up with more than I expected. You can track my progress with the counter over on the right hand side of the blog. My goal is 50,000 words by November 30.

I never did write down my resolutions for 2009 so here they are:

1. Exercise more
2. Eat healthier
3. Write consistently
4. Follow the Total Money Makeover program and stay within the budget all year long
5. Make all my deadlines this year.

I'm sure I'll think of more, but that's a good start. I also need to go back to see what I wrote down for 2008, but I'm too tried tonight.

I thought this picture was so cute. One of my cats likes to give kisses to both felines and humans. It's very sweet.


more animals

Hope you have a great day. I'm so messed up as to what day of the week it is. It feels like a perpetual weekend right now!

Happy New Year!

I really can't believe 2008 is here. 2007 remains a bit of a blur with all I had going on. I hope this new year is less hectic. A calm twelve months would be nice.  I'd even take a calm couple of months!

Let's see how I did with last year's resolution. Here were my 2007 New Year's resolutions:
1) Write everyday on a story (blogging and email do not count!)   I did not write everyday.  Not even close.  But I did finish three manuscripts.  That has to count for something!
2) Finish my non-category novel by the end of the year (this is the story I worked on during NaNoWriMo)  Nope.  I did do a little work on it, but really had no time or energy due to the three books I'd contracted to write.
3) Exercise three times a week (need a set number of times so I actually do it!)  The exercise was hit or miss.  Most weeks I managed two times.  Once I started Crossfit (until I got sick) it was three to five times.
4) Lose 15 pounds (being more specific should help me!)  I lost 15 pounds, but then gained back five.  I realized the scale doesn't always tell the story so I'm not going to worry so much about the number any more.
5) Keep in better touch with friends (this one should always be there, IMHO)  I did try to do this.  I'm sure I could have done better.  Deadline time got in the way big time.  Some understood.  A couple didn't.  Deadlines aside, a few people never responded to emails or phone calls.  At least I tried to keep in touch!
6) Be even more patient with kidlets (a good one to have again with all the deadlines I'm facing this year) and the hubby (I'm adding him this year due to all the deadline dementia coming up.)  I asked the kidlets how I did on this one.  They said I was more patient with them than in 2006.  Yay!  Of course, I know I wasn't as patient with hubby so I guess this resolution really wasn't met, either.  He takes the brunt of my impatience and I really do need to work on that.

Bummer.  I really didn't do well with my 2007 resolutions.  Let's hope I do better in 2008.  Here they are:

Writing resolutions/goals

1)  Write two really good category romances

2)  Start writing a non-category spec novel 

3)  Be more disciplined with my writing

4)  Be more productive with my writing (i.e. meet set page goals for a given project)

5)  Meet all deadlines

6)  Improve my writing craft

7)  Redesign my website

Health and fitness resolutions/goals

1)  Eat healthier (give The Zone a serious try once the kids go back to school)

2)  Sleep at least six hours a night (even during deadline time!)

3)  Do at least 3 Crossfit WODs a week so I'll be able to do Kim's 12 Days of Christmas Workout next December and be able to do all of the exercises (except maybe the handstand pushup!)

4)  Climb Mount Hood

5)  Climb a 5.10 rock climbing route

Personal resolutions/goals

1)  More patience with family (especially hubby)

2)  Read 52 books this year (one a week)

3)  Make more time for family, friends and fun

4)  Remember to fill the well (the creative well!)

5)  Grow closer to God

Okay, I've listed many more things than in 2007, but maybe now I'll have better a chance at achieving one in 2008.  

I'd like to thank everyone who takes the time to read this blog.  I'd especially like to give a big hug to those who post comments.  You've become treasured friends and I'm so glad I've gotten (and am getting!) to know you.  You are true blessings in my life and I appreciate each and every one of you!  I hope 2008 is the year dreams come true for all of us.

I also want to thank Patricia for including Win, Lose or...Wed! on her list of Favorite Reads in 2007! Boy, I love when google alerts brings news like that. I was all smiles yesterday when I saw that!

As for our New Year's Eve, we rang in 2008 at a friend's house celebrating both the New Year and his 40th birthday with people from the kidlets' school and church. Our priest was there for a little bit, too. The food was delicious, but I must admit the birthday cake was the best thing there. White cake with white fluffy icing. Yum! The kids celebrated New Years at 9 (pacific time) with a babysitter by watching the ball drop in New York, drinking sparkling cider from glass champagne flutes and eating ice cream sundaes.

I was so tired when we got home last night. We'd managed to sneak in Zoolights after all. We arrived at the zoo at 4:30, discovered it was free admission night, bought train tickets and got in line. Tom's brother and girlfriend met us there. We stayed a couple of hours and then drove home so we could attend the party.

This morning we attended 8:30 am Mass since it's a Holy Day of Obligation (the Solemnity of Mary.) Hubby said he tried to wake me up around 7-ish, but I didn't even acknowledge him. I woke up at 8 and even the kids were still asleep. Still we all managed to make it to the church in time. I'm going to consider getting us up and ready so quickly my Crossfit WOD!

Later today, the five of us will be attending a party at the home of one of my climbing friends. I need to make something to bring, but can't decide what yet.

What are you doing to kick off the New Year?