4 Simple Goals

a friend of mine follows the blog A Beautiful Mess, which i, myself, have recently started following as well. in a post there, they spoke of coming up with four action-oriented goals for the remainder of the year - they should be things you actively do regularly before 2013 is upon us.

as i read my friend's goals, as well as those listed on A Beautiful Mess, i was struck with the simplicity of them, and how ingenious it is to think of 4 items that are easy to do but also improve your quality of life with minimal effort.

and how that minimal required effort is often why those things get pushed to the side or even off the to-do list entirely.

life's about to change in a big way for my family and me, and after spending the afternoon thinking about this simple idea, i've come up with my own four simple goals. (i'm a bit wordy here. sorry.)

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one: go outside. 

on november 17th, we're moving back to texas. this isn't news, not really, and we're excited about it, but here's the deal: tennessee is gorgeous. i mean, like, jaw-droppingly gorgeous, and in a way that texas is not. texas is all rolling hills and pale green and brown with lovely blue skies. tennessee is mountains topped with treelines and deep greens and grays. 

i need to get out in it more while it's available to me. and so i shall. perhaps i'll snap some photos to blog as documentation of said gorgeousness.

two: spend my morning commute in quiet. 

several years ago, i was an active churchgoer. for reasons i won't list out here, i am not any longer. but at one point in my history, a leader challenged me to spend time in what he called silence and solitude, and the mental clarity that i was able to garner as a result of spending intentional time alone and in my own kind of quiet was impressive.

my morning commute isn't terribly long, but it is arguably the only me-time i get every day where i am absolutely alone; therefore, it will do. so now, more often than not, i hope my mornings are just me, some good tunes, and perhaps a bit more mental clarity.

three: have quality time with both my husband and daughter every day. 

i know that this seems like a no brainer, but frankly, life is busy and it's easy to let this slide.

but i shouldn't.

so, let me clarify a couple things, because for me, there are two different meanings at play here:

for time spent with my daughter, quality time means letting go of being mama for a minute and playing and engaging her without any real direction. just be with her, love on her, and enjoy every second, because she's growing up too damn fast. for my husband, it means actively devoting time to him. whether that's reading together or watching some documentary with him because it's suddenly struck his interest, or debating (ok, usually agreeing 100%) about politics, i don't care, i just don't want us to be in our own little worlds every night after spending all day apart, and it's easy to let that happen. after all, he's incredibly intelligent and i think he's pretty cute. time spent in his company is never wasted.

quality time. the end.

four: watch doctor who. 

i am sure someone somewhere is laughing at me for this, but the thing is? the happiness that doctor who brings me is deliciously nerdy and i've never experienced such deep-seated love for a fictional character as i have for the doctor. so, despite the fact that the show has also (recently) proven that it can rip my heart into shreds, i adore it.

i really do.

and i have 4 seasons left, and a pretty epic crush on david tennant. so, yay for nerdy british television. best.

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i'm hoping that next time i blog about this subject, i've actually acted on this list. outlook is good, i'd say. :)

do you have any simple goals you'd like to reach by year end?

a new start

over the last ten years or so, i've probably had twenty different blogs. it all started with livejournal (i'm old, apparently) and continued to build from there. it's been a long, twisty road, and i was never able to keep up any real sort of commitment to any of the blogs i've had, whether they were a real, official blog  or something as simple as tumblr.

perhaps i'm a bit slow, but i've just realized that the reason for this - the reason i could never stay motivated to post regularly - is because i always, always, always shoved myself into a corner, content-wise. all of the blogs have had themes instead of just being a place where i can deposit my mind's meandering thoughts whenever i see fit.

novel idea, i know.

so that's the goal here.

(side note: if you read any of the other 8 bajillion blogs i've been a part of, please note that they are all closed. another side note: an additional goal for this blog is to use it before, during, and after i (hopefully) attain a publishing deal, so i'm doing the initial thing for now, as i intend to use a pen name if i ever get a book deal.)

a few more impacting things you should know, in no particular order:

i've acquired a recent affinity for typing in all lowercase letters. perhaps this has something to with my daughter (who is 4) preferring them to capitals. or maybe my pinkies are tired of hitting the shift button, and we all know caps locking all the time is just plain rude.

i'm an aspiring YA author. my current project is fantasy, the first book in a trilogy, and i'll be querying for agent representation soon. (i do not, however, type my books in all lowercase letters. in case you were wondering. (although that really worked for david levithan and john green in WG,WG.)

i am a wife, a mother, a big sister, a friend, and a foodie. also, i'm somewhat obsessed with coffee in varying forms, but i'm convinced that once one declares oneself a writer, that comes with the territory.

i read obsessively. my to-be-read pile is currently over 120 books, and still growing.

i currently live in nashville, tennessee, but will soon be relocating back to my hometown of austin, texas, and i'm pretty excited about it.

i feel compelled to say that i'm not entirely sold on this blog background, and i may have a friend create one for me.

topics on this blog will likely range from books to writing to pop culture to genuinely nerdy, flaily posts about whatever may happen to come up. i'm contemplating a few different sort of theme post things, and will start posting soon. there will definitely be updates as i go through the querying process, and if you'd like me to talk about anything specific, feel free to ask.

also, this is one of the (very few) television shows that can keep my interest:

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also-also, this blog url was taken from the song "in my eyes" by robyn.

if you're still here, i'd like you to know that there is fresh lemonade and a pile of homemade cookies just down the hall.

thanks for stopping by. won't you stay a while?

hearts,
b