National Novel Writing Month

If you've been following my blog for a while, you probably remember that the last three or four years I've been participating in National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo.

This is again the case this month.

If you're interested in writing, during the month of November there is a site at nanowrimo.org where you can sign up for free and keep track of how many words you write. Their goal is 50,000 during the month of November. Your own personal goal can be more or less than that.

I am currently on the third rewrite of my novel, and I'm up to 10,899 words. My cousin, who is amazing, has already hit 50,000 (not that I'm comparing, I just think she's awesome).

My goal this November actually has nothing to do with number of words, though it is oddly motivating for me to see how many I write every day and I still would like to achieve 50,000 by the end of the month. Instead, my goal is to completely finish rewriting before November is over and start submitting my book to agents by the end of the year.

Hopefully 2017 will be the year I finally get published.

I'm pretty excited about my book right now. Sometimes, my brain gets so involved in it, that I can't sleep, which happened last night. I was trying to go to bed early so I could get up and write, but instead my mind was trying to figure out the phases and orbits of three moons around a planet if one of the moons is in geostationary orbit.

Fun, right?

Creating a world is pretty exhilarating. You can basically make anything you want. I like mine to fit within scientific rules that we already know, but after that, the possibilites are endless! Tweak the size of the planet and gravity becomes less. Creatures can get bigger than they can on Earth and lift heavier things.

It's exciting.

I've been writing since I could write. I have some pretty funny books that I wrote in 1st grade that I've kept for years, and one of the stories that I'm writing, I have been working on since 2nd grade. That particular book is on its second rewrite, but it was put on pause because the book I'm rewriting now if much further developed.

Anyway, if anyone is interested in writing a novel this month, it's not too late to sign up. It's been a little difficult for me to write this month, due to the foster care classes, being a mom, and other schedule changes, but I'm still doing it.

You can too, if you want to.

Goals for 2016

I realized I haven't written this post yet, though I have set goals.

I try to share my goals on here because then I have some accountability. It's good to have someone to be responsible too, even if they are faceless readers...though actually many of you aren't so faceless.

I love setting goals. I like accomplishing them, and I like having something to work toward. So, without further ado,  here are my goals for 2016:

• Only 2 hours or less of tv or movies during the hours of 8-5.
• Go outside daily
• Write 1000 words M-F
• plan for Sunday lesson by Wednesday
• Have a baby
• Exercise 30 min M-F
• Schedule daily
• Set monthly goals
• Set daily goals
• Read scriptures 30 min a day
• Publish 1st novel
• Blog M-F
• Put out 1 video a month

We have some other couple goals as well, but these are my personal goals. 

I set these at the beginning of last month, and I'd already forgotten about a couple of them. It's good to be reminded. 

The limiting tv thing has been wonderful. Kevin actually gets grumpy if technology is on too long. I also am less productive. To turn everything off for most of the day has really helped me to accomplish my other goals and helped me to be a better mom. Some days I do better than other days, but I'm improving.

It wasn't that we were actually watching television that much, but it was on as nearly constant background noise. It's been nice to have my focus solely on my son. 

I like how goals make me a better person and help me to improve myself. I'm doing really well on the second draft of my book right now. I have high hopes for submitting it to publishers this year. I'm still trying to decide if I should self-publish through Amazon, or try and publish through a publishing company. 

Any thoughts? I'd really welcome them. 

Exercising

As is normal, one of my New Year's goals was to exercise more. Specifically at least 5 times a week.

In all honesty, I've been doing pretty good at it.

Last week was rough. We were watching kids all week, and so I didn't get it in. This week has been a little less crazy, and I've done 2 out of 4 days so far. It's not quite to my goal, but I'm getting there.

A long time ago, a friend gave me some Turbo Jam dvds. I've found that exercising with videos might be my thing.

I'm not a self-motivated runner. I think it's boring, and I don't really enjoy running to just run. I like to play sports, and I will push myself when playing against other people, but it's hard for me to just run (plus, it kind of hurts my knees.)

I enjoy biking, and I started doing that last year before all the snow came...but then all the snow came and I wasn't sure what to do. We've gotten some really good snow storms this year, which I am grateful for, but it makes it really hard to even take the stroller out, especially when its less than 20 degrees F.

So, I wasn't sure what to do.

However, when I started exercising with this video, I really enjoyed it. It was like exercising with a group, but without any of them being able to see you. I hate it when people can see me when I exercise. It's really hard for me not to be self-conscious.

However, I get some encouragement, and doing it with other people (even if they're not really there), really motivates me to keep going.

I had been doing lower-body and abdominal strengthening exercises, but yesterday I decided to do a 40 minute cardio workout.

At about 20 minutes, I was done. I so badly wanted to turn it off and call it good for the day. I had even moved to get the remote to turn off the tv. However, for some reason, I didn't. Instead, I kept going, and to my surprise, it got easier. I wasn't as tired suddenly, and by the end of the video I had more energy than I'd had at the beginning.

Evidently it has been a while since I pushed through my limits. I forgot that you can get a second wind and that after muscles warm up, they are easier to move. I'd forgotten a lot of things.

After I finished, I was feeling really good about myself, and now I'm not sure what kind of exercise I want to do today. Part of me wants to do lower body again (which is where I need the most toning), but the other part wants to give the cardio another go.

Tough choices, but I'm happy that I'm accomplishing my goals.

Another one of my goals was to go outside at least once a day. Kevin needs to play outside, and even though its cold, he loves it. He looks pretty cute all bundled up too.

Kevin helps teach me to get back up after I fall

It's not always easy to go outside either. Some days, I'm tired and don't want to get us both all bundled up. Other days, it's too cold, and I enjoy being warm. However, every time I do it, I find that we really have a good time. 

Goals can be hard, and sometimes it's easy to give up on them, but if we push through the adversity, it will get easier. I'm learning that.

Recap of Goals

This was my list of goals for 2015:

• Schedule every day
• Set monthly goals
• Buy a home
• Fence in Backyard
• Help Grig get his Welding Certificate
• Exercise 5x a week
• Read scriptures daily
• Memorize The Living Christ and The Family: A Proclamation to the World
• Finish and publish one novel
• January: Finish 1st draft
• February: Edit
• March-April: Re-write
• May: Edit
• June: submit to publisher

Ha ha. I didn't do so well.

On the positive side, I did accomplish some goals. 

We did buy a home, and Grig got his necessary welding certificates. I read scriptures most days, and finished the first draft of the novel. I didn't finish it by my goal time, but I've nearly finished my second draft, and once that's done, I'll be asking some people to read and edit it for me. Grig advised me to re-write it before I handed it out, and he was right. It was a good idea. I have exercised more this year, but not always consistently. 

On the negative side, I left a lot undone. 

I didn't memorize "The Living Christ" or "The Family." We didn't fence in our backyard (it is already fenced in, but we were going to redo it with a more permanent fence. Hopefully we'll be able to afford that next year. I didn't schedule every day, though I did do it often, and I forgot to set monthly goals. As you can see from my blog yesterday, the year was pretty busy. 

So, I accomplished about half of my goals. I accomplished some that I didn't know I was going to have, like help Grig find a new job, but on the whole, I can do better next year. I'll be setting new goals soon, and some of them may be repeats, but if you don't accomplish a goal, you might need to set it again. 

I've now looked at my year's goals. It gives me some ideas for what I want to accomplish next year. 

That's good, right?

NaNoWriMo Report

Many of you may have noticed that I was a little bit scarce on this blog during November.

Usually, it's because I was busy writing for my NaNoWriMo goal, but it was also because November ended up being a pretty crazy month.

I was really close. I knew if I didn't get most of my story written before Thanksgiving that it would be really difficult to finish while we were in Idaho with family. I did pretty well, but I didn't get as far as I wanted to.

It's hard to write when these two want your attention!

My cousin, who is very good at NaNoWriMo, came to visit during Thanksgiving weekend and we had a writing party. I'm grateful that she encouraged me, because I was able to get quite a bit of writing done last
Friday thanks to her.

By Saturday night, I was at 39,312. Since I don't write on Sundays, that meant I had to write 10,688 words on Monday (yesterday). I knew I was unlikely to finish, but I was going to do my best.

Yesterday, I typed a bit, played with Adam a bit and then wrote a bit more. By evening, I had written over 2,000 words. I had about three hours to write by the time Kevin went to bed.

I did my best, but I didn't quite make it. At 12:00 a.m., I had written 47,406. That means that yesterday, I wrote 8,094 words. So, I was pretty close, but I didn't quite make it.

There were times I could have written, and didn't, but generally when I wasn't writing, I was spending time with family. So I don't really regret the use of time.

However, as usual, NaNoWriMo has helped me do the most important thing. It has helped me establish a pattern of writing. The second draft of my story is going well, and I now have a goal to finish this draft before the end of the year.

I have a lot of blogging and catching up to do in the next week, but this post will suffice for today.

Thank you for those of you who checked up on me and asked me how the writing was going. I really appreciated the encouragement!

I'm hoping to write most days in December. A lot has been happening around here!

NaNoWriMo 2015!

As some of you know, and many of you don't, November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short.

I am super stoked to begin next week.

I am going to be working on the second draft of my story. I'm hoping to complete the book by the end of November and start asking some people to read/edit it for me. If you're interested in doing so, please let me know. I already have a few people who have volunteered.

I have started looking forward to this every year. I've done it the last two years, and it's been really fun for me. I enjoy setting goals and achieving them. The first year, I barely didn't make my goal, and last year I did. I'm hoping to finish the whole draft this time.

I've been trying to finish prepping for my second draft while I wait for November to start, but I'm chomping at the bit. I want to get going. Grig told me I could, but I told him I didn't want to mess up my word count.

If you are interested in writing at all, you can go to the website http://nanowrimo.org/dashboard, and set up an account. It's not necessary to do so in order to participate, but they help you keep track of how many words you write a day. If you're the kind of person who likes to write and talk to other people who are interested in writing, you can also find out who else is in the area and when they're meeting.

Personally, I don't go to any of the meetings, because my husband is the best writing buddy I could ask for. We bounce ideas off of each other for our various stories and we have a pretty good time. We usually both end up getting excited about each other's stories and ideas.

However, if you don't have a spouse or friend who enjoys writing as much as you do, my cousin, who hosts these meetings in her area, find them very enjoyable.

So, yeah. I'm pretty excited about it. It might mean I miss a blog here or there, but I'm hoping I can do both. I mostly am planning on writing late at night or early in the morning. It's very difficult to write while Kevin is awake. He tends to demand my attention and he doesn't take naps.

We'll see how it goes.

This is the official NaNoWriMo logo.

Goals for 2015

This was meant to be yesterday's post, but I didn't get my goals chosen until this morning. So, first, I need to follow up on how I did last year.

My last year goals I was taking month by month. Here is what I had in January:

This month, I am working on reading/studying scriptures for 1/2 hour, exercising 1/2 an hour 5 times a week, and writing five pages a day.

For the most part, I did pretty well. Exercise especially reached a good point after we got the puppy. I was walking at least an hour a day until the cold hit. November I accomplish my NaNoWriMo goal, which was awesome, and I am close to finishing my first novel. (Technically, it is the second one I've finished, but the first one is the re-write process. Maybe while I'm editing this one, I'll finish writing the second draft of that one.)

This year, I have some yearly goals I'd like to accomplish, besides setting monthly goals. Some of those goals will hopefully be accomplished within the next couple of months. Here are the goals I want to share with you for 2015:

• Schedule every day
• Set monthly goals
• Buy a home
• Fence in Backyard
• Help Grig get his Welding Certificate
• Exercise 5x a week
• Read scriptures daily
• Memorize The Living Christ and The Family: A Proclamation to the World
• Finish and publish one novel
• January: Finish 1st draft
• February: Edit
• March-April: Re-write
• May: Edit
• June: submit to publisher

I'm going to try to make goals on the first of every month. I find that monthly goals do better than yearly goals for me. If I reset goals every month, then I tend to at least do well for a few weeks each month.

Hopefully we'll have a bought a home by the middle of next month. I have faith that it's going to work out. With the Lord's help, the impossible becomes possible.

A Better Week for Sleep

I mentioned last week that Arkhon had been having an upset stomach. This week, he has felt much better.

And he looks so handsome. He's now over 18 weeks old.

So much better, in fact, that he has been sleeping from 8:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m.

Unfortunately for my sleep, I've been waking up anywhere from 3:30 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. This has been fantastic for my NaNoWriMo goal. Last Friday, I had only written 18,370 words. I was supposed to be at 23,333 words. Due to my lack of sleep, I just couldn't get up early enough in the morning in order to write. I was feeling a bit sad about it. I was worried that I once again wasn't going to complete my goal. Last year I was a little over 7000 short of my goal. I tried my best, but I just didn't get it done.

However, with the extra sleep this week, I've been getting up and writing. As of this morning, I now have written 38,620 words. I'm supposed to be at 35,000. I have exceeded my goal for this point. The story is also getting pretty intense, so it's a lot easier to work on it. Yesterday I wrote 5000 words because I just couldn't stop typing. In a week, I've written over 20,000 words.

I'm pretty excited about the progress on my story. The characters are developing nicely and the plot is moving along.

Kevin has been having a great week as well. I haven't posted videos in a long time, so hopefully I'll be able to put some up tomorrow. We have some pretty great ones with Kevin and his new puppy.

The only interruption to our sleep this week has been Dakota. She hasn't been feeling very well, and the other day she was not eating and sick to her stomach. She's obviously in pain, and we're beginning to wonder if her time is drawing to a close.

Our pretty old lady.

I hope not, but she is old and has lived a good life. I keep praying that we will know what to do for her and when it is time to let her go.

Other than that, it's been a great week! Grig's been getting (a lot) more hours at work, which is good and bad. We're grateful for the extra money, but we kind of miss him. He's a great guy. We talk about our respective plots that we're working on for stories, and bounce ideas off of each other.

One of Kevin's rare naps this week. He was exhausted and as soon as his dad picked him up, he fell asleep.

Dogs (and children) are so funny. We buy a bone for Arkhon and Dakota. It doesn't matter which bone we give them, they always want the one that the other has. There isn't really any dog aggression at our house, but I run a lot of interference. Even if Arkhon has a huge bone, if Dakota is chewing on one, he wants the one that she has. It goes the same both ways.

Kids are kind of like that too. It doesn't matter how great their toy is. If another kid is enjoying a toy, they want to take that one.

I guess that also applies to adults. If someone else has something that they love, it can be pretty easy to get jealous and want the things that others have. However, if we learn to be happy with what we already have, we find that we are a lot more content with our lives. It's something I'm working on.

Stark contrast between father and son. This picture was taken right after Grig got home from work. We have a lot to be grateful for.

Now, if only the dogs would learn to be content with their own bones.

Preparing for NaNoWriMo

Next month is National Novel Writing Month, or as called by those who participate, NaNoWriMo.

Last year, I attempted it, and I just barely didn't get the required number of words written. This year, I'm hoping for a different story.

When I write, I have an idea for a story in my head, but I'm pretty vague on the actual details. I usually have the main character created, and a few major events.

However, this time, I'm trying something different. I've been creating characters beforehand, and story-lining to make sure I know where my story is going. It's been rather enjoyable, and it's been helping me feel ready to write a novel for real this time.

I've noticed that one of my greatest weaknesses when I write is having too much focus on the main character. So much so, that my other characters tend to be two-dimensional. As I've matured a bit, I've realized that books I really enjoy reading have a plethora of characters that I enjoy. I've been working on that lately, and it has really changed my writing. I'm starting to enjoy writing about more than one person. I've also been learning that stories, even more than plot, are about people. The growing, changing, and trials that people go through really are what making the story interesting. A good plot is also important, but if everyone is flat and boring, the plot can't save the story.

 I plan to write between 4-7 in the morning and during nap times. The goal is to write 50,000 words in a month. Divide that by 30, and you have about 1,666 words you need to write a day. I don't like to write on Sundays, so subtract 5 days. Thus, my goal is 2,000. Totally doable. Especially is I have three hours a day. I type fast and I have the story lined out.

I'm going to do it this year!

Now, for a funny Kevin story.

The other morning, Kevin woke up. He kept saying the same thing over and over, and to my surprise, I understood what he was saying.

"Nana," he said.

"Oh," I realized, "you want a banana?"

He nodded his head enthusiastically and repeated, "Nana."

"We don't have any bananas," I told him. "How about an apple instead?"

He thought about it, and then enthusiastically said, "Apple!"

It is weird when you can start understanding your kids. Suddenly, a whole new side of the personality to revealed.

Also, Kevin has started trying to stare us down when he's grumpy. If you tell him no, he'll put his arms down at his side, and give you a hard glare. It's adorable. However, every time I try and grab the camera, he instantly drops it and says, "Cheese!" and gives the cheesiest grin you've ever seen. This is one of my attempts to get his glare:

His dad tried to help me out. 

No success.

Just for kicks, here's a picture of Arkhon and me.

He sure is growing, and my hair is messy. ;)

Finally, a beautiful picture of our old girl, Dakota.

Dusting Off Goals and Burning Imagination

Yesterday was a nice day. Kevin and I played outside for a while, and I worked on accomplishing some dusty new year's goals. I decided to pull them back out and wipe them off. I got most of them done, and that was pretty nice. I hadn't thought about them in a while, but it was nice to work on them again. I guess since the year's half over, it's time to have a look at what I still need to work on.

Last night I had a really hard time sleeping. Part of it was that Kevin took forever to fall asleep last night. Or at least, it seemed like forever. It took him an hour to settle down and finally fall asleep in his bed, but it finally happened.

However, as I laid down on our makeshift bed on the floor, my mind began to race.

The first thing that I thought about was how to transition off the floor of Kevin's room, which led to this horrific (imagined) scene where he was in his room alone and I woke up to find the apartment on fire. Knowing that my baby was on the other side of the bedroom door, I opened the door, even though they tell you not to do that. Then I ran through the fire to open his bedroom door so I could rush in. In this imagined scene, Grig followed me. Most of the flames were in the hall and the living room, blocking our exit. How were we to get out?

My hair was possibly all burned off at this point too, because I had raced through the flames in order to reach my baby.

I contemplated the three of us putting the comforter over our heads and running through the flames to the door. That might protect us long enough to get out of the house. Then, I thought about running to the bathroom across the hall and turning on the water. Could we put the fire out ourselves?

Sometimes I hate my imagination.

Needless to say, all these thoughts caused me to be wide-awake and no longer sleepy. I decided after laying there for another hour that I might as well get up. I made Grig lunch for the next day and then went to work on a new project. It's a brilliant idea, if I do say so myself. However, I want to keep this one under-wraps until I finish with it. I'm pretty excited about it. It is another animation (and don't worry I haven't forgotten about Dragon and the Wolf), but completely different.

After working on the new project for a while, I went back to bed. Kevin slept for a long time in his bed last night, and honestly, I don't remember when he joined us on the floor. Hopefully tonight, we can move out of his room.

We just need to borrow a baby monitor to assuage our fears.

Relearning Spanish

As of yesterday, I was suddenly overcome with the desire to brush up my Spanish (i.e. relearn it). I learned Spanish during my mission to San Antonio, Texas, but I never really got an opportunity to be completely immersed in it. I shouldn't complain, after all, I was able to serve in an area where I did get to practice my Spanish, and my mission was rife with opportunity to speak the language. I am grateful for those opportunities.

I have used Spanish pretty consistently since then. When I worked at a gas station/farm store after my mission, I often was called to talk to people in Spanish and figure out what they needed. My Spanish is less than adequate, but I was always able to figure out what they wanted and with the Spanish I knew (plus gestures), I was able to help them understand our response to their questions and assist them with what they wanted.

After all, they never taught us how to say pheasant on my mission. ;)

On our honeymoon, one of the places we visited was Cozumel, Mexico. The people there really liked me because I spoke to them in their own language. They gave us some incredible deals and were very helpful. I think they were surprised that I was trying. I guess most tourists don't do that.

Now that we live in Utah, I get to use my Spanish occasionally as well. We have free public transportation here, and often when I use the bus I get to sit by people who only speak Spanish and talk to them.

However, my greatest struggle with Spanish is the grammar. I never learned it really well, and though I know quite a few words, I often confuse people with my incorrect placement of words.

We kind of want to raise Kevin to be bilingual. However, if we're going to do that, I need to start speaking it more and correctly. My dad speaks Spanish really well, and four out of the ten kids have served Spanish-speaking missions. I have opportunities to practice that I need to take. The hard thing is fear. I like talking to native Spanish speakers, because they are always so nice about it. Even though I know they're nice, it's pleasant to hear that my Spanish is wonderful.

However, in order to improve it, I need to talk to people who will criticize my Spanish and help me know when I'm saying things wrong. I'm also working on reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish. I've heard that helps, and it's true. As I started this morning, I was surprised to find the knowledge coming back to me rather quickly. I was able to comprehend what I was reading after only a few minutes.

That was encouraging.

Maybe my Spanish isn't as bad as I thought, but at any rate, there is room for improvement.

Maybe I have too many goals.

On another note, I finished animating the next Dragon and the Wolf, and I've started adding sounds to the animation. I don't think I'm going to finish it by tonight though. You'll have to watch it when we get back!

!Ciao!

It's Easy to Get Off-Track

So, we are almost done with the month of January, and I a little disappointed to admit that my goals have gotten off-track.

The first week I did great!  I accomplished almost all of my goals every day. 

Then, the next week, we got sick.  Getting sick really threw a chink into my scheduling and planning.  I didn't feel good, so I really didn't feel like exercising, cleaning, or standing up in general. Ultimately, I feel better, but I got out of the habit again. 

Here it is, my new resolve!  I'm starting over again tomorrow with goals in hand.  My new plan is to schedule in the morning and then get to it!  I've been kind of lazy this week, and though I could argue that I'm still recovering from sickness, I'm getting past the point where that is a pertinent excuse.

Today, we got up earlier, but Kevin has been crazy today.  I think he might be teething.  Thus, it makes it difficult to get anything done. 

I'm not giving up though.  This month may be almost over, but the year is still just beginning.

If you've gotten off-track with your goals, join me in beginning anew tomorrow!  This year I am going to make and keep goals.  I was feeling great the other week with how much I was getting done, and I want to continue to enjoy that feeling.

Wish me luck!

Goals for 2014

It actually helps me a lot if I tell you what my goals are, because than I feel accountable to actually accomplish them.

This month, I am working on reading/studying scriptures for 1/2 hour, exercising 1/2 an hour 5 times a week, and writing five pages a day.

So far this week, I have been doing really well.  I've exercised for the last two days using Punch, Kick, & Jam a video workout that someone gave me like seven years ago.  It's made me sweat and I feel a lot better for it.  I'm not a huge fan of jogging, but this workout is working every muscle in my body, so though I've felt sore, I feel great!  I'm also already starting to lose some weight, which is fantastic.

My scripture study has also been equally fantastic. While Kevin has been taking naps, I've been able to accomplish these two goals.  The only problem is that by the time I do these two activities, and sit down to start writing, Kevin wakes up not too long after. 

So, I've only written about a page a day, but goals are for working toward, right?  If it was easy, I'd need to up the goal anyway. 

I think I've also decided that when I finish writing and editing I am going to self-publish through Amazon's publishing page.  I will keep you all updated on that.  That's one of my major goals this year is to publish my first book.  At first, I was hesitant because I didn't know for sure if they published anything besides kindle editions (and I really like paperback or hardcover myself), but it turns out they do publish paperback.  So, that is what I will be doing. 

First, I have to finish writing the book though.  Anyway.  Those are some of my goals for the month.  Another one is to plan my schedule everyday and accomplish household chores as I do so.  That's been going well too.

2014 is starting out really awesome!

I hope yours is going just as well!

Grig's work is starting to slow down. He actually had last Saturday off. That was nice.  We played Settlers of Catan which we bought on Friday. Great game.

Did I ever tell you that I love fried chicken?

Update on Goal

For those of you wondering how my December goal went, I accomplished it!  I was able to read the entire Book of Mormon before the end of Christmas. In fact, I finished reading it at 11:20 p.m. on December 25th!

This is a short blog today because we were traveling all day to visit the family, so I wasn't able to get onto the computer until now.  Our trip was pretty awful.  Kevin screamed the whole way.  We pulled over a couple times to feed him and see if he would go to sleep, but he refused.  He is a very stubborn kid.  I feel like most babies cry themselves to sleep after more than an hour, but he was screaming for almost three.

It was a relief to reach our destination. 

Thank you for your continual support and love.  We wish you the best!

Mormon Monday: Goals

For those of you who don't know, last month I set a goal to write 50,000 words in my novel for National Write a Novel Month (or NaNoWriMo).  I finished up the month by writing over 4,000 words the last day, but it wasn't quite good enough.  I finished my goal at only 42,643 words, leaving 7,357 to go.  Don't worry, I am going to complete my goal, and I am definitely going to try NaNoWriMo again.

I was a little disappointed with myself, but I do feel like I tried my best to get it done.  Yes, there were probably days I could have written more, but I did try and that was a wonderful feeling.  After having something to work on last month, I suddenly felt motivated to set more goals.  I remember how good it feels to set and aim for goals. 

When I was on my mission, we set daily goals, weekly goals, and monthly goals.  We were always working to improve ourselves and it felt wonderful!

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints encourages its member to ALWAYS set and keep goals, not just on New Years.  I've done the traditional New Years Goals, where I often don't end up keeping them and then I feel bad about it the next year.  However, we shouldn't just set yearly goals. 

An article called "Pursuit of Excellence" says:

Setting goals and working toward those goals can strengthen your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by helping you develop patterns and qualities of discipleship in your life. Pursuit of Excellence can help you to follow the Savior's example of "a more excellent way"  (1 Corinthians 12:31).

Begin by asking the Lord to help you determine what you will work on. Decide how you will evaluate and record your progress. Discover how the Spirit affirms your progress. You will find that your greatest reward will be an increase of the Spirit in your life. Your faith will grow, and your testimony will be strengthened.

Yesterday in church, a lady was saying that if we align our goals with our Father's will, there is no way that we cannot accomplish them.  He will help us where our own strength is lacking. 

We should be constantly trying to become more like the Savior.  Maybe NaNoWriMo wasn't necessarily a spiritual goal, (although I did feel inspired to try it), but it has reminded me how important it is to make and work on goals. 

This month my goal is to read the entire Book of Mormon by Christmas, starting today.  It is a challenging task, but that is the fun of a goal.  If it doesn't challenge you, how can you be growing?

I also going to try to work on making a Quiet Book for Kevin for church.  I loved mine when I was a kid, and I think he will enjoy it too.  If you have any fun quiet book ideas that you want to tell me about, please let me know!

I have a goal to set a monthly goal every month, as well as yearly and daily goals.  I know as I do this, my testimony will be strengthened, and I will become a better person. 

Thanks to all of you who encouraged me while I was working on writing.  I'm going to keep writing, and hopefully next year I can publish my first novel.

That's one of next year's goals. 

Not sure what this picture has to do with my blog, but I love it!