An Update

I’ve written four or five different drafts for my next blog entry. I write them and then promptly forget to post them. I should start a blogging schedule so I don’t go an entire month without writing again? Maybe.

February is over today. It feels like it started yesterday. It went by so quickly. I didn’t read that many books this month. I read nine. Which is a lot, actually, I don’t know what I am talking about. I read longer books, I guess. But also, I just didn’t have that much free time this month.

I have been really busy, recently. There is a lot of stuff going on at work and I am trying to keep on top of things as much as I can. I also have started babysitting again somewhat regularly. And on top of all of that, I have taken on several freelance graphic design projects. All of this means that I have almost no free time and thus haven’t been reading as much. I am okay with that. I have already read more books in these two months than most people read in a year. I do miss having free time to read though; but, I have been enjoying working on all of these projects.

Lent started last week. I haven’t given anything up for the last several years because I am not really a practicing Catholic anymore. This year I thought I might try something a bit different. I was going to attempt to cut back on something that I over indulge in on a regular basis. The thought being that I wouldn’t be denying myself anything - I could still have it, just not as often. Basically, whenever I deny myself something that I want/need I go kind of crazy and completely abandon fasting and indulge to the point of it being really unhealthy. Well, as it turns out, even cutting back drives my impulse to indulge. Giving things up just isn’t something I am capable of doing, I guess.

So upon this revelation I’ve decided to take a new approach. Instead of denying or restricting myself, I will try and form a new habit. I know, so original. I know that a lot of people do this. Still. I figure this will be a prime opportunity to make myself do something good for myself by making this habit “exercising”. Now I hate exercising. It is a bitch. I fail at keeping a schedule. What I plan on doing is make myself going walking three times a week for one mile. This seems achievable.

It definitely isn’t a weight loss plan, which is part of what trips me up when I try to exercise. When I exercise with the intent to lose weight I end up over exerting myself because I want fast results and I end up wearing myself out and needing to rest longer. And then I am not motivated to continue because I don’t want to go through that whole ordeal again. This walking three times a week is just a way to get some endorphins and some fresh air and some sunlight. All things that are supposed to be good for better mental health. I think it will be good. I hope the weather outside cooperates, it has been really rainy here recently.

That’s what has been going on in my life. Spring is almost here and it has spurred on one of my spring cleaning/you can do anything with your life if you actually try type of moods. So hopefully I can make myself implement some good changes.

New Year

I told myself that I would be more productive this year. It is half way through January and I feel like like I have put this off enough already -- so here I am! Writing this blog post.

Every year I come up with a set of resolutions that I can never stick with. They usually are things about myself that I want to change - eat better, lose weight, be a nicer person, etc. I generally give up on those the first week of January because of a number of reasons. This year I decided that instead of trying to change who I am as a person, I would focus more on accomplishing tasks with immediate gratification and results.

I've been in a creative slump recently, so a lot of the goals I want to achieve in 2012 are art/craft/writing related. I always have so many ideas for creative projects and then I never do them. I don't know why. It isn't like I haven't got the time to do these things and to do them well. I just lack motivation. I'm hoping this blog will be a sort of accountability method for me to stay on task.

I've got actually two lists. Things I am going to accomplish this year and things I would like to accomplish but may not so I won't be upset if those don't happen.

List number one is what I WILL accomplish this year.

• Read 75 books this year. I think this is very achievable because I read 53 last year and there were several months that I didn't read anything at all. I decided to be more organized about it this year and have made a reading list and divided books up into months so I can stay on track. The list is hovering just above 100, but I know that things will get busy at some point so I am going to cut myself some slack.
  
• The next one is to just make more art/crafts. I really love crafting and never make enough time for it. So starting a small side crafting business type thing and attending more craft fairs as a vendor. This is the one resolution that I am most unsure about. But we'll see. I also sort of lumped blogging/being more active online into this category for some reason.
  
• Experiment with book binding once a month. I love books. I love handmade books. I just want to learn all of the different ways to make books.
  
• This one goes with the one above, kind of. I would like to write more fiction. Hopefully writing little stories and then designing and binding the books will be done. I mean, I would be happy just writing more, in general, not necessarily making books for everything I write.
  
• Complete NaNoWriMo and ScriptFrenzy this year. I didn't attempt ScriptFrenzy last year and I managed to complete half of NaNoWriMo, which is the best I have ever done. I have ideas for both. I just need to be dedicated to finishing them. 

I think I will save my second list for another blog post. Or mention the things on the list if I ever end up doing them. I think I will make a post that will list all of the books I have read and will update it as I read new ones.