2008 -- The Year of Writing

2003 -- The Year of the Wedding
2004 -- The year of Infertility
2005 -- The year of Pregnancy
2006 -- The year of Twinfants
2007 -- The year of Staying Home

And now, 2008, the year of writing and becoming a woman, again.

Goals for 2008

Writing

Write 2,000 words a week in my already-started novel. I just want to finish this sucker. It's been on my plate for 10 years. One might say that it wasn't meant to be ... or that if I had it in me to finish, I would have by now. But, I am one to know when something isn't going to work out and I just can't put this away. The timing has never been right ... and it never will be. I know that now. I just have to make it work. I'm not dedicating any time of day or week to write ... only that by Sunday night at 6 p.m. I better have written 2,000 words that week. I will keep a log. Marta is nagging me anyway so unless I want her emails to be moot -- which would be wasting her precious sweet energy -- I better get cracking. Thanks, Marta!

My second goal, related to the first, is to actually write the book proposal. I'd like to make this a goal to meet by Spring so that I can start sending it out ASAP. Plus, I read that writing the proposal is a great way to get the book's outline sealed nice and tight. I think I could use that exercise.

Third goal: One idea and one publication at at a time. I have a tendency to jump in with both feet to everything before checking out the waters first. My head is filled with more ideas than it could ever possibly execute. This is a serious problem for me. It also affects my mothering, my marriage, my inner peace. My mind is seriously like a movie in fast forward. The only thing that helps is meditation and I do not do that nearly enough, though I am making that a goal for this year -- a personal goal. Anyway, by giving myself only a goal of breaking into one national magazine this year (not counting any that I've already broken into), I am alleviating myself of that constant need to find the perfect fit for me. If something comes along and I have the time, the energy and it won't affect my mothering skills, then sure I'll jump on it. I have four magazines with great contacts right now ... my goal is to find that fifth this year -- but only once I've worked hard on the four that I have now. By July, I think I will be ready to start on that fifth one. No pressure before then. After all, my job is to be Mama and that does still come first. But, in the fall the girls will start pre-school, I suppose. That will ideally free up some time to do some writing in the coffee shop down the street, right?

Fourth goal: I've had an idea for an e-zine for months now and I've not done much about it. The topic is very dear to me and while there are some publications out there like it, none are quite the same. So, I am giving myself a goal to start up this ezine this year. It will be free, but with advertising sponsors. And many of you will totally dig it, I'm sure.

Finally, I have a children's books series idea that came to me last spring when I was searching for something to read to Jadyn and Liana. There isn't anything like it on the market -- that I have found -- and I do think it would be popular. My goal here is to write the book proposal since it is less about writing and more about collecting.

Personal goals

I'm quitting coffee. Thanks to a cold I've been off of it now for a week or more. I don't mean none ... I mean I'm not going to only get out of bed to get that first sip anymore. I've known for a while that that addiction is more emotional than needed. Half the time I don't even drink caffeinated. Instead, I want to wake up and do yoga and meditate. I'm going to follow with a nice cup of tea. Then, when my second job starts at nap time, I am allowing myself that nice cup of coffee, which I find helps me get through the afternoon better anyway. By doing this, I think I will save calories, eat a better breakfast and save money. I will be drinking one cup, not two, a day and some days perhaps none at all. We'll see how long this lasts.

I want to drop our grocery, gas and other miscellaneous expenses by 50 percent. I will talk more about this in a future post, but I am doing some serious research in this area and have learned that I have more power than I think over these non-bill areas. It's not a matter of over spending; it's a matter of taking extra steps to buy what you need. This includes living frugally and, as I discovered, frugal doesn't have to mean cheap. Once we move to the new house -- assuming that happens this year -- I will have learned some valuable money-saving techniques from this crisis that will continue to help us finally start to save again.

This is going to be like 2003 for me. It's going to be the year I lost weight. By using Weight Watchers, I lost 45 pounds before our wedding. But, staying home with the girls and not being very active and eating too much (though half the time my lunch is bread crusts and what the girls do not eat), I have gained most of that back. I still cannot afford a health club membership, but I do have videos, including Yoga, Cardio and walking. I hope to buy a yoga and kids DVD this month to get the girls participating because they do love them some Yoga poses. Still, I have to do more than that because I know they will not always give me that daily 20 minutes. My goal is to get up and work out each morning with one of these tapes and then hopefully do yoga once or twice a week with them as well as once on Saturday mornings with my yoga class. In the spring and summer and fall, I walk a lot so I will need to start watching my food intake before then. My goal is to drop 30 pounds by August 18. I will talk more about how I'm doing this for free on my other blog.

Building a budget: One thing about not having any money ... it's really hard to budget. Things pop up and suddenly there's nothing left. The needs pile up on top of one another. Thankfully, I have been earning some income over the last year or else we would have had to foreclose on our mortgage by now. That income has been essential. But, as we start to lower our daily expenses, we are finding a very small amount of wiggle room. That means that each month has to be precisely calculated. No extras -- like that rug I just bought over the weekend -- can be bought. Even if it means a house less than perfect goes on the market once again. The budget must work and I need to find balance between buying what we need right now and buying what we are going to need soon.

Meditate: I have to do this for my sanity. I am so preoccupied with the future that I have a very hard time settling down and just loving this minute I'm in. I know I am not alone; that many humans do this. I'm just trying to take control.

Tend my garden of friends around the globe: I do have a friend nearby who I neglected to mention last week in my funk. She's a mom of twins who are about the same age. Our schedules are a little different but close enough to make regular playdates work. I have some other good friends from this blog and my hope is to really build on those this year. I mean more than a blog post ... establishing friendships and maybe even, gasp!, talk on the phone!

Thank you for visiting today.

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